> I have a problem with vertigo that comes and goes. I get dizzy and lose my
> balance on escalators. I also get dizzy when I lay on my left side. I
> think
> this is simply and inner-ear problem for me. What kind of dizziness do
you
> have?
>
> Sharon M. (from Arizona)
>
I also am off-balance at times. It seems especially worse when I'm standing
still without holding on to or touching something else, but it happens other
times, too. The physical therapist told me what that was due to, but I have
forgotten what she said. She did have me do some exercises that seemed to
help (standing, with her nearby to catch me if I fell, and leaning way over
to one side, then the other, then backward, then forward, with my eyes
closed, and then progressed to doing this with my eyes closed while standing
on a pillow.) This has been since TM, but several years before TM I had
trouble with extreme dizziness and trembling hands and was told it was due to
hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). I think that probably is the case because,
when I experience it, it is helped when I eat, and when I was at the dr. I
felt so dizzy I felt like I was going to fall off the table, and he checked
my blood sugar then, and it was low, even though I had eaten that morning. A
lot of what I have read about low blood sugar seems to fit my case. But it
was also around that time that I began having thyroid problems, and about six
years later I was stricken with TM. I've been thinking of each problem as
distinct and separate, but sometimes I've wondered if there is a connection.
About two years before TM I had my third child and experienced numbness in
two toes in one leg and it really frightened me. It was thought that since
the baby was so big (12 lbs.!!), maybe at some point a nerve was affected. I
don't remember how long it lasted -- maybe a few weeks. After TM, I asked the
neurologist if there was a connection. He didn't think so. But I still
wonder.
Barbara