Diagnosed generally with vestibular dysfunction last fall. Constant dizziness, headaches and brain fog. Fatigue. I would notice symptoms, head and neck tightness, vertigo, headache with nausea. And treat symptomatically and struggle through. Muscle relaxers for occipital neuralgia, meclizine for nausea. Trigger point injections. I’ve always been clumsy but my history of falls should have been a heads up. The first time I noticed the vertigo was years ago when I finally got relief from the headaches and neck tension through botox injections. Then I had unrelated surgery and had bed rest for three weeks realized what it was like to have no symptoms. Eventually I had to return to real life and knew I needed help. Neurologist said talk to ENT. ENT said menieres take meclizine. With support from a good friend I was determined to get more relief and got a referral to a vestibular center at Vanderbilt. The tests were awful, I threw up and had to go sleep for three hours but it showed vestibular dysfunction and I was referred to vestibular therapy and migraine symptoms tracking. Vestibular therapy with a balance trained PT has made a huge difference. It is slow and seems like it couldn’t really be doing anything but I could see my progress. Most surprisingly was how quickly the headaches and neck pain went away. I had been incapacitating myself trying to hold my head still to avoid dizziness. My understanding is that if you have true vestibular migraines vestibular therapy will not help. After about two months I had significant improvement and gave up my meclizine. Thanksgiving set me back, fatigue, movement, head movements in close Group setting for conversations all made me sick. Another month and I was feeling like myself. Have now had two big setbacks but I think I’ve narrowed the triggers to exerting while bending over- pulling wet laundry out of wash, picking up 12 pack of Diet Coke and bending to put under or pull out from grocery cart. Bending and pouring cat litter. The glimpse of my old self is keeping me going. I’ve had so many false starts on what might be cause and effect, long term healing vs miracle cure, correlation does not equal causation but info tracking helps. The way it comes and goes is rough, sometimes I think I’ll have to go on disability other days I am suspicious that it was ever that bad. Regular Physical therapist has given me a good touchstone.
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Welcome Chris, sorry to hear of your troubles. I hope the site is useful for you.
I had a lot of problems with bending over or lifting during the worst phases of my condition. It could leave me dizzy for a couple of weeks.
Hey Chris!
Sorry to hear about what you’re going through. I also had issues causing from bending.
This forum is extremely helpful and you can get a lot of help from here.