Coming up to my 1 year anniversary of a ruptured aneurysm with clipping. The last 3 months I seemed to have gone back to regular headaches. This week I have also developed really bad dizzines. If I move my head a certain way, my whole world ‘rocks and rolls’. Has anyone else experienced this sort of dizziness? Having a ct on Tuesday to check things out. Appreciate your comments.
Hopefully, after the CT it may be turn out to be something easy to correct and something unrelated to your surgery. Our ears have stones that can shift causing dizziness.
http://www.webmd.com/brain/tc/benign-paroxysmal-positional-vertigo-…
Thanks Campanile.
Hi Gerry,
I have been living with chronic vertigo after my ruptured Annie. In my case, I developed a disordered called Central Vestibular Disorder. In short, there is a mismatch in visual and vestibular systems. However, in my case, it is not the peripheral system (inner ear) but rather the vestibular nuclei which was impacted as my bleed was really close to the brain stem. The article below describes the problem with head turns that can cause dizziness. Basically the peripheral and focal visual systems is not processing correctly. In my case, a simple head turn will cause vertigo. It lasts only for a few minutes. There are other forms of vestibular disorders like Vestibular Migraines or Peripheral inner ear disorders. With peripheral issues, I understand that it lasts for hours. Good luck. Message me offline. I will provide more information. Dizziness sucks. I am only managing it with medication.
http://www.acnr.co.uk/2013/09/visual-vestibular-interaction-basic-science-to-clinical-relevance/
Thanks so much 2fight. How long after your rupture did the dizziness start. My had only just started and it’s been a year from my rupture.
Thanks.
Hi Gerry,
After spending 3 weeks in the ICU, I was discharge but still had a massive headache and was pretty much bed ridden for 1 month after I was discharged just dealing with the headache. As the headache abated, I started to notice dizziness/balance issue but attributed to being so inactive for so long. After 3 months, I started to notice the dizziness/balance issue more. It is similar to drinking too much where it is like hobbling. After 6 months, the full manifestation of dizziness occurred where the dizziness was like spinning (vertigo) and started to notice double vision. (objects jittery, flat objects look warped). Initially, I was diagnosed with vestibular migraine then I was reevaluated by another specialist and diagnosed as Central vestibulopathy. The key diagnosis is the involuntary eye jerking movements called Nystagmus which was causing the double vision. The duration of my vertigo usually lasts for minutes as opposed to hours or days.
This article really breakdowns difference between Vertigo vs Non-vertigo dizziness as well as difference between central (brain) vs peripheral (physical ear) issues.
http://learn.chm.msu.edu/NeuroEd/neurobiology_disease/content/otheresources/vestibulardisorders.pdf
I recommend that you see a Ear, Nose and Throat physician who can do a battery of tests to evaluated your vestibular system. If headaches are associated with dizziness, it may point to Vestibular Migraine.
Just a few questions:
1. How long does your dizziness lasts? Minutes, Hours, Days?
2. Is it a spinning sensation or feeling of imbalance (like your drunk)?
3. Do you have any double vision? (seeing ghost images, depth issues
BTW, my CT and MRI did not show any infarct from the bleed and I suffered only mild vasospasm from the SAH. However, the bleed was from PICA cerebellum rupture right next to the brain stem. Physicians concluded that my neural pathways changed. For this reason, it took 3-6 months for my symptoms to manifest.
Good luck. I feel for you brother as dizziness sucks.
Perhaps it is BPPV--Benign Positional Vertigo, like Campanile says. That is more easily treated. I had nystagms, dbl.vision, photophobia, and severe balance issues post-op of pipeline flex placement a year ago. After a few months of PT and OT, I started a specialized vision therapy program for 3 1/2 months at the rehab that helped me tremendously. I am back to doing all that I did before. Initially, driving, watching TV, going on the computer, and reading were impossible for me.
Thanks everyone for your replies. My dizziness usually last for 2 to 3 seconds, but feels like my eyes/brain are rotating violently. No double vision. I do feel ‘lightheaded’ majority of the time.
Let us know how your CT goes
Will do!
I was just sitting in a meeting and leaned back and as I came forward, I felt like everything became warped and very blurry. It went away seconds later. I felt a bit nauseous after the episode. I had a coiling done on March 2016
Well my CT came back all good. No problems with my clipping. Still yet to go and see my GP. My own diagnosis is that it is probably a virus. I do feel that after my craniotomy, any head cold or flu virus is going to affect me greater now than it did before.
Glad it was good
It is good news that your CT did not show anything unusual, but I know it’s frustrating when you’re looking for a cause for a problem which could lead to a solution. Hopefully your GP can come up with some possibilities of what it might be. Speaking of a virus, you can have an inner ear virus. Many years ago I was told that I most likely had that when I had a bout of dizziness for several months shortly after my second child was born. I never did figure out exactly what it was, but it eventually went away on its own.
Thanks Patty. Yes I think the vertigo is related to inner ear virus. Hopefully it will cease soon.
All the best.
Patty said:
It is good news that your CT did not show anything unusual, but I know it’s frustrating when you’re looking for a cause for a problem which could lead to a solution. Hopefully your GP can come up with some possibilities of what it might be. Speaking of a virus, you can have an inner ear virus. Many years ago I was told that I most likely had that when I had a bout of dizziness for several months shortly after my second child was born. I never did figure out exactly what it was, but it eventually went away on its own.
Gerry,
Have you seen an ENT? I was treated with Valtrex for an inner ear virus, in my case it did nothing. I ended up with full blown Meniere’s Disease and hearing loss. The only thing that helped me was betahistine (Serc elsewhere), Low dose Valium to sedate my ear and a diuretic.
Gerry,
Hopefully, your dizziness improved. Wish the best.
Campanile,
Based on your previous post about double vision, Meniere Disease, and hearing loss, we look to have similar issues. I was diagnosed with Central vestibulopathy and I also have mid range hearing loss. The ENT determined that it was not related to the mid-bone. All indications still point to the ruptured aneurysm and SAH but no one doctor has actually made this statement as CT scan/MRI did not show anything. Was the Meniere Disease and hearing loss attributed to Aneurysm in your case?
Campanile said:
Gerry,
Have you seen an ENT? I was treated with Valtrex for an inner ear virus, in my case it did nothing. I ended up with full blown Meniere's Disease and hearing loss. The only thing that helped me was betahistine (Serc elsewhere), Low dose Valium to sedate my ear and a diuretic.
Thanks Campanile,
I was first given Stemitele, but this doesn’t work. I do have a script for Serc and have heard this works. I will give this a try. Thanks.
Thanks 2Fight.
There seems to be a bit of vertigo going around. I have notice increased ‘noise’ in my ears which was not noticeable before. On those, quite times, I can hear a high pitched noise.
If you are seeing an ENT, i recommend that you have an audiogram. (sound test). I attached my audiogram. Tinnitus is associated with hearing loss. It sounds like a high pitch ringing. In my case, I have both ringing in my ear as well as actually hearing high frequency sounds above 10KHz (car brakes, electrical fields). For some weird reason, I have mid range hearing loss + augmented hearing above 10KHz which is not normal. Another weird thing is that I never experienced "hard of hearing" as my good ear is somehow compensating for it.