rsbob 

Today I walked the dog 4 miles, did some chores around the house, watched tennis and the did an hour on the trainer since it was raining.Took a shower and remembered I had let some towels in the dryer. Reached into the dryer and out of nowhere I felt incredibly dizzy while waves of nausea hit me. I sat on the floor in the laundry room feeling utterly sick and shockey since I broke out into a cold sweat. My wife was in the next room and I called for her. She is a retired doctor of audiology and immediately began a diagnostic evaluation. She ruled out stroke and heart attack and said it was more than likely the virus I have been fighting for the last 6 weeks had attacked my vestibular system. I stayed on the floor for about 45 mins while the dizziness slowly abated and the cold sweats receded. The nausea - wanting to puke and use the toilet at the same time did not abate. I was able to get to the bathroom to relieve some of the nausea, thank god. We put off dinner for an hour and a half until the nausea was about a 1 out of 10.

This was an absolute first for me. I have experienced mild dizziness from low blood pressure when getting up in the middle of the night but this really knocked me on my butt. If it happens again, hopefully not, my wife is getting me to an ENT for a work up. I feel unusually tired and wrung out, so am heading to bed early.

Leisesturm

I don't think you should wait for a second occurrence to get that work up. The severity of your symptoms is quite striking. I don't know how your wife was able to 'rule out' anything without any access to diagnostic equipment. Also "virus you have been fighting for six weeks'? That is 3 weeks too long to not be a clear victor or Urgent Care customer. So do what you know you have to do.

05 fuji

Please get that checked out. Peace of mind is much better than worry.

Bald Paul

The dizziness, nausea, and cold sweats were the same feelings I felt when I had my heart attack, and I didn't believe the EMTs when they told me I was having a heart attack. Please get checked, at least an EKG.

MoAlpha

With all due respect, her hunch may be right, but no, she could not have ruled out either of those two possibilities. Differentiating vascular from vestibular problems is not a home project for anyone. Hope it's benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.

Chuck Naill

Symptoms sound like Vertigo which is associated with "room spinning dizziness and nausea'. A heart attack is often assumed.

If Vertigo, a maneuver can eliminate/move the rock like crystals in the ear that causes the dizziness. Dix-Hallpike Maneuver: What It Is and Why It’s Performed (healthline.com)

rsbob 

I certainly appreciate your advice and will get it looked into.

My wife performs this procedure as well has referred her patients to specialized PTs as well.


Certainly hope it was not a heart attack. I have done far more difficult efforts for much longer periods with no ill effects other than gasping for breath. If this occurs again will call 911. Thanks all.

MoAlpha

Pretty unlikely to be a heart attack. Let us know!

delbiker1 

I have pm'ed with rsbob, as I have had this occur numerous times over the course of numerous years. I have been to many different docs, had many different tests and scans. A cause has never been determined. It is a terrifying experience. My last one was last October, it was a bad one. Saw my PC 2 days later, her suggestions, since the cause in unknown, as soon as you feel it coming, if you can, get to an ER, or call 911. She also suggested getting the BP cuff, if you are able, to check blood pressure and try to get your heart rate. Write them down and relate that info to appropriate people. If you cannot do that while the episode is happening, do as soon as you feel you are able. I am only 2 miles from the ER, and I think when I feel it coming, I can get there if I go right away. If I feel I cannot, I guess it's going to be 911. I know if I can do it, getting myself there would be quicker than an ambulance.

rumrunn6

what virus?
did you test for Covid?
I had some similar symptoms February thru April 2020. I'm convinced it was due to undiagnosed Covid

good luck!

RB1-luvr

wow, that's scary. I hope it never happens again and/or you get it resolved.

gobicycling

A few years back, I had an attack of vertigo which left me crawling on the floor, and then using a walker to get around. I called my doc and he said to wait for a while. In the meantime I found this maneuver on Google about clearing out dislodged material from your inner ear, and did it on myself. The vertigo shortly went away. Your's sounds much worse with the nausea, and I sure would have it checked out.

I-Like-To-Bike

A close relative had a similar sudden onset of theses symptoms. The problem turned out to a critically low sodium level. When the sodium level was raised through IVs and low liquid diet and several days in the hospital, the symptoms were gone.

pdlamb

You may get treated sooner if you wait for the ambulance.

One of my wife's patients had a heart attack. 911 told his wife "no ambulances are available." So she drove him to the ER and checked him in. He told the triage nurse he was a cardiac patient and this felt just like his last one did. Everybody who came in on an ambulance in the 7 hours they waited was treated before him. The next morning the ER staff discovered he'd had another heart attack; luckily he lived to hear it.

rumrunn6

my 93 yr old Mother told me about that. she did it to herself & said it worked. I watched some videos and showed her. she was amazed to see a video of the procedure. she never stops surprising me. I was going to mention it but it's a complicated. watching a youtube video however shows how easy it is to do

rsbob 

Had a cold my wife brought home but never did a COVID test. Definitely worth a shot since we have multiple test kits. Thanks

Polaris OBark

I was going to say the same thing (first sentence), but better to hear it from someone medically qualified.

zandoval 

A viral vistibularitis is serious. But there is not much you can do about it. One certainly changed my life. Mine was bad and unpredictable for three years and then finally started to ease up. I eventually permanently lost some hearing and worse my proprioception in the dark. Major changes for me. I sure hope this passes without incident...

One thing that did help was PRN Ginger Root for the nausea and a prescription for Optivar which is an ophthalmic antihistamine. The Optivar is absorbed through the eye drop into the lacrimal duct and slowly works its way to the back of your throat giving some relief to swelling in your eustation tubes. Other then low dose steroids these are the only things that really helped.

Edit: Forgot to mention that my use of hypertonic saline in a Neti-Pot for nasal washes also helped.

canklecat

Sounds familiar. Persistent vertigo was the longest lasting symptom I had from catching COVID in autumn 2021. The vertigo lasted until summer 2022 and kept me off the bike for months.

It was even more annoying than the chronic neck pain from cervical spine stenosis. At least with the neck pain I could ride for maybe an hour a day. But the vertigo stopped bike rides, other than on the indoor trainer.

I switched mostly to running, figuring if I got dizzy and fell, I'd fall a shorter distance and might be able to aim for the grass along most of my route. When I didn't have the energy to run, I jogged. When I couldn't job, I walked. When I couldn't walk, I napped. But I napped really hard. Like an elite pro level napper. No messing around. Nap like a cat.

I'm not sure whether it's a coincidence, but I made some changes to improve my ENT health as well. My ENT doc suggested eliminating milk and most dairy from my diet. I had a couple of courses of Prednisone in late 2021 for upper respiratory inflammation. And I added a couple of nasal inhalers that seemed to work better than Flonase. I take Sudafed when the congestion is really bad. The combination reduced a lot of sinus and nasal congestion and seemed to improve the vertigo.

A friend who's also a cyclist had surgery for vestibular syndrome several months ago. Had a heckuva scar through the skull for awhile. He mostly rode the indoor trainer and walked for months, but he's back on the bike and Strava data shows he's back to normal. We're the same age but he's doing much better than I have. I lost quite a bit of energy and stamina from COVID and my average speed on my usual roller coaster routes plummeted from 17 mph to 14 mph, and that's on a good day. I was never a fast runner anyway, but my best 5k time dropped from 24 minutes to 27 minutes to 30-40 minutes now. I have good days occasionally but mostly just plod along slowly.

jon c. 

Sounds like my experience with viral vertigo. I'd been dizzy before, but this was orders of magnitude beyond anything I'd ever experienced. I was thinking in slow motion that this must be a heart attack. Having not yet reached 60 at the time I thought "So this is what it feels like. I never figured I'd go quite this early. " I collapsed on the bed and the cold sweats and nausea started. Not unlike I've experienced with heat stroke but much worse. After an hour or so the symptoms subsided. They never returned to that degree, but would start to recur if I moved my head too quickly or held it in the wrong position. When I went to get my hair cut I couldn't lean back to get it shampooed.

My doctor quickly diagnosed it as viral vertigo. Cleared up completely within a week a thus far has not returned.

rumrunn6

February 2020. I'm convinced I got "the virus" because I was "so tired, I couldn't lay down hard enough" that's was how I described it

MoAlpha

PSA: Vertigo is a symptom, not a diagnosis and the causes range from benign to deadly, with a lot of not of not-so-great in between. Exercises and maneuvers are effective only for one cause and are otherwise useless. Vertigo and dizziness should always evaluated by someone who knows what they're doing.

pdlamb

I don't disagree, but maneuvers for that one cause are simple and easy. It's like a good auto mechanic or computer support person's approach: start with the cheap and easy solution, and if it works, you're done. If not, then you can go on to more intensive/expensive causes and treatments or procedures.

That said, I really wish I were just an interested reader, rather than remembering vertigo. Like so many other things that come with old age!

skidder

I had 'vertigo' not too long ago. Started mildly and suddenly got worse over about 4 hours to the point I was having trouble standing up. Called 911 and got transported to the hospital - riding backward in the ambulance caused me to get nausea. They did all kinds of tests & scans (all negative), finally left with a non-specific viral infection diagnosis even though I had not been sick in months. COVID tests were negative, too. It took about a week to get comfortable walking slowly, a few more weeks until I could ride a bicycle and drive a car. So far no recurrence. This getting old stuff is not for the timid, it really sucks! This may be helpful, but I found walking down stairs (really carefully at first!) really helps with regaining the ability to balance properly

Really odd thing was its easier to drive a car than ride a bicycle. On a bicycle you usually balance the side-to-side motion involuntarily, but when vertigo hits you have to do it voluntarily, along with watching out for road obstructions and other stuff voluntarily, which confuses your brain. In a car the side-to-side balancing is not an issue.

MoAlpha

Gosh, I never thought of it that way. Let’s try everyone with crushing substernal chest pain on antacids for a few days too, ‘cause it just be reflux.