Dizziness is not vertigo!

Every since this topic was posted by gardenfish so long ago, I've noticed a change in the way vertigo is described throughout the internet. I'd like to think that a lot of it came from this very topic. I know my definition has completely changed. I find myself always usuing the words 'true vertigo' so that people understand I'm not talking about the dizzies.

I'm bumping it although we don't currently have newbies logging on, we do have a lot of people who are here now and they just might read the first entry and have their view changed forever, like mine

 

After 10 years I have just been diagnosed with Menieres disease. Consultant says that I developed menieres 10 years ago and that it did not clear up. The vertigo attacks (yes they were real vertigo) stopped about 6 years ago but I am left with dizziness and imbalance. I also have blackouts so it is impossible for me to go out alone. Even without the blackouts my balance is so bad that I cannot go out without a wheel chair. Pain in my neck is horrendous and I have recently found out that I have a slipped disc in C 6/7. I have always understood that vertigo is a symptom and not a disease so I am still wondering what exactly is the cause. I have read that the sternocleidomastoid muscle, when shortened, can cause dizziness and most of the symptoms are very similar to mine. Anyone come across this before?

 

Hi Maureen, welcome to the forum. When you get a chance go to the Living Room section and introduce yourself.

My first thought is that blackouts are not a symptom of Meniere's or MAV so there is definitely something other going on with you.

Here is a link to a thread where the mastoid muscle is being talked about : http://www.menieres.org/forum/index.php/topic,28100.0.html

Here is another one: http://www.menieres.org/forum/index.php/topic,29274.0.html

 

hello, Im Ale from Mexico.. 25 years old.. and 4 or 5 years living with Meniere, since i know i have MEniere.. i have vertigo's 2 or 3 times a year.. but since 6months ago im dizzy 24hrs 7 days a week...sometimes feels worst..than normal.. Im worried about it..so i start again searching in internet about it.. what is new now in 2011.. and i found this website i would like to know if someone knows something new.. medicine.. studios.. etc.. please?

Thanks! =)

 

Algep,

Have you had a chance to look into the data base here on the site? It may have a lot of information that can help you. It's kept up to date and there is some wonderful information about how doing different things can possibly make a big different in your ife. Check it out. A lot of stuff on the internet is a little older. It's good you found this site. There's a lot of support, both medical and personal Look around and see what you need or just talking about what you have and how it came to be diagnosed. Check out the living room, it's a great place to start to introduce your self. Good luck and keep reading and posting, you'll find some real help here.

 

Sorry folks, but I disagree with your definition and I think you are doing a great disservice to anyone reading your site in making such strong conclusions. Vertigo, as with most anything, can occur with different levels of intensity. When I close my eyes at the end of the day to go to sleep, I immediately am dealing with the the spins. Always in the direction away from my injured side, I can "see" the movement on the back of my closed eyelids going counterclockwise while I feel the motion of spinning clockwise. What I am feeling is vertigo. After 3 years it is extremely mild, thank God for that. When It started when I first got sick, I too would get so nauseated I would vomit, have the sweats, couldn't walk without holding on to something, eyes opened or closed didn't matter. That was severe vertigo.
Vertigo is a type of dizziness. The other type is that which causes a feeling of imbalance or lightheadedness.
I agree that the terms are often used interchangeably and not correctly, but as I stated earlier, often what one feels is subjective anyway. Often people cannot accurately describe what they are feeling, especially if it is a new sensation. Rather than condemn all who dare call what they are feeling as vertigo, help them to figure out what they are truely feeling. It may be a combination of sensations, it may be mild one day, violent and extreme the next. I appreciate the existence of this forum, and hope you will carefully consider what I have said.
Thanks, Linda

 

If you can walk while holding onto something, that is not severe vertigo. Severe vertigo is when you are pinned to the ground/bed and do anything you can to just not move your head even a millimeter bc the world is spinning a million mph and you dont know which way is up.

Walking is out of the question.

The fact that you think that is severe vertigo tells me that you havent actually experienced that hell yet. And i'm tremendously happy for you.

 

Hi Wylee... welcome to the forum.

You may want to introduce yourself with your own topic so that people can get to know you.

Vertigo which is defined as a sensation of rotation or movement of one's self (subjective v.) or of one's surroundings (objective v.) in any plane; sometimes used erroneously to mean any form of dizziness. It can most definitely be felt at different intensities as you have pointed out.

We have people here who suffer all different intensities and some who have never had it.

 

I've had extreme dizziness and it is horrible but noting onthis earth compares to vertigo

 

I understand what Linda is saying. We, as a group of people with an uncommon illness, do have different degrees of dizzness and vertigo. Most people don't feel it (dizzness) unless they get up to fast. We feel it, in differing degrees, a lot of the time. I believe what Linda discribed as severe vertigo is just that, to her. Some people experience it where they cannot move and in fact need a 'bucket' next to the bed because they can't even get out of it.

Why do we have such different descriptions? Because we all feel it (dizziness, vertigo, nauseous) as part of our lives, not an unusual occurance. Some would think that I don't even have a right to speak on this because I've never had severe vertigo. That's not to say I don't understand it. In fact I didn't really understand it until I started reading this subject so long ago.

I got into an elevator the other day. When it stopped, I felt the environment was moving around me and I felt like I was going to vomit. What would people call it? It fits vertigo (objective) but it also fits dizziness. I just called it nauseous because I have Meniere's and understand the underlaying levels.

To me the important thing is that we recognize that people feel sick, no matter the intensity and that it is not only part of our disease but a time to show support in whatever they choose to call it. We certainly should not be telling them "no, that's not vertigo, that's dizziness" - what kind of support is that?

Holly

 

One of the things that causes the problem is that both the common usage and the medical definition of vertigo includes various levels of dizziness as I understand it. Or is it that the word dizziness is used to cover vertigo medically. Either way, I think it might get the point across better to say that the vertigo that most people here speak of bears no resemblance to what people ordinarily think of as dizziness.

There is no way for newcomers to this site or people just learning about the disease can be expected to know that using the word vertigo to mean something less than that is tantamount to questioning the horrificness of the experience of rotational vertigo as experienced by the majority of people here.

 

There are really two issues here. The first is how to support someone, and the second is how to correctly identify symptoms. I think this board does a great job of addressing the first issue.

Gardenfish did a great job of addressing the second one with this thread. It is important to distinguish between dizziness and true vertigo because different symptoms lead to different diagnoses and conclusions. When i first got "dizzy", i tried to explain it to the ENT, but without the correct understanding of the terminology, i couldn't really get the point across properly. Once i read this thread a long time ago, i got it. Then i was able to communicate more effectively with my OTO (whom i was seeing by that time).

I think it's important not only to distinguish between dizziness and vertigo, but also between cranial imbalance, whole body unsteadiness, lightheadedness, dizziness, oscillopsia, horizontal, vertical and rotational vertigo. These all can lead to different diagnoses and clues to which ear is causing the problems (not everyone has a "bad" ear with fullness and tinnitus that they can easily identify).

 

Another thing I would like to add to the excellent posts above is that it does no good for someone to be describing dizziness or vertigo with the wrong term especially when talking to their doctor.

The same can be said for the term Drop Attacks. Many come here thinking that a severe vertigo attack is a drop attack. Educating them on what a drop attack really is does not in any way detract from the horrible experience of vertigo but gives them the proper language for what they are experiencing.

 

I totally agree with you CGR and didn't mean to imply that this topic was meant to support the first issue. I also agree that this site does an excellent job of supporting the first issue. Some people just feel so strongly about it - well look at how many entries there are on this subject alone, that they may see the words and not the person. It could most probably, without uncertainty, and assuredly without malice be construed that I could have been possibly be speaking out my butt when I said that.

 

give the doctor my description of dizziness so he or she understands where I am coming from. Make sure it gets in the medical record

 

This is so important. Thanks for the reminder gs.

 

A long time since my last post and I guess some terms change. Dizzy spells with or without brain fog I called woossy spins. I walk drunk and do not like to move my head (fear of it getting worse). Dizzy spells can lead to the real thing. What I call the real spins are not getting off a merry go round. Getting off a merry go round has you spinning in only one direction. I spin like I was on every ride at the fair at the same time, forever. Not to say that woossy spins are not debilitating. I can function to some degree with them. Spins leave me only existing, not living. I do not crawl to the bathroom to throw up, I can't crawl. I have a pan by the bed and couch. If I can I use it, otherwise I deal with the aftermath later. I am looking forward to total deafness as the spins are supposed to subside in frequency and intensity. I am 3/4 there and feel like trying a Van Gogh and cutting the offending ear off.

 

That's a movie by Hitchcock, called Vertigo. It's not very helpful with showing vertigo, but is otherwise a fine film. I blame it on the film being made in the '60s.

 

Just about every medication I have ever taken has listed one of the potential side effects is dizzyness, if the medication said vertigo was a side effect I wouldn't take the drug.