Dizziness - I have had three spells of dizziness where I thought I might pass out. For the first two I had felt perfectly normal/fine just prior. The third one was different (see Saturday, July 13 below).
The first one was at home a couple weeks ago (might’ve been morning of June 23rd) and went away after a few minutes. The second one was at work Thursday, 7/11. I had been in a training session in a conference room for about an hour. Blood rushed to my head, the room started spinning, I felt extremely dizzy. I excused myself and tried to use the bathroom because the nausea overwhelmed me. I sat at my desk for about an hour, convinced the dizziness was gone and I could drive home, then did go home and slept for about 3 hours.

Diary:
Friday, June 21: I woke up nauseous. It was a “fun-day” (day off from work that you spend w/ your coworkers). I didn’t want to miss it so I stuck it out. We played laser-tag and then went rafting down the James. I felt extremely sick on the raft but where could I go? I stuck it out.

Saturday, June 22: I woke up nauseous but got in the car to take my daughter to summer camp anyway. We got 30 minutes into a 5-hour trip and I had to get my wife to drive me back home. I was burping continuously in the car. I slept for most of that day.

Sunday, June 23: I felt a little better when I woke up. I took it easy all day.

Monday, June 24-Friday, June 28: I was okay. I felt fine.

Saturday, June 29: I woke up nauseous - lots of burping again. I was supposed to play golf w/ a friend but had to cancel. I slept all day except for about 3 hours.

Sunday, June 30: I was a little nauseous but feeling a little better. I still had lots of burping.

Monday, July 1 and Tuesday, July 2: I was perfectly normal/fine.

Wednesday, July 3: I woke up nauseous - lots of burping. As soon as I got to work I knew I wouldn’t make it so went home. That day I saw xxxx, Family Physicians. They took blood and urine and gave me a stool sample kit. We had to cancel a trip to visit relatives for the holiday.

Thursday, July 4: I felt nauseous all morning - lots of burping. I started feeling better by the late afternoon.

Friday, July 5: I still felt a little nauseous but not too bad. I delivered the stool sample to the doctor’s office. I started feeling better as the day went by. I drove 5 hours to Galax, VA, to stay w/ relatives so we could pick up my daughter from summer camp the next morning.

Saturday, July 6: I drove 5 hours home from the summer camp. I felt perfectly normal/fine.

Sunday, July 7-Monday, July 8: I felt perfectly normal/fine.

Tuesday, July 9: I felt perfectly normal/fine. Dr.xx called w/ news that I had Blastocystic hominis and called in a prescription. I started the Flagyl at lunch-time that day.

Wednesday, July 10: I felt perfectly normal/fine. I took half a day to play golf. I was exhausted after the round but that’s normal for me. I probably made a mistake but I had a huge plate of spaghetti for dinner that night.

Thursday, July 11: I felt perfectly normal/fine. I traded emails from the “contact” on this Blastocystis hominis web site I’d found Tuesday. I was in a training session that morning for about an hour and I had this dizzy spell (see symptoms above). I came home and slept for several hours.

Friday, July 12: I felt perfectly normal/fine. I took my daughter to softball practice that evening and felt okay to go play poker w/ the guys till midnight.

Saturday, July 13: I woke up in a major panic. This was new. I was having some sort of panic attack or nervous breakdown or something. I took one of the nausea pills. I was a bunch of nerves, disoriented, loss of control. There were several moments when blood rushed to my head, and I felt like; “oh, no!” and I didn’t know what was going on. I couldn’t catch my breath, had major nausea, and was extremely upset. xxx. took me to the ER about 10:30am. I was in la-la land - head spinning, very emotional. I thought I might be having a heart attack or something. As I waited for the doctor I tried but could not remember what medicine I took that morning. xxx told me I’d told her I took the nausea medicine but not the Flagyl. Eventually I did remember. That was weird.

Symptoms: Anxiety, panic, overwhelmed w/ fear but of nothing in particular, couldn’t catch my breath, chest tight, stomach in knots, out of control, disoriented, scared, depressed, thoughts of suicide

After about half an hour I started feeling better. They took blood and urine and did a chest X-ray. Results came back normal. They sent me home saying it was probably just stress and that I should see Dr. xxx on Monday. I got home around 2:30pm and slept for about 3 hours. A little while after the anxiety started again. It was just like before. I had all sorts of strange conversations going on in my head. I went to bed at 8pm but couldn’t sleep for hours. I was a nervous wreck. I had all the symptoms above again.

Sunday, July 14: I woke up at 3am in a panic - suicidal. I paced around downstairs and I grabbed a blanket and wrapped up as tight as I could. Somehow I drifted off to sleep in a chair in the TV room. About 7:30am I woke up and wrote this document.