Post-Covid dizziness/off-balance, as most troubling symptom

Posted by kirstenk2003 @kirstenk2003, Mar 30, 2022

I contracted Covid in December 2021 and am currently dealing with persistent dizziness (off balance, sometimes feels like swaying, rocking, spinning, or a pull to one side). My other most bothersome symptoms are ear ringing, headaches (pressure in the head), feelings of pressure change in my ears, trouble multitasking or thinking, along with developing anxiety/ depression and some elevated heart rate and blood pressure.

Dizziness was not a symptom of my initial infection. I developed dizziness (not BPPV) around January 15th. I saw a physical therapist who determined I had Vestibular Hypofunction and I began vestibular therapy. It seemed to be working and I even returned to my office job for about 3 weeks, restricted hours. Two weeks ago I began feeling worse again. My physical therapist believes my initial issue has improved - so he doesn't know what's causing my current onset of symptoms. I started an antihistamine to combat any allergy related ear fluid, along with an anxiety medication to try and improve my blood pressure and heart rate.

I'm going to see an ENT next, and hope that I haven't waited too long to try other remedies (if there are any). Has anyone else experienced this overwhelming dizziness and had positive results with treatment or answers as to the cause? I'm scared that this is going to be how I feel forever.

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Does your dizziness get triggered by any movements or activity? Mine typically just comes out of nowhere. I can have my eyes closed or open, laying down or sitting up, no rhyme or reason. It sometimes feels like my brain is shaking or unstable. Can anyone relate to that description?

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@rinadbq

I have difficulty loosing my balance while walking, especially if I am talking, looking around or otherwise distracted. I am working with physical therapy for covid long haulers and do see improvement but I still would not pass a field sobriety test walk doing heel to toe straight line walking. Everything is worse when I am tired or am focusing on other things at the same time-looking around an unfamiliar area when walking outside or looking for items on grocery store shelves.

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I am similar - walking and talking on the phone, vacuuming, looking around outside. Even sitting in a room of people who are all having conversation is extremely taxing and causes me to feel the dizziness, head pressure, etc. I've been working with physical therapy on exercises for 8 weeks in hopes of eventually feeling normal again.

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@teachols

Does your dizziness get triggered by any movements or activity? Mine typically just comes out of nowhere. I can have my eyes closed or open, laying down or sitting up, no rhyme or reason. It sometimes feels like my brain is shaking or unstable. Can anyone relate to that description?

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It's not triggered by movement like vertigo would be. But yes, I feel exactly like you describe - like sometimes my brain is buzzing inside my skull. Lately, too much multi tasking because multiple "systems" (watching and listening to multiple people talk at once, reading and listening to background noise, walking and talking/ focusing on an object visually/ looking around, focusing back and forth on different things like switching between TV and phone) makes the balance/ dizziness much worse, ear ringing, and head pressure/ ear pressure, and that brain shaking feeling. Scrolling or reading on my phone is also hard.
My PT has me doing exercises where I walk in a line (loosely) and follow my finger from left to right for 1 min as fast as I can tolerate, standing on one foot with eyes closed (VERY HARD for me), and one foot with eyes open while following my finger left to right.

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@kirstenk2003

It's not triggered by movement like vertigo would be. But yes, I feel exactly like you describe - like sometimes my brain is buzzing inside my skull. Lately, too much multi tasking because multiple "systems" (watching and listening to multiple people talk at once, reading and listening to background noise, walking and talking/ focusing on an object visually/ looking around, focusing back and forth on different things like switching between TV and phone) makes the balance/ dizziness much worse, ear ringing, and head pressure/ ear pressure, and that brain shaking feeling. Scrolling or reading on my phone is also hard.
My PT has me doing exercises where I walk in a line (loosely) and follow my finger from left to right for 1 min as fast as I can tolerate, standing on one foot with eyes closed (VERY HARD for me), and one foot with eyes open while following my finger left to right.

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Sounds like our symptoms are pretty similar. I'm doing similar exercises as well.

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An update on mine I’m finding I’m getting anxiety
If I have a good day without the symptoms when they Will they come back
anyone having same experience

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@ginalambiris

An update on mine I’m finding I’m getting anxiety
If I have a good day without the symptoms when they Will they come back
anyone having same experience

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Yes, I've had more anxiety in general ever since having Covid. I'm always worried, because I'm not sure what's causing some days to be worse or how long this feeling is going to last. I have symptoms every single day, but not all day long. I talk to my doctor about it and have started doing phone appointments with a therapist. This is a lot to handle, and it's really impacting my life. You're not alone in how you feel!

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As a lay-person reading comments such as these, one thing that puzzles me is I don't see thyroid issues mentioned. My limited understanding is whenever one has a illness thyroid hormones can be setback from it, to the point they are not even considered accurate or even tested in the aftermath of illness. COVID-19 is a major illness in some folks, so I would think they could throw thyroid levels off for a period. I myself have hypothyroidism & it is said thyroid hormones require optimal: vitamin B-12, vitamin D, folate & ferritin levels to function well (many other measures pushed online can make matters worse so please beware). Thyroid hormones can take a while to rebound, this is a slow process. You might consider checking your levels of B-12, D, folate & ferritin, & follow your physician's recommendations on optimizing levels. This measure has greatly helped me following illnesses, and I have had the lion's share of your symptoms.

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I had Covid 11/2020; brain fog and fatigue slowly worsened but I woke up with dizziness/BPPV on a day in May 2021. It was debilitating, still is to some point. I did PT and it helped/helps. Meclizine did nothing. Sometimes antihistamines with a decongestant as well as Flonase nasal spray helps with the feeling of inner ear fullness. I do have to take zofran often enough, but it was almost daily! Staying hydrated was difficult, plain water made me feel nauseous. I have found Zevia Ginger Root Beer (trying not to consume too much sugar too!) or seltzer waters to drink help. Multi tasking continues to be a struggle that was not present prior to covid. My brain is just unable too much stimulation. I rarely drive with the radio on. Writing things down is a huge help! I recently started taking Provigil 200 mg daily, off label, to help with the extreme fatigue/brain fog. It has only been a short time but I do think it has helped with fatigue a bit but not with the inability to focus. My dizziness lessened as time went on and I have gotten more used to it. The eye exercises were a help for me in addition to PT. I hope you reach a better wellness soon.

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@linh

As a lay-person reading comments such as these, one thing that puzzles me is I don't see thyroid issues mentioned. My limited understanding is whenever one has a illness thyroid hormones can be setback from it, to the point they are not even considered accurate or even tested in the aftermath of illness. COVID-19 is a major illness in some folks, so I would think they could throw thyroid levels off for a period. I myself have hypothyroidism & it is said thyroid hormones require optimal: vitamin B-12, vitamin D, folate & ferritin levels to function well (many other measures pushed online can make matters worse so please beware). Thyroid hormones can take a while to rebound, this is a slow process. You might consider checking your levels of B-12, D, folate & ferritin, & follow your physician's recommendations on optimizing levels. This measure has greatly helped me following illnesses, and I have had the lion's share of your symptoms.

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Interesting you mention that. I had a total thyroidectomy in 2019 and take a hormone replacement drug. I've seen my endo every 6 weeks this year, since having covid. My TSH was extremely off immediately after covid (hyper). My thyroid levels rebounded weeks ago, and I take a RX vitamin D supplement, but just started taking B12 last week. I'll look into the other two you mentioned! Thank you

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@coopm0m

I had Covid 11/2020; brain fog and fatigue slowly worsened but I woke up with dizziness/BPPV on a day in May 2021. It was debilitating, still is to some point. I did PT and it helped/helps. Meclizine did nothing. Sometimes antihistamines with a decongestant as well as Flonase nasal spray helps with the feeling of inner ear fullness. I do have to take zofran often enough, but it was almost daily! Staying hydrated was difficult, plain water made me feel nauseous. I have found Zevia Ginger Root Beer (trying not to consume too much sugar too!) or seltzer waters to drink help. Multi tasking continues to be a struggle that was not present prior to covid. My brain is just unable too much stimulation. I rarely drive with the radio on. Writing things down is a huge help! I recently started taking Provigil 200 mg daily, off label, to help with the extreme fatigue/brain fog. It has only been a short time but I do think it has helped with fatigue a bit but not with the inability to focus. My dizziness lessened as time went on and I have gotten more used to it. The eye exercises were a help for me in addition to PT. I hope you reach a better wellness soon.

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Thanks for commenting. Knowing you've been dealing with this longer, what do you do that helps or how do you manage your "bad days"? And how long did it take for you to be able to function closer to normal in terms of dizziness (working, driving, etc.)? Meclizine also did nothing but make me tired. I started a non-drowsy antihistamine right after daylight savings, and I think it made a small difference - I don't feel worse so I'm going to keep taking it. I can watch TV, but using my cell phone is really difficult and brings on worsened symptoms. My PT said the key is not avoiding things and exposing my system to help it re-learn, so I'm following his guidance.

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