Hi everybody now about 10 weeks out of rad and i have my peg removed tomorrow (yippee do ) eating is still odd taste buds are all wrong but i can eat which is great, still unbelievably tired which is a shame , but let me get to the point i am finding that i am getting very dizzy when i get up , if i am sitting down and stand up it does not matter if i get up quick or slow i still get very dizzy , the same if i am standing and crouch down the stand up i am very dizzy , i never had this before the treatment and i wondered if any one else has experienced this , i assume it is due to the weakness of my body after the treatment ,unless anyone knows different , bye for now Allan

I had very same thing and it was because my blood preassure was low. I found out from the hospital that this was because i wasn't taking in enough fluids. I still get it if i haven't had enough to drink. This was one of the last side effects to go away for me, but i think if you make it a point to drink more water it will help. I know with everything else you have to contend with, getting your 2.5ltrs as well is the last thing you're concerned with.
Sometimes for me i would completely black out with those fuzzy spot infront of your eyes for 30seconds or so. There was one time i got up to go to the bathromm an ricocheted down the hall off the walls before falling on my knee's scaring my family witless!
It will ease up Allan! Try drinking more.

I was going to say the same thing. I have chronically low blood pressure and it got lower after I lost weight during treatment and I get those dizzy spells fairly regularly.

It can also be a symptom of an ear infection, though, so if you have other symptoms (eg. pain in your ear), you may want to see your ENT.

Nelie

Nelie,

I am trying to PM you but your mailbox is full. Can you clear it please??

Thanks,
Billy

Hi Allan
I'm assuming that your fields for your radiation treatment included to some extent your neck under your chin. Like others have said the stress of treatment and weight loss can cause low blood pressure which can lead to dizziness during postural changes ie. sitting to standing. This is due to the fact that your heart is a little weaker and cannot pump blood to your brain fast enough.
Radiation fields that include the neck can cause partial stenosus of the carotid arteries (vessel walls loose some of their elasticity) in the absence of low blood pressure this could be part of the problem.
The medical term for your dizziness is "orthostatic hypotension" you may want to google this to help you cope with it.
Some of my recommendations would be, drink lots and I mean lots of water to keep the vessels full. Yeah, you'll be in the bathroom every five minutes for the first few days but it will work itself out and your kidneys will thank you (quick fact: more than 50% of the population are partially dehydrated).
Next, when you plan to change positions let your heart and brain know. Stretch your legs, clench your butt cheeks, and tighten your abs a few times. These activities force the blood into your heart and brain which lets the heart know it has to work harder. Then slowly get up. Pilots do this to force blood into their brains to avoid G induced loss of consciousness during steep turns. Fighter pilots wear G suits that sense these changes and inflate with air to squeeze their legs, butt and abs to force blood into their heart and brain and help them along. By filling the pipes with lots of water and then doing the few movements I mentioned above you are basically creating your own G suit to force blood into your brain and eliminate and/or reduce the dizzy spells.

Hope this is a little helpful.

Take care,
Mike

Allan - Another thing that needs to be considered and watched carefully if you have had head and neck radiation, is the condition of your carotid arteries. I was athletic and ate right before my diagnosis and like most of you I am big now on wet things like fruits and veggies and mostly healthy low fat foods. All this means that I have pretty clean arteries free of plaque and calculus and still flexible. My lipid panels are great and my blood pressure is normal. BUT.... the radiation treatments created scar tissue in my carotids. They are 55-65% occluded from scar tissue not the usually fatty deposits that people get when they have other blood lipid issues usually from poor diets and more.

This really started getting worse about year 4 years out of treatment. I too have occasional vertigo, and lightheadedness when I change from a supine position to a sitting or standing position. My ticker is working fine, (had plenty of stress tests and esophageal ultrasounds etc. looking for any issues, and as far as that piece of me goes, I

Wow--thank you Brian. I didn't know that could happen and I do get dizzy enough when I suddenly stabd, etc. that I probably should have that done as well. Since scar tissue from radiation has formed everywhere else to an extreme for me (like my esophagus), it wouldn't surprise me if it was in my arteries as well.

Nelie

thanks everybody for your advise i had my peg removed yesterday and told my consultant about my dizziness they checked my blood pressure and it is low but not that bad, the artery could be worth checking as they had a lot of trouble with the rad concentrating on missing my spinal cord so both sides of my neck were blasted, my wife who is a nurse was concerned at the time about damage to my artery i will see the men who know and get it checked , thanks again Allan

I had the same trouble with dizziness - turned out that my potassium level was incredibly low. I took a ton of potassium as soon as the blood work came back, and felt tremendously better the very next day. If you haven't had blood work done recently, it might be a good idea to check on your electrolytes...