I have Vertigo [bawl]

I had this twice about 5 years ago and it was awful (sorry!) For me it didn't last too long, seemed to come on very quickly, get worse over a couple of days and then go. I remember describing it as feeling like I had marbles on a track in my head which carried on going round when I stopped moving! Ugh!

The first time I had it, it came on within half an hour and my Dad had to pick me up from work! I went to a relative christening the second time and the font was at the back of the church I remember facing forward when everyone else had turned around!?

You have my sympathy, I would say no to work no matter what. especially if you have to drive to get in, you need plenty of rest and sitting still

Hope you feeel better soon x

If you haven't already then it might be useful for you to see your GP. Hopefully they will or have already given you a drug called stemitil or a similar drug.

The drug helps mask the vertigo symptoms but it does not cure them. The best thing to do is take the medication when you need to go out etc. Your body needs to adjust itself. Basically there is a viral infection in the inner ear which controls your balance. Your body needs to find its balance again and the stemitil will not allow your body to do this.

Try and manage your day without taking drugs and you will start to feel better quicker.

There is no set time that it lasts unfortunately. You need to be up and about to allow your body to adjust. It might not be safe for you to drive also.

From your boss point of view then I doubt that you will be back at work till the middle of next week but it depends on how you get on over the weekend.

HTH

Awwww love, hoping it gets better for you soon xx

Are you sure it is not labyrinthitis? Warning, I had this 3 years ago and was hospitalised for a week - the whole thing lasted about 6 weeks and I couldn't drive for about 2 months. Really hope you get over it quickly and it is just a mild case of vertigo - it's horrid I know.

Clarry-Love

I was diagnosed with vertigo just before Christmas, I had the medication and it took a good 3/4 weeks before I started to feel normal, but I still get the rushes if I turn my head or body too quickly now.

It's rotten, you have my sympathy ?

I had this a few months ago and its horrible so you have my sympathy. It lasted about three weeks, but I didnt go to the doctor for the first weeks or so. He gave me tablets which worked eventually.

I just remember sitting talking to a friend and having to try really hard to focus on her as the room was just spinning round, and discribing the feeling as being drunk but not as much fun.

I hope you start to feel better soon, but I wouldnt rush back to work.

I have suffered from vertigo for nearly five years now.

Sometimes, ie, in my case after many many different test, noone was able to diagnose the cause of it. So they are unable to help me.

I simply have to live with it and it is very unsettleing to start with.

Do go see your GP, but don't worry if he/she looks a little baffled. There are many reasons why this could have happened and sometimes none.

My tips are lay off the booze for a while. Keep your blood suger well maintained and you might find that these simple things really help.

If it doesn't get better and your gp can't help there are a few drugs out there but I find that they have very little effect and I just try to get on with life without them.

Best of luck

I was very ill with vertigo last year.

It started on March 17 when I was at work. I felt travel sick (which I suffer from) and it basically didn't go away. At first I could hardly move without falling over. I was off work for a couple of months and then on light duties for another couple of months. For a while after that I would still get odd incidents, one off which was completely out of the blue and I collapsed at work (fortunately I was in the station at the time though I was dealing with a member of the public). My travel sickness is now worse and the last time I had travel sickness it set off a small vertigo incident.

Stemetil didn't work for me at all, but that was no surprise really. It doesn't work for me as an anti travel sickness medication and it didn't work for morning sickness either.

The things that worked for me was a medication called SERTS, it's a weird drug in that, on reading the bumpf, it appears to have absolutely no side effects (I have never come across a medication that you could say that about). It is a anti hystamine of sorts and they don't really know why it works for vertigo but they suspect it changes the pressure in the inner ear. I also had some very good physiotherapy- if you google Benign Positional Vertigo you should find some of it.

Whilst it is very tempting to just lie down and make it all go away, you really need to keep moving- it was partly because I had it so badly that I made it worse by, eventually, hardly moving at all which then in a vicious circle made any slight movement set off the vertigo. Just do very small things like moving your head slowly to the right, centre and then left. Do the same looking up and down and throw a small ball from one hand to the other. hate to say it but I don't think staring at acomputer screen will be doing you much good.

Just to say that mine was particularly bad but I feel so much better now.

I hope you're feeling better soon.