Resolved question:
I am a 41 year old male. I suffer from occasional anxiety attacks, severe seasonal allergies, slightly high cholesterol, and GERD. Medications are .5mg clonazepam as needed when panic attack occurs, Allegra for allergies as needed, simvastatin 20mg 1x daily and lansoprazole 30mg 1x daily. Other than that, fairly healthy.
Last night I was lying in bed in a hotel with my ipad on my chest answering emails. I looked away from the ipad and than when I looked back I felt very dizzy (almost like my eyes were crossed) and felt very dizzy like I was spinning. This only happened for about 2 seconds. Then, of course, because I didn't know what had happened, the anxiety set in. Prior to lying down, I had eaten a very poor, fat-ladened, heavy fried meal for dinner and when to bed soon after. Interestingly, this same thing happened about 5 weeks ago. On the road for work, ate a late and unusually poor meal, went to bed and worked on ipad and felt the exact same feeling for a couple of seconds.
Could this be linked to the fried, fattening, sodium-laced food? Could it be due to the way I was laying with my chin at my chest? Panic attack unlike one I have ever experienced?
My biggest concern is that it's a heart issue or some type of seizure that I don't want to walk around worrying if its going to happen again. I am due for my annual physical in a month, but just had mid year blood work about 5 months ago and everything was normal.
Thank you.
Submitted:
4 Days
Category:
Family Physician-GP
Hello.
Thank you for posting your query at DoctorSpring.com
I understand your concern.
I have gine through your history diligently. It does not seem like a heart issue or a seizure. In some people this can happen momentarily lasting for about 4-5 seconds where there is a slight disturbance in the electrical activity in the brain. It is an incidental finding in most normal cases. Moreover working in the IPAD for a long period of time could have also led to fatigue leading to what happened to you. During such focal disturbances the eyes seem like crossing and at times the images in front will move around. In your case since it is lasting for only 2-3 seconds, there is absolutely no reason to be worried. For that matter even fatigue can lead to such manifestations. In both cases you were using your ipad, if you were working for quite a long time, the eyes can go for fatigue and similar episodes can occur.
Did you have any feeling of loss of conciousness at that moment? Did you have any nausea/vomiting?
In my opinion, there is nothing to worry about. Since you're already prone for anxiety, i can assure you it is nothing related to your heart or brain.
If it keeps happening too frequently, then a CT SCAN will be advisable. But as of now there is no need for any investigation. I will advise you not to use IPAD continuously and take adequate breaks in between.
Hope this was helpful,
Regards.