Posted on 06/05/2014 6:49:38 PM PDT by Seizethecarp
March 27, 2009. I was fine the night before. The little cold I’d had was gone, and I’d had the first good night’s sleep all week. But when I woke up Friday morning at 6:15 and got out of bed, the world was whirling counterclockwise. I knocked against the bookcase, stumbled through the bathroom doorway and landed on my knees in front of the sink. It was as though I’d been tripped by a ghost lurking beside the bed.
Even when I was on all fours, the spinning didn’t stop. Lightheaded, reaching for solid support, I made it back to bed and, showing keen analytical insight, told my wife, Beverly, “Something’s wrong.”
The only way I could put on my shirt was to kneel on the floor first. I teetered when I rose. Trying to keep my head still, moving only my eyes, I could feel my back and shoulders tightening, forming a shell. Everything was in motion, out of proportion, unstable.
Vertigo — the feeling that you or your surroundings are spinning — is a symptom, not a disease. You don’t get a diagnosis of vertigo; instead, you present with vertigo, a hallmark of balance dysfunction. Or with dizziness, a more generalized term referring to a range of off-kilter sensations including wooziness, faintness, unsteadiness, spatial disorientation, a feeling akin to swooning. It happens to almost everyone: too much to drink or standing too close to the edge of a roof or working out too hard or getting up too fast.
But according to the National Institutes of Health, “more than four in 10 Americans will experience an episode of dizziness sometime during their lives that’s significant enough to send them to a doctor.” That would be approximately 125 million of us.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
One month ago my balance disorder and cognitive problems on top of my pre-existing ME/CFS had become so bad that when my neurologist wrote an Rx for a handicap placard and I took it to the Dept. of Motor Vehicles I didn't get any dirty looks as I took it to the express window because I was moving with such evident genuine impairment.
I had suffered several years of gradually worsening balance problems but suddenly in the past year the progressive worsening accelerated and the medical testing intensified...all of it negative:
MRI of the brain MRI of the inner ear EEG VNG study (only minor problem)
Then on my own I found a website on dizziness that mentioned something called "vestibular migraine".
I had never heard of that. The more I read about it, it sounded exactly like the periodic squeezing feelingly in my head and cognitive dysfunction that I would get along with my "motion intolerance" to any head movement at such times. I would freeze mid-sentence and mid-motion wherever my arms were positioned when I would get these attacks and be unable to talk.
I could recognize what was described as the "prodrome" or "aura" that would precede the migraine.
I was amazed to read that the association of this type of migraine with debilitating vestibular balance impairment was considered "common" because neither my PCP nor my neurologist nor my ENT had suggested this diagnosis to me as an explanation for my symptoms.
As it happens there is an off-patent drug, topiramate (Topamax) that has been shown in "evidence-based" peer-reviewed trials to be effective for migraine and so I was able to rush to down to my neurologist and persuade her to prescribe topiramate for me instead of her choice. I happened to have a copy of a Journal of Neurology article that supported my selection and to her credit she deferred to the recommendation in that article for the topiramate.
The effect of the drug on my condition of amazing!!!
I went from holding onto walls and railings while walking to walking normally unassisted with excellent posture. I had been in danger of losing my driver license due to being unable to tolerate going around turns, and now driving around curves is no problem at all. I still have my ME/CFS problems and I still have migraines but they are mitigated by the topiramate, but my balance vestibular problems are 100% cured!
nice job dr stc! this sounds like something i’ve encountered in a very much milder form than yours.
I’ve had several episodes of all that. It’s frightening and once made me throw up. I hated losing control like that, doubt I could have gotten myself by myself down the front steps and into the car.
I had what I thought was BPPV as I would get severe vertigo whenever I would roll over in bed. I did a home remedy which involved lying on my back with my back and head lower than my legs and then move my head in different ways. It worked instantly.
I had this occur for two years in a row for a couple weeks each. It was mostly just rolling over in bed and having to stand very slowly and cautiously in the morning.
It seemed to happen when there was warm weather in July. But after those two occurrences it never recurred.
Very disturbing and puzzling.
Timely article because I’ve been dealing with vertigo, Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, and the anti-vert the doctor gave me doesn’t help much.
I do get headaches with the symptoms, but I thought the vertigo was causing the symptoms, not vice-versa. Going to check out topamax to see if that will help.
Thanks, FRiend
Easy solution for milder vertigo.
Lay across your bed with your head hanging over the edge. Bring yout head level with your body (looking at the ceiling.)
Slowly turn your head to the right so you are looking at your right hand side (for me, the bottom edge of the bed,) Slowly bring your head back to center looking at the ceiling again.
Repeat by turning your head to the left (for me the wall that the head of the bed is against) and slowly bring it back to the center — looking at the ceiling again.
Sit up slowly. Vertigo may have disappeared. If not, repeat this process. It’s the crystals in your inner ear that will eventually fall back into place and you will be OK.
Vertigo hit me coming out of church one day and another couple had to take me home and get me back to bed.
I got it in July as well, it too was very scary, but I would check my pulse during an episode and it was always steady and strong. Did a quick google search and as my vertigo only happened when I would change my head position I assumed it was a benign condition.
I have had severe vertigo several times. Mine would only last about 2 weeks. The doctor said mine was allergy induced. It has been a while since it was bad but occasionally the room will spin if I get up too fast and my left ear gives me a whooshing sound when I bend over.
It is very debilitating and I hope it never gets me again.
Thanks, I will remember that.
WOW!! this is awesome!
I have tripped twice due to imbalance and my tinnitus is on fire.
Every year it happens in the summer for the last 10 years!
I took bonine/meclamine which worked in the beginning.
My Dad was a GP and could diagnose an inner ear infection in a heartbeat.
Thanks so much for the article! This is so great! I am going to try it tonight!
bttt
I get it from too much fluid in my inner ear. Doctor put me on a light does of a water pill that is used for high blood pressure. Used to be chronic, would come and go for weeks at a time.
No problems since the water pill.
Reading about it on the internet, I read about some kind of crystals in the inner ear that get displaced, and prevent the fluids in the inner ear from moving around like they need to do to keep your equilibrium.
I bought some ear wash with a syringe at the drug store and blasted some nasty stuff out of my ear, and within a couple days my problem went away.
bkmk
I have aura migraines but they are relatively benign.
My husband’s uncle was in the Air Force and his vertigo problems got so bad he had to retire. He went through episodes where he couldn’t read, had to walk with a cane. He went for decades having longer and longer episodes and at 87 he found lipo-flavinoid? at WalMart and he has been fine the past two years.
Here's another possibility for vertigo episodes. I recently had a severe spell of vertigo when I was on antibiotics for a case of bronchitis. Turns out Zithromax has this as an uncommon side effect. I found it significantly affected my cognition and balance. Fortunately it resolved once I finished the prescription.
Here is a website that explains all of the various causes of dizziness and introduced me for the first time to the concept of “vestibular migraine” which I had never heard of:
Here is the link to the American Academy of Neurology article recommending which medications work for migraine and which ones do not:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3335452/
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