Hi everyone! This my first post and I apologize in advance for the length of it, I am sure the bobbing will go into ultra speed for me after I am done typing this.
I donāt even know where to start but here goes. In late January of this year my hubby and I took a road trip to Boston from our home which is about 6.5 hour drive. There were several factors against me that day, left very early a.m., didnāt drink enough water, wasnāt very hungry, had a small accident on the Mass Turnpike (a GIANT chunk of ice flew off someoneās truck and hit ours) and I took a calming supplement and a dramamine. I donāt think I was treating my body right that day. Anyhow, I ended up having a huge panic attack at a restaurant right before a Boston Celtics game later that evening. I thought I was going to pass out. I couldnāt shake the aftereffects for several weeks.
I finally went to my GP and he prescribed me Zoloft. My anxiety was really high and I was starting to not want to go anywhere. Probably in fear that would happen again. Funny how our brains work and fear gets stuck. So off I went with my bottle of Zoloft, GP wrote me out of work for the first week. Well I ended up having the roughest time ever with it though I was on Effexor and Lexapro in my early 20ās. This was hell. I had bloody noses, fainting episodes, panic was off the charts, funny dilated pupils and monster toss my cookies moments that lasted for hours. Plus so many other problems. Back to the GP after taking it for 13 days and he said stop cold turkey itās only been two weeks youāll be fine you may have slight side effects.
On my fifth day off like clockwork I woke up and started walking to my bathroom. Instantly I knew something was wrong. I had major dizziness of the side swaying kind, bobbing head, pushing and pulling, the floor was tilted and I had marshmallow feet. There was also brain fog, nausea, fatigue etc. I figured umm ok this is just Zoloft leaving me system. A week went by no change, symptoms worsening. So GP visit again. Oh you have vertigo and nystagmus, hereās meclizine and promethezine, go to Physical Therapy.
The PT confirmed I did not have traditional spinning vertigo, which I clearly knew and I also did not have nystagmus. I felt slighted and pushed out by my GP. He was obvi sick of seeing me.
I went to another doctor in the practice and she said it could be Zoloft or maybe not but from what she could see my ears looked fine. Two weeks in at this point.
I finally got in to my neurologist last week whom I love and has helped me with migraines and another neuro issue in the past (never dizzy issues as this is a first for me). He is very patient and gathered all key facts. He believes this could be a triggered vestibular migraine or lack of seritonin or both. Both triggered from stopping Zoloft cold turkey only 13 days in. He did tell me that he would have done the same thing and advised to stop cold turkey only after two weeks.
He put me on Indomethacin for 2 days and then another 5 days with magnesium. That did nothing, more dizzy. After that he called in a prednisone taper with a small dose of valium and I have not taken either. I donāt handle prednisone well and from what I see it doesnāt do to much to help. Valium frightens me as I have a brother in law addicted to opiates and my husband and I steer clear of anything habit forming. PS- I also have an ENT appt with someone who specializes in dizzy issues in June. LONG WAIT!
I am waiting for my neurologist to call me this afternoon I would like to talk to him about Nort and the possibility of starting it asap. SSRIās will not be for me right now after my Zoloft reaction that seems to have set me here. I have to do something quickly because I left my job of 5 years for a better paying one but didnāt think this was going to last. I walked away from the ability to have full paid time off on a leave of absence. I now feel super pressured about finances and also have horrid anxiety so I canāt catch even a day to try and unwind my body a little bit. The pressure in my head in the morning and sometimes afternoon along with daily nausea and bobbing head/swaying 24/7, terrible panic/anxiety (wayyyy worse then what I thought I had after Boston) for 63 days has ruined me.
I stopped doing VRT exercises a few weeks ago, I decided to wait until I saw my neuro. I started today and within one minute I had to lay down with my legs up in the air having syncope. This was weird because I was not having any issues handling them earlier in the past two months.
I have been following this websites posts and I feel encouraged and hopeful even in times when I canāt how many times I have cried in a week. Thank you for giving me hope and I hope I will be able to do the same sometime also.
Welcome to the forum! Youāve had some very long, hard days that sound all to familiar to so many of us unfortunately. June is a long wait to see the ENTā¦ have you had any vestibular testing performed to date?
It was 11 months of pure hell before I had a diagnosis and finally real help.
