Dizziness, Imbalance & Nausea

Posted by nemsrb @nemsrb, Jan 11 3:40am

Hello everyone. I'm writting here in hopes of finding someone who is going through the same difficulties as me in life, or maybe even someone who can help me resolve my health problems. Also, in case there's something the doctors missed. I do want to bring up some stuff outside of the scope of ENT at the end.

Abour 6 months ago, I noticed that occassionally when I walked, I'd sometimes lose just a tiny bit of balance when I'd step with my right foot. Not long after that started happening, I was in a store, luckily near me, buying groceries when I suddenly got hit with a wave of dizziness (the kind where my head is spinning, not the things around me) and nausea. I had to forgo the rest of the shopping list and go home to rest ASAP.

Finally it was time to go see a ENT doctor. After doing some tests, I've been diagnosed with a right inner ear infection. I'd move to the right quite a lot with my eyes closed, rather than go straight. Doc gave me some meds against dizziness and a paper with exercises (moving eyes up and down, open then closed, laying down to standing up, shoulder exercises, standing on one foot and the like). I don't know if those necessarily did anything for me, I didn't feel any different when doing the exercises nor when I took the meds. I think it just got better on it's own and I'd generally feel good when taking walks, taking in the fresh air.

My main issue is that the nausea part of the problem rarily ever got away and it's really been a massive pain. I can't really vomit either, it's just gagging majority of the time, unless I ate something recently and only a bit of it comes out.

I'm assuming it's because I'm not out of the woods yet with the ear infection. I still feel the occassional dizziness, sometimes a bit of a headache and imbalance is definitely something that hasn't gone away yet, but I do feel like I'm doing better in that regard.

As I mentioned at the start, I do wanna bring up some other things that happened during this time, in case I've been misdiagnosed.

Twice or thrice while sleeping, I experienced a combo of dizziness and what I can only describe as heartburn. GERD symptoms? Probably not GERD though. No regurgitation, difficulty swallowing, hoarseness nor a feeling of lump in throat. Seems like a random occurrence. However, I'd feel pretty dizzy on that day and maybe the next, I don't quite remember.

Good time to bring up I went to a cardiologist too, as one time I got woken up by quite a bit of pressure in my chest so I went to the doc same day. Did EKG test, everything's fine, told me to just be a bit more active and gave me some vitamin meds.

Did lung scans, brain scans, blood tests, ultrasound, all of them ok. Even went to the ENT doctor again and still got a confirmation it's the right inner ear infection.

Can that sort of infection really last so long? And I still don't understand why I have that unpleasant feeling in my chest I can only say feels like pressure (not the brief heartburn I mentioned before). Is the chest pressure coming from me gagging when the nausea becomes too much? I'm just so fatigued from all of this, haven't had a good night's sleep in forever and I just want it to pass already.

If it means anything, I'd like to mention that during ultrasound, when I was pressed on the chest it did hurt quite a bit. When I also stepped kinda clumsily on the sidewalk once, where there was small elevation I didn't notice, I felt brief unpleasant pain in the chest/kidney/stomach area.

One more thing I forgot to mention, a couple of nights ago I sweated a bit even though it was cold, but it hasn't happened again since then.

Sorry this is such a long post, but I appreciate everyone who takes their valuable time to read it and possibly give some advice/solutions if possible. The nausea is really my biggest issue here, it makes life so much more difficult. I don't know if there's anything I can take to suppress it. Going out, hanging out with friends/family and working has been quite difficult to manage. Why is the nausea so persistant? Is it really just the ear infection? Would probably be best if that's what it is and I just have to fight it until it's over.

Thank you for reading and any advice is appreciated! Cheers!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Support Group.

Profile picture for Lisa Lucier, Moderator @lisalucier

Hi @sylvermoon8 - I moved your post here to this discussion where UK Gaviscon Advance was previously mentioned, in hopes that you might get some input on where to find this:

- Dizziness, Imbalance & Nausea https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/dizziness-imbalance-nausea/

@shashig, in particular, may know how you might purchase this product.

Which symptom or symptoms are most bothersome to you right now, sylvermoon8?

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@lisalucier thank you. Most of my symptoms have been burning throat and esophagus upon waking early morning or just when I get up, post nasal drip, throat clearing, hoarse voice occasionally and sour taste in my mouth. I go through periods of time during the day when I get pain by the connection to my stomach. But it’s strange, I went away for a week and ate at restaurants where it’s difficult to find safe foods and didn’t have symptoms. And this was after several weeks of pain and symptoms at home.

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