Question about Previous History of Vertigo

[tyki]

As most of you know, I'm very new to the board. Going through training this weekend. First night was great, tomorrow we hit the pool for the first time. I had a complete physical just after Christmas and came through with flying colors, so I figured I was all set. BUT something came up tonight that I hadn't thought of until I was filling out the medical info form.

About 2 years ago, I had a bout with vertigo. At first I thought I had an inner ear infection, but the dizziness was getting progressively worse, instead of better. Went to an ENT specialist and after a battery of tests was told I had "benign positional vertigo", otherwise known as loose rocks in my head. Actually the explanation they gave was that calcium deposits had broken free from the ear drum and were floating around in the inner ear. They did a positional adjustment and I had to sleep sitting up for a few days, and the dizzy spells (vertigo) disappeared. I have not had any further problems with it. The question I have is will this one time occurrence be likely to cause me problems with diving? The dive shop has told me I need to see my doc and get a medical form signed by him to say it is okay to go ahead with the certification.

Since my family physician is not a dive physician, I thought I would ask some of the experts here what there thoughts or experiences with this sort of thing has been. Of course, I will be making an appointment with the family doc as soon as possible in hopes of getting the green light to dive.

tyki crosses her fingers and hopes she doesn't become a land-locked diver-wannabe


thanks for any info you might be able to provide.

[scubadoc]

It would seem that if you have not had a problem in two years that you would be OK to dive. The dive shop is being cautious (appropriately) and you should do as they say.

However, it is unclear that a simple medical clearance by your physician would provide the information that they need to rule out further difficulty with this (nebulous ) condition. If you indeed had this condition, it could have been cured in the emergency department by some simple maneuvers (the Epley maneuver):

To perform the Epley maneuver:
Have the patient sit upright on the gurney (stretcher)with the head turned 45 degrees to the affected side.
Place your hands on either side of the patient's head and guide the patient down with head dependent (as in Dix-Hallpike maneuver).
Rotate the head 90 degrees with face upwards and maintain dependent position (head is hanging over the edge of the gurney).
Ask the patient to roll onto his side while holding the head in this position.
Rotate the head so that it is facing obliquely downward, with the nose 45 degrees below horizontal.
Raise the patient to a sitting position while maintaining head rotation.
Simultaneously rotate the head to central position and move it 45 degrees forward.

It would seem to us that you should be aware that you might have a recurrence of this condition but it would be quite rare.

Take this information to your diving physician and also to your dive instructors.

[tyki]

scubadoc,

Thanks for confirming what I believed would be the answer. The family physician was initially unfamiliar with the condition, hence the referral to a specialist. After testing to rule out other potential problems, BPV was the diagnosis, and the treatment you describe above was essentially what they did. The lay description was "putting the rocks in your head in a place where they won't bother your balance until your body reabsorbs the calcium". As I said, I haven't had a recurrence, though was told there was a remote chance it could happen again at any time, or may never recur.

I guess my next step is to find a local doc who is qualified as a dive doc. Family physician is a good GP (we are rarely sick) but definitely isn't specialized. Since the BPV, hadn't been back to the doc, till I scheduled a physical.

Hoping to continue with this wonderful adventure

tyki