spinning feeling ???

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julie wishes

julie wishes

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Brief intro... car accident, post concussive syndrome, positive EEG.

So my hard to explain symptom comes on randomly. First its a weird feeling in my head. I then get a slow semi confused feeling and reach up and hold my head. It passes fairly quickly 30 to 60 seconds. What is very hard to explain is my need to close my eyes for comfort, by when I do I get this spinning feeling. Not the room spinning and not me spinning but my brain or eyes are spinning. It instantly makes me nauseous. So I have to open my eyes. The whole thing is just an awful feeling, but I'm curious if anyone else experiences this spinning feeling?

As a side note, my neuropsychologist believes this whole thing is post concussive symptoms and I think they are seizure symptoms. What do you all think?
 
Out of curiousity, how did you hit your head in the accident?
Like, face first, or side of head, or was the concussion from whiplash?

Also, do you lose your balance?

EDIT: There are few things it could be, other than seizures, which is why I'm asking for more information :)
 
Alright, well I may as well post what came to mind, after hearing your story and such....

You had a car wreck and sustained a concussion. Sometimes a concussion itself can cause epilepsy, other times, epilepsy develops far after the wreck and isn't related to the concussion directly.

Here's the Parietal Lobe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parietal_cortex

Gray726_parietal_lobe.png


It's related to, among other things, your sense of your balance as well as your perception of where you are in relation to the things around you. Basically, it integrates all the different parts of your senses into the big picture.

Your balance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_of_balance
Your sense of positioning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception

A seizure, or trauma, in this area can cause vertigo, dizziness, loss of balance, a spinning sensation, among other things, because it interferes with how you perceive where you are. One of the things your brain uses to determine postioning is your eyesight, so closing your eyes would likely make things worse, which is what you experienced. Also, a lack of balance causes nausea, which you also experienced. It's a peception disturbance, IE you perceive yourself spinning, but you're actually not. The nausea could also be a manifestation of a simple-partial seizure, but there's no way for me to know either way....

Just some food for thought, and my :twocents: :)
 
Wow. You have no idea how right you might be. I have a balance and proprioception issue. Too much to type here. But hit the back of my head really hard first then flung forward and then back and hit again. Direct impact, whiplash, and what they call a shearing effect from the brain bobbling inside my skull. Not only do I have proprioception issue, but also a peripheral vision issue and a lack of perceptive abilities in many areas such as communication, spacial awareness, and times and dates. Also memory. What is really driving me crazy is trying (on my own because neurologist has been of zero help) to figure this all out... concussion issue, seizure issue... blah blah blah
 
There is so much more. But this is not the place to type it all. Sorry if there are holes in my explanation.
 
Well it's just my intuition, but I hope you get something positive from it. :)
 
i get this sometimes when i turn my head a certain way or lay down on my right.... which was the ear i damaged when i had a fall outside durning sezure so since then every now and then i get real real dizzy ... it makes me jump up from my sleep sometimes!

hope that helped :)
 
It reminds me a bit of what happens to me If I've been on a sailboat in the water all day. Afterwards, on land, when I close my eyes the horizon continues to tilt from side to side. It's as if you are looking at a circle with a horizontal diameter line, and the circle rotates to the left and then to the right, to the left and to the right.

Clearly the brain is very plastic if that's all it takes to imprint it. It would be great if there were a way to undo the spinning feeling you guys experience. Maybe by neurofeedback training that would somehow imprint a fixed horizon, or perhaps a subtle pattern etched on some glasses...

I'm not sure
 
Yes. They have tried to put me on the Med for vertigo.... but its not like that. Its very specific to these episodes I have which used to be several times a day and now are a few times a month. Its so hard for me to articulate what happens that the doctor just ignore me. ;( that's why I'm so thankful for you guys and your help. Hands.... they thought I had ear damage too but it came out just slight loss in right ear. Maybe that affects things????
 
Damage to the inner ear can cause balance problems and stuff. The fluid and nerves in the inner ear are what measures your balance, so having problems there can cause problems related to balance and placement. :)

The ability to hear is unrelated to that though, so you can have inner ear problems and hear fine, and also have no inner ear problems and be completely deaf.... So it's hard to tell if your slight hearing loss is related or not. :?
 
Juls I get this too I also feel like I'm falling too. This is my simple partial or auras. Also visual problems too.
 
I don't have visual problems normally, but twice during my episodes the room has seemed foggy all around me. And sometimes my vision gets weird. But as soon as it passes my eyes are fine. I'm so glad you all are responding. It is so helpful.
 
I've had this - the closest thing I could compare it to was "when you get really drunk and try to sleep, but the world is spinning....except the other way around". I lay on the bed and feel like *I* am spinning. It's always been followed by a seizure, so I've always assumed it was some form of aura.
 
Yes very similar. Except I don't drink and haven't for 25 years. But remembering back, it is like that. Like all you want to do is sleep but you can't because you are spinny. Gosh if only I had the words for it. All I know is that when I have my simples it presents pretty much the same except a few times this spinny thing happens. Holding my head with both hands somehow helps my mind know I'm not actually spinning. If I close my eyes its like my eyes go back and forth really fast or my brain is moving. That is what gives me that spinny feeling. As soon as the simple stops. The spinny stops. And then I'm fine.
 
When I was on Tegretol I could drink, and got drunk very quickly with no adverse effects.
With Keppra it's a totally different story, one drink and I'm horribly sick. Oh, well!

I'm curious about this now. I will mention it to my Epilepsy Nurse at my appointment and see if she has any thoughts.
 
Julie that is exactly how I feel! Exactly! The epileptologist said it was not seizure related and she never even heard of that being related to seizures (urg) but my neurologist says yes! I am still going to explore the inner ear thing though just to make sure. I get about 10 of these a day! It is all consuming!
 
Sheripark, keep me posted. I would like to agree with the epileptologist that they aren't seizures... however, they only happen with my seizures. So??? Lord knows i wish they weren't seizures.
 
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