I’m noticing that I can’t go longer than a week without experiencing some type of symptom. Two weeks ago, I actually felt great. Like I mean really great. Wasn’t tired, no slight headache, no vision problems, no dizziness, nothing. Sure enough though, after a day long sore throat, it all came roaring back with a vengeance.
I stay hydrated. I drink a lot of water and I drink green tea and occasionally ginger tea. I was doing hardcore HIIT workouts and cardio with weights and yoga and all those seems to lessen the severity but recently I’ve had to slow way down, cut my workouts short, lighten my weights and do modified moves. It’s getting to me because workouts were the only thing keeping me happy during the shorter days of fall, now I can’t workout without gettin dizzy.
How long do your symptoms last? How long do they stay away for? What’s your recurrence frequency like?
Not sure where you are going with this one. I had episodic MAV for over a decade. Self contained 72 hour episodes which would clear to complete normality until the next time. Once I went over one year between then gradually those completely symptom-free periods filled in with ever creeping symptoms until I had symptoms 24/7. Retrospectively I discovered this to be a common pattern. The 24/7 symptoms have continued for very nearly five years despite medication, adherence to protocols of trigger avoidance etc but very occasionally I do/have experience brief symptom-free periods. Most recent was 36/40 hours consecutive last week when it just all lifted, one 18? Hour period a month before, a 10 day period in March (8 months back) several three day periods Autumn 2018 all come to mind. I quite often get a symptom free evening and however good/bad I might be It’s always worst first thing in the morning and improves as the day wears on. Why? A mystery to me.
I have never had a full day that I didn’t experience some level of symptoms. I have great days where I only have few sporadic brief moments of symptoms and I have bad days that I have more symptoms. I don’t know if that is my new normal moving ahead after almost 2 years. If so, I’m okay with it…based on where I was when I was chronic.
So, to answer your question: very few people here on this forum can probably say they are symptom free… since most of those that have found complete relief have moved on with their lives and are no longer chatting with us here. I believe there will be a day that I will be symptom free It’s what I will continue to work toward anyway.
I’ve noticed my vertigo gets worse when I wear my contacts but seems to ease up when I wear my glasses. I went to the eye doc yesterday and eyes checked out okay. I’m not sure what’s going on with that though.
Your brain’s vestibular calibration is affected when you switch eyewear.
I occasionally feel slight vertigo from head movements when using my varifocals. This doesn’t happen in contacts. It’s nothing to worry about imho. It’s not your eyes that are the issue, it’s the change of brain calibration required to decide what is being seen.
I suppose. Normally I just use my contacts because it’s just more comfortable for me but lately I have to use my glasses because wearing my contacts everything seems overstimulating and like I’m looking through a fish bowl type of lens. It’s very disorienting. I had my contacts in for 10 minutes this morning because my vertigo was subsiding and putting those in made it come roaring back. Had to take them out. I’m wondering about misalignment in my eyes. I need to find a specialist for that since my regular eye doc doesn’t test for that. Too bad there aren’t any in my state.
Try Searching ‘contact lenses v. Glasses’, and see if any of the caps fit. There’s a good few entries. I’ve no idea of your eye problem but it could be something to do with contacts requiring your yo use different muscles or even the same muscles differently. The way our muscles interact with our nerves affects our stability. Many MAVers seem to have trouble interchanging. Some one way others the other, the MAV Brain resents any sort of change so it’s not really surprising. Guess it make for more work where there’s insufficient spare brain capacity to hand. Helen
It makes sense if I were switching between my contacts and glasses a lot but I don’t. I was strictly wearing my contacts since I’ve had to start wearing them. Just can’t for the past week now. I’ll give it time, I have follow up appointments and I’m pretty determined to find a root cause for this. Vestibular neuritis is suspected by my ENT’s resident, I suppose any inflammation can affect the nerves and muscles in my eyes as well. I need some imaging done. That’s next.
A disproportionately large number of migraine sufferers have an eye misalignment of one kind or the other. I‘ve read that in several medical papers.
Many newcomers to MAV chase around after eye specialists at the beginning thinking that’s ‘the answer’. Opticians sent me off on a long revolving chase when I was dizzy long before I ever heard the word MAV’ or ‘VM’. Many people discover a misalignment and end up with prisms which help the misalignment and/or vision therapy. I didn’t need to discover one. I already knew I had one. My theory is that a misalignment probably doesn’t help but it’s not ‘the’ cause’. Contributory factor maybe. If you search ‘vertical heterophoria’ on line there are people misdiagnosed with VM/MAV who find they have VH then Prisms can put them right. Symptoms of the two conditions for many are very similar so it’s looking. Again there’s several threads on here relating. Helen
One major cause of migraine is inflammation of the trigmenial nerve. That has a ‘branch’ going straight yo the eye. Yep imaging is essential for elimination purposes of the nasties’. Enjoy your search. We nearly all start out thinking that but don’t be too disappointed if it proves fruitless. Few find a root cause. Most get told it is ‘multifactorial’. It seems a much under researched ‘forgotten’ area. Low priority because it’s not terminal.
Thanks for the help. You have a lot of info you’ve clearly done more research than I have. It’ll be process of elimination for me. Once I can rule out other things, then I think I’ll be able to handle this better and the right way that works for me. I have to say I do feel better today than I have for the past week. Just in time for Thanksgiving in the States. I won’t take feeling almost normal for granted, that’s for sure.
Well that’s something else you have to be thankful for I guess. It’s very variable, up n down, day to day, hour to hour, even minute by minute. Or so an Occupational Health Assessor told @jojo65 backalong. Oh I’ve done lots of research and experienced much of it personally. Mine’s been chronic a few days short of five years now so I’ve had plenty of time. Quicker you can make your diagnosis seem acceptable and meaningful to you the better for you. I suspect you already know but just in case one word of warning. There’s no imaging that can detect MAV/VM or even straight migraine. .
Yeah, I know. Just want to rule out anything physical that can be detected. My mother has nerve inflammation in her head that was caught by MRI so I want to rule out things like that, neck misalignment (popped my neck out of place in the past) and any tumors or anything like that.
Yes, exactly. Although I’ve seen an endocrinologist and my cortisol level has been high, I see them tomorrow and those can cause benign tumors on the pituitary and be pressing on stuff so we’ll see. I am all kinds of messed up. I miss being healthy without all of this chronic junk.
It’s what I will continue to work toward anyway.