u/PiperFall77

Around 1.5 years ago I woke up one morning with the most intense severe vertigo, the entire room was visually spinning around me. I saw an out of hours doctor who believed it was labyrinthitis and gave me prochlorperazine. It cleared up within around a week.

A few months later I had an unrelated fall at work (thanks to my hypermobile ankles) and hit my head on a tree. 4 days or so later I experienced fairly severe pressure in my head and ended up in a&e for around 30 hours where they did a CT scan, and then a follow up MRI (or could be the other way round) a few days later as they thought they saw chiari malformation (but discounted that after the second scan). I was told then that it was likely something vestibular and to see an ENT.

I didnt have any symptoms for months and months so never asked for an ENT referral, however symptoms have massively flared up lately. I have periods of several days/weeks where I feel a pressure around the centre band of my head and over the bridge of my nose, medium vertigo (which is a sensation rather than spinning), pain in my left ear and some very brief dizzy spells. My balance centre is very much off and I have gentle swaying feeling like I’ve had a few beers, plus some brain fog.

Over the past 3-4 months or so I've seen several GPs who have each said labyrinthitis each time even though it feels different to my first episode of labyrinthitis and the focus is often more on the pressure rather than the vertigo. My own research leads me to consider vestibular migraines, but the last GP I saw, who did do a referral to ENT for me, suspects menieres disease.

I live in the UK and while the NHS is wonderful for many things, I know current waiting lists are around 6 months in my area for an ENT appointment. What can/could I do in the mean time? I don't take any medication for it, although am currently on omeprazole for gastro issues. I'm able to carry on life mostly as normal but it's really unpleasant and I'm really starting to get anxious about more alarming causes.

Other info: 40f, lots of gastro issues (coaliec, hiatus hernia, suspected IBS), also diagnosed with autism (level 1).

Around 1.5 years ago I woke up one morning with the most intense severe vertigo, the entire room was visually spinning around me. I saw an out of hours doctor who believed it was labyrinthitis and gave me prochlorperazine. It cleared up within around a week.

A few months later I had an unrelated fall at work (thanks to my hypermobile ankles) and hit my head on a tree. 4 days or so later I experienced fairly severe pressure in my head and ended up in a&e for around 30 hours where they did a CT scan, and then a follow up MRI (or could be the other way round) a few days later as they thought they saw chiari malformation (but discounted that after the second scan). I was told then that it was likely something vestibular and to see an ENT.

I didnt have any symptoms for months and months so never asked for an ENT referral, however symptoms have massively flared up lately. I have periods of several days/weeks where I feel a pressure around the centre band of my head and over the bridge of my nose, medium vertigo (which is a sensation rather than spinning), pain in my left ear and some very brief dizzy spells. My balance centre is very much off and I have gentle swaying feeling like I’ve had a few beers, plus some brain fog.

Over the past 3-4 months or so I've seen several GPs who have each said labyrinthitis each time even though it feels different to my first episode of labyrinthitis and the focus is often more on the pressure rather than the vertigo. My own research leads me to consider vestibular migraines, but the last GP I saw, who did do a referral to ENT for me, suspects menieres disease.

I live in the UK and while the NHS is wonderful for many things, I know current waiting lists are around 6 months in my area for an ENT appointment. What can/could I do in the mean time? I don't take any medication for it, although am currently on omeprazole for gastro issues. I'm able to carry on life mostly as normal but it's really unpleasant and I'm really starting to get anxious about more alarming causes.

Other info: 40f, lots of gastro issues (coaliec, hiatus hernia, suspected IBS), also diagnosed with autism (level 1).