Heart Palpitations Forum

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Heart Palpitations Forum >> Symptoms and other concerns >> Advice or suggestions please.
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Message started by angiebaby on Nov 26^th, 2007, 11:09am

Title: Advice or suggestions please.
Post by angiebaby on Nov 26^th, 2007, 11:09am

I have had this before then me just say and i am sort of hoping that it will help to diagnose something once and for all with the rest of my symptoms.
I was helping my son with his homework earlier and looking at a sum on a page. Then all of a sudden my eyes flickered sideways for a couple of seconds, very quickly. I was sure i had heard something about this sort of thing to do with ears and had a look on the net. There are conditions that affect the ears and do this to the eye but i dont really know.
Most of you will know that i have been suffering for a long time now with severe dizziness and a lot of horrible, scary ear symptoms: tinnitus, buzzing, shutting off, loss of balance etc.
Also a lot of pain in my neck, i have military neck, and shoulders.
I am so unsteady on my feet it is unreal, literally! My head spins and it scares me so much that i am constantly anxious, reluctant to do anything or go anywhere and have panic attacks that are brought on mainly by the dizziness and unreality. My ears do seem very sensitive too and i am easily startled then sometimes i cannot hear properly or seem not to recognize certain words. Certain tones also start off my ears, like the hoover, my ears seem to go in and out constantly while that is on, certain tones in music or in voices too. If i move my head quickly the room can spin and i can lose my balance. If i sit perfectly still i am usually ok, although my ears can still be bad. If i move or get up then that is it, so horrible and severe. :'(
I had forgotten that i used to get this eye flickering from side to side and it hasn't happened for a while, perhaps a couple of months, then when it happened earlier i thought it might be worth a try to mention it and see if it is important in seeing if i can actually get a possible clue to help me in all of this. Any ideas at all. My eyes have just flickered again, but just once this time. Help.x

Title: Re: Advice or suggestions please.
Post by RLR on Nov 26^th, 2007, 2:29pm

Well, I'm not certain that advice is necessarily the best medicine here as much as simply providing you with some information.

What you are experiencing is a phenomenon known as horizontal nystagmus and you need to know that several beats of this type of nystagmus are observed in entirely healthy individuals. It can be exacerbated by stress and typically patients sense their eyes pulsating while trying to focus on a singular point. Some medications are responsible for nystagmus, particularly psychotropics.

Certain inner ear conditions and some tests, such as the cold caloric test, can cause nystagmus. I doubt that in your instance the presence of nystagmus of the type you describe is associated with your ear problems. The fact that your ears are sensitive, if you are referring to sounds, is the product of something known as hyperacusia, or abnormally acute hearing. The startle effects are more a product of either anxiety or depression and often accompany those disorders.

While there are several instances where nystagmus can be pathological for certain disease, such is not the case in your instance because as I've said many times before, neurological signs and symptoms are only critical when viewed among the company they keep, so to speak. In other words, there must be a constellation of certain other signs present when nystagmus is being expressed. Since you have none of these accompanying signs, then yours is merely the detection of normal horizontal nystagmus.

All in all, you'll be just fine. Nothing here to worry about, although I certainly understand your symptoms are discomforting. Not a sign of disease though, which is good news.

Best regards and Good Health

Title: Re: Advice or suggestions please.
Post by angiebaby on Nov 26^th, 2007, 3:29pm

Thankyou for your quick response RLR. Yes my symptoms drive me mad constantly. And have been doing so for two years and noone can find out what the problem is. It is true that i have anxiety, panic, PTSD and depression but a lot of this is down to the symptoms that i experience. In fact i can honestly say, i am only anxious or have a panic attack when i have a symptom!
I only take Omeprazole, which does help to cut down on the ectopics some. I have seen three neurologists now, among other professionals and now i have to be re referred back to ENT for more tests. I suffer everyday with something to do with my ears, neck or dizziness and it is not pleasant and does scare me a lot. I understand that there is probably nothing seriously wrong with me, all tests so far have been negative, but the symptoms are still with me and seemingly worse. I will go back to ENT and see what happens there and will possibly have to wait for about 6 months to start with anyway.
Thankyou again for your as always, sound knowledge.x

Title: Re: Advice or suggestions please.
Post by beadbabe on Nov 27^th, 2007, 1:23am

I have nystagmus too - observed by ENT specialist and years ago by neurologist - they are not bothered by it - a problem they don't worry about unless in conjunction with other symptoms. I have another symptom that should worry them that goes with it (internuclear ophthalmoplegia - a paralysed eye muscle so my eyes don't move together properly) but they are still not bothered.

So please don't worry angie. I think stress and tiredness brings mine on more and everyone has it at extreme sideways gaze anyway for example. It does show itself more with dizzy spells because eyes, ears all work together and any minor disturbance knocks them all off centre a bit.

I will be posting on here later about my palpitations misery as they are going from bad to worse.
x