It is prime riding weather in Florida and I landed in the hospital with vertigo attack on Monday - first in my middle-aged life - and extremely severe attack at that. Was so dizzy I could not keep anything down for a day. So after two days and bunch of claustrophobic tests I was back at my desk job, chauffeured by DH. Not fit to drive yet.

Docs say since they did not find stroke, tumors and other assorted nastiness, I should be back to normal in anywhere between two days to two weeks. Well, two weeks is not good enough, I want to ride!

Has anybody experienced anything like this?

SF

I have mild dizziness from time to time with a rare bout of vertigo that tends to be upsetting but doesn't last long. I have not discussed it with the doc yet but plan to bring it up at next PE. I have heard from others that this is common, especially as we age. Who knows? I just find it irritating.

-G

I had vertigo off-and-on for a couple of years after a helmetless crash (car vs bicycle - car won!) in 1991 when I was in my late 30s, as the result of a concussion. Have you hit your head against anything recently?

I had the same sort of attacks, about once a month for almost a year. They are brutual...vomiting and dry heaves for 12 hours....you just want to die.

Turned out to be Meniere's Disease. Looking back I noticed that I had one attack per year after Thanksgiving....which was caused by less salt loss from riding less, and more salt in my diet from eating our salt brined turkey. Then I had the series of attacks after going on a high protein (salty meats) low carb diet for a month.

I had to switch to a low salt diet, and now the vertigo is very rare now , unless I eat salty stuff for a day or two.

https://www.american-hearing.org/diso...ieres-disease/ good luck

I feel your pain. For a the last 15 years, I suffer from mild attack from vertigo. Most of them knocks me out to nothing more than simply having to close my eyes and sleep it off. Those were the good old days but lately, the attacks are getting more severve.

My last two cases of vertigo actually left me blacked out. The first major attack was about 5 years ago where I was on a vacation and the driver was driving on a winding mountain road. Normally, I will only get motion sickness and that's about the worst of it, but not this time. I got tunnel vision and a second later, everthing around me started spinning right before I blacked out. I was out for 15 minute from what the other passenger told me. I ended up sleeping for 16 hours before I got my balance back.

The second case was my worst case and it happen two years ago. I was at the dentist office and getting a gum surgery in my teeth where they removed some gum from one section of my teeth and transfer it to a more needed area. I was at the dentist chair for 1.5 hours. I felt dizzy when I got up but was good enough to get to the reception area to paid my bill, however I was really feeling sick and dizzy. The dental assistant told me I had to paid $230 of balance and that's when my vertigo took over. One second I was standing there with my checkbook open and then the next second I was blacked out. I was awaken temporary by sound of some voices asking my name and whatever because I simply don't recall everything. Then everything went black again until I woke up in the ER at the hospital with a pain on my head like someone hit me in the head with a bat. I thought I was dreaming that I was at the dentist earlier until I looked at my phone and a reminder was telling me to go to the bank after the dentist. This when whhen I realized the time on my phone showed that I was out for 2 hours. Week later I had to go back to the dentist office and paid my bill and they show me the dent on the wall where I bang my head onto the sheetrock as I fell. That explained the pain I had on the side of my head when I woke up at the ER.

The next three day I ended sleeping at home almost every hour. It was not until the fourth day that I felt strong enough to go back to the hospital for my follow up checkup with my primary. She ended putting this recording thing that had all these wires going from my heart to record it. I had to wear that for 24 hours. I felt like a terroist with a bomd strap on me. Then they did a scan on my ear to make sure no tumor and then check for my hearing loss which did reaveal significant loss at the 1khz range with 70db instead of the normal 5db. Final result showed that I was getting some deposit in my inner ear where the balance and equalibrium take place. These little stuff inside moves around and upset my equalibrium making me dizzy, sick, vomitting and even cases of blacking out.

The only stuff they can prescribe is meclizine hydrocloride which makes me sleepy anyway. They also prescribed some Vallium which helps but not a whole lot. I asked my doctor about my vertigo while driving or cycling and they told me it is less occurance of it happening than it is when I am just sitting or standing motionless in one place. So it was a good to go when it comes down to cycling even with my vertigo problems.

I had these same type of episodes after several concussions that I suffered throughout the late 80s and 90s, but none lasted as long as the ones that you have described. Each time they occurred they subsided after six months to a year, and the doctors indicated that they were probably just exacerbating a severe brain injury that I had suffered in 1984 that had me in the hospital for three months, and not necessarily an indication of new injuries. During this same time frame however, I noticed and it became obvious to others who noticed, that there were other residual effects of each subsequent concussion that included issues of balance, memory loss, difficulties with focus and speech.

Since I didn't drive at the time, but I was riding 10-15k miles a year, the doctors told me to stop riding the bicycles and to buy a car so that I didn't hurt myself any further. After several years of riding and driving I realized that I was a greater danger to others behind the wheel of a car, so I haven't driven since.

After my last concussion this past May though (my sixth), things have gotten worse. When I turn my head from side-to-side quickly, I lose my balance, I can't walk down stairs without holding the handrails, and I can't climb up more that one step on a ladder without holding on to something. I have also had several petit mall seizures over the last seven months, and the issues of balance, memory loss, difficulties with focus and speech are back, and they aren't getting any better.

The really strange thing though, is that this has had very little effect on me while riding. I can trackstand at an intersection for up to a minute or so, and I can bounce around the stairs and planters of the local colleges without issue, although I do have trouble hold a line at times. I also find riding to be very therapeutic and calming, which reduces the stress and seems to minimize the manifestation of the symptoms.

I've been told that I need to have an EEG and CAT scan at least every six months, probably for the rest of my life, and my family and friends have been told to watch for any additional symptoms. I will also be taking Coumadin for the rest of my life to minimize any chance of a stroke, and I have been told that I am "highly pre-disposed" to eventually suffering from Alzhiemers.

Whether you have a brain injury from some form of organic disorder or due to physical injury, this is not something to disregard or hide. I see later pictures of Ali or a few other NFL players who suffered too many brain injuries and I am scared to death that one day I will lose my ability to reason or control myself, but I know my best chance is to ask for help and do what the doctors recommend.

I came down with pretty much the same systems but could never get an actual diagnosis of vertigo but I'm set that what it was and sometime still get but not as severe as it. They told me I had social anxiety and put me on a anti-depressant which didn't do a single thing to help.

Never had a head injury or anything along those line to relate it to. I felt like I was turning into Howard Hughes as I didn't leave my house for nearly two months let alone my bedroom. I quit my job and it was very discouraging as the doctors could never give me an answer and just prescribed things for me to "try". Believe it or not but once the symptoms died down. I got back into cycling after a five year stint and never felt better and have yet to return to the level it was before. On a scale of how it was at it's prime. I would say at it's prime it was a 10 out of10 in severity and now it's like a .75 out of 10. Mostly it's just a minute or so of dizziness and quick loss of my surroundings. Mostly when just walking around and never on a bike or driving.

Henry III, you and I sound like we might have had very similar symptoms. I spent about one full year with various doctors and hospitals trying to figure it out. I eventually got frustrated and gave up. But the symptoms also lessoned in intensity over time and I learned to live with it.

Today however (6 years later maybe?) I rarely notice it so it might be completely gone.

At it's worst, the best I could describe it is that I could be walking down a hallway normally, and then all of a sudden the entire hallway would rotate like 10-30 degrees and come back in balance. It would almost knock me on my butt if I didn't find something to grab onto quickly. I never vomited from it, but it definitely gave a woozy feeling. I might get a few episodes like that each day.

To a lesser extent, but more continually (as in I always noticed it), I seemed to sometimes lose control of my front and rear balance (I could see in a mirror that my head was involuntarily moving forward and backward slightly but often).

This thread scares me! I don't have this issue anymore but I was also never diagnosed. I hope it never comes back. I have always had strong social anxiety issues, but I was never asked about that by any doctors.

Wow, scary thread! I've been concussed a couple of times from bicycle crashes and the 2nd time I crashed they did a Cat-Scan and the Dr. said he could see evidence of my previous concussion 20 years previous!

And I thought that was scary. But after reading the posts above, I can only guess I was just lucky not to have these kind of problems. At least not in the past; maybe in the future though . . . you never know.

Rick / OCRR

Sounds like much of you have had 'Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo'. Often caused by a blow to the head that knocks calcium deposits (stones) out from soft tissue into the fluids of the ear canal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benign_...tional_vertigo

There is a simple test you can do yourself.

https://www.dizziness-and-balance.com...bppv/bppv.html

The Epley Maneuver works as a fix for many people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa6t-Bpg494

The Epley Maneuver moves the stones into a spot that they cause less problem and where they will be absorbed back into soft tissue.

Thank you for all the input. No, I did not have a concussion in my life, ever. Vertigo lessened great deal, still feel it a little tilting head up and down.

I had that positional vertigo. It was really irritating. My doctor did the Epley Maneuver and it went away, hasn't returned in five years.

Getting the vertigo when you tilt your head is an indication of 'Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo'. A concussion is not required, but is normally from a hit to the head. Consider trying the Epley Maneuver and see if it helps, if it does not work no harm done, but if it works WOOHOO. I would try it for both ears.

When I had it, I had stones loose in both ears and had to do the Epley Maneuver for both directions.

Wow! Thank you for these links!

Yep, if I go out in rough water in my kayak for a couple of hours I am done for the day and maybe the whole weekend. It is a shame because I really love kayaking. I will try that Epley Maneuver once it gets warm enough to paddle.

I went looney tunes as well from crappy doctors. Not the vertigo, but something else (although the vertigo is probably worsened by this). I finally figured it all out on my own using the internet. The big problem was the doctors wanted to treat the symptoms individually instead of looking at the bigger picture and tracing things back to the root problem.

I'm sure your doctor would have checked it, but, just in case......I had vertigo some years ago and they discovered wax build up in both ear canals. A quick flushing and I was good as new.

I had to stop riding a DF bike for nearly a year because of balance problems that cropped up after a cold. Nothing more alarming than quickly turning the head to look both ways at intersections and getting a dizzy spell while riding with cars passing you.
I invested in a recumbent trike, instead. Staying in the upright, slightly back position, while riding has helped a lot. I go a lot slower, but it's better than not riding at all.
The dizziness is not too bad now, when I get them, a quick little shake of the head actually stops the wooziness. The actual vertigo (very rare occurrences, thank goodness) brings on terrible panic attacks. For me, like it's the end of the universe, or something, not knowing which way is up.
The Epley maneuver looks promising. I tend to self-treat, once serious possibilities have been ruled out. The doctors covered by my insurance are rather clueless and only give me meds that cause more problems. Once they don't know what it is, or can't find anything serious, I go the self-treating route... I'd like to go back to riding a DF bike, though, for those times I want to combine a trip with the bus.

Here goes.....

For 3 years I dealt with reoccuring world churning episodes of motion sickness. All attributed to an infection in my right ear that destroyed the balance ability... so the doctors thought.

This August 17th, Worst storm ever throwing, heaves, memory loss and complete numbness in my arms and legs.

Ear doctor sent me to the specialist right after, Took alook in my right ear and saw my brain in the ear canal. I was in to emergency surgery few days later. waiting,I lived on pain and valium pills while secluded in my room with the ear sealed. An infection at that point would have gone straight to the brain.

2 brain surgeries later where the doc has repaired the places where my brain has worn potholes or holes in my skull.Hearing has been greatly affected. Waiting for more down the road as this is progressive. Commuting has been gone for 6 monthes now and I have not been to work for as long. Recovery is still ongoing with theropy to teach me how to balance again.

I still believe I will ride again and I plan to !

It's been a couple of years for me, but it's been a recurring issue since I was a kid. Doctors have since diagnosed me with unusually small vestibular aqueducts and either endolymphatic hydrops or Meniere's. I'm also deaf in the right ear... all I get is ringing.

The last time it happened, I got on the bike dizzy and it got worse. Made it halfway to work, sat on the sidewalk for an hour, then rode VERY CAREFULLY to light rail to return home. Got home, threw up, and slept it off.

Bigbenaugust,

Yea, the RINGING ! chainsaw jet engine angry beehive non stop ringing. I'm also deaf in the right side with diminished in my left. I've learned to block out the noise but it adds to the background of sound coming in so understanding conversation is difficult. Balance has to be learned again while things settle down after the surgery. Any sound though goes to my left ear which makes me look in that direction even when it came from the right side. Drives me crazy!

3SS

The ringing in the right ear has been with me at least intermittently since before adolescence, but has been constant since college or so as the hearing deteriorated to it's current point of near-nothing. Hearing tests in '01 and '07 showed at least some high-frequency hearing in the right remained, but by '10 it was all gone. Thankfully, my left is still more-or-less normal. But I am wondering as I hit 35 if the left ear will start to go too.

The ringing is not super-loud unless I'm sleep-deprived (yeah, and we have a toddler and another baby on the way), but other than that, it's just a part of life. Caffeine and salt regulation never helped with dizziness/vertigo or ringing, so I gave up trying.

The annoyance for bike commuting is that I can't hear cars on my right (usu. idling parked cars) and, as you have stated, my directional hearing is non-existent.

Today I went on the bike for the first time since vertigo attack. Took my son and his friend to MUP at lazy 10 mph. My head was still swimming a bit, couple times I lost my line and went into the grass and back on the pavement - in short I am not ready for commute on the streets.

Between last post and present time I had couple episodes with ringing in my ear, felt little pressure inside the same ear and little temporarily diminished hearing. Made appointment with ENT, can't wait.

Do find a good ENT. My most recent was a combo ENT/plastic surgeon and it was fairly obvious which one he liked better.

My wife had something very like that a little over a year ago; they assumed it was some sort of viral inner ear infection. After her really bad night (controlled finally with a lot of IV valium) she took some anti vertigo medicine for a couple weeks and was mostly back to normal in a month or so.

Here is the problem - they assume....

So far I am still less than myself, I walk around perpetually buzzed, like after a glass of wine (minus happy good mood), and fatigued from constant concentration to walk in a straight line.

In a month, you say? OK....