How many of you suffer intense photophobia? I find natural light so disorientating…
After WTC posted such detail about her symptoms and experience of dizziness it got me thinking about how different all our experiences of vertigo/dizziness are…I don’t really suffer any of the things WTC described…I think almost ALL my dizziness comes from my vision, things move ever so slightly, and almost look like they breathe and rock, I am also incredibly sensitive to bright light, grey natural light being the worst…everything sort of looks off, almost in high definition…can anyone identify with this?
If my vision was normal, I believe the base level of dizziness would be very manageable…it’s all in my eyes for me, it’s so disorientating. xx
Speak to Hannah. She has severe light sensitivity – the most irritating migraine symptom for her. She uses sunglasses and wears special contacts to reduce the effect. Bright sunny days are very tough for her.
For me it’s the electric lights that look dazzling! Streetlights and car lights look all flared and fuzzy. It seems to be fading a bit now that I’m learning how to look after myself and calm down from the panic I first felt. Bright days are harder, but as time goes on it gets a bit easier.
Yeah i used to have really bad bad flare/glare from lights. Its a lot better now
Is your vrt person going to refer you?
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My GP has referred me to an ENT because she thought the problem was from sinusitis, the ENT appointment isn’t until August. I don’t think my VRT physio can refer me, but I will ask him if he thinks I should ask my doc for a referral to a neurologist also. He said that it would be good to go to the ENT anyway, just for them to check out my ears and do some scans to make sure everything is ok.
I’m glad to hear your flare is better - have you been getting treatment for migraine or just treating it yourself?
Ah you are lucky, I have read lots about how good he is
I live in Ireland so I’m doing it through the public health system here, unfortunately I don’t have health insurance so it means long waiting times. I’m very glad for the VRT therapist because he’s been a fountain of knowledge, I don’t think I could have handled everything that’s happening to me without his help and advice.
Thank you hillsta, I didn’t know that. I am seeing my physio next week, I will ask him about all of this and see what he advises, he might suggest I get my GP to refer me to that clinic. He has been dealing with balance patients for years, and I think he gets migraines himself (although not with vertigo), so I’m sure he will know the right action to take.
I will admit I’m nervous of being treated for migraine, I can be so sensitive to drugs and have had bad experiences with doctors in the past so I am very wary of new doctors and new drugs! I have been doing the lifestyle measures (except for exercise) for the last three weeks, and they are definitely helping.
I have had bad symptoms since December, it was at its worst in Dec/Jan/Feb. My GP originally thought I had labyrinthitis (for the second time), then sinusitis.
But I’d been having what I thought were sinus headaches & was ever so slightly off balance at times since last summer. I was taking painkillers a lot and trying to figure out why my sinuses were so painful. My physio tells me this may have been migraine.
About 6 years ago I had a bout of what I was told was labyrinthitis, but when I look back now it may have been migraine triggered by a change in contraceptive pill. I didn’t have the classic spinning bout of labs, the first thing that happened to me was that everything looked just weird to me one day, and the light seemed so bright, i had a panic attack and over a few days I got dizzy. I was off balance for about 6 weeks but got better gradually.
Since then I’ve gotten the odd bout of imbalance mostly when I was sick or once or twice just randomly. It was never bad and went away by itself. That is until last December when it hit again badly and I’ve been struggling with it since although I am much better now than a couple of months ago.