Hi, my name is Jo and this is my first posting. I was very fortunate to see a neuro otologist privately last
Friday who has given me this diagnosis of Migraine Variant Balance Disorder. He explained about blood vessels in bran stem going into spasm and has advised me to try the 6 c’s diet and also medication called Pizotifen.
My symptoms started very suddenly 2 months ago when I woke up to find that I couldn’t balance and everything was swimming around and I was throwing up because of the dizziness. I called out my GP who diagnosed labyrinthitis and prescribed stemetil. For 9 days I was confined to bed as every time I got up I was swaying around and felt very unsteady.
For the next 3 weeks I had fullness in ears, a cotton wool head, ear and neck pain, and tinnitus. My head felt like it was too heavy for my neck and the feeling in my head was like a tinny sensation (very hard to describe), like a reverberating sensation. I returned to work and for a further 3 weeks the symptoms gradually got easier. we had a visiting osteopath come to our work for freebie session and I had some work done on my neck and also acupuncture. I felt a lot better the next day and had a my first weekend where I felt relatively normal! On my 4th week back at work I caught a sickness bug and was off yet again for 3 days, on the 4th day I lay down for a nap, and woke up to exactly the same symptoms as first mentioned. this scared me and I called my GP who said it was probably the labyrinthitis back again, and because I had caught the sickness bug, it had triggered it off again. I was very depressed at the the thought of going through weeks of recovery, and became very depressed and anxious about this condition. I am my own worst enemy when I’ll and trawl the Internet looking for answers, sometimes reading things that scare the life out of me when you read of people suffering for months or even years, and I become convinced that this will be me. I came across the Medway Hospital in Kent and read about Dr
Surethiyan, who is a specialist in balance disorders and was very fortunate to get an appointment last Friday and he straight away dismissed the labyrinthitis diagnosis. what I am finding hard to take on board that all these awful symptoms in my head and ears and the dizziness and unsteadiness is a form of migraine, as Although I do get occasional headaches (in particular what I call neck headaches), I don’t get the typical migraine where you have the flashing lights, aurora etc. I did tell him that for years that I thought I had sinus headaches which went on for weeks, and also had tension headaches, where I literally walked around with a baseball cap or towel wrapped round my head as it was the only thing that relieved the pressure round my head. However, I had not had this for for a long time. I’ve always had problems with tension in my neck and usually have a massage to relieve it, but like most people when you feel ok, you tend to discontinue things.
I’m now going into my 3rd week of this second bout and am at the stage where the dizziness has eased off, and just got the fullness in ears, as though they want to pop and pressure, but it’s my head that causes me the most discomfort. My vision also seems a bit worse and it’s a very strange sensation when I am walking around for a period of time. I just have I lay down and he pressure sensation decreases. I am struggling with this diagnosis of migraine variant balance disorder, and worrying how long it will last. I know from reading posts on here that I am relatively mild compared to some people, but it’s still very scary. I also get tingling sensations in my body and numbing sensations on my head. (I used to get these symptoms when I had all the sinus problems, but am now wondering whether this was just another variant of migraine). If anyone after reading this post can relate to my symptoms and I am a MAV sufferer (is Migraine variant
Balance disorder a form of MAV? ).
I feel so low in mood because of this and feel that I am just waiting to feel normal again.
I have just started a new job and for once I have very little stress in my role, but have spent more time off sick than at work. I do have certificates to cover my absence , but I do worry that they wont keep me on because of so much time off sick and I am in my provationery period. I am normally a happy go lucky person, who loves spending time with my family and friends and my grandchildren. I am 52 and female. I suppose I am looking for some reassurance that the diagnosis from the consultant is correct as I do tend to question everything, ado found it quite hard to take in that it wasn’t labyrinths, yet the symptoms mimic that condition. Any comments great fully appreciated.
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he to diagnosed me with Migraine Variant and started me on the Pizotifen the 6c’s and the eye exercises sitting down to start with, its just that i do not know of anyone who has gone on this journey of recovery so hope you dont mind me contacting you, i do feel positive for the first time about " all this " so i would love to ask you a couple of things if you dont mind.