LymeNet Flash: SPECT scan for chronic vertigo?

This is topic SPECT scan for chronic vertigo? in forum Medical Questions at LymeNet Flash.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/69345

Posted by lymeHerx001 (Member # 6215) on :

I am here now closing in on my month in Colorado.

I should have been looking for jobs ( I applied at 2) but I have just been so bummed out.

My brother has great health (he can drink and run around like a madman), while Im just stuck looking retarded.

I almost fell the other day and he kept insisting that I eat bread and other junk that just makes my feet burn.

So I am going back to Connecticut and ready to have it out with my doctor again.

I am just so sick of this chronic vertigo thats ruining my life.

I feel that Im stuck working for a little over $300 a week for a school just for insurance and I feel that I need SS disability to just get by!

Im wondering if I get a SPECT scan if this will prove my condition and perhaps make me more eligible.

I just dont know what to do at this point. Im so depressed at every turn. I feel that my body is not supporting me in the things I want to do.

My brother says that he doesnt care about insurance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh God why have you forsaken me [confused]

Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :

-

A SPECT scan may help dx one cause for vertigo but cannot be sure to see all the possible causes.

I have had a SPECT, an MRI and it was not until a special CT scan that they see some possible missing and very thin bone in one of my inner/middle ear canals.

This particular scan is best done at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore - where I'm supposed to go for even more specific tests than the one done in my city.

(See the SCD - superior canal dehiscence information in the link below - there is way more to figuring this out.)

You would need the CT scan to be done at very specific detail according to the best person neurotologist in your city.

Be sure to check out www.scdssupport.org for specifications - that site may be down for reconfiguring now and then, though, so you may try back if you don't get it at first. There is also a video.

I hope you might find a neurotologist who is also LL.

Now, not everyone with vertigo, of course, has a problem with the bone in their inner/middle ears - but you just can be sure by any one method.

AND - for much of the vertigo that seems to go with lyme + co., no scan or picture can show it. However, not everything is lyme, so I hope you can get this checked out.

Many lyme patients who have vertigo have gotten better one infection(s) clear.

-

=========================

Topic: TINNITUS: Ringing Between The Ears; Vestibular, Balance, Hearing with compiled links

http://flash.lymenet.org/scripts/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=065801

==========================

VESTIBULAR DISORDERS ASSOCIATION

www.vestibular.org

-

Posted by lymeHerx001 (Member # 6215) on :

Thanks Im definitely going to bring this to my doctor.

Its effecting my life negatively.

Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :

-

I would take some professional articles with you.

I hope the scd site will be back up soon. It has fantastic medical links.

In the meantime, read about it at WiKi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_canal_dehiscence

Then, go to the links at the bottom of the WiKi page - to the Johns Hopkins site and look up

" Superior Canal Dehiscence " Lloyd Minor, MD is the specialist who has written about it.

If your voice seems loud INSIDE your own head, that is just one clue.

But, you really don't want this as the cause of your vertigo - surgery is one option and those who get it done at JH seem to do best. However, while it is not a simple procedure, it would be good to rule out.

But from all my study, JH is the best place for the best tests. All over the world, I've read of how others just can't get the tests done right or don't have the same equipment as that at JH.

So, a CT done at your hospital may not actually rule it out unless they have the best equipment and do the very specific measures.

There are other tests to be done, too, such as a VEMP and others.

If SCD is present, patients do MUCH better with plugging surgery rather than with resurfacing procedures.

Best of luck.

-

Posted by lymeHerx001 (Member # 6215) on :

Thanks Keebler.

I was checking out that SCDS site. Unfourtunatelly I couldnt find an explanation....

They are missing small bone in the labrinth is this correct?

And if this is so it took many years for the symptoms to manifest?

I feel I have a cross between ENS and MCS with nasal and labrithine atrophy.

I really think that my cillia dyed and the ones that survived became atrophied.

Its probablly the same disfunction that we lymies or fibroids experience with TH1/TH2 imbalance.

It just gets stuck.

Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :

-

Well, I never use the nick name for lyme patients but, yes, lyme patients do seem to experience a high degree of vestibular dysfunction.

www.scdssupport.org/links.htm - this is the links page for SCDSS

Also - go to You Tube and search for: " The Musician Who Heard Too Much "

You will see a 9-minute video.

Maybe your symptoms are different than this. It would be great to rule it out.

I hope you can get to a LL neurotologist. There are MANY reasons for vertigo. The best case scenario would be BPPV and the "Epley Maneuver" could easily help that (but only if BPPV is the dx as the cause of the vertigo).

More information on that in the Tinnitus thread, and you can search NBC and either CBS or ABC for June '08. Dr. Epley had features on two networks then. Google the term, too.

Also be sure you are not on any ototoxic meds or OTC. Still, it's vital to keep after infection as infection can destroy vestibular function, too - partly by way of destroying the myelin sheath around nerves - but that also involves the brain, too.

Be sure you have no nutrasweet or MSG.

Ginger in the meantime. QiGong training is great, too. Yoga for the Eyes, also. Anti-inflammatory supplements, etc.

When the liver is better, the ears often get better, too.

Good luck.

-

Posted by lymeHerx001 (Member # 6215) on :

Thanks Keebler!

Posted by lymeHerx001 (Member # 6215) on :

I know that no matter how bad it seems to get, there is always someone out there that has or had it worse!

I met a guy once in the sauna who had a tumor on his vegas nerve, when they went to irradiate it they distroyed his thyroid and also his vestibular function became destroyed.

He said that he cant even close his eyes, that he falls over.

I can at least close my eyes, even though I feel heavy spinning I wont fall down.

thanks again
lh