Currently I'm just dizzy and haven't had the vertigo for almost a week. Relying on the meds like meclizine too much can prolong the dizziness. So I've taken less of them today. I've thought of a couple of things that might help you with the dizziness and hopefully prevent it turning into vertigo:
It could be from eustachian tube dysfunction, which a lot of us have, allowing too much fluid to accumulate in the middle ear. That can affect the inner ear, too, which also has fluid in it, and they are connected. I have been routinely taking pseudoephedrine (generic for Sudafed) to help keep the e tubes open so they can drain. It is an icky drug which it has taken me a long time to get used to, but everyone may be different in that respect. I don't take a lot, usually one 60mg. dose a day, and I have gotten over the jittery feeling it used to give me. It does make my heart rate go up a bit, especially if I take two doses, the most I ever take in one day. I just started today with the two doses because my ears were feeling full, and I have started to feel better after the second dose. Just a thought. Target, at least here, has a very good deal on their house brand of pseudoephedrine in the 48-pack, just a little over $3. It might help you.
Also, I think exercise helps, also taking a hot shower, or anything that gets your heart pumping faster and supplying more blood to the brain, which is trying to interpret the signals it's getting from the inner ears and eyes, which work together to maintain balance. It's hard to think about exercise when dizzy, and I would do it cautiously. For me, it's more just moving around, doing normal things like house or yard work, but nothing really vigorous.
One more simple factor could be barometric pressure, when the weather changes. I think this is affecting me. The weather just changed here and I got that full-ear feeling and pressure across my nose. It has sort of subsided this evening. I'll see how I feel in the morning, and will try not to take the meclizine or will take less of it, will take the sudafed, and will try to remain active, maybe going for a walk. I hope some of this helps. And see if you can get a prescription for meclizine in case things get bad. It's kind of like pred in that it can really help, if you take enough, but you need to wean yourself from it to really recover and get back to normal. And get lots of rest... Avoid coffee but drink lighter forms of caffeine if you must.... I do. Or go ahead and drink coffee if it doesn't make it worse.
The reaction from your rheumy sounds great. So now she is considering RTX; that is good. But it does take awhile to work, and a little CTX in the meantime wouldn't hurt, IMO. But I'm not the doc, and maybe your symptoms aren't bad enough for that. It really helped me when i was in bad shape. I haven't taken RTX. I hope you can get it approved. They might say to try CTX first; I've heard of that. We know the possible risks of that... as for RTX, I've heard of some worrying about it, but it seems like most people's docs just go ahead and do it and most on here have gotten good results. Good luck!
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