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Vertigo symptoms?

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Posted 1/17/2017 9:43 AM (GMT -6)
Happy New Year. Hope everyone is doing as well as they can.

Question: I have been having difficulty around flourscent lights and extreme sun. This weekend I had 6 basketball games between my 4 kids and a field trip all around flourscent lights. Since then, my nose and cheeks are red, I have a headache and am extremely dizzy. To the point of motion sickness. I did wear a baseball cap for all the games. Is this related to the lights or am I developing vertigo? I am afraid to drive since turning makes the dizziness worse.

Luckily I see my rheumy today so hopefully I can get some answers.
Posted 1/17/2017 10:07 AM (GMT -6)
I seem to get a few days of vertigo every few months, but haven't been able to correlate it to anything in particular. Interesting idea that it might be related to our photo-sensitivity, I will have to keep an eye out for that.

In general, I think that anything that triggers our overactive auto-immune response, in this case all your florescent light exposure, can cause inflammation in other places. Vertigo isn't listed anywhere in anything medical that I can find as being related to any inflammation, but personally I think they ARE related.

Other than making sure you are well hydrated, I haven't found anything that really helps the vertigo either. (Could you have gotten dehydrated when out & about at all the basketball?) Sometimes we get "benign positional vertigo" where crystals form in our ears - maybe try the Epley Maneuver /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epley_maneuver sometimes it gives me relief.

Please don't drive with vertigo! Let us know what you find out.
Posted 1/17/2017 10:13 AM (GMT -6)
Thanks Lynwood. I have been very hydrated. Prednosone makes me very thirsty for some reason!!! I have always gotten sick in too much light or sun but never this dizziness. I could not even vacuum yesterday without falling. Thankfully my mom is around to drive places since my husband is too sick to count on. I will let you know what the rheumy says today.
Posted 1/17/2017 10:51 PM (GMT -6)
Lisa, check out coolibar.com. They sell wide brim hats with sunscreen in them. They also have some wonderful clothes with sunscreen in them.

I forgot my hat the other day and spent 2 hours in the sun and florescent lights. Needless to say I felt terrible the next day and had to have a rest day.

I get bouts of vertigo too. Don't know why, been to an ENT for testing too. He was scratching his head too.
Posted 1/18/2017 8:29 AM (GMT -6)
Thanks Joy. My rheumy said he had no clue as to why I would feel that way and can't relate it to anything with my symptoms. I will check out that site.
Posted 1/18/2017 9:37 PM (GMT -6)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23423252

Vertigo can be caused by many different things and Lupus is one of them. Most common type is called BPPV which is benign proximal positional vertigo and is when the microcrystals in the inner ear move into other ear canals causing your brain to be confused. It usually subsides but can be treated by specially trained PTs who can reposition the crystals.

Bill
Posted 1/20/2017 9:20 PM (GMT -6)
My son gets headaches, extremely dizzy and nauseous when he is exposed to flourescent lighting for and extended period of time. He is a teacher and has had to have the school install protective tubes over every fluorescent bulb in his classroom. His wife also washes his clothes in a sun protective coating, much like Rite you can purchase it on Amazon. He wear's sunscreen everyday to work and had a special pair of glasses made with an amber coating. All of this has helped immensely, his headaches have been greatly reduced as have his dizziness. My son was going for his masters when this was at his worse, his Rheumatologist and Neurologist in Denver diagnosed him with NPSLE Neuropsychiatric Systemic Lupus Erythemathosus because of these symptoms.
Posted 1/21/2017 6:40 AM (GMT -6)
Thanks. I am going to look for that detergent. Do the glasses work if you have a prescription?
Posted 1/21/2017 9:17 AM (GMT -6)
The sun protectant I was referring to is called Sun Guard. Yes, my son has prescription glasses. He worked with his optometrist to get a coating for working on computers, this cuts down on the glare. They also worked on getting an amber lens, so he didn't have to wear sunglasses in his classroom, but this combination has worked great.
Posted 1/21/2017 9:21 AM (GMT -6)
Thanks. Today I wore a hat, sun screen and sun glasses. It did help quite a bit. Although I looked silly!
Posted 1/21/2017 1:25 PM (GMT -6)
Lisa, I get complements on my different hats and gloves.
I buy simple hats and decorate them with fancy hair bands.
Posted 1/21/2017 1:29 PM (GMT -6)
Great idea Joy! Thanks.
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