Coping With Vertigo

My vertigo started when I was a child. I am not quite sure of my age but I want to say I was around 11 years old. I got out of the car for church and I was walking across the lot and everything was moving and I felt dizzy. I went to my class with my younger brother and I could barely move my head I was getting more and more nauseated. Eventually I through up in class. I threw up a second time and the bad dizziness eventually subsided. I began getting these spells often and my parents took me to an ENT doctor while I was having an episode. Needless to say I threw up outside the elevator there too. I began having tests which I do not remember cuz I was young.

I have hearing loss and nerve damage in my right ear from what I believe they said was ear infections as a baby. I had a few bouts of vertigo through junior high and I believe I went through high school without any problems. I got married in 1996 and got pregnant right away. I was in about my 5th or 6th month of pregnancy and the vertigo returned in full force! It was BAD. It ended up that I could not go 3 days without a having a spell and they lasted longer and longer. I was so bad one day I could not stop throwing up and had to go to the ER. I stayed overnight for observation and was rehydrated and sent home.

From that day on I stayed at my parent’s house while my mom took care of me because I was so sick. I was not getting vertigo spells anymore but I was weak and my head felt horrible and I was off balance. I had my son in 1997 and he is now 12. I had not had vertigo since 1996. On april 10 of this year I had made dinner and was sitting at the table eating. I leaned my head back a bit to drink a water bottle and my head felt funny. I tried to ignore it. I was then trying to wash out the pan in the sink and as I was looking down into the sink my head was feeling funny. Anytime I ever got vertigo everything would move and I would want to close my eyes but if I did that I was spinning and it made it worse until I would get so sick and throw up. This spell I had in April I am not sure if it was from vertigo or not because it was not quite the same but it has had me freaked out ever since and I am afraid to be alone. I get panic and anxiety attacks worrying about it and I haven’t been myself since April.

I started seeing a therapist but it is not helping me much. They do not realize when you are having vertigo it is almost impossible to think about something else and not panic. I may end up on anxiety meds but I am not sure. I also went to see an ENT doctor yesterday and he thinks something is going on and wants me to get an MRI which I am going to get, and those vestibular tests, which I do not want to get….they make you get the vertigo and I do not want it stirred up so I do not know what to do.