becky

Howdy, well, i am now my eighth week of vertigo! everything is spinning my lips are numb my heart is fluttering and i'm generally feeling like i've been pushed down the stairs! ended up in hospital on tursday (sorry my keyboard is broken) and friday bcause i have labrynthitis which is true vertigo apparently - but te good news is that i got to seean ent person and they've referred me to the consultant. they think that it could last several MONTHS and that i will have to have rehabillitation after it - i have been warned though that a cold or any kind ofvirus can bring it back with a vengence! wonderful! Just so you kow though the spinning and waking you up does get better - however i feel so sick that i'm having recurrent dreams about vomittting. You need to see an ENT specialist, they'll give you a hearing test and they'll check your eyes (apparenly you can tell people with vertigo because their eyes flicker when you have to concentrate on looking at things. bebs x x x

hey willows, great recipe, i made some practice mincepies a while ago for my boyfriend - i love baking! (and i have really old brass scales that use little ounce weights, i've always used ounces get confused with all this gram stufff!) i was really hoping to make my own mincmeat but i'm sick again so my mum says when i'm feeling a bit better i can have hers (it's been in the fridge for two years and it's still gorgeous! got that much alcohol though you could have your teeth taken out and not know!!) any other recipes you have please post them - i'll pass them on to my otherhalf who's currently in charge of the kitchen! a very dizzy (hungry!) bebs x x x

Hi all, latest update on me being a student, i'm home sick - vertigo again! only worse than ever - panic attacks and everything this time. been home in bed for five days, and i'm being sick - this is not helping my pots and the fact that i am coming off my medication. Anyway, that's only one little problem, the other thing is that i'm not allowed to go to college at the moment, i got a letter from college to say that i have to provide them with more information on my pots and until i do i can't attend college for 'health and safety reasons'! however, the didn't tell me what information i need to give them. So my second day of hanging on the phone trying to find out what they info they need! very well organised! they didn't even give me the right number on the letter. Once they have the info i can have a risk assesment meeting - lucky me! any ideas of how to calm myself down and get rid of vertigo would be appreciated (the doc have given me betahistimine hydrochoride - treatment for menieres) a very dizzy peed off bebs x x x

Hey, thought i'd add my thoughts. I'm in my second week at college and i have managed - TWO DAYS! well done me! have got such severe vertigo now that i am in bed where i have been all week - the doctor now says that i'm having panic attacks because my lips are numb when i move!! So in answer to your question i don't think i can work, have been out of work for 3 years and i can't see me going back unless this all gets better. oh well what fun! bebsx x x

I thought i was the only erson who has this - i keep asking y boyfriend if he can see flashing. He thinks i'm mad! bebs x x x

Thanks for the link x x x

Thanks eveyone, it is hard work but i know it will be worth it. i can get some helpfrom the college because of having pots, but when i spoke to the disability advisor at college they said that i might have to have a wheelchair for goin around college in which seems a bit over the top considering i can walk perfectly well (at the moment!) but health and safety is a priority! Anyone who has any tips on help i should ask for and what i may need to stay at college i would be very grateful. thanks bebs x x x

Hi Em, just my tuppence worth, i was on depo for six months (two injections) the weight gain and depression where just two of the effects. at first i had no bleedin and then i had constant bleeding. when i stopped it it took over a year for my body to get back to normal and it's still not right nearly two years later. The nurse at my new practce said she would never suggest anyone with my condition to have the depo because it's like going thru an early menopause! she's not even that happy about me being on the pill but i take that constantly for three monts and then have a period because i just cannot cope with periods, i just constantly feel like i'm going to pass out - it's ridiculous! i would say think abot it really hard and long because it's not something that can be easily fixed if your ody is sensitive to it (sorry about the spellin mistakes - my computer isn't working properly!) it stays in your bdy for at least three months. i only didit because the doctors told me it was y only choice and i didn't readup on it before i took it - in fact i didn't even get given a leafet for it til the second time, somthing that i am so careful about now. good luck with whatever you decide. bebs x x x

Thank you love! i'm doin this course so i can apply to uni this september to do a law degree, so fingers crossed i'll be a lawyer in five years! At the moment i'm really struggling sleeping, i think that it is because i'm coming off m medication o i have to try to stay awake in theday time! thnks for the support persephone, knew you'd appreciate the effort! catch up soon. bebs x x x

Hi all, just thought i'd inform you of my latest triumph, i have managed to enrol on a mature students certificate at Bradford College, i am studying Psychology, Sociology, English Literature, History and I.T. I am so excited, i had my first class yesterday and it was really really good. I'm so tired though. It's four full days and i think i may struggle a bit - i have an appointment tomorrow to see the disability advisor so that i can see if i can get travel help and what help i can get with learning. I am coming off my medication at the moment so i'm feeling the withdrawl effects but hopefully i'll start feeling better soon. Any tips on how to stay awake thru lectures would be appreciated!! bebs x x x

thanks for that, i've had to stp taking the medication cos it was causing tachycardia! oh how funny m life is! it seems to be settling down now so fingers crossed i'll be ok!

Hey all, so on top of the vertigo which has been getting ridiculous this week i now have laryngitis(sp?) and a cold! ended up having a lovely trip to bradford hospital on wednesday cos i passed out in macdonalds - that'll teach me not to eat junk food! i had to have an injection in my *** for my vertigo, the doctor in the hospital was not happy that i was out on my own with it having had it for four weeks but i'd just been to my doctors and he hadn't said anthing about it. so now i'm on orders from the doctor to stay in bed for at least a week! so it's been four days and i'm bored out of my brain. However tomorrow i'm making a break for it i have an interveiw at college to do a mature students certificate, fingers crossed don't pass out!! I'm also coming off fludrocortisone and paroxetine - so far feel high as a kite, headachy and like 'm walking on marshmallows, lnot nice. bebs x x x

ah, cafetiere, now i know! my boyfriend loves coffee he has a cafetiere cup so he can make just himself a cup of fesh ground coffee and its like a little flask so it keeps itwarm x x x

You can drink coffee? just decaff? sorry i can't have coffee anymore - gives me terrible tachy and really bad stomach pain! What is a french press? i like the coffee machine where you squash the fesh ground coffee dwn and then add it to the machine so the water passes through itinto your cup, italian style i think? did that make any sense at all? bebsx x x

HI, I've been on florinef for 2 years now 0.3mg daily, can't say i noticed much difference in my pots unti i started an ssri aswel and salt tablets. Not many doc know about pots over here so getting my pottasium tested is a nightmare, but i have had terrible side effects - really bad stomach pain and problems with digestion, lactation (which can also happen in men), and excess body hair. i'm feeling musch better now thouh and i'm seeing my doctor next week to try to come off these tablets because i a also wrried that they aren't meant to be taken long term and if i do need medication would like to find som alternatives bebs x x x

hi again, well i apparently have labarynthitis (sp?) inner ear viral infection which can last six week!! have got buccastem tablets to hep with nausea and dizziness, so far not great but i have eight days f them so hopefully they'll help - fell over in the pharmacist and the supermaket yesterday!!! well at least i can laugh about it - i'm off to nap now - without throwing up hopefully!! becks x x x

hi all, well rob is now preparing to get back t work after one of the most horrific weeks of his life. All this has made me research the drugs that i' taking a little more, when i was first given them i just took them and i did read the leaflet but i didn't think aything of it, well now that i've done som more research i've decided that i don't want to take these tablets nymore, because i am not sure that all of my symptoms anymore are down to my pots i think that they ma be reactions to the drugs - as i've said i've been much more active recently and 've been walking everywhere but i'm still acutely aware of the constant pain in my stomach and back and the dizziness, i just don't think i was this sick before medication. so i'm going to wean myself off it very slowly and if i feel better great and if i don't then at least i'll know. off t the docs tomorro to discuss it. apologies for the spelling mistakes - i have vertigo and my keyboard isn't cooperating! becks x x x

hi, thanks for all the advice, off to the docs tomorrow to see if there is anything wrong with me infection wise - fell over again this afternoon in the bathroom - this is getting a little dangerous now, as most of you will know i'm not a small girl!! sue - Apparently i'm late making my christmas cake this year, my mm used to have it done at about september!! and apparently my nan would have had the sprouts cooking by now - ha ha! anyway off to bed for another night of nausea feelinglike i'm on the worst ferry crossing ever. thanks again, i'll ask my doctor tomorrow if she can refer me to anyone - oh and wish me luck i'm trying to persuade them to take me off florinef and paroxetine. becks x x x

hi guys, Has anyone got any ideas for how to get rid of really bad vertigo? i keep falling over and it's kind of like pre syncopal, like i can't stop it happening and i feel like i'm blacking out. i was making my christmas cake with my boyfriend yesterday and i bent down to look i the oven and everything just started spinning and i fell backwards but i couldn't get up everything was going black. So now i have a bruised bum and a sore head where i hit the wall! I don't know if i have any kind of infection that's started this off, but i can't go on like this, i've had it for about three weeks and it's getting worse. any ideas for how to get rid of it will b really appreciated, i've just started at a training school designed to getsick people back to work and it will be my second week this week, providing i can get there without falling over! becks x x x

well its now two days later and my poor robert is still high as a kite! his pupils are still like saucers and he is still shaky - not sleeping and can't sit still. it does say a **** of a lot for these meds. we've been researching them on the internet tonight and they say that even 60mg is considered an overdose, but that wasn't what we were told - i wish i'd just taken him to the hospital, every little noise is making him jump out of his skin and he can't look at lights because they are hurting him. does anyone know how long this will take to get out of his system - the nurse i spoke to said six hours - hmmm think that was wrong. From what i have read it sounds like rob has seratonin syndrome. well at least we know if he ever gets depression he can't take ssri's!! becks x x x

hey guys, just had to tell you about my little accident last night. my boyfriend was not feeling very well last night and at about half twelve i said i'd get him some paracetamol. i knew that i had some in my handbag so i got up and got the box of tablets out of my bag without switching on the light, and gave him two tablets. at about half three however he got up and started throwing up. we had to get up at five to take my cousin to the airport as she had been staying for the weekend. Rob was complaining that he still felt really sick but now he was cold and shaky. when i switched on the bedroom light i saw a box of my seroxat on the bedroom table and it slowly dawned on me that i hadn't given rob two paracetamol i'd given him two (total of 60mg) seroxat. i was so upset, i phoned the nhs helpline straight away and they told me that after six hours of taking them he'd be fine, well he had to take the day off (which he never does) because he was feeling sick and spaced out, it's now 16 hours after he'd taken them and he still feels sick, and his pupils look like he's on ecstasy!! so i'm keeping a really close eye on him, but i feel so terrible, can't believe i poisoned my boyfriend! at least i only gave my ex food poisoning - and belive me he deserved it! any ideas of how to make him feel better would be greatly appreciated. on the plus side however, he feels awful and terribly dizzy so he say's he has new sympathy for me! ha ha, bit drastic to get some sympathy though don't you think? a very humble becks x x x

i am so so sorry to hear your terrible news, you are in my thoughts and prayers. love becks x x x

i was always considered an oddball at school because i was polite and didn't swear and i didn't have screaming arguments with my parents! (i wouldn't dare, my mum has a much worse temper than mine!) instead we spent weekends together because my parents worked full time - i learned to cook at the age of nine and by fourteen i was making the family meal everynight when i got home from school in time for my parents to arrive home so we could all eat together, and unlike all of my friends i loved vegetables and still do. So many of my friends were fussy eaters but if you didn't eat all your dinner you didn't get dessert, and mt mum was known for her puddings!! mum was also known for slapping childrens legs who said they didn't like vegetables, even though they'd never tried them. my ex hated veg and called broccoli "green trees", i have to say though that i blame the parents, children should be taught manners from a young age, including table manners and the importance of eating healthly - i'm no stick insect, or even size fourteen!, but i can see a growing trend for obese, lazy rude children. Willows, i don't think that you are old at all, i used to find the behaviour of some of my friends towards their parents when i went round absolutely digusting, and i'd say to my mum i did't want to see them anymore because they would swear and shout at their paernts, but the worst part for me was that they were allowed to! it didn't matter who was at our house if my sister or i, or any of our cousins for that matter misbehaved, we would get smacked for it, and it's made me a much nicer person. i always say please and thank you and i'm plesant to everybody i meet. anyway, goodluck willows!! love becks x x x

Hi wareagle, i just wanted to say that i thought it was really brave of you to tell your friend the truth about your disability, i know how you feel about not asking for pots. i lost most of my friends when i got pots, i got so tired of their "mind over matter" attitude, they didn't have the illness i did and i know that at the time i didn't have a diagnosis but it made me feel like they didn't believe me, so i stopped seeing people and they stopped calling me. i have now moved to yorkshire with my boyfriend and my best friend from Chester has moved up here aswell. I thought that this was a really good thing because carrie has known me since i got sick so she's bound to understand everything, right? wrong! I was doing some temp work for carrie at the freshers fair at leeds university (my first time working in three years, yeah!!) but carrie seemed to think that because i was working i wasn't sick any more, she kept asking me to do things that i'd told her that i wouldn't be able to do before i started - like standing up handing out flyers for hours? Then in the office i felt like she was showing off to her colleague by making fun of my illness and all the things that i can't do. I felt really stupid and really really hurt when she said to her colleague, whilst i was there that if she were me she'd have probably just shot herself! i Haven't seen her or spoken to her since, i need to calm down first, i don't really think that this is the kind of person i want as a friend. so i'm on the lookout for new - more understanding friends. On the really plus side though, i'm feeling much better now and i'm off to the job centre next week to get a job and back into the land of the living, kind of!! good luck becks x x x

ha ha ha, so glad it's not just me! was in dorothy perkins about two weeks ago looking for an outfit for m boyfriends nieces christening, and i got that feeling, you know the one where your body is about to argue with you on weather or not you are standing up? well, i knew i had about twenty minutes before i would crash land on the floor - so i was frantically trying on stuff and i thought sod it, so i picked up a couple of smart jumpers and some shoes and headed to the till (i don't bother trying stuff on if i don't have to) so whilst at the till i start sweating uncontrolably - like a shower down my face, i've gone very ale and i'm shaking as i hand over my store card, when the sales assistant asks me to sign it i look at her as if she's asked me to climb everest. Hmmm, can't remember my name or how i sign stuff, so i scrawl on the paper something illegible but luckily the sales assistant isn't really paying attention so she just gives me all the stuff! Gosh i feel that my card security is being looked after - not! had to phone rob, who was outside to come and escort me from the shop and to the car still shaking and sweating!! was really surprised that the security guard didn't try to stop me!