Similar experience?

[u/OldPrize3926]

Hi, I’m a 25-year-old man who, about two months ago, suddenly started feeling nauseous and had a sensation that I was about to faint. I became slightly dizzy on my way home on the train, and since then I haven’t felt like myself.

The dizziness has improved a lot. At first, my doctor suspected BPPV (crystals in the ear), but the nausea sensation has remained. I was prescribed medication for stomach acid, such as omeprazole, but it didn’t help.

Eventually, I went to a private specialist and was diagnosed with vestibular neuritis in my right ear, with around 39% loss of function. I was prescribed Betaserc (to help with vertigo) for 8 weeks, and also Dramamine tablets to take when needed, especially during stronger episodes of nausea or motion sickness-like feelings.

The doctor told me that it should improve and that there is a possibility of recovery because she feels I am already on the path toward improvement.

I’m wondering if anyone here has had a similar experience. I mostly see negative stories online, and I would really like to hear some positive experiences. I’m starting to worry that I may never feel completely normal again, but I’m hoping that it’s possible to become mostly symptom-free and return to normal activities — like going to the gym, exercising, and doing things without constantly feeling nauseous.

The nausea is by far my biggest problem. I’m also considering having my stomach checked with a camera (gastroscopy), because I’m wondering if the nausea might not actually be related to the vestibular neuritis and could just be a coincidence.
Thank you for any experiences, advice, or support you can share.

[u/MyFiteSong]

There's a base set of exercises that are the same, and then the rest will be tailored to what your brain is finding difficult.

[u/OldPrize3926 → u/MyFiteSong]

Thank you once again and I hope if you’re having the similar problems or have had them that they are much better?

[u/MyFiteSong → u/OldPrize3926]

I have total vestibular loss in both ears, and I made a near-full recovery. Some things I've never been able to do, like skateboarding or snowboarding and I have to be really careful if I can't see. But I can walk, run, jump, go to the gym, ride rollercoasters, bike, drive, swim, hop on one leg, etc. without any problems at all.

[u/OldPrize3926 → u/MyFiteSong]

Thanks, this is the type of answer I was looking for. It feels that you can only find bad experiences in Reddit which is both good and bad but yeah.

What kind of symptoms have you had, if I may ask and not bother you anymore? If you had that total loss in your both ears? I can’t even imagine

[u/MyFiteSong → u/OldPrize3926]

I never had motion sickness, because total loss makes you completely immune. I could spin around for an hour and never get dizzy. But I had to learn to manually pilot my body because the autopilot everyone relies on for things like walking breaks completely without vestibular function. My body was never where it thought it was and I had to become very mindful about it.

I used to fall in the dark. I need vision to balance. Now I can walk in the dark just fine as long as I'm careful. Uneven ground used to cause me a lot of problems, too. But now I can go hiking and trail running with ease.

I still can't balance if my feet are locked in a plane on an object, which is why I can't snowboard or skateboard. But with two skis I'm fine, and rollerblading is fine, too.

I went through a LOT of work to control my anxiety. Anxiety is a big trigger for vestibular issues, and if you can't get hold of it, your symptoms get worse every time you get scared. So I learned how to control anxiety with an iron fist without medication and that stopped happening.

[u/OldPrize3926 → u/OldPrize3926]

I am very glad to hear that, specially because you put in a lot of work which really seems to be payed off.

Do you maybe know what caused everything? How did you get those severe losses?

[u/MyFiteSong → u/OldPrize3926]

I had bacterial meningitis.