Belinda,
So happy to see that your back posting and home from the hospital. I don't know if you read my posts regarding your current health mystery and weird problems with my health in the past. I am very concerned about your getting dizzy and nausea and the symptoms you've described. I urge you to discuss with your doctors, especially the neurologist about there being any possible auto immune componet. I mention this not to scare you at all but I know how hard it is not knowing for sure what is going on and the doctors not having any clear cut absolute answers.
When I first got really sick 4 years ago with food poisoning, it was severe if I could have physically made to the hospital I would have, but my husband was sick too. It was a full two weeks of being so weak and ill long after the getting sick to my stomach for 3 days stopped that my balance became an issue. I was only dizzy when I tried to walk. When I sat I was fine. If I tried to walk I walked like I was a drunk that had been tying one on for a few days. I could not walk without grabbing and holding on to furniture to steady myself as I tried to move. I went to my doctor and initially he thought it could be vertigo because it sort of sounded like it, but not completely. He prescribed some antibiotics and told me to check back after finishing them if I still was having any balance issues. I did check back with him and he ordered a MRI of my brain. He got the results and realized that though there was no signs of tumors or cancer, there were abnormalities showing lesions and inflamation in those affected areas. The very area of the brain that controls balance. My doctor consulted with the head of Neurology at OHSU hospital in Portland Oregon,(about 100 miles from where I live). I was told to go immediately to OHSU and that the neurology team was standing by for me and has reserved a room for me to get there ASAP! I freaked out, and couldn't think I was so scared. My uncle at the time had brain cancer and was terminal. So, this freaked me out especially. I was given tons of tests and poked and proded. I swear they took so much blood from me I threatened to charge them by the pint.
I also was given a spinal tap and the neurology team consulted on my MRI results. The diagnosis was still up in the air. They felt it could be MS but it didn't meet the clinical protocol requires there to be 3 neurological incidents in a specific time frame inorder to give the MS diagnosis. I went home but had to go to the city hospital where I live to get out patient treatment given through IV of methylprednisone, this immediately reduces the swelling in the areas of the brain that showed lesions on the MRI. However, doing nothing would eventually do the same thing. All the IV drug did was shorten the duration of this.
So, my balance had improved some what. Then about a week later, I couldn't grip a pen in my right hand (I'm right handed) and write even my name. It got weaker and weaker. My right leg and foot were not that responsive and slow to react when I wanted to walk. It was like a slow computer taking a while to process the command. Then, the vision in my right eye became an issue. I was freaking out that I was losing my vision and was terrified I'd go blind wind up in a wheel chair. I saw an eye doctor and he said that I was legally blind in the right eye and could not prescribe eye glasses to improve or my vision at all. My left eye was trying to compensate for the right and it was getting blurry to see out of. I kept my neurologist informed of this and he suggested that if I wanted I could begin a MS therapy drug regimine, or I could wait for the official diagnosis. He did add that this was progressing very rapidly in a short period of time and felt that it was MS that was making itself know and snowballing with episodes. My doctor explained that people like myself with rapid presenting neurological issues emerging that have began a MS drug therapy have benefitted in slowing down the progress of the disease greatly. Now, its four years since all that and I'm still taking the MS drug but no new neurological episodes have presented themselves as yet. At my last visit my doctor did tell me that at the rapid rate my MS was progressing it was looking like I could have gone the route of progressive MS in which alot of patients are wheel chair or walker bound and need a lot of help. He has even told me that I'm amazingly the most active person he's ever seen with MS, the majority of his MS patients are in wheel chairs or require walkers to get around, and some even assistance dogs to help them.
My journey began my with food poisoning that hit my immune system so hard it didn't recover like normal. I had mentioned before I had been very ill back in high school with Mono, and then the circulation shutting off in my right arm in my 20's. All these things contributed to my getting MS and my genetic background of being scandinavian only seemed to cinch it. My neurologist told me that MS can work that way in impairing ones normal auto immune function. In MS what happens is your immune system becomes hypersensitive and starts attacking the protective nerve casing. It damages them leaving scars on those nerves. Think of a lamp cord that is crimped or something. It may sort of work to still use. Its if the nerve takes additional attacks to that same already scarred nerve that it can eventually go through the nerve outer casing all together causing a loss of function. The brain is very complex and can repair some damage and in the case of MS it can reroute the nerves to work around the damage area creating a new path to deliver the messages to and from the brain. So, that's cool! In my case, that's what has happened with new pathways being now used to do the job of the old damaged ones. It has effected my strength, balance, vision, and ability to write. I can still do those things but the ability is not as good as it was before MS. I'm just damn grateful I can do those things. Exercise is a huge part of being able to maintain what I've worked so hard to get back. So, the reason I tell you all this stuff is not to bore you with my story, but to urge you to have the neurologist address if this could be or partly be due to an auto immune componet. I'm not saying this could be MS, not at all, I'm no doctor. I'm only saying that most all auto immune diseases of which there are many are not easy to diagnose and are tricky to find out about. Doctors tend to go for the common disease, viruses, or issues. Weird obscure symptoms don't usually fit the picture best of things they think it could be, which is where auto immune diseases come in. So, don't give up on an answer and don't be afraid to press for answers or questions. Its your health and you do have a say, you know your body better than anyone, so speak up.
I wish you all the very best of health and hope you don't have any further issues.
Be well, and I'll keep sending you prayers and well wishes.
Hugs!
Nora
ps. any questions feel free to pm me.
