Hello all,
I'm a 34 year old female. I started having bouts of vertigo in 2003. They would come and go and were always short lived. I had one debilitating episode where I couldn't drive for about 3 days. My doctor kept giving me Antivert and never explored it further. They said I had BPPV and nothing could be done.
I went to see a neurologist in 2010 for numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, visual disturbances, and muscle spasms. He performed every neurological test on me, suspecting MS. Almost all of my tests were negative, with the exception of my VNG, which showed a 37% caloric weakness in my right ear. Also my MRI showed a Chiari malformation of 4mm. When I met with my doctor again, he said "your brain is sitting too low in your skull, but we won't talk about surgery yet." I had to get copies of my tests to even find out it was called Chiari. He said as far as the vertigo was concerned, there was nothing that could be done. Feeling confused and frustrated, I sought out the opinions of two other neurologists. Neither of them felt that Chiari was causing my symptoms.
Fast forward to the end of last year. I experienced sudden hearing loss in my right ear. It happened after my boyfriend kissed my ear (kind of embarrassing to talk about). There wasn't any suction or anything like that but my hearing was definitely not right. After the second day it didn't return to normal so I went to see an audiologist. He performed a hearing test and compared it to the one I had done in 2010 when I came there for my VNG. It showed definite hearing damage. He referred me to see an ENT as soon as possible. The audiologist and ENT were both perplexed by the cause of my hearing damage, and I suspect maybe they felt that wasn't the cause. I went through a course of prednisone in an attempt to save my hearing. My repeat hearing test showed a miniscule improvement. My ENT then sent me for vestibular rehab for my vertigo.
The therapist confirmed it was BPPV on my right side (it's always been on the right side) and she did some maneuevers and showed me some exercises to do at home. After this, I thought I was cured and was very happy.
Last Thursday I woke up and when I opened my eyes, the room was spinning. I rolled over and was gripping the bed cuz I felt like I was falling. I sat up and the spinning continued. I became sweaty and extremely nauseous. I tried to get up and found that walking was a challenge. I tried to lay back down and the spinning got worse. I tried laying on my left side because I have always only had trouble on the right. The spinning was just as bad on both sides, which I have never experienced before. I couldn't move my head. I was completely at the mercy of the vertigo. I couldn't drive or do anything. I missed 2 days of work and couldn't even sleep in my bed. I had to sleep in a reclined position, which got pretty uncomfortable. Then suddenly, it went away this past Sunday. I was also experiencing a fluttering and pulsing sound in my right ear during these few days.
I went back to my ENT on Monday. He seemed concerned by the worsening of the vertigo and the fact that it was now on both sides. He wants to repeat my hearing test and go from there. He said I could possibly have an acoustic neuroma, but wants to do the hearing test and an MRI if that shows my hearing has deteriorated. I'm pretty nervous about this.
Thank you for reading and I apologize for the length. I just wanted to give my full history.
