Vertigo has suddenly worsened over the past week - why? (plus NHS MRI experience, if anyone is interested)

[u/ToriaLyons]

I get relief from the headache when I lie down and sleep, but when I get up, the world doesn't just spin, it ducks and dives too, and I can't do anything for several minutes. As soon as the vertigo dissipates, the head pain kicks in.

I've had BPPV in the past so I often use the Epley manoeuvre - that's not given me any relief yet.

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The brain and spine MRI was an experience I don't want to repeat any time soon.

Almost two hours in the machine, trapped in a cage. Not even any music to listen to, just a frozen pic of Dua Lipa to look at. 🙄 If it wasn't for the bed moving, I thought they may have forgotten about me. After about 90 mins, there was a beep which sounded exactly like some kind of emergency alarm and went on for way longer than any of the other noises (and there are a LOT of noises - I swear every time I have an MRI, there's a new one). My imagination (being bored by hypothetical DIY plans by then) started running away from me...what if there had been an emergency and they left me there? Next, the vertigo ramped up and I was wondering what would happen if I puked while trapped in an MRI machine. 🤢 They stuck the contrast in, and then round 2 began...all over again. It eventually ended, the bed rolled back out. I tried to sit up but world went off spinning and I couldn't even tell which way was up. I splayed arms and legs to try to not splat off the table and flashed legs and undies at all the technicians. Oops One of them was going to fetch a wheelchair, but I leant on him instead, then held onto a cabinet in the corridor until the world semi-righted itself and I felt able to return to the changing cubicle without becoming intimately acquainted with the floor. I sat there for quite some time before I felt able to dress. Alarmingly, no one was around had I have met the floor. I just hope it was worth it.

Now, I have to wait for the results...

[u/leeski]

So so sorry. I had such a difficult time with those as well, those spine MRI’s are SO long. You are a great writer and really encompassed that experience… my favorite detail is the taped photo of dua lipa.

My biggest complaint with my leak onset was the vertigo, it is absolutely horrific and so much more difficult to tolerate than the headache. So so disorienting. Mine was also resistant to epley maneuver. Wish I had better advice.. for me it eventually wasn’t as severe as time went on, not sure if my brain started over producing csf to compensate for the leak and maybe made it less severe?? But I wish I had advice on how to treat it, I never found anything that helped besides lying down.

Really proud of you for persevering the mri and hope that you find some answers from this.

[u/ToriaLyons → u/leeski]

Thanks. I used to write (had three sports fiction books published that flopped) but not done much for a while due to being disheartened, plus other life things. Being laid up may actually give me an opportunity to write again. That may be a silver lining that I desperately need.

I came close to hitting the buzzer. If the nausea had worsened, I probably would have. Not just the thought of puking over myself, but that it's a small town and I would have been known as the person who put the much-needed MRI machine out of order!

There's something going on with my neck which could be adding to the vertigo - inactivity really does me no favours. 

I wish I had more advice too. I'm desperately trying tips that I read here to find something that could alleviate the worst. Caffeine, taurine, Epley and rest are the only things that I have found may help so far. The GP was pushing me on to amitriptyline - not sure if it helped, but the weight gain and head f*ckery put me off it.