One Year with Vertigo - How It Started, How I Have Managed It, and How It’s Going

July 11 marked one whole year since the onset of my vertigo.  When it first started last summer, so many of you reached out to me to tell me to hang in there, that you’d had it, too, and that it wouldn’t last longer than a few days because it was probably just the “crystals in my ears” being out of whack.  I sure wish that had been the case, friends!

If you had told me then that a whole year would go by and I’d still be dealing with the fallout from it, I wouldn’t have believed you, and I sure as hell wouldn’t have accepted that as a response. 

I’m not going to sugarcoat it.  The first couple of months were, plain and simple, a nightmare, and this past year has been one of the most challenging of my whole life.  Until you’ve had vertigo, you really have no clue just how debilitating it is.

Living with the lingering symptoms 24/7 and waking up each morning not knowing what to expect for the last year has caused me to experience bouts of depression in addition to my anxiety, and on top of that, the medication I’m on for the vertigo can also cause depression, so it’s been a double whammy in that department.  Some days the depression has been worse than the actual vertigo and other symptoms, and I can now officially say that I’d choose anxiety over depression any day.  Sigh.

I’m sure some of you who know me personally may not have noticed that anything has been wrong (many of you told me that you had no clue I’d been going through this after I posted about it on Facebook on the one-year anniversary), but I can be really good at pretending everything is okay even when it’s not.  Under most circumstances, I’m up front about things and I wear my emotions on my sleeves, but after weeks and then months of not getting better from the lingering symptoms, I just got tired of dealing with it all the time, so I just stopped talking about it and tried to put on a happy face.

I do know that what I’ve gone through and am still going through is NOTHING compared to what some other people are going through (cancer, dementia, and so many other terrible things), and I’m so very grateful to be healthy otherwise, because it could be so much worse.  We have so many family members and friends walking through things that are much harder than this, so I do want you all to know that I do keep things in perspective, and I do not take my otherwise good health for granted.

Anyway, a lot of you already know this story, but in case you’re new here, I’ll start from the beginning.  And friends, this is probably the longest post I have written to date and that is really, really saying something.  Y’all know how long-winded I can be.  ;o)

 

How It Started

July 10, 2023 (the day before the vertigo started) was a typical summer day.  I got some work done, the kids and I hung out together and prepped for having sleepover company later in the day, we had dinner, I went for a run in the blazing evening sun and heat, I started my Bible in a Year recap journey by reading Day 1, and physically, I felt great. 

However, mentally, I was struggling with some things that had been causing (pretty severe) stress for a couple of weeks, and when I am stressed, I carry all of the tension in my neck, shoulders, upper back, and the base of my skull.  Sometimes the tension gets so bad that there is nothing I can do to relieve it. 

In addition to that, I had spent about an hour that morning applying tabs to my new Bible, so my neck was hunched over for quite some time which is not a position it’s normally in.

I had also just had braces put on my teeth five months before that, and I had been wearing rubber bands to move my jaw, and by five months, my jaw had moved drastically.  And when I say drastically, I mean it.  My face is much different now than it was on February 1, 2023 when I had them put on.  So different that many people have commented on it, a couple of whom even mentioned that it looks like I’ve had plastic surgery.  All of the jaw movement has caused constant facial tension, which in turn, has been causing tons of neck and shoulder tension as well.

Needless to say, I had, by far, the worst neck tension that I have ever had in my life that day.  And it lasted for most of the day with no relief.  Ibuprofen didn’t help.  A neck and shoulder rub didn’t help.  My CBD oil didn’t help.  Meditation didn’t help.  Nothing at all helped.

I went to bed that night with zero issues (other than the extreme neck tension), and Tuesday morning, July 11, 2023, I woke up in the wee hours to go the bathroom, and the second I got out of bed, everything started spinning and I hit the floor.  While I’d never had that happen, it wasn’t too concerning to me – I just assumed I was really tired and had overdone it on my run the night before – so I made my way to the bathroom and back to the bed by holding onto all of the furniture and I went back to sleep, assuming everything would be fine when I woke up in the morning. 

Wrong.

Tuesday morning, I got out of bed, and the exact same thing happened – everything started spinning, and I hit the floor yet again.  I knew at that point that something was really, really wrong.

Brian had to go to work, so I was left with a house full of kids since both kids had friends over, but it was clear by late morning that he needed to come home because I couldn’t function at all. 

I couldn’t stand without holding onto something.

I couldn’t walk without holding onto the wall.

And I could barely even sit up because the spinning was constant, and it was making me severely nauseated. 

Brian ended up coming home so he could make lunch for the kids and keep an eye out for them, and I spent the rest of the day in bed because that was the only way I could get remotely comfortable.  Every single slight movement I made caused the whole room to spin, so I spent the entire day trying not to move and trying not to vomit.

I ended up contacting a couple of nurse friends, and everyone advised that Brian go pick up some meclizine to help with the vertigo, which should in turn help with the severe nausea. 

Brian picked up the meclizine as soon as he got off of work, and while it seemed to help a tiny bit, it really didn’t help a lot.  And the worst part was that it made me extremely drowsy.  And brain foggy.  So very brain foggy.  I couldn’t function at all.

Many people had started mentioning that I probably needed to go see a doctor to get adjusted since my “ear crystals had probably dislodged,” (something I had never even heard of) so the next day, I did just that, and that’s where my long journey of seeing every specialist known to man started.

Before we start that journey, here is a list of the symptoms I have experienced on this journey so far…

 

Symptoms

These are the symptoms I have experienced on my journey, some of which I’m still experiencing today.

 

1. Vertigo
1. For the first few days – I had horrible spinning that would happen pretty much any time I would move my head, even the slightest bit.  It was so violent that I couldn’t stand up or walk without holding onto something.  It felt like some crazy gravitational pull was forcing me to the ground every single time it happened.  I fell several times, but thankfully, didn’t injure myself.  I spent most of that time lying in bed or sitting upright and as still as possible.
2. After the first few days until about six weeks – after a few days, it eventually settled a bit to where the vertigo would only happen if I moved my head more drastically – laying down, rolling over, looking up, looking down, turning my head too quickly, etc.  During those first six weeks I couldn’t drive at all because it wasn’t safe.
3. Around the six-week mark – I finally reached the point where I wasn’t having vertigo at all while upright, but I would still get vertigo every time I lay down (on either side or on my back), roll over in bed, or flip my head over.
4. Eventually, the vertigo totally faded and was replaced with dizziness, but I don’t remember exactly how far down the road that was.  I did have a couple more random bouts of vertigo long after the vertigo had gone, though – once about seven months into the journey (2/23/2024) and once more about eight months into the journey (3/7/2024) – but the vertigo only lasted about 2-3 seconds, and both isolated incidents.  I have no clue what triggered them because I did nothing to provoke them, and I didn’t even make any sudden movements that could have caused them.
2. Nausea – this only lasted for the first few days when the vertigo was the worst, but boy, was it miserable. 
3. Dizziness
1. For the first month – the dizziness was present 100% of the time no matter what I was doing.  It seemed to be localized in my top right eye, so every time I walked, my whole body would veer off to the right, and I couldn’t walk in a straight line.  Therefore, it was easy for me to make right turns when walking, but it was so hard to make a left turn.  The dizziness was most prominent when laying on my left side, when tilting my head to the side, and when looking down (especially when I tried to read something that was laying on a table). 
2. From months two to six – the dizziness was most prominent when tilting my head up or down, when laying down, and when sitting up from a reclined position.  And the dizziness was really significant.  I also continued to veer off to the right when walking during this time.
3. From months six to twelve, and currently  – while I don’t get dizzy when tilting my head down now, I do still have dizziness every time I lay down and every time I sit up from a reclined position, and I do occasionally get dizzy when I tilt my head up.  The dizziness is pretty mild most of the time now, although, every now and then it’s stronger.  And occasionally, I’ll still have a day where I’m dizzy all day.  As I said, each day is very unpredictable. 
4. Boat-rocking – boat rocking sensation has been present throughout the entire journey and there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.  For the first eight months or so, it was constant when I was standing/walking, but for the last few months, it comes on randomly.  Some days I have none, some days I have it all day, some days I have it for an hour or two.  Totally random.
5. Balance issues while standing/walking/running – this is obviously because of the dizziness and boat-rocking that I experience, and I only have balance issues when the dizziness and/or boat rocking sensation is present.  Needless to say, I have hardly worn heels this past year.
6. Brain fog – this was highly present for the first six weeks while I had the vertigo, but I don’t really have a problem with this anymore.
7. Sensitivity to light – this was prominent for the first six weeks while I had the vertigo, but I haven’t had any issues with it since then.
8. Feeling unbalanced, and this is different than having balance issues in #5 above… let me explain – if I lay on my right side while watching TV for a long time, I have to roll over and lay on my left side for a couple of minutes before I can sit up to “even things out in my head.”  Otherwise, I feel unbalanced and dizzy, like one side of my head is heavier than the other.  This has been prominent throughout the entire journey and it’s still something that I am experiencing today.  Every morning before I get out of bed, I always lay on my back for a few minutes before I sit up to get out of bed.  If I get up from laying on my left side, my left side of my head feels heavy/dizzy, and if I get up from laying on my right side, my right side of my head feels heavy/dizzy.  Weird, I know.

 

Testing and Treatment Timeline

This section is going to be extremely detailed and technical (and LONG), so if you’re not interested in reading about all of my doctor visits, just skip ahead to the next section.  ;o)  Writing this post kind of makes me feel like a scientist.  Haha.

July 12, 2023 (Acute Care) – The day after the vertigo started, I had Brian drive me to the acute care place that I go to when I have issues.  The PA performed the Dix Hallpike (a maneuver that is used to diagnose Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, or BPPV), and he said that he did, indeed, see some nystagmus in my eyes (when the eyes make repetitive, uncontrolled movements), indicating that I did, indeed, have BPPV.  He diagnosed me with BPPV in my left ear, prescribed Clonazepam (a medication that is typically used to treat anxiety, but also helps tremendously with vertigo and dizziness), and he told me to perform the Epley Maneuver (a maneuver to reposition canaliths – ear crystals – in the ear canals) at home several times per day until it resolves.  He told me it should resolve in a couple of days.  I did the maneuver religiously for days with no relief, and the maneuver actually made me feel much, much worse each time.  Never once did it make me feel better.

July 17, 2023 (ENT Doctor) – Thankfully, we have an amazing ear, nose, and throat doctor who we all love, so I called him, and they were able to accommodate me for an emergency appointment since it had been six days with no relief.  Typically, it takes about a month to get in to see him, but miraculously, somebody canceled an appointment, and they were able to see me sooner.  At the ENT doctor, they performed a hearing test, which showed that my hearing was good, and most importantly, symmetrical, which enabled him to rule out Meniere’s Disease, a chronic inner ear disorder that there is no cure for.  I should also mention at this point that I have had tinnitus since October 2018 (six years) and he has not been able to figure out the cause for that.  He also checked for nystagmus, but didn’t see any.  He speculated that the cause could be BPPV from dislodged ear crystals that’s taking longer than normal to resolve, a viral inner ear infection that would clear in 2-4 weeks, cervical neck issues, or from my braces/rubber bands moving my jaw drastically (but he said that was highly unlikely).  Since there was no way to know for sure, he ordered a videonystagmography test, or VNG test.  The only problem was that the only office in town who offered those was booked solid for the next six weeks.  In the meantime, he prescribed Baclofen, a muscle relaxer, to see if that would help with the neck tension, but it actually caused my anxiety to spike terribly, which caused my neck muscles to feel even tighter and it made me sleep constantly, so I discontinued use within a few days.

July 28, 2023 (Audiologist) – Thankfully, after a lot of crying and begging, and a canceled appointment from another patient, they were able to get me in less than two weeks later for the videonystagmography test

The testing was VERY in-depth and nothing at all like anything I’ve ever done before.  After a very detailed conversation about what’s been happening to me and everything I did leading up to the onset of the vertigo, the doctor ended up running tons of different tests and they were as follows:

 

1. The first thing she did was the Dix-Hallpike maneuver which is the one that doctors use to diagnose BPPV.  At that point, two other doctors had already performed that, but she wanted to see for herself just be sure.  She told me that my symptoms didn’t sound like classic BPPV, so she wanted to rule that out first.  Sure enough, she told me that there wasn’t any evidence of BPPV (and it was later ruled out altogether after subsequent testing), but she went ahead and performed the Epley Maneuver while I was laying on the table just in case it was BPPV.  That was the first time a doctor had done it for me, and I can honestly say, I wasn’t quite doing it right when I was doing it at home.  I had it down mostly, but I didn’t whip my head back and forth fast enough.
2. Next up, I had to sit in a chair with some special goggles on and look at a large screen.  The goggles allowed her to view my eyes on her computer screen and record the data as I did the tests.  For the first test on the screen, I had to follow a green dot with my eyes only, without moving my head.  She did the green dots at a couple of different speeds, and I passed that test with flying colors.
3. The next test was another one in that same chair looking at that same screen, but this time, she put up a blue and yellow checkerboard pattern on the screen and she moved it to the left really fast.  While it was flying by, I had to keep my eyes focused in the center of the screen.  After that one, she moved it to the right really fast and I had to keep my eyes in the center of the screen yet again.  I passed that test with flying colors as well.
4. The next test was where it got really fun.  And when I say fun, I say that with as much sarcasm as one can possibly have.  I continued to sit in that same chair with the goggles on, and she pressed a button that made the chair spin around in circles to the left for a full minute.  BARF.  When the chair stopped spinning, I had to open my eyes, and she monitored my eyes on the computer screen for a couple of minutes.  Once that was done, the chair spun me to the right for a full minute, and then she monitored my eyes again.  While I was spinning, she asked me random trivia questions (to keep my mind off of the spinning… the questions had nothing to do with the actual test or test results), and she asked me girls names, boys names, and locations that started with certain letters.  It did do a pretty good job of distracting me, but it was also hard to even think with all of that spinning.
5. Once that was done, she laid the chair I was in flat like a bed, and then she blew cold air into one ear for a full minute.  Once the air stopped blowing, she monitored my eye response on her computer.  She did that in both ears, and it was AWFUL.  The dizziness was insane.
6. After the cold air was done, she did each ear with hot air, and that was a hundred times worse than the cold air.  Oh, my word it was the most awful feeling, and it made me even dizzier than the cold air.
7. After that, she made me turn my head to the left while still lying flat.  Then she made me turn my whole body to the left.  She said that most people have more of a response (with their eye movement) to turning their entire body, but I had more of a response when I just turned my head.
8. Once that was done, she sat me back up in the chair, and she attached electrodes to my forehead.  She then played a series of noises in each ear, and she watched my brain’s response. 
9. Next, was a series of electrodes on my neck muscles, and she played a series of noises in each ear.  While she played the noise, I had to lift my head off the chair back to flex the neck muscles.
10. Then, she attached electrodes under my eyes, and she played a series of noises in each ear and monitored the response. 

 

That was the end of the testing. 

There are two general types of vertigo – peripheral and central – and there are many types and causes that fall under each umbrella.  This testing was able to rule out the entire umbrella of central vertigo, which is what we wanted, because central vertigo is due to a problem in the brain – brain tumors, seizures, stroke, certain diseases like multiple sclerosis, blood vessel disease, etc.  SCARY STUFF.  So, I was grateful it was none of that.

Instead, I was diagnosed with peripheral vertigo, which is a problem with the inner ear that includes BPPV, Meniere’s Disease, inner ear infections, inflammation of the vestibular nerve, cervical neck issues, etc.

This testing that I did was able to completely rule out BPPV and Meniere’s Disease.  The doctor said that she was relieved to rule out Meniere’s because she said that there’s really no cure for that, and it’s something that you pretty much just have forever once you’re diagnosed with it.

Instead, she believed that the cause of mine was either an inner ear infection of some type of cervical neck issues.  Based on everything I told her, she thought that the cervical neck issue was most likely the cause.

She recommended occupational therapy with a girl there at their facility, and she sent all of my test results and that recommendation to my ENT doctor as he was the one who ultimately had to follow up with the treatment plan.  She did say that he would probably want to order an MRI or a CT scan, too. 

One thing that was concerning is that she said one of the tests alerted her to a possible heart issue, so she told me she was sending the results to my ENT doctor so he could refer me to a cardiologist. 

Another thing that was concerning to her was something that I just happened to tell her.  I mentioned that when I do yoga or anything where my head points down towards the floor (downward dog, touching my toes with my head pointed down, etc.) that I have so much pressure that it feels like my head and face are going to explode.  It has been that way my entire life, so I have always thought it was normal (you know, because the blood rushes to your head), but she told me that is absolutely not normal.  Sigh.  So that was yet another reason to see a cardiologist. 

August 14, 2023 (Occupational Therapy) – The occupational therapist wanted to do her own evaluation before we started treatment, so the whole hour was spent laying me down, flipping my head upside down, rolling over on my sides, etc. so she could try to pinpoint where the dizziness was coming from.  Even though they had ruled out BPPV, she wanted to check me for it one more time, and while she said that she saw the tiniest bit of nastagmus (eye movement that people have when they have vertigo) she didn’t think it was enough to diagnose with BPPV. 

A lot of my dizziness was inconsistent with her expectations, so she was pretty stumped.  She said that when they did the “side test,” my results came back differently than most peoples’ results.  She said that most people react more when their whole body is turned on their side, but I reacted more when I only turned my head to the side. 

After describing my symptoms to her and telling her everything I’d done leading up to the onset of the vertigo, she did say that there is evidence that it is a cervicogenic issues (stemming from my neck), and she said that I would better benefit from a physical therapist who can manually manipulate the tissues in my neck.  She told me that she thought I’d highly benefit from dry needling, too.  She did say that the occupational therapy that she offers would probably help a lot, too, but she thought physical therapy would be even more beneficial.  Unfortunately, insurance will not cover treatment from two different therapists for the same issue, so she released me so I could do PT instead.

The person they used to refer people to for cervicogenic vertigo moved away, but she promised me she’d reach out to another clinic and find someone who did treat it and then send a request to my ENT doctor to send the order to them so we could get started ASAP.  She was very compassionate and very apologetic that she couldn’t do exactly what I needed, and she also promised that she would treat it as an urgent case since I’d been suffering for so long.

I really appreciated her compassion and her attentiveness to the matter, but gosh, it was so frustrating to have to be sent somewhere else yet again.  More waiting.  The worst part about the appointment was that all of the hanging upside down and rolling around had majorly scrambled my brain again, and I was soooo dizzy after the appointment again.  The dizziness caused mild nausea and major brain fog for the rest of the day + my anxiety started spiking like crazy again resulting in more tightening of my neck muscles.  I even had several more instances of actual vertigo spinning throughout the rest of the day and that was really disheartening, too, since the vertigo had mostly just turned into general dizziness and boat-rocking by that point. 

August 18, 2023 (Physical Therapy) – I saw a physical therapist once a week from August 18 – September 29, 2023, and she said my spine was moving perfectly, so she speculated that it was a muscular issue, stemming from my neck.  For the next seven weeks, she performed occipital release (pulling at the muscles at the base of my skull to train them to relax) and it felt amazing.  She also focused on vestibular rehab, giving me some exercises that involved putting a dot on the wall and doing various head motions while focusing on the dot with my eyes.  I had to do those at home, too, which I did religiously, of course.  While the occipital release did help those neck muscles relax tremendously, they would tense right back up shortly after the release, meaning that the occipital release would never be a permanent fix.  Since I was still having constant dizziness and boat-rocking sensation throughout the day + vertigo every time I lay down and sit up from laying down, she released me until I could see a cardiologist and a neurologist, and she told me to contact her again when and if I ever needed her.

September 1, 2023 (Primary Doctor) – Since I didn’t have answers and I still needed referrals for a cardiologist and a neurologist, I decided to see my primary doctor to see if she could shed any light on the situation since nobody else could figure out what was going on.  She ordered an MRI of the brain and neck, took a urine sample, and prescribed 0.25 mg of Clonazepam at night to help with the lingering dizziness since my script from acute care had since run out.

September 8, 2023 (Radiologist) – I had an MRI of the brain and the cervical spine (neck) without contrast. 

September 11, 2023 (Primary Doctor) – I followed up with my primary doctor three days later to get the results from the MRI and she said that the results showed that my neck has straightened and lost some curvature, and that I also have some mild arthritis in my neck.  I also have a small cyst on my brain which has probably been there since I was born, but the bottom line was that everything looked good overall, and none of those things would be causing vertigo or dizziness.  She then sent a referral to a cardiologist and a neurologist so I could have some additional testing done.

October 2, 2023 (Cardiologist) – Per usual, there was a bit of a long lead time to get in with yet another specialist, so I had to wait three weeks.  At my first appointment – the consult – they did an EKG (which was normal), and they ordered an echocardiogram as well as an ultrasound of the carotid arteries to be done at a later date depending on availability.  The EKG was normal as expected.

October 10, 2023 (Neurologist) – While I was waiting for the other cardiology tests, I had my first appointment with the neurologist, but the first one was just a consult via videochat.  They reviewed my MRI scans and agreed with my primary doctor that it looked clean and the cyst on my brain did, indeed, look benign.  They ordered a Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) of my brain and neck, and I would come in the office once the results were available from that.

October 17, 2023 (Cardiologist) – The echocardiogram was performed and the results were normal.

October 31, 2023 (Cardiologist) – The utlrasound was performed on my carotid arteries to ensure there was no constriction and everything was normal.  I had a followup with the cardiologist on November 7, and he confirmed all test results were normal, I have a very healthy heart, there was nothing causing vertigo from a cardiology standpoint, and he released me from his care.

November 2, 2023 (Radiologist) – The CTA was performed of the head and neck for the neurologist.

December 5, 2023 (Neurologist) – The neurologist confirmed that the CTA was normal.  The nurse ran a bunch of physical tests, and everything was normal.  The neurologist told me he didn’t know what would be causing the vertigo and that, basically, I just needed to wait for it to resolve on its own.  In the meantime, he told me that I could take Zonisamide to mask the dizziness, but it has the potential for some scary/nasty side effects.  He also prescribed Scopolamine patches for the dizziness, but again, those are known to have pretty bad side effects.  When I went to fill both prescriptions, the pharmacist told me that I should not be taking those together, or with my Clonazepam as it would basically sedate me.  I ended up filling both prescriptions but never used either of them because I was too scared of the side effects.

February 14, 2024 (Neurologist) – This was a follow up to see how things were going after starting the medication he put me on, but since I never took the medication, he told me there was nothing more he could do for me, and he released me.  Sigh. 

 *At this point, my symptoms were just dizziness when laying down and sitting up from a reclined position, dizziness when tilting my head back, and boat-rocking sensation quite often during the day.  I had not had an actual vertigo spell for a couple of months.*

February 23, 2024 – I had an actual vertigo spell for the first time in months, but thankfully, it only lasted a couple of seconds.  I did nothing to bring it on… it just happened when I opened the door to let our pup outside.  My orthodontist had recently changed my rubber bands, though, and I had been experiencing a ton of facial and neck tension once again, so I think that was the culprit.  It was extremely disheartening to say the least.

March 7, 2024 (Primary Doctor) – I had a follow up appointment regarding my vertigo/dizziness, and after telling her about my vertigo spell, she put me on a morning dose of Clonazepam to hopefully help with any future issues.  Clonazepam makes me SO sleepy, so I couldn’t take the full 0.5 mg dose during the day, so I bought a pill cutter and have been cutting them in half every morning to take 0.25 mg.  My doctor said that she has patients who take 4 mg three times a day, so apparently, I am highly sensitive to the medication because this is the micro dose of micro doses.

May 7, 2024 (Orthodontist) – My orthodontist changed my rubber bands again and I had immediate facial strain/neck strain after a few weeks of having none.  Two days later, I had another episode of actual vertigo after two months of not having any.  Hmmmm…

July 11, 2024 (Orthodontist) – My orthodontist changed my rubber bands again and after a week or so of using the new configuration, I started having facial strain and neck strain yet again, which in turn, started causing higher levels of dizziness.  No actual vertigo (yet), though.  Fingers crossed.

 

Findings (My Theory)

Since I’ve been dealing with this for so long, I have started recognizing patterns, and it is pretty clear that changing my rubber bands for my braces to move my jaw causes major facial tension, which then causes major neck tension.  The neck tension then causes my dizziness and boat-rocking sensation to ramp up.

I have also noticed that when I am experiencing anxiety for any reason my neck tenses up, and during those times, my dizziness and boat-rocking sensation ramps up, too.  So, I think it’s pretty safe to say that all of this is a cervicogenic (neck) issue for me. 

While I don’t have official answers as to why the vertigo started and why it has lingered for so long, my theory is this:

I believe that the combination of stress I was under last July coupled with the fact that my jaw had just changed drastically over the last few months from wearing braces rubber bands is what brought this on.  The day before it started, I had the worst tension in my neck that I’d ever experienced, and I couldn’t do anything to relieve it.  It lasted for most of the day, too.  I had also spent a significant amount of time hunched over putting on my Bible tabs that day, too, so I’m sure that didn’t help.

At the time I’m typing this (August 9), my symptoms pretty much consist of dizziness when I lay down, dizziness when I sit up from a reclined position, dizziness when I tilt my head up, and occasional boat-rocking sensation, especially when I’m standing still or walking slowly.  Every now and then, the dizziness is also present at other times, like when I sit too long at my computer, or sometimes when I’m reading my book, but the common thread is that it always seems to happen when my neck is tense.

I haven’t seen any doctors since my last appointment with my primary doctor in March, but I have upcoming appointments with both my primary doctor and my ENT doctor.  At this point, I’m holding off on seeing any other specialists or pursuing any other kind of treatment until I get my braces off in February.  I’m praying that ceasing the use of rubber bands and having my jaw stabilized will alleviate some of the facial tension, which will alleviate some of the neck tension, which will alleviate the dizziness and boat-rocking once and for all.

My only worry is that my anxiety will still cause my neck to tense which could still cause dizziness, so I’ll have to continue working on targeting the root cause – the anxiety.  I’m not sure how that looks, though, at this point since I’m already seeing a therapist, meditating daily, and taking Clonazepam (while I’m taking it for my vertigo, it’s also used as an anti-anxiety medication).

However, I’ve had neck tension from anxiety for years, and never had the vertigo and dizziness until the braces / rubber bands were used, so I’m truly thinking that it was the combination of the two that caused all of this.  So hopefully once the braces and rubber bands come off, it will go away.  Only time will tell, I guess…

 

Next Steps

At this point, nobody really knows what to do next, but I am still under the supervision of my primary doctor and my ENT doctor.  My ENT doctor actually told me that he is interested in making this a case study since this has been such a rare situation. 

I am scheduled to get my braces off sometime in February (as long as everything stays on track – fingers crossed!), but if for some reason the dizziness and boat-rocking lingers after the braces and rubber bands are removed, I do have other options that I’ll start to pursue…

 

1. Visit with an endocrinologist to check hormones (I have noticed the neck tension does tend to arise during certain times in my cycle)
2. Try acupuncture
3. Try dry needling
4. Try trigger point injections
5. Revisit physical therapy for occipital release
6. Get regular massages (although this would be very expensive)

 

And in the meantime, while I wait, I will continue to do the following to relieve the neck tension as these are the things that tend to help most of the time:

 

1. Use my acupressure mat when my neck feels tense (this is the one thing that helps the most)
2. Take Ibuprofen when my muscles feel sore
3. Use ice and heat to help relax muscles
4. Continue sleeping on my cervical pillow (this has definitely helped)
5. Massage CBD oil into my neck muscles when they are tense

 

And I’ll continue to do the following to keep anxiety at bay since that is definitely one of the causes (but not the sole cause) of the neck tension:

 

1. Visit with my therapist regularly
2. Meditate daily
3. Use green noise if I’m feeling particularly anxious (sounds weird, but it helps)
4. Use triangle breathing if I’m feeling anxious (breathe in for 3 seconds, hold for 3 seconds, breathe out for 3 seconds)

 

Conclusion

So what's the whole point of this post?  For one, to have all of the documentation in one place for myself.  But more importantly, to hopefully let others out there who might be going through the same thing know that they are not alone.  If this article helps just one person in any way, then my job here is done.

While I’m still having symptoms daily (mild to moderate dizziness every time I lay down or sit up from a laying position, dizziness when tilting my head back, and occasional random boat-rocking sensation/balance issues) I’m so grateful for how far I’ve come in the last year. And I’m especially grateful today for the little things…

1. The ability to walk without having to hold onto the wall.

2. The ability to walk. Period.

3. The ability to look down and write/read a book/do my Bible studies.

4. The ability to stand without falling over.

5. The ability to flip my head over (gently) while blow drying my hair.

6. THE ABILITY TO DRIVE and not having to rely on someone else to get me (and the kids) where we need to go. (I still can’t believe I couldn’t drive for 6 whole weeks last year.)

7. The ability to sit perfectly still without feeling dizzy.

8. The ability to concentrate and not be constantly brain foggy.

9. The ability to get down on the floor and play with my babies.

10. The ability to cook and pull dishes out of the oven.

And so many other things.

While I know what I went through/I am still going through pales in comparison to the health issues of others, I do also know that it has been pure hell walking this road for a year with no definitive answers and not knowing if it’s ever going to go away.

But you know what else I know? That this battle belongs to God and His plan is so much bigger than mine. And I’m grateful this journey has brought me closer to Him.

Friends, if you’re in good health, stop what you’re doing right now and thank God for it.  Shout it from the rooftops!  And don’t ever take any of the mundane, everyday things you have the ability to do for granted.

The small things really are the big things.