u/CantaloupeAlarmed457

Hey everyone! I’m an 23 year old male, professional athlete.
I’m posting here for your opinion about these lab results:
Iron (Fe): 13 umol/l (Reference range: 11.6 - 31.3)
Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin):625 pg/ml (Reference range: 187 - 883)
Total folate (serum): 3.9 ng/ml (Reference range: 3.1 - 20.5)
25(OH)-Vitamin D: 35.5 ng/ml (Reference range: >30; >40 recommended for adults; >150 toxic)
Ferritin: 78.24 ng/ml (Reference range: 21.81 - 274.66)

Although folate is in the reference range it doesn’t seem optimal to me as I’m dealing with strange symptoms, heightened anxiety.

What’s your opinion?

I had a panic attack six months ago, first major one, since then i’m having weird bodily sensations, that I can’t really explain.

Vision seems like I am looking through a much stronger prescription glasses than I need to be.

Sounds and voices sometimes sound like a background noise.

Weird touch sensations in hands sometimes.

Hello! I have been feeling weird sensations and symptoms since my first major panic attack.

Strange visual sharpness, voices and sound sometimes sounds like background noise, strange touch sensations on hands.

It caused massive health anxiety spike.
Someone with similar experience?

Hello! I just want to share my experience and ask if anyone had a similar one and get some advice.

So I had a panic attack in March during training, the typical stuff something felt wrong my legs felt weak and boom, palpitations, feeling like I am dying, crazy stuff.
Next day I return to training and again this sense of impending doom and heart pounding. I continued to play and didn’t have dramatic shift in performance, but just something felt off.
The more I continued to research what is wrong with me the more symptoms came, right now the symptoms are:

\-Vision feels as if i’m wearing stronger prescription glasses than needed

\-Sound sometimes sounds as if it’s kind of background noise, the noise you hear when you are about to fall asleep but still not fully asleep

\- strange touch sensations on hands

Has anyone experienced something similar?

What might be the cause?

What helped you?

Hello! I just want to share my experience and ask if anyone had a similar one and get some advice.

So I had a panic attack in March during training, the typical stuff something felt wrong my legs felt weak and boom, palpitations, feeling like I am dying, crazy stuff.
Next day I return to training and again this sense of impending doom and heart pounding. I continued to play and didn’t have dramatic shift in performance, but just something felt off.
The more I continued to research what is wrong with me the more symptoms came, right now the symptoms are:

-Vision feels as if i’m wearing stronger prescription glasses than needed

-Sound sometimes sounds as if it’s kind of background noise, the noise you hear when you are about to fall asleep but still not fully asleep

- strange touch sensations on hands

Has anyone experienced something similar?

What might be the cause?

What helped you?

I’m posting here because I’m trying to find people who have experienced a similar **post-viral neurological/vestibular syndrome**. I’m not certain that my original infection was COVID.

I was previously very active and athletic. Around the beginning of February, I started feeling unusually sick and “out of it.” I initially thought I was simply coming down with an infection.
After initially improving, I suddenly developed an episode of **extremely severe spinning vertigo**. I could barely stand or walk because everything was spinning violently, and I had to lie down. The following morning I developed a fever for around 3–4 days, followed by a very severe sore throat that took approximately 2–3 weeks to fully resolve.

Later, during training, I suddenly developed strange visual sensations and sensitivity to bright lights. I had one panic attack during that episode, but I have not continued having panic attacks. The persistent problem since then has been physical/neurological/sensory symptoms, not recurrent panic.
My symptoms now include:
\-feeling generally “off” or neurologically strange
\-intermittent visual/spatial disturbances, particularly when looking at things close up
\-dizziness/head pressure during certain visual or movement situations, including driving
\-unusual touch sensations, mainly in my hands — sometimes touch feels slightly muted or doesn’t seem perfectly localized to where I’m touching
\-very brief episodes while walking where my body/legs feel “jelly-like” or strangely absent for 1–2 seconds
\-sensory overload, where sounds can sometimes seem unusually background-like
\-symptoms are generally much better after waking and become more noticeable throughout the day
\-cold hands at times
recently making more accidental typing mistakes on my phone

Can a viral illness trigger Vestibular Migraines?
Can it coexist with objective 37% hypofunction of one inner ear?
What was able to help?

I'm trying to understand whether the illness I had in February could have been my first EBV infection or whether it was more likely a reactivation of a previous infection. I'd really appreciate input from people who have had EBV/mono and recognize this kind of situation.

I was previously very active and athletic and had never experienced anything like this before.

Around the beginning of February, I started feeling unusually sick and “out of it.” I initially thought I was simply getting ill. After briefly feeling somewhat better, I suddenly developed an episode of extremely severe spinning vertigo. I could barely stand or walk because everything was spinning violently and had to stay lying down.

The following morning I developed a fever that lasted around 3–4 days, followed by a very severe sore throat. The sore throat was particularly bad for the first 1–2 weeks and took approximately 2–3 weeks to fully resolve.

I eventually recovered from the obvious infection, but I never completely returned to my previous baseline.

Later, during sports training, I suddenly developed strange visual sensations and sensitivity to bright lights. I had one panic attack during that episode, but I have not continued having panic attacks. Since then, the main issue has been intermittent physical/neurological/sensory symptoms rather than recurrent panic attacks.

My symptoms now include:

- feeling generally “off” or neurologically strange
- intermittent visual/spatial disturbances, particularly when looking at things close up
- dizziness/head pressure during certain visual or movement situations, including driving
- unusual touch sensations, mainly in my hands — sometimes touch feels slightly muted or doesn't seem perfectly localized to where I'm touching
- very brief episodes while walking where my body/legs feel “jelly-like” or strangely absent for around 1–2 seconds
- sensory overload, where sounds can sometimes seem unusually background-like
- symptoms are generally much better after waking and become more noticeable throughout the day
- occasional cold hands
- recently making more accidental typing mistakes on my phone
- brain fog/ spaced out feeling

One important objective finding is that vestibular testing showed approximately 37% vestibular hypofunction.

I also had a neurological examination about a month ago that was reportedly normal.

Here are my EBV/CMV blood results:

EBV IgG immunoblot:
- 11 signal
- Lab interpretation: 0–5 negative, 6–10 borderline, 11–25 positive, 26–50 good positive, >50 strong positive

EBV IgM immunoblot:
- 13 signal
- Lab interpretation: 0–5 negative, 6–10 borderline, 11–25 positive, 26–50 good positive, >50 strong positive

EBV EBNA-1 IgG:
- 466 U/ml
- Reference: <20 negative, 20–25 borderline, >25 positive

EBV VCA IgM:
- 0.18 S/CO
- Reference: <0.50 negative, 0.50–1.00 borderline, >=1.00 positive

EBV VCA IgG:
- 25.54 S/CO
- Reference: <0.75 negative, 0.75–1.00 borderline, >=1.00 positive

CMV IgM:
- 0.11 S/CO
- Reference: <0.85 negative, 0.85–1.00 borderline, >=1.00 positive

CMV IgG:
- 168.4 AU/ml
- Reference: <6.0 negative, 6.0–15.0 borderline, >=15.0 positive

I recently spoke with an infectious-disease doctor who has a particular interest in EBV. After looking at my results, she told me that she does not think this represents an acute EBV infection now, but suspects that EBV may have been reactivated/persisting around the time of my February illness. She also thinks CMV may have reactivated and recommended investigating other herpes-family viruses.

This is where I'm confused, because I don't know how to interpret the combination of the positive EBV IgG/EBNA-1 IgG, negative VCA IgM, but positive EBV IgM immunoblot.

My main questions are:

- Does this pattern look more like a previous EBV infection with possible reactivation, or could it represent a first/primary EBV infection?
- Could I have caught EBV for the first time around February, with the blood test being performed months later?
- How meaningful is the positive EBV IgM immunoblot when the VCA IgM CMIA is negative?
- Is there any way these results can tell whether EBV was active around February, or would PCR/other testing be needed?

I’m posting here because I’m trying to find people who have experienced a similar post-viral neurological/vestibular syndrome.

I was previously very active and athletic. Around the beginning of February, I started feeling unusually sick and “out of it.” I initially thought I was simply coming down with an infection.

After initially improving, I suddenly developed an episode of extremely severe spinning vertigo. I could barely stand or walk because everything was spinning violently, and I had to lie down. The following morning I developed a fever for around 3–4 days, followed by a very severe sore throat that took approximately 2–3 weeks to fully resolve.

I eventually recovered from the obvious infection, but I never completely returned to my previous baseline.

Later, during training, I suddenly developed strange visual sensations and sensitivity to bright lights. I had one panic attack during that episode, but I have not continued having panic attacks. The persistent problem since then has been physical/neurological/sensory symptoms, not recurrent panic.

My symptoms now include:

- feeling generally “off” or neurologically strange
- intermittent visual/spatial disturbances, particularly when looking at things close up
- dizziness/head pressure during certain visual or movement situations, including driving
- unusual touch sensations, mainly in my hands — sometimes touch feels slightly muted or doesn't seem perfectly localized to where I'm touching
- very brief episodes while walking where my body/legs feel “jelly-like” or strangely absent for 1–2 seconds
- sensory overload, where sounds can sometimes seem unusually background-like
- symptoms are generally much better after waking and become more noticeable throughout the day
- cold hands at times
- recently making more accidental typing mistakes on my phone

One important objective finding is that vestibular testing showed approximately 37% vestibular hypofunction.

I also had a neurological examination about a month ago that was reportedly normal.

I'm currently being investigated for possible EBV/CMV involvement because my illness had some features that made my infectious-disease doctor consider viral reactivation. I have EBV/CMV bloodwork that I can attach.

Has anyone experienced something similar, particularly severe vertigo at the beginning followed by documented vestibular hypofunction and months of strange visual, sensory and spatial symptoms?

If you eventually figured out what was causing your symptoms, what did it turn out to be and what actually helped?

Hi everyone,
I’m a 23-year-old male with persistent vestibular symptoms that started immediately after a severe viral infection 5 months ago.
My main symptoms are:
Constant lightheadedness (not true spinning vertigo).
Visual overload, especially in supermarkets, malls and busy environments.
Bright light and sudden changes from dark to bright (like exiting a tunnel) make my symptoms much worse.
Motion sensitivity while driving.
Feeling like I might faint in certain situations, although I never actually do.
Sounds sometimes feel “different”, almost like background noise or as if my brain processes them differently.
Brain fog and difficulty processing multiple sensory stimuli.
I often prefer wearing sunglasses because bright light feels overwhelming.
Vestibular testing:
Rotational chair: 37% left vestibular weakness/asymmetry.
vHIT: Normal.
Neurological examination was normal.
Has anyone experienced something similar after a viral illness? Did you end up being diagnosed with vestibular neuritis, PPPD, vestibular migraine, binocular vision dysfunction, or something else?

Hi everyone,
I’m a national team volleyball athlete and I’m hoping to get some insight from people who have experienced PPPD or something similar.
About 4 months ago I got a viral illness unlike anything I’ve had before. It started with an episode of severe room-spinning vertigo that lasted around 1–2 hours. I couldn’t stand up without falling over. After the vertigo settled, I still felt off for the rest of the day, and then developed a fever, sore throat, and the usual viral symptoms. I was treated with antibiotics.
Around two weeks later, the infection had cleared, but I noticed something still wasn’t right. My biggest concern wasn’t the vertigo anymore—it was that my visual processing felt different. The world didn’t look unreal, but it felt like my brain was processing visual information differently than before.
When I returned to training, I became much more aware of these symptoms. That led to a lot of anxiety and eventually a panic attack. The panic attack happened after these symptoms had already started. Despite everything, I was still able to compete at a high level for a while, but I eventually took a break because I knew something wasn’t right.
My current symptoms include:
-A persistent feeling that my visual processing has changed.
-Swaying or rocking sensations, especially after busy days or a lot of visual stimulation.
-Bright white lights are very uncomfortable.
-Large open spaces make my symptoms worse.
-Blue-light blocking glasses seem to help.
-When I close my eyes, I often feel like I’m being pulled from side to side or forwards and backwards. If I keep my eyes closed for too long, I feel like I could lose my balance or fall.
-Frequent headaches.
-Lightheadedness and head pressure.