How long until the dizziness stops?

[AndyT3]

Hi all.

 

We just got back from our first cruise on the Sunshine this morning. While I did get sick one night on the ship, I was otherwise fine.

 

However, after the 4 hour drive home from the port, I noticed that I am feeling very dizzy. I was walking up the stairs to my office to catch up on work emails :rolleyes: and dropped my keys. I bent over to pick them up, and had a dizzy spell, and fell a down a few stairs. I've done some Googling, and saw that there is a rare condition out there, but it seems to mostly effect middle aged women. I am a male in my mid 20s.

 

I am hoping that after a good night sleep tonight, that I will be feeling better tomorrow.

 

What have you folks encountered?

[Clarea]

After our first cruises, we would occasionally feel what felt like ship motion for about a week after getting home.

[Shmoo here]

Hi all.

 

We just got back from our first cruise on the Sunshine this morning. While I did get sick one night on the ship, I was otherwise fine.

 

However, after the 4 hour drive home from the port, I noticed that I am feeling very dizzy. I was walking up the stairs to my office to catch up on work emails :rolleyes: and dropped my keys. I bent over to pick them up, and had a dizzy spell, and fell a down a few stairs. I've done some Googling, and saw that there is a rare condition out there, but it seems to mostly effect middle aged women. I am a male in my mid 20s.

 

I am hoping that after a good night sleep tonight, that I will be feeling better tomorrow.

 

What have you folks encountered?

It's called Mal de Debarquement Syndrome and it affects many people. It's sort of reverse motion sickness. Your inner ear is readjusting to solid ground.

 

Generally it lasts a couple of days to a week. But some people can suffer with it much longer.

 

As a suggestion, you could take motion sickness meds to help the transition.

[lifes-a-beach]

Rule #1 is never google any medical issue or you'll find that it's cancer. Or that amputation is the only treatment. Or that there is no treatment and you're gonna die. Seriously, I have occasionally felt some sea legs for a couple of days but it's nothing to be concerned about. You should take that as a sign that you need to go on many more cruises. After dozens I never even feel rough seas.

[WupperAV]

Go visit a ear nose throat Dr. You may have crystal in your ear which will grow into a giant crystal the size of the one in Secret of Nimh! you will then get cancer from it growing in your head. It's too late, you're doomed. My dizziness has lasted 59 years, 22 days, 16 hrs, 15 min, 12 seconds but I haven't kept track of any of it.

Edited October 9, 2016 by WupperAV

[mrs and mrs]

Well that explains a lot, cheers, :):)

[cb at sea]

It should stop in about a week...maybe more, maybe less. It happens to more people than you might think. It WILL go away!

[Krozulo]

Is this where the cruising addiction starts? The withdrawal (dizzy, sea legs) is too much to handle so you book another cruise just to feel normal?

[lenquixote66]

I had a freak accident in 2011 and was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Vertigo .I am still dizzy to this date .

[Flatbush Flyer]

It's called Mal de Debarquement Syndrome and it affects many people. It's sort of reverse motion sickness. Your inner ear is readjusting to solid ground.

 

 

 

Generally it lasts a couple of days to a week. But some people can suffer with it much longer.

 

 

 

As a suggestion, you could take motion sickness meds to help the transition.

 

 

It MAY be that or it may be one of a host of other issues (some requiring medical intervention). It never hurts to get the most of your medical insurance and check in with one's MD - even if only an initial contact by phone or e-mail.

[AndyT3]

Go visit a ear nose throat Dr. You may have crystal in your ear which will grow into a giant crystal the size of the one in Secret of Nimh! you will then get cancer from it growing in your head. It's too late, you're doomed. My dizziness has lasted 59 years, 22 days, 16 hrs, 15 min, 12 seconds but I haven't kept track of any of it.

 

Oh boy, I guess it's all over now!

 

I'll call my boss tomorrow and quit my job and just wait it out until I die. :D

 

After a good nights sleep, I feel 99% better today. Thanks for the info folks!

[bakersdozen12]

I had land sickness after my first cruise (never was sea sick on the cruise), and it lasted a full week.

 

Didn't experience the same thing after my cruise this past July. Maybe because the seas weren't rough that time.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[chengkp75]

Mild cases of Mal de Debarkquement can be caused by a simple cold or sinus infection which blocks the sinuses and the inner ear, similar to being unable to "pop" your ears on a plane. There are, as stated above, more serious causes, and these can cause chronic symptoms. A remedy for mild cases is to sit quietly in a room and focus on a non moving object in the near distance. This will help to reconcile your inner ear with your eyes.

[UUNetBill]

...A remedy for mild cases is to sit quietly in a room and focus on a non moving object in the near distance...

 

Or you could go on another cruise tomorrow...

[WupperAV]

Better see a Dr. Earwigs are so named because they crawl into sleeping people's ears and eat their brains, causing madness and/or death. I read it on the internet so it's true.

Edited October 14, 2016 by WupperAV

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

Folks appear to be having a lot of fun with your question, but I did have mal de debarquement after one of my cruises and it lasted several weeks. It would come and go and was especially troublesome when rising from a chair, looking up or making sudden changes of direction. I had to give up yoga for awhile because the frequent position changes in yoga were disabling with dizziness and nausea.

 

Then suddenly, as fast as it had come, it left and I soon realized I wasn't dizzy when I got up from a chair or changed direction. I still have to be careful looking up. That has taken the longest to resolve.

 

I hope you have better luck than I had. I did find that sitting very still and not moving my head would help until one of the dizzy spells passed. Another thing. I have been on over fifty cruises, but this has happened after only one of them. So don't give up cruising just because of this.