ENT :: Inner Ear Virus - A Journey

I'm a female in my early 30s and in May this year, out of the blue at work, I became lightheaded to the point I thought I might faint. I suddenly felt sensitive to light. I tried eating some fruit thinking I was low in blood sugar but it didn't help. It didn't go away after a day or 2 so I went to the doctor who said it was probably an inner ear virus that would go away on its own after about a week. Sure enough after about 4 days I felt better.

Then, in July the same sudden on-set of dizziness occurred but this time after a week it hadn't gone away. I would not describe the dizziness as traditional vertigo where the room spins but a more general light headedness that made me uncomfortable but not to the point of nausea.

I went back to the doctor who gave me every blood test under the sun, a 24 hour urine test and an ECG. Tests for those were all clear. In the meantime my symptoms were evolving. I was now getting a racing heart along with my light headedness and my dizziness was getting worse.

I went back and saw a different doctor who thought I might have BPV (benign positional vertigo)and sent me off to a specialist physiotherapist to be tested for this. The physio tests came back negative for BPV but he thought it might be some nerves in my neck being affected and started treating those.

Meanwhile, I was not getting better, in fact I was getting worse. The dizziness was constantly hovering in the background and my dizzy spells would flair up several times a day and last for around 1.5 - 2 hours. During this time I couldn't concentrate and was worried that I was going to throw up or pass out (although I never did). I would get light sensitive, a racing heart, tingling in my left arm and hand and sometimes the feeling that I couldn't get enough air/chest tightness. I couldn't trigger these attacks with head positioning - it just seemed random when they would come on.

I started to think that I had anxiety although I thought this would be out of character for me. One day driving home I had such a severe attack that my whole left arm felt numb, my left hand was tingling, I thought I was going to have a heart attack, I could barely concentrate enough to drive and burst into tears when I got home. I started to get afraid to leave the house in case I had an attack but had to as I work full time.

I went back to the doctor and got a referral for an Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) specialist. The doctor also advised me it was probably not anxiety as I didn't have all the symptoms of that. I had to wait a couple of weeks for the ENT appointment during which time my symptoms persisted although I didn't have a major attack like the car incident again. Just these dizzy spells, racing heart, restricted breathing for 1.5-2 hours at a time. Interestingly enough, I had to fly for work at this point and the plane trip didn't seem to make any major difference to my condition.

The ENT sent me for a neurology/balance test along with a MRI to rule out brain tumour or MS. Another 2 weeks later I went back to see the ENT and get my results. Tests were all clear. By now I had spent $1000 on medical treatment.

The ENT advised me that I most likely had an inner ear virus and that there is nothing I could do to treat it and just had to wait for it to go away on its own. He said it could last up to 6 months. He advised to keep active - go walking, do gardening etc and get the balance system to re-adjust itself while waiting for the virus to go away.

All of the above occurred over a 3 month period. It's now been nearly 5 months since the symptoms started in July. I can still feel the light headedness hovering in the background ready to strike most times, and am living with a nearly constant anxious/nervous feeling in my chest which flairs up to a racing heart at least once a day. I'm only having the random dizzy attacks every few days now and it seems to be getting less frequent with time. I still get flair ups if I get carried away with being too active like bending up and down a lot washing the car. For a couple of hours afterwards I feel dizzy but it goes away. When I do have a dizzy attack it is less severe then it used to be as well.

Apart from the feelings of anxiety that this experience has triggered in me (which I still don't know if they are side effects of the inner ear issue or anxiety related to anticipation) it has also made me somewhat of a hypochondriac which never used to be the case. I'm hyper-sensitive to my body now and any sharp pain or cramp scares me and I think the worst eg. pain in leg = blood clot. I'm hoping once I get back to feeling normal again this hypochondria will go away too.

This worst part of all of this is that because you look normal on the outside, not sick, people don't understand how bad it really is to live with. Even my original doctor didn't seem to understand the impact it was having on me and my ability to perform my normal functions like doing my job.

I look forward to the day, which hopefully is in the not to distant future, where I feel normal again. I hope this post has helped give hope to others who may be in the same situation. It feels like it will never end, but it will get better, slowly, but it will.