How do people feel in the mornings? Every morning I wake up I feel really bad and everything is all bouncy and vibrating and hard to focus on and it takes between 2-30 minutes to feel relatively normal (baseline not that great) most days. Some times a couple hours but usually it’s quicker. I haven’t been for sure diagnosed with MAV yet but it’s the leading thought by the neurotologist. Am I waking up every morning with a migraine? Is it just my vestibular system readjusting? I had a 41% weakness in my right side when I did the caloric testing and I’ve been doing therapy to try to make this better. I think it’s slowly making it better (instead of making it worse like it sounds like happens to many people here). I have my prescription to verapamil, I’m just trying to hang in there and see if 2 weeks with this therapist shows any improvement on tests. If I don’t, I’ll start on the verapamil. I’ve been taking imitrex as abortive but I’m not sure I really like it…I haven’t had a big attack (migraine?) in about 3 weeks tho but a few small ones. I’ve heard it takes a week or two to start doing any good. Should I try to get topomax first? Is that quicker?
Also how many of you have vestibulo-ocular-reflex-impairment? Is that synonymous with MAV or separate? Because a lot of the time that’s my main and only problem…I don’t get dizzy every day. I just get vestibularly worn out and can’t keep up with fast moving things if I’m moving (haven’t really driven in 6 weeks)
(For those with MAV) Do you have a ‘hangover effect’ every morning where you wake up feeling dizzy/crummy for the first 2-30 minutes?
The responses so far:
Yes, every morning! (7) (50%)
A good portion of the time (4) (28.6%)
Every once in awhile (0) (0%)
No, mornings are no different than any other part of the day since developing this disease (3) (21.4%)
Mornings are the worst for me hands down. I am much more likely to develop a headache from a shower in the morning than in the afternoon. In fact, it’s documented in the scientific literature that migraineurs are more prone to being hit in the morning. Who knows why … I usually wake feeling sluggish, flat and headachy. Have been like this for a long time. If I wake at around 5 am and need to use the loo, I always have lots of dysequilibrium staggering out of bed.
It’s hard for me to get going in the morning. Weekends and other days off are okay because I can lie in bed for an hour or so before I get up. But during the week when my clock goes off at 5:15 it is very difficult to get moving.
I think part of the reason is that most of my vertigo attacks have happened early in the morning as I am wakening so I’m always afraid of another one happening at this time. I’m very careful of how I roll over and get up. So afraid to move and find I have that horrible waterbed feeling once again. Once I get up and get moving I’m usually okay. It’s just getting from bed to that point that I have the problem.
I usually get up 2-3 times in the night to go to the bathroom, and like you Scott, I feel I am staggering all the way there (all of 10 steps). Funny thing is, I was telling a friend of mine about this (she has no balance problems, no migraine, no vertigo, etc.) and she said she always “staggers” to the bathroom when she goes in the middle of the night, never even gives it a second thought. She assumed that is how everyone is at 2:AM. She may have a good point there and that may be the norm.