Just when you have been having better days

Well today and last night were anything but good. I woke up in the middle of the night with my heart racing and it took me the better part of several hours to settle back down

And then today my wavs/motion intolerance have been very bad. Plus late this afternoon I have a headache, not many as of late but this one is a bit worse.

Trying to eat more to increase my weight and every time I do this is what happens. What is the correlation with eating seems to me there is one.

I am so frustrated…I just want my life back …

I think I may make an appointment to see the doctor here who heads The Dizziness and Balance Center at Emory in Atlanta … It may take me a while to get in but it is worth a try.

Timeless-

You may want to investigate MSG.

I can identify with you on waking up from a dead sleep with a racing heart, and a feeling like “something is just not right”. Its a panic-like attack that I’ve come to know (in the past 3 years) that is my “new” migraine aura. For me, its caused by MSG. Its always followed by “spinning”. When I calm down enough to lay back down and sleep, the bed starts spinning. The next day my balance is extremely screwed up, sometimes I can describe it “like walking on marshmallows” and other times I’m just plain bouncing off the walls. When I do really well with avoiding MSG, I don’t have the problem, except around my time of the month. Hormones are also a major factor with me, but avoiding MSG is something that I’ve learned (and worked hard at for 3 years) that has given me my life back for the most part. Its not for everyone, but when you mentioned “the food” correlation it jumped out at me. ( I still suffer with the migraines - and I don’t mean headaches, but I’m living my life now. I’m not homebound like I was). By the way, I can eat ALL the so-called migraine triggers, as long as they don’t contain MSG…

I just recently started PXP. Too soon to tell if I’ll have the results others are having, but so far so good. I am extremely hopeful!!! :smiley: )

Here’s a couple links -

msgmyth.com/

msgmyth.com/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi

Be Well -

Kim

Hi Kim,

Its a panic-like attack that I’ve come to know (in the past 3 years) that is my “new” migraine aura … the next day my balance is extremely screwed up.

You’re the first person I’ve come across to describe a panic-like attack as an aura. This is exactly how I get this a lot of the time. And I’ll get hit in the night as you point out most often. If I had a dollar for the number of times I’ve awakened in the night with my heart racing and feeling panicky, I’d have a lot of cash piled up! Imagine the implcations that this has if doctors really understood this – that an aura for some people with migraine is like having a panic attack. They will of course assume the person has an “anxiety disorder” when really it’s just migraine. When you think about how many people in the population are migraineurs you gotta wonder how many are walking around misdiagnosed thinking they are anxiety cases.

Keep us posted on the PXP trial!

Scott 8)

Kim,

I have to agree with Scott…i had never heard of a panic-like attack referred to as an aura. I am wonder years back when i would wake up from sleep with Vertigo…was it due to Msg? But the last 6-7 years the vertigo is nearly gone so not sure why except i do watch my diet more than i use too. Also…the body tends to heal it self to some degree. I also may have had a touch of Benign Positional Vertigo at the time??? But i know if go back to drinking lots of coffee and not watching my diet…i am almost certain vertigo would probably return.

Joe

I get that same feeling - racing heartbeat, panic feeling. When I first started with this whole MAV mess, before my diagnosis, I would wake up with my heart uncontrollably racing. I would get shaky and nervous with it. Of course, I would be dizzy that next day. I would tell my doctors and they said it was all anxiety. I believe it is tied into the migraine. It is a terrible, uncomfortable feeling. Lately, I have not had it. I hope it doesn’t return.

  • Nance

Joe-

Interesting point - have you found that your symptoms have changed through the years? I know mine have.
Back when you were having the dizziness, did you have the “pressure” feeling in your head too?
You said “your body has a way of healing itself”, I agree. It’s been my experience that Migraines are constantly evolving, different symptoms, etc. Like you said, if you went back to eating poorly again, you’re pretty sure you’d have trouble. I agree.

Scott, yes, I would just about bet there are a lot of people misdiagnosed with anxiety disorders due to migraine. I was one of them.

A few months ago somebody (I believe it was Jen) started a thread about Migraine Auras. It’s crazy how many different things were on that list. I’ll bump it up again.

Kim

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When I calm down enough to lay back down and sleep, the bed starts spinning. The next day my balance is extremely screwed up, sometimes I can describe it “like walking on marshmallows” and other times I’m just plain bouncing off the walls. When I do really well with avoiding MSG, I don’t have the problem, except around my time of the month. Hormones are also a major factor with me, but avoiding MSG is something that I’ve learned (and worked hard at for 3 years) that has given me my life back for the most part. Its not for everyone, but when you mentioned “the food” correlation it jumped out at me. ( I still suffer with the migraines - and I don’t mean headaches, but I’m living my life now. I’m not homebound like I was).
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This describes what I was going through for years and now have been able to get most of it under control. What I find interesting is the mention of panic attacks during the night. I have never had one myself. I have only had vertigo spins, but my mother used to get them for a few years and they were a terrible problem for her. She ended up going to the ER on quite a few occassions just to be sent home. She actually thought she was having a heart attack and was dieing. What is even stranger is that she did not get migraines, vertigo or even headaches, and during that same period of time when this was going on she ended up having a cerebral hemhorage. She was in a coma for one week, was paralysed on her left side and suffered terribly from then on. I could not help but remind her attending physician while she was in intensive care in that coma about all of her so called “panic attacks” and he said, “Oh my, I had forgotten about those, I wonder if they were related.” After her experience, my theory is that it may be related to blood flow and I believe migraines may be related to blood flow also in some instances.

I also think we may be affected by the weather patterns and with all of the storms that have been sweeping the country, we may be experiencing an increase in our symptoms.

Here is better days!

Karen