[gnatmarie]

I have been struggling with Vertigo for about a year. I had 3 attacks and in between attacks I'd feel really off balance. I had a CT Scan, hearing tests, blood tests etc. and nothing abnormal came up. I felt pretty lost and hopeless for a while. Especially after reading a lot of the posts on here. I almost thought I had BPPV for a second and had the idea to go to a Chiropractic Neurologist. Thank god I don't have to waste hundreds of dollars again.

My girlfriend did some additional research on Google regarding Vertigo She e-mailed me a bunch of different links that I hadn't read before. In some of the articles I read that allergies can cause Vertigo. So I started to pick apart the causes of what I was experiencing. One main thing that kept troubling me was having to constantly pop my ear when the Vertigo was acting up. Another thing that bothered me was feeling like something was swollen inside of my ear (or the feeling of fullness in my ear). I've known for a while that ear popping is usually caused by a Eustachian Tube Dysfunction. I never could figure out why I would be experiencing that though. Until it became obvious. In my rationale , I came up with the conclusion that my daily sneezing bouts and whatever was in the air that causes me to sneeze is triggering an allergic reaction in my Eustachian Tube and my inner ear causing them to swell and eventually leading to a Vertigo attack. I started myself out on Zyrtec for 2 weeks (I noticed a significant improvement in the way I felt all together within one week; the headaches went away, the ear fullness and ear popping went away and most important the off balance seemed to improve). I didn't like the side effects of Zyrtec though. It was giving me shortness of breath for at least an hour or two once a day and I was also experiencing nightmares along with a feeling of apathy. So I switched to Claritin. It took about a week and a half for me to really notice that Claritin was working. The ear popping is gone. The ear fullness is gone. I am no longer tired. I have my energy back. I feel like my normal self again before this all started a year ago. Most important, I don't feel like I'm swaying on a ship while I'm standing in place.

The next chapter in this story will be to figure out what's causing my allergies to act up in such an awful fashion. I plan on going to an Allergist when I get health insurance in 2 months. I also plan on going to an ENT as I believe I could possibly have Perennial Allergic Rhinitis.

I hope this story helps some of you and gives you some hope that there is a cause to your Vertigo and that you CAN figure it out.

[MissSpinner]

thanks so much for posting your story, I'm really happy that you found out what was wrong, sometimes its better off to diagnose yourself instead of doctors theses days. I'm 23 and a sufferer from Vertigo problems,still trying to figure out what's going on with my body. I have a MRI next week and i don't know where that's going to get me. i really hope that you allergies clear out and that you get better. I'm new to this all so bare with me lol

take care

frustrating Kimberly

[gnatmarie]

Hey Kimberly!

I hope you can find a resolution to your problem with your MRI. I, unfortunately, am still on Claritin and it just barely gets me by. BUT, I have not had another Vertigo attack since August thankfully. Some days I'm good to go, other days I just feel really crappy and want to stay at home. You don't by any chance have a tooth that has had a root canal done on it or have an infected tooth do you? I have one. All of my Vertigo and ear problems mysteriously came about at the same exact time that I developed an infected tooth. If you do have an infected tooth or have had a root canal, go here and read this page: http://webpages.charter.net/kyarbrough/rootcanalemails.htm. If you do not have an infected tooth or a RCT then I don't think it'd be very informative for you.