I was wondering if any of you are also having to cope with supporting family members with VM?
One of the factors in accepting my diagnosis ( as I have never suffered ‘normal’ migraines) was that my mum and dad have them and so has my daughter since a young age. She also suffers from vasovagal syncope and faints several times a year. But what I am finding hard is that over the last year or so, she has had dizzy spells which have left me wondering if I have passed on this monster to her. The thought of her developing something as chronic and awful as what I’ve got is really worrying me. She is 15.
On Sunday we went for a mothers day lunch and she nearly fell off her chair after having pizza and two diet cokes. I have tried to tell her to be sensible with what she eats but I don’t want to scare her and she doesn’t take much notice anyway. My mum was with us too and on the way back we had to go down some spiral steps and all three of us felt really dizzy! My daughter went a pale yellowy colour and felt sick and my mum had a bad headache. They both went to lie down while I carried on as always, feeling more depressed than ever about this whole thing…
I don’t tell my family how bad my dizziness is, they think i feel dizzy occasionaly (i am 24/7 dizzy with some really bad days/weeks)
I think it’s because they don’t seem to understand and also because i don’t want to worry them, but i am surprised they do not notice how much less i go out now etc.
Having said that my mum gets migraines every so often, bad ones that reduce her to bed for two days with dizziness and nausea/photophobia but her dizziness does not persist ever nor does she ever have dizziness without a headache. I assume i have got this MAV from her
Sadly my 13 year old son also suffers migraines, he has done since he was 5, when he first got them i was scared he had a brain tumour, he was in such pain and throwing up. Luckily he does not get them often and i do encourage him to watch his diet a bit, we have cut out sweetners in drinks etc for him. Luckily he does not have chronic dizziness like me though does get dizzy sometimes when we are in large stores or before he gets a headache.
I feel sad that i have passed this to him and only hope it just remains as occasional and my other children do not develop anything.
I’m sorry that you may have passed the migraine on to your son. It’s heartbreaking when they are suffering at such a young age. My daughter is off school today with dizziness so it is definitely becoming more frequent and severe, but I will try not to worry about it becoming constant like me. Hers definitely is more migraine typical as she also has headache and she scoffed a load of chocolate last night. I will have to try to improve her diet but as any parent of a teenage girl knows, this will not be easy.
I don’t tell my family how bad it is either. Sometimes I am angry that they (especially my husband) expect me to be normal but I know this is partly my fault for keeping quiet. I don’t want them ever to know just how down I have been with this. I sometimes think my husband would think I am mentally ill or even have me sectioned as a danger to myself! He sees everything black and white and has never had to deal with any kind of illness or depression.
I still teach full time and feel similarly angry when my boss asks me to do something I know I will find a real struggle. As I am always responsible for at least 30 children I also worry that they are not safe if I am not coping. Today I have taken them swimming as lead teacher on a coach of 60 children. As well as the coach, standing by the side of a noisy hot pool is not great for me. Playground duty and taking assemblies are pretty crap too. Next week I have to do two 13 hour days where I have to speak to parents, long after I would normally be flat out on the sofa, even though it will be like holding a meeting on a rollercoaster! But I want to keep working and some days the dizziness is a bit better at work so I suppose I can’t have it both ways. It would just be nice not to always go to sleep and wake up wondering how on earth I am going to do everything that is expected of me.
Hopefully my daughter will grow out of this. My family is my reason to keep going and if anything worse happened to them I couldn’t go on. Hope the rest of your family remain well too.
Thanks for the reply, it’s nice to know people understand even if we can’t be fully open about this to close family members.
Sorry your daughter is suffering recently, it’s hard for teens with this because of their lifestyle (odd sleep patterns, odd diets and hormones!)
I really hope your daughters migraines do not get more frequent and perhaps get better once she goes through her teenage years.
MAV sucks! Sometimes i think, why me, why us? But i guess some people have worse things, i always try to be positive xxxx
