Vertigo

[cedmonds]

Has anyone had random bouts of vertigo in watch and wait? I was diagnosed last August when I, for the first time ever, had extreme vertigo and could not walk in a straight line. I also felt sort of drunk and euphoric. Now 8 months later, I recently had my second bout of vertigo when I woke up with eyes still closed and intense, fast spinning. Scared me to death. Continued more mildly for the whole day and then that evening intensified drastically and caused me to vomit. Just curious if anyone has experienced this. I'm in watch and wait with a small AN about 4mm. I'm so scared of this happening again and it is so unnerving not knowing when and where it will happen. Has anyone figured out what triggers the vertigo coming on and has anyone found anything besides Meclizine that might help? I'm curious if cannabis might help with the vertigo and nausea. If anyone has experience with this helping, I'd appreciate you sharing your experience. Thank you.

[bethtretrault]

I had those same symptoms for 2 days and ended up in the hospital (endless vomiting). Before discharge they did an MRI and discovered the AN which was about the size of yours.Two years later I had retrosigmoid surgery for removal because I continued to sporadically get vertigo and there was growth. The explanation I got is that the AN compromises the ability of the vestibular nerve to work correctly so you get poor information to your brain from that side. Dr. Coelho described it as if you have a twin engine plane and one engine is sputtering. Better to have just one fully functional engine. I am sorry-I know how miserable and scary the feeling is with the worst being you never know when it will happen again. Post surgery I took valium to calm the nervous system and weaned off that (sometimes post surgery you have vertigo because they cut the vestibular nerve to remove the AN and that causes an abrupt loss of function). Your brain learns to compensate (amazing, really) and now at 1 and one half years later I have had only 2 much shorter and much milder episodes which I was told could be because we all lose function over time in balance and now I only have 1 balance nerve. The valium did not not make me function as normal, though, although I had just had surgery so it is hard to say what it would have felt like if I took that when I had an episode pre-surgery. You could try vestibular therapy but I think you might want to call your MD about symptoms.