@Rarebear I know. I’m not suggesting the OP should try the Epley, I didn’t say that anywhere, I’m talking about myself. It sounds like the OP has a very obvious cause for her dizziness, and everyone here seems to be answering her question with similar answers. I admit to diverting a little about myself, and also asking about the effective ingredients in the Dramamine.
Like I said my vertigo was positional from an accident. I think it’s the only time in my life I have screamed from something medical. I was extremely banged up, given fentanyl for pain, could barely breath immediately and for a few hours after the accident from a small pneumothorax, and the vertigo was what had me screaming it was so extreme. I suffered with the extreme vertigo for two days straight. Bed ridden. As long as I was flat in my back I was ok. I couldn’t turn on my side for an X-ray, a tech took the X-ray with me, holding me, he took the zap. I could barely move on my side to sleep. The second night hospitalized a nurse put a pillow in front of me, and tilted me slightly, and then pillows behind me concerned I hadn’t moved, and I had told her my sleeping position is on my left.
I had to wear stockings as a precaution, I actually have some bad genes for clotting, but the hospital didn’t even know that.
The hospitalist had guessed correctly the first day (this is after spending the night hospitalized) mine was BPPV, but I had to wait for an ENT to finally make a round to help me the next day. The Epley took less than 10 minutes and I could finally sit up and stand up again. What harm would it do to try the Epley if that’s the best guess? The doctor can see in your eyes when they turn your head if it’s positional. But, even if they don’t know what to look for the patient can tell you they are spinning when they tilt your head, and when it stops. If it’s not done perfectly so what. The patient can still go see a specialist. They had basically ruled out head injury for me.
Instead they were giving me drugs Meclizine and Zofran and risking bed sores (well, I wasn’t there quite long enough for that) and blood clots, and I suffered. Patients don’t like suffering unnecessarily or being basically incapacitated or taking drugs unnecessarily. People do the Epley to themselves, it doesn’t really take a specialist to do it.