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Late ping to an important article.
Thanks, Seizethecarp. A lot of freepers were embarrassed about the ridicule and bullying you have endured whenever you've mentioned your illness.
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 ...
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.
Now that is fascinating. Thanks for posting.
I’m printing all these great suggestions for my “dizzy” file.
I’ve been successful in tracing my dizzy episodes to something I ate or drank. I have problems with products containing some spices and ginko (herbal teas, vitamins), as well as some cheeses especially aged or older ones (perhaps mold is involved). It’s hard to pinpoint as there are so many ingredients in items (as well as variable production and handling techniques) plus I often had a delayed reaction. Once I straightened out my diet by trial and error, it became easier to spot the culprit when I ate or drank something new. Darn vitamins gave me daily problems until I accidently skipped a few days and noticed I felt better. I get the occasional spell with stuffy head colds, but figure it’s a fluid issue in the inner ear as it diminishes with decongestants.
It all has to be done very slowly.
The nickname for Topamax on the web appears to be “Dope-a-max” because it does seem to make a lot of folks dopey at first and my experience has been like a lot of folks which is that that each time you go up on the dose you are somewhat confused at first, but eventually your mind starts to clear up.
As you can see, I was able to compose this article (with some warts), but truthfully, this is the first day since starting on the drug a month ago that I have felt mentally clear enough to compose an article.
I was having these debilitating attacks and didn’t know whether it was stoke, heart attack, seizure or migraine and nothing on the web seemed to match and the expensive tests were negative. I was bankrupting Medicare! If any other FReepers were having similar symptoms of having people think they were drunk when they weren’t drinking I wanted to make sure I had put up this thread.
Never was diagnosed, did my own research. Funny thing is, later on, had another DCS hit and the post hit diagnoses included a test for PFO (hole between heart chambers). Well known for DCS propensity, inner ear DCS in paticular. Had the hole surgically closed with an Amplatzer gizmo.
What I tipped on from your post was your mention of aura. Turns out, the largest group of people that have PFOs closed are migraine sufferers, who typically suffer aura as well. I didgaet auras, but no migraines. None since closure
Probably not related, but it caught my eye.
Had a similar problem but it was low blood pressure standing up.
It’s called SYNCOPE...similar to what happens when you suddenly stand up after sitting for a length of time (orthostatic hypotension)
After a lot of tests the cardiologist confirmed it with the “tilt-table” tests and it’s now treated with Florinef.. The generic is fludrocortizone. It helps the body regulate salt, fluids and blood pressure.
Need a Walker to get around.... anything to avoid a fall!
I’ll leave the motorized chairs to the fat ladies at Walmart.
Okay.. so I just did this twice wrongly..so dizzy ..even with my glasses I could not get the direction. then I could finally figure out the words..did it again correctly.
Puked my brains out like a college star!! Life is not silent but much more quiet.
Here is the cure, at least for me.
I had low iron and vitamin D and magnesium levels. The room would spin around when I lay down. I was lethargic and yawning all the time. Once I started taking the pills I was much better.
I drink diet pop and read somewhere that there is something in the drink that binds to the magnesium and ‘washes’ out during the day. Vitamin D from the sun is not enough for me. I can get a nice tan but for some reason the vitamin D from the sun does not produce enough of the vitamin for me. For low iron you can also buy some meat.
Iron 65mg
Vitamin D 5,000IU x 2
Magnesium 250mg
The topiramate cured the vestibular balance symptom of my migraine but did not totally cure my migraine
My migraine is triggered by my rare type of orthostatic intolerance which has been verified on two tilt-table tests as being neutrally mediated syncope...but of a variant that is hypertensive, NOT hypotensive.
In other words, during the two tilt-table tests that I underwent, my blood pressure steadily ROSE after the table was tilted up until the medical criteria was reached for orthostatic hypertension...before the blood pressure fell sharply and syncope occurred.
As it stands now every time I stand or walk for more than 15 minutes it will trigger a migraine aura followed by a migraine. The migraine with topiramate is much milder now cognitively and has no vestibular debilitation.
ping for later
Excellent news!! I am so happy for you. As someone who has had severe attacks of vertigo and can be balanced challenged I completely understand you situation and am so happy that you are 100% cured! Fantastic!!
ping to an update on my balance disorder cure...
I’ve still got lots of issues but being able to walk with good balance in between my other orthostatic and ME/CFS problems is now not one of them!
So glad you have found the problem and are feeling better
Your part about the heart is very interesting here.
After 14 years of unrelenting failure to improve numerous symptoms it is gratifying to have a near “biblical” improvement in a very debilitating one!
The Topamax really helps me sustain my concentration during migraines (in between my orthostatic intolerance lie-downs every two hours that I must still take all day) so I can continue to FReep away on fast moving developing eligibility issues during the day without suffering mental paralysis from overstimulation.
Praise God, the great physician!
Amen!
Late ping to an important article.
Thanks, Seizethecarp. A lot of freepers were embarrassed about the ridicule and bullying you have endured whenever you've mentioned your illness.
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