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Motion/Breathing/Vision

26-year-old male: July 9 had 101 temp, headache, severe sore throat with blisters on tongue and throat. Quick swab showed no strep. Treated with Keflex. No improvement. Three days later, strep test came back "ambigious" and changed to Z pack. Improved to feeling normal within a couple of days. July 27 throat once again became sore. By July 29, severe sore throat and felt badly, started seeing stars, felt faint, mild ringing in ears. July 30 shaky, vertigo, blood pressure 160/100 (no bp problems previously)--Prescribed Biaxin. Aug 2: Somewhat improved but sinus pressure--prescribed Avalox and Diovan. Aug 3: Slighty dizzy progressing to room spinning. Aug 5: intermittent heart palpatations. Aug 8: Saw ENT who stopped Avalox due to no sign of infection but gave cortison injection for irritation near right eustachian tube. Had allergic reaction as diagnosed by dermatologist (cortison, Avalox, or Diovan). Had intermittent dizziness for a week. Saw opthalmalogist, because of blurring vision, who prescribed eyeglasses for slight astigmatism and near sightedness. Continuing symptoms. Aug. 27 saw cardiologist--resulted in normal stress echo and normal EKG. Began having intermittant dizziness with headache for about 15 mins. upon waking the first two weeks of September. Saw neurologist and had motion testing (warm and cold water, etc.). One ear more responsive than other to warm and cold water with diagnosis of viral infection that was improving. MRI--normal. Saw endocrinologist for pre-existing conditions of metabolic syndrome (symptoms of hypothyroid and impaired glucose tolerance). TSH normal (Take Synthroid). Blood sugar normal (diet controlled). Symptoms have progressed and changed to feeling of motion as if doing cartwheels, feeling of motion as if still moving downward on elevator, breathing feels as if not getting deep enough breaths. When 1st stand, feel pressure in whole head for a couple of seconds, as if straining. Most symptoms are when sitting awhile or standing awhile. Doesn't appear to be correlation. When at worst, start feeling really badly, break out in cold sweat for about 10 secs., become shaky, for about one minute. Tilt table 2 days ago--results not back though technician said blood pressure remained steady but elevated. Have felt even worse since test. Continuing on Diovan with bp of 130/90 and Synthroid. Mono test showed past infection but no current one. CBC and metabolic panel normal. Don't know where to go from here.
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Avatar universal
breathing shorter breaths come to think of it. Just wondering if this seems like it would or could be related to not getting enough oxygen in the brain during sleep.
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Avatar universal
I have something going on when  I wake up lately where I will sleep very hard and when I wake up I will have either a sensation that my eyes are hard to keep completely still or I have a slight elevator vision where my vision is kind of shaking up or down. I am a vegetarian but when I was vegan I had know problems with this. Just wondering if this may be a sign of some type of deficieny? I propose that it may be related to anxiety though because i smoked pot for a little while and am just getting over a season of anxiety caused by smoking to much. I had a couple actual full fledged panic attacks the past couple months that seemed similar to a bad high. The panic attacks made me feel short of breath. I have a suspicion that I also may not be breathing deep enough in my sleep. Thank you. I quit smoking pot. www.***@****
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242516 tn?1368223905
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
you have a very thorough evaluation from many specialists

consider getting a good primary care doctor to coordinate all of these specialists' opinions.  That one doc can synthesize them into a coherent whole.
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152264 tn?1280354657
I am not a doctor and don't know anything about metabolic issues, but perhaps you have more than one thing going on with the dizziness. Viral infections that affect the inner ear can cause severe dizziness which can take weeks or months to really get better. You mentioned dizziness with headache--is it possible you have migraines, too? Any personal or family history of migraine? Migraine--with OR WITHOUT headache--can certainly cause dizziness. Did you tell the neurologist about the headaches with dizziness upon waking?

About the rest of the symptoms and test results, I don't know. I would follow up with the neurologist. There are medications that can help dizziness, but if your dizziness is just left over from the viral infection, the goal is to avoid vestibular-suppressing medications and allow your brain to compensate for the damage to the vestibular nerve. Stay active as much as you can without provoking your symptoms too severely. Activity and movement are necessary for your brain to move the compensation process forward. Ask your neurologist about a referral to a vestibular therapist (a specialized PT) if appropriate.

Best of luck! The vast majority of people with dizziness due to viral infection overcome the dizziness completely, although it can take a while. The main thing is to not let anxiety and worry take over. Get help from doctor and/or PT. If you have seen a neurologist specializing in dizziness (who orders and interprets ENGs, as it sounds like you had), you are very lucky, because there aren't many of those specialists around. (Or was it perhaps a neurotologist--i.e., neuro-otologist, a specialized ENT--that you saw?)

Nancy T.
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