The Weirdest Thing

[giftcreations123]

hi everyone

I had the strangest thing happen to me today.

I actually woke up feeling not too bad so I was

excited about that.

I was on the computer and there was a small fan blowing

next to me in my ear.

I out of nowhere got sooo soo dizzy I was really scared and of course my blood pressure monitor beeped low battery so I couldnt check. I crawled to the kitchen and had water and some salt but it took a while to shake it. When the dizziness calmed down a bit, I had those chills or tremors, I took an advil and an allergy pill..

what do you think that was?

could the fan have caused an inner ear imbalance or just a coincidence and bp dropped?

thanks for listening

[songcanary]

It's a good question and I don't know the cause. But I can tell you that I've been there and done that with the dizziness, chills and tremors. They are so horrible. And they looked at me like I was nuts in the ER, twice no less! Of course by the time I got there, I was stable, duh. I just wanted to tell you that I totally know how you felt. Hopefully someone else can shed some light on the ear thing. It is sometimes tricky to identify triggers and we try so hard! Best of luck and take good care.

[Heiferly]

Due to the way the anatomy of your ear is, I can't see any conceivable way that a fan blowing near or even directly into your ear could affect your inner ear. There are closed barriers that separate your outer ear from your middle and inner ear (I won't get into a discussion of the middle ear not being a closed system due to the Eustachian tube because it's irrelevant to a discussion of connectivity between the outer and inner ear). Even if you have a rupture in your tympanic membrane ("eardrum") or PE tubes, there still shouldn't be any connection to the inner ear:

http://drdavidson.ucsd.edu/portals/0/cmo/CMO_fig01.10.jpg

When looking at that diagram, the semicircular canals are the portion of the anatomy involved with vertigo. Speaking of which, the "dizziness" associated with inner ear problems is generally vertigo whereas the "dizziness" associated with dysautonomia is more commonly (though not always ... but this can get into issues of whether there may be comorbidity of other conditions as well) lightheadedness rather than vertigo. See here for a summary of the difference:

http://www.questdiagnostics.com/kbase/topic/symptom/dizzi/overview.htm

(By they way, if you're wondering if I'm just talking out my tokhes here ... the reason I know all this is due to having a degree in speech and hearing science. I admit it's been a while since I graduated, but I don't think my ear anatomy and physiology is *that* rusty, hehe.)

I think the likely explanation is that it was a flare up of your dysauto symptoms; as for what the trigger might have been, sometimes it's hard to say, isn't it? Had you eaten recently? Some dysauto patients do get bouts of postprandial hypotension. Also, while you were on the computer did you have your feet elevated or were they down on the floor? Had you been sitting there an unusually long time for yourself? Some of us have significant blood pooling even just sitting upright with feet on the floor. You may find that you need to keep your feet elevated (or sit cross-legged) if you're going to be upright for a significant length of time to prevent the blood pooling from triggering an episode. When you do have an episode, in addition to loading up on salt and fluids as you did, you may want to try lying in bed with your feet propped up on a stack of pillows to see if improving the bloodflow to your heart, lungs, and brain expedites relief. ... Well, I think that's all the ideas I have for now. Sorry you had to go through that; I hate symptom flare-ups.

[lieze]

Similar things happen to me just out of the blue and lately I have been taking my vitals during and they look totally normal.

It can happen if I turn my head fast or I will have the slight thought of am I okay how am I feeling and I think it triggers panic in me.

I think we have a hair trigger to the flight or fight response and the slightest things may set us off.

So it really could have been maybe all of a sudden an uncomfortable sensation you got that caused the ringing in the ear and your body just spazzed after that.

I wish we knew how to turn that button off because it has me living in a state of fear to do anything at all.

The episodes are so so scary and feel so real that it's like I just give up.

I know it becomes very real but I question how much real danger I have ever been in. I feel like my body/mind is doing a number on me.