The Doctor Is In

Dr Max Pemberton

Q: I constantly feel like I’m on a boat. Even lying down I feel like I’m bobbing up and down. It’s driving me mad! I have had loads of tests done at the hospital with no results. I’m getting reluctant to go out in case I’m hit with it. - Ellie

A: Goodness, Ellie, this sounds horrible. The first thing to say is that your symptoms are clearly affecting your life. This is really important. Different people can tolerate different things, but for doctors it’s a good indication for how serious things are when the patient has to change their behaviour, because this often has knock-on effects. If someone doesn’t feel able to go out to see friends as readily, for example, then this can then lead to people becoming isolated, depressed, and anxious. They’re not able to exercise and this has a negative impact on their physical health and so on. A doctor will take all this on board when deciding how much investigation needs to take place. With you, it’s clearly having a negative impact on your life, so I do think your doctor needs to get to the bottom of this. You mention you’ve had tests done. Understandably sometimes people feel frustrated when tests come back negative as they feel they’re back at square one. But negative tests can rule out certain diagnoses and suggest other problems which are called “diagnosis of exclusion”. This means that rather than a positive test result, the condition is diagnosed by excluding other possible causes of the symptoms. So, don’t despair that the tests haven’t come up positive for anything yet.

It sounds like you’re describing a symptom called vertigo. A common cause of this is labyrinthitis, which is a problem with an inner part of the ear that’s involved in balance. As the diagnosis is often based on symptoms, rather than test results, this is often diagnosed via diagnosis of exclusion. It’s sometimes caused by inner ear infections although there are other causes too. It typically lasts a few weeks but can persist for months. It might be worth asking if this is what your GP thinks you might have.

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