Do I have an inner-ear infection, or something else?

November 12, 2008 9:18 PM

Do I have an inner-ear infection, or something else?

I'm a 30 year old guy. For a few months now I've had a weird feeling in my head, best described as a momentary feeling of dizziness. When it happens, it only happens for maybe a second or two.

This usually only happens in a small number of circustances, namely;

* When I get up out of bed
* When I turn over in bed
* If I turn my head too quickly
* If I look up for longer than around 5 seconds

This all started about 4 months ago. I googled the symptoms and everything I read seemed to suggest an inner-ear infection. The Wikipedia page on Labyrinthitis seemed to suggest it would go away on its own within 6 weeks. And, for a time, it did seem to be getting better. But in the last week it's come back, almost as bad as it was when I first started feeling it.

This alone is cause for concern. But within the last fortnight or so, something else has happened which has given me cause to wonder if it is an inner-ear infection or possibly something else. It's likely the two things are unreleated, but I need to ask anyway (y'know... just in case they ARE).

There was a movie I watched a couple of weeks ago (can't remember which one for sure but I think it was American Gangster) where there were a lot of flashing lights (flashing on and off very quickly over and over again) for a minute or two. While watching it I started to feel really dizzy, a little sweaty and felt like I was going to pass out. Once the lights stopped I started to feel fine again. Then last weekend I was at a heavy metal concert where there were a lot of flashing lights and I started to feel the same way again. Again, once they stopped I felt fine.

That's never happened to me before. My first thought is epilepsy but this has only started in the last week or two. Hell, I remember playing some Killer Japanese Seizure Robot game (the actual name escapes me at the moment) back on the SNES when I was younger and I felt fine. I'm assuming that this bit of self-diagnosis is way off base, but that's what this question is for, right?

Anyway, yeah, I'm going to go see a doctor soon, but work is really, really busy at the moment and I don't have a lot of spare time so it will have to wait around a week or so (sadly). In the meantime, I thought I'd post this question to see what the hive mind's medicos thought might be going on, to give myself food for thought (and to better inform myself) before I do actually go see a GP sometime in the next week.

posted by Effigy2000 to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

This sounds a lot like Benign Positional Vertigo, which is not an infection, but rather a condition that is caused by little particles in your inner ear getting dislodged and sending your brain screwed up signals about your balance. If you have BPV, doctors can perform something called the Epley Maneuver on you to break up the inner ear thingies and get them back to their proper thingie state.

I have chronic vertigo, caused by an inner ear problem, and I've definitely found that flashing lights exacerbate my vertigo. I have no idea why that is. Perhaps some medical person could explain it.

You should go to the doctor to rule out other stuff, but I bet this is going to turn out to be benign positional vertigo and not some dread disease.
posted by craichead at 9:39 PM on November 12, 2008

Oh, and I'm not a doctor. I'm just a person with screwed-up inner ears who is interested in inner-ear-related stuff.
posted by craichead at 9:40 PM on November 12, 2008

Mr. Adams had a few of your symptoms - dizziness when turning over in bed, when first getting up from bed, when looking up too long - and our doctor determined it was positional vertigo. She gave him a script for Antivert (which he took before bed as it made him sleepy) and he felt fine after a few days. In fact, he stopped taking the pills after about 10 days and has been OK ever since.

Best of luck to you!
posted by Oriole Adams at 2:53 AM on November 13, 2008

Ditto everything craichead said.

Obviously, yeah, your GP is going to be more helpful than IANAD guesswork, but: in my experience, doctors go first with "it might just pass after a few weeks" if it is vertigo. I too have chronic vertigo and get it bad when there's flashing lights, but I also find anxiety sets it off and I wonder if the lights just make me panicky.

If it turns out to be an ongoing vertigo issue, there are tons of medication options in different categories, to which I'd say that it's worth persisting even if the first ones don't work. That's a little premature as advice, but I tried a long list before finally finding one (Buccastem) that I can take daily with good cost-benefit in terms of side effects.

Good luck, I hope it's nothing serious.
posted by carbide at 4:15 AM on November 13, 2008

I was reading about this a few days ago, and they commented it was OK to do the Epley Maneuver at home in the same paragraph where I found the directions for it.
I would think you could call your PCP and ask if it's OK with him for you to try this at home until you can get in.
I get this, and find it useful to lay flat with my eyes closed for a few minutes.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 9:32 AM on November 13, 2008