@thenystagmus so glad you'll be able to start treatment soon - hopefully that should make a big difference. I was diagnosed with Labyrinthitis about 6 years ago after a severe cold. It wiped me out for about 10 days but was more severe in the beginning.
All the symptoms I currently have are exactly the same as then, but seem to be taking a lot longer to shift.
One good thing is I did get to sleep on my side - YAY! So keeping everything crossed that I'm on the right side of it and it'll be gone soon.
That's great! Well, I did hope I would start therapy soon ...but haven't heard back from my clinic for a while now. I don't really know what's best to do or not do, but I've been pushing myself through my dizzy discomfort to do as much as possible and seem to be progressing. My own therapy, I guess. I took my son to a yearly appointment with his neurosurgeon today and he said lots of patients are reporting post vaccine issues. The nurse said they hit a vein in her arm with her second vaccine, so she basically got it like an IV push and the heart pains that were mild the first time were a lot worse the second time. Wow, does that sound scary!
thanks for this. Here in Canada the second shot is 4 months from the first. So I have time to consider my options re: second dose.
That's good. It will be good to see what is learned and what changes might happen for recommendations by then.
...Fingers crossed this goes away for all of us and we don’t become vaccine “long haulers”.
Yes! I really hope our bodies can sort out what we've unwittingly done to them, given some time and all the good care we're trying to give ourselves!
...Official medical sites are waiting for real data analytics, which takes a long time to collect and produce. In the meantime, we humans are participants and need real time answers for our problems. Knowing there are other people in similar situations as ours is of tremendous help.
Thank you for sharing your post vaccine experience and your viewpoints as a retired medical professional!
I understand that it's important to have studies with control groups to effectively evaluate these kinds of things, but it is extremely frustrating to have such a dearth of information for those of us affected and also for the medical professionals we seek assistance from. It's rather ironic that our patient response forum has been such a valuable resource in the interlude between this mass vaccination effort and the appearance of case studies of less common reactions and controlled studies to reference. My hope is that the development of these official resources be not stifled in the interest of encouraging vaccine compliance.
I hope you recover well and soon!
I got my first shot of Pfizer in early March 2021. Ten minutes after receiving it, I got a wave of nausea and dizziness that lasted about a minute or two. I reported this to the pharmacist who said that nausea was a symptom of the vaccine, asked if I was okay to drive, and let me go home. That day I had a few more similar waves of nausea and dizziness that lasted only briefly, followed by a feeling of general unwellness and a sore arm. The next day I was pretty much back to normal save the arm.
On March 28, 2021 I got my second dose of the vaccine. Before the shot, the same pharmacist asked me if I had any symptoms and I reported to her again my experience and she said to expect something similar with the second shot. You can imagine my surprise when after the second shot, I felt nothing other than a sore arm. That was until nine days later when I was hit with an extreme wave of dizziness, nausea, and lightheadedness. It was right after lunch, so I thought maybe I ate something off and took the rest of the afternoon off to rest. For the next several days I felt the same nausea and dizziness with no reprieve other than laying in bed propped up on pillows. I had what doctors thought was BPPV in 2017, which at the time was so debilitating I couldn't even walk for almost 3 weeks. This now feels like how that felt, just not as severe.
I called my doctor that day and reported everything and she said she didn't think it could be tied to the vaccine as I'm "too far out" at day 10 to experience symptoms related to the vaccine. I went to my doctor's clinic on the 11th day after my shot and reported everything that had happened with my vaccine again to the provider I saw, including how I found this forum and how many people seem to have vertigo trigger due to the vaccine. Again the doctor refused to even acknowledge that it could be tied to the vaccine and diagnosed me as having "motion sickness" due to my age and gender (I'm 33f). They checked me for BPPV and it was negative. He prescribed Dramamine to help get me by daily but the side effects of that aren't great either.
It is incredibly frustrating having doctors refuse to acknowledge this could be vaccine-related. Nothing in my life has changed to suddenly cause an onset of daily motion sickness/vertigo other than getting the vaccine. I'm hopeful after spending a lot of time on this thread that my symptoms will improve over time. Thank you all for sharing your story and providing some suggestions.
Hmmm ...my experience with motion sickness is that it's a reaction to being exposed to an unusual increase in motion. I definitely understand your frustration with being given that diagnosis!
@gillcullingfordgmail-com Hi, thank you for your concern. It's been 7 weeks for me also. I still get dizzy feelings and headaches but I think they are slowly improving. Like you, not sure about getting the second vaccine. If I get a run of good days I think that will help me decide. How are you doing?
@drmili43 That's great news! It's so reassuring to hear of people recovering from these weird side effects albeit some sooner than others. Take care.
@erinmpetersen Hi, I'm so sorry to hear what you have been through. I don't know how doctors can dismiss vertigo/dizziness from being a side effect from the covid vaccine when they can't possibly know. I was interested to read that you have been getting side effects from dramamine. I've been taking it for a few days and I think it has helped with the dizziness but it makes me a little groggy even though I have the non drowsy ones. I do hope you feel better soon!
@arthur Hello, just wondering how you are? Hope you are making a good recovery from your DVT.
@bees Hi, so sorry you are going through these horrible side effects from the vaccine. So many people here have similar stories but some have other weird side effects going on also. For me it's been mostly dizziness and headaches but I have had strange aches and pains in my back. It's almost like the flu symptoms but I'm 7 weeks post first vaccine. Like you hesitating about the second one. All we can do is play it be ear, take one day at a time, try to exercise and eat a healthy diet. I hope and pray we all get well again very soon. Take care.
Hello, thank you very much for telling me. Could you tell me which facebook group it is? I would like to be included
When I was feeling lightheaded, my cousin (doctor) said to elevate my legs on pillows when I lay down and that helped. I also know an audiologist, and when I asked if she has heard about this, she responded:
“Yes, I am aware of anecdotal reports of tinnitus and dizziness with Covid, but also as a side effect of the vaccine as well.” She did say that it does go away.
Unfortunately, Western medicine trains doctors in a way that makes doctors think they know better than their patients. They are not trained to really listen to their patients well, often dismissing the patient's concerns which leads to inaccurate or delayed diagnosis or worse.
Hi all. Just wanted to follow up on my progress since my last post. Exactly 7 days after my second Pfizer dose, I I was walloped by a severe case of vertigo that landed me in the ER. I had never had vertigo before in my life and was struck with severe dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. And I am happy to say, 10 days later, I'm finally feeling a lot better.
After talking to my PCP, he was convinced it was caused by a viral inner ear infection, but I'm not so sure. At any rate, I followed the advice of many on here and took a break from my beloved morning caffeine, amped up my Vitamin C intake (I take 1,200 MG daily), added in some occasional zinc, and I still take a Zyrtec D in the morning and a Benadryl at night. After 7 days, I turned a big corner and felt much less wobbly on my feet and the spins were gone. I'm now about 85-90% better. I still have that "whoa"/lightheaded feeling when I walk and when I quickly look left or right...but hopefully that will resolve soon. It's been sloooooow going - but at least baby steps of progress have been made over that last 10 days. I feel for all of you. Vertigo sucks!
Hope you're all hanging in there. I'll report back once again...once I'm (hopefully) back to completely normal. Fingers crossed that's at the end of this week.
Good morning! This is the first post that I've shared (so please forgive me if I have done this wrong!). First of all, I'm so grateful that I found this forum as it gave me so much information that has been helpful. Not to mention that I wasn't alone in this.
Secondly, I like to share my journey so far, trying to be as brief as possible.....
I received my first Moderna shot on 3/30 and the following is a day-to-day synopsis of my reaction(s):
Days 1 and 2 - sore arm and a bit tired
Days 3 and 4 - I began with some dizziness, but having seasonal allergies, I didn't think much of it
Day 5 - began with nausea, increased dizziness and problems with my peripheral vision (I was a passenger in a car and had to keep my eyes closed for the duration of the trip). Came home and immediately went to bed.
Day 6 - Easter Sunday - this was the worst day, so bad that I couldn't get out of bed. Extreme vertigo and literally holding on to anything and everything just to maneuver about the house. All area urgent care facilities were closed so I called the doctor covering for my PCP. She seemed to think it was BPPV and prescribed meclazine.
Day 7 - called my PCP and couldn't get an appointment until Friday! So, I went to urgent care and they weren't of much help. Agreed that it was most likely BPPV and recommended I follow YouTube instructions on how to do the Epley Maneuver. I also stopped taking the meclazine as I wasn't sure that it was making a difference. At this point, my blood pressure was fluctuating and I had episodes of a rapid heartbeat.
Days 8 - 10 - Tried the Epley Maneuver with no success. Began drinking Emergen-C and ginger tea, taking 2 Aleves (1 in the morning and 1 at night) along with Zyrtec (as I said, I have many allergies), vitamin D3 and Zyflammend (herbal supplement that claims to help with inflammation). At this point I was progressively feeling better.
Day 11 - went for my visit with my PCP. She agreed that it was most likely from the vaccine and not BPPV as she had seen many bizarre reactions from other patients (none had experienced symptoms like mine). She advised that I put off having my second shot until my body had recovered (it's been rescheduled to May 20 instead of April 27). She also said to keep doing what I was doing. She did diagnose me with nystagmus in my R eye (never had before). She said that she would prescribe a patch if I didn't continue to feel better.
Days 12 - 15(today) - As each day passes, I feel more and more like my old self. Still a bit unsteady on my feet at times. I have driven short distances (no highway as of yet) without a problem (except for fighting off a panic attack the first time).
Based on this, I'm hoping that I can put all of this behind me within the next week. I will say that I'm not looking forward to the second shot, but I will get it. I also signed up for V-Safe and did file a VAER report.
Hang in there and if I can be of help to anyone, please reach out.
@rbhubbard Have your symptoms subsided yet? I am on week 4 after my first Pfizer vaccine and still having the headaches and the feeling of unsteadiness. What did your MD's recommend? Hope you are feeling better.