Dizziness Or Lightheaded?

[minaleigh 95]

Hey all!

I am currently about 6 weeks out and for the past few, maybe several, days I have been feeling very dizzy and lightheaded. At first, it was only when I got up too fast. Now it's whenever I move my upper body, particularly my head, too fast. It sometimes gets so bad, that I almost fall over if I don't have anything around to catch myself on. Sometimes, my vision sort of blacks out when this happens, with a bunch of colored dots appearing mainly in the bottom half of my vision. Has anyone else experienced this? I don't think it's because I'm low on Protein or Fluid intake, in fact I've even upped it to see if it'd help. Nada. It gets so sensitive sometimes, it even happens when I just switch positions in bed or reach over to turn off the alarm clock. At work, it's annoying because I am on my feet all day but I do have to bend down a lot. When I get back up, it feels like I just got off a 50 mph merry-go-round, but without the nausea!

My mom suggested that maybe my sugar was low. Granted, I am pretty much sugar-free in my diet, I've never had much of a problem since I was never hypoglycemic or anything similar. Do I need to just up my fluids even more? Even when I was so dehydrated that I had to go to the ER, I never felt this way. Maybe more Protein? I didn't have this problem when I was right after surgery and couldn't get in any protein in while just on fluids. I would call my doctor but he's still on vacation in another country, and I'd rather not ask his PA because she is such a witch! If it continues, I might break down and do it, though!

Anyone have any advice? TIA!

[Becca 108]

When I felt light headed, I was anemic. Take Iron and try to get in as much Protein as possible. Hope you feel better soon!

[circa 333]

You could be anemic - try upping your Iron intake. The other option could be a sinus infection. Its that time of year!

[monty 18]

Check your blood pressure. If you were on meds for BP you may need to have the dosage adjusted as you lose weight.

[minaleigh 95]

Thanks for the suggestion guys. I should check my Iron since I was borderline anemic before surgery. I don't think it's blood pressure and never have had to take meds for it. My BP averaged 110/70 before surgery (one of the good things I inherited from my mom as my dad has borderline high BP!). In fact, it might be too low right now. When I went to the doctor's last, it was 85/60, which I think is on the low side. I'll check that as well, just in case.

Thanks guys!

[5McK 10]

My NUT warned me not to go sugar-free. She said things like dizziness and nausea would occur if I did. Make sure you are getting some sugar into your diet.

Hope you get feeling better soon!

[SKCUNNINGHAM 298]

Call your doctor (I would call my PCP - but you might want to call your surgeon) and walk them through your symptoms. They may want to take blood and see what is going on.

I do think you probably need Iron, and you may also be low on B12 - but I am not a doctor and you will really only know for sure if they do bloodwork.

[Jeanie Sleevy 3]

Things to keep an eye on... low blood pressure & low blood sugar.

[101driver 46]

I recently experienced terrible dizziness and I think it was something viral. I was slightly feverish and terribly dizzy for over a week. It's going away, slowly but surely. Maybe you have a bug that's affecting your inner ear?

[veronicaj5 0]

I don't know if this helps but when my blood sugar drops I get dizzy and my hands start to shake and my body trembles a little

[Lisa821 29]

I think its related to anemia which means you need Iron. A friend of mine, with the sleeve, had the same symptoms and needed iron infusions weekly for a while. Yup, IV but she felt a huge improvement after the very first infusion. If I were, I would see a doctor today. The other thing may be something called benign positional vertigo, which is an inner ear problem but usually easily fixed with Epley's Manuevers. They are body positions. No matter what, I would see a doctor for evaluation today.

[minaleigh 95]

For some reason, I didn't get a notice on any of these replies. I do have an update though and I did find out I am hypoglycemic. Apparently, my mom has known this whole time, and I didn't. Go figure. I've noticed that I feel better when I eat more than 35 grams of carbs, which makes sense because even wikipedia says, "Management of hypoglycemia involves immediately raising the blood sugar to normal... The blood glucose can be raised to normal within minutes by taking (or receiving) 10-20 grams of carbohydrate."

Pre-surgery, I had occasional dizzying spells, but never had much problem because to be honest, I was a carb baby. My favorite food has been bread even before I could walk. I know a lot of people on here push push push a low carb diet of less than 30 grams. I really don't think I can. My dizzying spells have been getting so bad lately, that now I do feel nauseous, while VERY disoriented making it seem like I'm going to fall over, and like someone is taking my head into their hands and squeezing.

I'm going to see my NUT, who I haven't seen since my one month checkup and I'm two months out, to see if she can recommend a more specific meal plan. The handout she gave me at the beginning was very vague, only stating how much Protein and Water to take in and not much else. I'll also see my surgeon just so I can ask questions and because it'll a free doctor's visit since my insurance's grace period after surgery ends soon.

Thanks for the reply guys!

[5McK 10]

Glad you have an answer and it's something that can be adjusted with your diet to make you feel better!

[dramagirl28 22]

I hope you've got it figured out, but just to add another possibility--dizziness is a side effect of omeprazole. If you're on a ppi, you might want to check that out too.

[minaleigh 95]

Instead of making a new thread about it, I just wanted to update what I found out. I went to the doctor last month after having more episodes of extreme lightheadedness, especially when I stand up. They did some tests and found out the probable two main causes:

My blood pressure is actually lower when I'm standing up than when I'm sitting down. It would drop from 120/75-ish sitting down to 105/60-ish standing up.

I completely forgot the name but it was basically an ultrasound of the neck. They found out I have no plaque, but the two main arteries in the neck are 50% narrower than they should be, which is a moderate risk (which is between mild and severe, I'm told). They said I need to avoid fried foods and carbonation (both easy for me), but also eggs and cheese... which is not so easy considering those are two of my main Protein sources.

Apparently they want to test my cholesterol. I'm sort of worried because my dad usually had high cholesterol (he has since lowered it but I believe it to still be in the high normal range), but my mom has always had low cholesterol. I just hope I have something in between!

They have prescribed dizziness medicine, which I now carry with me in my purse everywhere!