Kidney Patient Guide

Hi everyone,

has anyone here experienced really severe dizzy spells first thing in the morning? I have an appointment later this week and will bring it up then but I was just wondering if anyone else has or gets this too?

this morning as I was waking up I suddenly felt really really dizzy so I sat up and it felt like the whole room was spinning and felt very disoriented. My blood pressure seemed ok when I took it shortly afterrwards and I take my blood pressure medication in the morning anyway.

I've had this for the last 2 mornings and I had it also about a month ago just when I was suffering quite badly from a severe bout of constipation, I thought at the time it may be just the stress from that or could be a reaction to the drugs.

any ideas?
mike

Hi Mike
I have had quite a lot of dizzy spells with my kidney problem, but that is mainly due to my blood pressure either peaking or troughing.
Are you sure you don't have an ear infection? I say this because I have had labyrinthitis a couple of times (inner ear infection) and it gives precisely the symptoms you are describing, together with feeling/being sick and nystagmus (rotational/vertical flicking of the eyeballs). The symptoms would always be worse in the mornings.
Secondly, are you on dialysis? If so, you could be dehydrated. This can cause dizziness and if so, you should be drinking more to counteract this.
Hope this is of some help.
Ruth

Hi Ruth,

I wondered whether it may be a mild inner ear infection as I have felt fairly crappy for the last few days but then again it is so up and down all the time anyway. I'm not yet on dialysis but I am very close to it. I always feel so thirsty in the morning and I find it hard to drink during the day so it could possibly be that I am dehydrated.

I do feel kind of slightly dizzy and disoriented at times during the day but it is only mild. It could be my blood pressure as my brother had very bad problems with blood pressure when his kidneys were failing so I wouldn't be surprised if I was the same.

I'm usually at my worst first thing in the morning although occasionally I wake up feeling really great and it makes me realise how bad I feel normally.

I have my appointment thursday so I think it can wait till then.

Hi Mike
Thanks for your response. Glad to hear you have an appt on Thursday so that you can get this sorted.
Just had another thought - are you on medication for your blood pressure? Again, I had quite alot of problems with my bp medication last year as I was taking all my tablets in the morning and this was causing my bp to crash. I now take half in the morning and half again 12 hours later so that I am on an even keel right throughout the day. This could be worth discussing with your Consultant.
Hope you keep well and let us know how you get on.
Ruth

thanks so much I was thinking that might be the problem as I am on 10mg ramipril, 25mg atenolol & 8mg doxazosin which I take all at the same time. When I was first put on doxasozin at that dose about a year ago I had dizzy spells so my GP changed it to atenolol with 4mg doxazosin which was ok. I did mention this to my consultant when he put it up to 8mg and he said see how it goes as he didn't want to increase my atenolol as I was so tired already.

I'll speak to him about it.

thanks so much

mike

I've had this for a while and am gonna get my consultant to look at it at next appt. (if there's any damn doctors there.. last clinic wsa nurse led!!)

As far as I know when I've been checking it my BP has been fine. all my figures are too apart from cratinine which is stable but at around 400 - 450

At the moment though I am tweaking my tabs to later in the day as I tend to dehydrate overnight which makes me feel crap (I always feel worse in hot weather anyway).. But it IS a pain getting up every day and feeling lousy till after lunch - afternoon..

Cheers