A woman who suffered repeated dizzy spells went months without an explanation until she finally got a diagnosis. Cayla Kranz, 35 and from St. Louis, Missouri, experienced a terrifying dizzy spell in October 2025.
The fitness and nutrition coach called it a "day I'll never forget" as it happened at the worst possible time: driving with her two young children in the car. "Suddenly I felt my vision darken, [my] head became very heavy, and [I felt] lightheaded like I was going to pass out," Kranz said. Thankfully, she was able to get her kids—aged three and one—to safety, and pulled off the road to call for help.
This was what she remembers as "the big episode" that led to her life feeling as if it had "flipped upside down." But, she told Newsweek, it was far from the first instance she had felt "off" and "lightheaded," although before the incident in October last year the episodes had been "less severe." "I often chalked it up to an issue with my contacts or a tough workout," she said. Kranz had attended urgent care and undergone multiple tests, including an EKG and cardiology tests, but each time, "everything came back normal," with medical staff having no explanation for her symptoms. But after the episode while driving, these symptoms would not go away.
"I experienced constant shaky and floaty vision, lightheadedness, derealization, heart palpitations, anxiety—which I had never experienced before—and I eventually got stuck in fight or flight," Kranz said. She had more tests, this time including an MRI scan, but again, her results showed nothing unusual. Her primary care doctor, multiple ear, nose, and throat doctors, cardiologists, an optometrist, and an ophthalmologist were unable to give her any answers.
The breakthrough came when Kranz spoke to a client who works as a physical therapist. The client immediately recognized that her symptoms "sounded like a vestibular issue she remembered learning about in school." Kranz looked up vestibular migraines, and it all made sense. Vestibular migraines are a type of migraine that can cause balance issues, nausea and vomiting, vertigo that can last for days, sensitivity to light, smell and noise, and a severe headache.
Not everyone with vestibular migraine will get every symptom, and may experience a combination of vestibular attacks and visual aura with or without a headache. According to Johns Hopkins University, it can be difficult to diagnose as the onset of dizziness may not occur at the same time as other symptoms. The causes of vestibular migraines are not fully understood.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
