Hi Ladies,
I have been reading your posts for the last few days and I feel that I have to share my story. I had Mirena placed in May 06. All was good until Sept. 07 when I had numbness in hands, dizziness and chest pain. I went to ER by ambulance. They did a CAT scan and found nothing. They decided that it was sinus related. I have always had allergies so I believed it. It lasted 2 weeks and went away. For the next year I had 2 dizzy spells that lasted a day or 2 and I wrote it off as sinuses. THEN, in October 08, I was out with my son and I got so dizzy that I knew something was wrong. I went to my MD and told him that I had dizziness, ringing in ears, headaches, pain in my left foot and tingling and numbness in my hands and feet he drew blood did an ultrasound and referred me to an ENT while we waited for the lab results. The ENT said my sinuses looked irritated and gave me a nasal spray and Claritin D and said it should go away in 3 weeks. It didn’t. I went back and he did vertigo tests, hearing tests, etc. All came back fine. He gave me a referral to a neurologist who said it was migraines and wanted me to take Effexor for relief. Since this is an antidepressant with side effects I did not take it. I never had migraines before. When my blood work came back, it showed an elevated ANA which was an indicator of an autoimmune disorder so off I went to the rheumatologist. He did more tests and said that I was at risk for connective tissue disease but nothing conclusive . My ultrasound showed that I had a small simple cyst on my left ovary but the MD said nothing to worry about. Then in January 09 my dizziness turned to lightheadedness and unsteadiness but it NEVER went away. I went to a different neurologist who took me seriously. He sent me to have a chest XRAY (I smoke) and to see a cardiologist all tests were normal. Then I went for a sleep study. They said that I spent 4 percent of the night sleeping on my back and during that time I had very mild sleep apnea. Not too worrisome. My neuro also ordered a 24 hour EEG, nerve conduction tests and transcranial doppler studies which have taken months and I will get the results today. He also sent me to a balance specialist who ran tests and concluded that I have a weakened right inner ear. So, I started balance therapy which has not helped. I was scheduled for an MRI but had a panic attack in the machine so I had to wait to have it done with sedation which I finally had done 3/30/09. I will get those results today as well. As I came out of anesthesia for the MRI, I suddenly had a thought that this may be related to my IUD. I don’t know where it came from but it just popped into my semiconscious head. I never thought of it before because I told all of my doctors that I have Mirena in and not one of them discussed it any further. Also, I did not think that symptoms would start after having it for so long. I had it removed on 4/2. It has been 5 days. I am still lightheaded but it does go away for about 3 hours a day. I am now getting hot flashes headaches and nausea. I spotted a little they day of removal and yesterday began to have something that resembles more of a period. I am going for my test results at 5:45 tonight and I will let you all know what happens.