IUBio

Help with possible neurological problems

Carletted carletted at hotmail.com
Sat Oct 20 23:12:35 EST 2001


Hello,  and before I begin, I apologize if I am posting at the wrong site,
if so please feel free to direct me to the appropriate news group according
to my question and problem.

My name is Carlette and I am 28 years old. Four months ago, shortly after
the birth of my son, I began experiencing occasional episodes of
lightheadedness. With all the new responsibilities of being a mother, I felt
my symptoms were related to these such stresses. The frequency of these
episodes were every couple of weeks. Also, occasionally and for only seconds
long, I would experience a tingling in the left side of my face, sort of
like the feeling one would get if their foot fell asleep, however these
occurrence's are very rare and only come to my mind because of my concern
about feeling lightheaded.

In the last month, I started to get the feeling that my ears were very full
and clogged. I decided to go to my regular MD to have this checked out. He
assumed that my problems were related to clogged ears, and cleaned them out.
In fact when he injected the water into my ears, I felt lightheaded as I did
during earlier episodes. He said this feeling was normal because he was
inserting water in my ear drum. The doctor found no infection, but cleaned a
large amount of wax out of my ears. My right ear feels much better, but the
left ear still feels heavy and bothersome. Occasionally I get very quick,
but strong pains in the front and left side of my head.  My left ear feels
full and clogged 95% of the time, occasionally I will get a pop feeling that
relieves the pressure and then in a matter of minutes the feeling is back
again.  Following my visit to the doctor to have my ears cleaned, my
lightheadedness has increased, I feel lightheaded almost all the time, and
if I make certain movements my balance is thrown off. In addition, I noticed
that I feel most balanced when lying on my right side. I also get a tingling
feeling in the left side of my face and in my legs, I can't tell if this
part is related to anxiety since I am such a wreck over feeling lightheaded,
etc.  This seems to happen most often when I am nervous.  Other related
experiences I have been having are, feeling unbalanced when sitting on a
stool that is a little wobbly, and feeling unbalanced when someone sits on
my bed while I am lying on it. I did however notice that the lightheadedness
subsides quite a bit when I am doing vigorous exercise.

I have a general anxiety disorder for as long as I can remember, so I put my
body through a good amount of stress. I have considered taking anxiety meds,
but haven't done so. Currently I am breast-feeding my son, so my options are
limited.

I visited with a neurologist who did a full examination, including several
strength, balance, and reflex tests on my hands, arms, legs, and feet.  At
that time he felt that my symptoms were not the result of MS.  I expressed a
worry about this condition because my sister has it, and my symptoms seemed
to fit those of MS.  Since I was so worried, the neurologist prescribed a
MRI, which came back negative.  I also visited with a ENT doctor who found
my ears to be ok, checked for water, infection in the visible part of the
ear.  I still wait to undergo a hearing test and a ENG test, to test ear
balance.  I also had a Lyme disease test, and B vitamin deficiency test,
both came back negative.

At this point, I intend on continuing to dig deeper into this with the
neurologist, but I was hoping that someone here might have some information
that could point me into the right direction to find a diagnosis.

Thank you,

Carlette







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