I’m sure that you have seen this thread subject plenty of times. I tried to search but I feel as if nothing relates to my situation.
But here’s my story. I’m 15 and this all happened about a 2 and a half months ago. So I am lying in my bed facing upwards and when I got up the whole room was spinning around. I felt nauseous and unbalanced. I didn’t think of anything at first until i lied back down and i had the same feeling, the room was spinning rapidly. Mind you that I am a very anxious person so I called my parents and they just shrugged it off and told me to sleep on it. But I couldn’t fall asleep because I was having panic attacks all night. When lying in bed I also experienced spinning sensations only when I turn my head to the left while lying down.
The next day, I was a wreck, I felt so anxious. Later in the day I tried to experience the sensation again and it happened. I realized that if I lie down facing my right side i would get the spinning sensation. The spinning sensation only happens for about 5-10 seconds at the most. At this time i was freaking out and looked on the internet for solutions and i came across BPPV, and that’s when i tried the Epley maneuver. After i tried the Epley maneuver my spinning went away i tried to reproduce the spinning sensation but i couldn’t. So i thought i cured it.
A week later i went to go lie down in my bed and i felt the sensation again but this time it wasn’t as bad. There was no spinning but only a sensation. The feeling that i can best describe it is the same feeling i would get right before everything starts spinning. The feeling wasn’t bad but it was uncomfortable. I was also feeling off and a hint of dizziness here and there through the day. If i am doing something to distract me i wont notice it as much. I could still continue on my day and keep steady but i just felt off. I tried the epley maneuver again and it didn’t change anything. I still had that mild sensation.
A week later i finally went to the doctors and he did an MRI and it was normal. He also tried to do the epley movement on me he didn’t see any nystagmus. I told him that the first time i did the maneuver i felt the nystagmus so he just told me that the symptoms are normal and they will die away. He did not perform a dix hallpike maneuver on me. But when i went home, i sat at the edge of my bed and fell over to the left and i felt the sensation and when i fell to the left i got nothing. So i waited and i get anxious every time i accidental trigger the sensation by turning to my right side when lying down. So today i did some research and came across migraine vertigo. And now i’m freaking out because i think i might have MAV. When i thought about it, i did experience a migraine on my forehead and sometimes on my left or right side for about 3 days straight then it went away. I thought this was from the strain from my neck to keep my head still. But i can still go through the day.
I found this from the new article that came out and it tells about the differential between BPPV and MAV but i don’t really understand it.
“Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) Vestibular migraine may present with purely positional vertigo, ths mimicking BPPV. Direct nystagmus observation during the acute phase may be required for differentiation. In vestibular migraine, positional nystagmus is usually persistent and not aligned with a single semicircular canal. Symptomatic episodes tend to be shorter with vestibular migraine (minutes to days rather than weeks)and more frequent (several times per year with vestibular migraine rather than once every few years with BPPV)”
So I guess my question is do my symptoms sounds like i have MAV? Please help. I would greatly appreciated. I want my life back =
I’ve got VM and I’ve had two BPPV attacks. They can both produce similar symptoms but when you’ve had both and can distinguish between them, there’s no mistaking BPPV. With BPPV the eyes will pulse in a certain discrete direction depending on the ear canal that is affected. There is first a latency period between the completion of the head movement, and the onset of subjective rotational vertigo and the objective nystagmus. The latency period for the onset of the nystagmus is typically from 5
to 20 seconds. When you stop moving your head, the rotational vertigo stops with it.
To me it sounds like you have had a BPPV attack and the crystals may still be moving around. You can treat this yourself using the Modified Epley Procedure or the MEP. In the literature it has been shown to be highly effective – better than the other treatments out there. To learn about how to do this, see the following article and video here:
Thank you Scott for the response. I will try the video.
I have been reading some stories and i think the main diffrence beween the vertigo is that the dizziness for VM is constantly throughout the day and vertigo can hit out of nowhere. But for BPPV, for me, this vertigo feeling only happens during my specific head movements.
I wouldn’t treat yourself- i would try to see either a neurotologist or else a qualifed physical therapist who has been trained in doing this. I have read that if you do it wrong you can move the crystals into an even more difficult place to treat.
do you have to have nystagmus to have BPPV? for those of you that have had nystagmus, can you feel it- I mean is it obvious you that your eyes are jerking around in a weird way?
I’ve had several Epley maneuvers by a physical therapist who specializes in treating BPPV. She used goggles to project my eye movements onscreen and specifically looked for nystagmus. During the actual treatment, she watched for it to calm down before moving me around and into the upright position because, from what I understood, having no more nystagmus showed the crystals had moved. She warned me not to panic during the maneuver and move into any position she was not leading me into because the crystals could get into an even more sensitive canal.
sarahd, I can’t feel nystagmus, but sometimes on especially dizzy days I feel my eyes aren’t tracking correctly. But I don’t think that’s the same as true nystagmus.
What i am really anxious about is that what if its not BPPV, and its early symtoms of MAV. Thats what im really anxious about. I only get the head rush sensation only when laying down looking to my right and getting up looking to my right. And i dont get virtigo out of no where also. I would sometimes feel dizzy but it only a hint of it and goes away after i concentrate on something else. I’m just anxious right now how both are so similar.
Is it true that most MAV patients are dizzy throughout the day? and get Virtigo spells out of no where?
The MEP is specifically designed for self-treatment. Of course you should be assessed in the first instance by a qualified health professional and know which ear is affected. I used the MEP after my second attack (much worse than the first) and knew it was the right ear again because of the direction of the nystagmus. It cleared up quickly following a few rounds of the MEP over 2 days. I went to see Prof Halmagyi about 4 days later. He tested me and said I had successfully cleared out the rocks.
Jamie – there’s no point in being anxious about what this is. It won’t kill you whatever it is. I know it’s a freak out but the more you wind yourself up, the worse everything gets. If it’s just BPPV, it will clear up. Treatment is highly successful with the MEP. If it’s migraine, you focus on treating that as per the Guidelines and the Survival Guide. Again for the vast majority, management of migraine is not difficult and taking the right action will put it back in the cage.