dizzy

[jankar]

I am dizzy all the time now - had shot #5 on Friday night, been getting dizzy for about a week now, getting worse. All my other symptoms except fatigue are abating quite well, had a couple of quite good days last week but the dizziness is getting to me.
Why am I dizzy - is it just another symptom?

[jdwithhcv]

Have you had a complete blood count done since you began treatment?  You may have treatment-related anemia, which can cause fatigue and dizziness. Lots of people on tx become anemic.  Ask your doctor to order a CBC and find out if your hemoglobin is dropping.  Good luck.

jd

[jankar]

I texted my practitioner before and asked her to ring me - I will ask her - I had blood tests done last week and saw her on Friday - maybe there was nothing in that to worry
about but I can't remember if I said I was feeling really dizzy or not.

[sunshine585]

I agree with jd to get it cheked out, but you may have to just live with it. Dizziness, has been one of my worst problems on tx., but it varied, some days I couldn't move my head, and some days it wasn't that bad.It scared me at first, I didn't know if I would fall down in public and embarrass myself or crash my car. I've gotten used to it and plan my life accordinly, I know when I'm unsafe to drive. Just be careful that you don't fall and hurt yourself.

[mkp13]

The dizziness is probably from anemia.  That's a normal side-effect of treatment.  Your hemoglobin will go down a fair bit in the first five weeks or so.  Mine went from 13.3 down to 9.6 over the course of 10 weeks, but most of the drop was in weeks 1-5.  Anemia feels pretty bad when your numbers are dropping, but once the stabilize (hopefully at week 5 or 6) it gets better.  You'll still be weak, but the dizziness gets a lot better.  If you're seriously anemic (below 10) and are on SOC, ask your doc about Procrit.  It may or may not be advisable for you, but it's certainly worth a conversation.  Also, are you on a low-iron diet? If so, ask your doc if you should stay with that or adjust it.  I was told at week 6 to start taking 1xRDA of iron in supplement form.  It seemed to help a little bit.  The problem with it is that iron is hard on the liver, so if you're closer to stage 4 than stage 0, it's probably a bad idea.  FYI, I had a week or so around week 6 when I "took myself off the road" except for emergency trips because I didn't think I was safe to drive.

[RALPH44]

The meds cause dizziness and it doesnt always mean that you have anemia my iron is a little low, but I developed verdigo and my doctor gave me meds for it, but he does check it every month along with the blood work.

[jankar]

I talked to my practitioner and am getting more bloods done today.  She said they were a bit low last week.  She said if they were dropping she might consider reducing the does of Riba.  What do people thing of that - I have read on the forum that generally this is not considered a good option.  I think I would rather manage the dizziness and keep the dose if beneficial.

I am learning to keep my head up or down and not move too fast - my other symptoms are abating, pity I got this one.  My brain fog is clearing!

Good to know that dizziness is a symptom ( I guess) so all might be normal! lol

[epiphiny]

Mmm, I had the dizzy thing too but it passed after a few weeks.  Mine mostly happened  when I stood up from seated or lying, or as you say, moving your head from side to side.  Kind of like my brain couldn't keep up with the movement of my skull - very weird!

Most people say try to keep the Riba level rather than a reduction and I sure would agree with that.  Having said that I had to take a Riba reduction in about week 5 as my Hb got too low, they reduced me from 1200 to 1000 per day.  I wasn't able to convince them to let me stay at the higher dose but once the levels went back up I was able to go back to the higher dose.

I was told by the clinic that as I was UND at week 4 taking a Riba reduction after that would be ok, but I didn't feel good about it until I got back on my high dose.

Also, I found out retrospectively that at week 8 (after the Riba reduction phase) I showed a VL of 29IU/mL!!  I really do attribute that to the reduction.  At week 9 I went back to full dose and at week 12 I was UND again and have stayed that way since.

Anyway, that was a long winded way of saying that I think you should fight to keep the higher dose if you and your body can handle it!

Epi :)

[jankar]

Holy Haka to you too - I wondered who was awake in the world at this time - America is sleeping.  General consensus seems to be that the dizziness might be manageable and I am willing to give that a go.  I haven't had my four week results back yet - apparently they take two weeks to filter through - I will hold off the reduction until I get tehm back next week.

[epiphiny]

Good plan!  When I was feeling dizzy and weak and generally like I couldn't do it I would remind myself that getting hit hard with the sxs means you are responding well to treatment, so hang in there.

Let me know how you get on with your week 4 result...

Epi :)

[YuK]

epiphiny - perfect description of the dizziness, I'm experiencing.  "Kind of like my brain couldn't keep up with the movement of my skull - very weird!"   I was having a hard time explaining it.  I'm only on my 2nd month, sick, weak (soooo weak) but the dizziness is getting less and less.