Not vertigo, but worsened balance, suggested my wife, might have been a harbinger of MAV, a good decade or more before the serious problem struck. I used to have not just adequate but superior balance. Then at one point I started complaining that when I engaged in activities such as spinning on the ice I found it significantly harder than it used to be. I checked with docs, and they all said your balance seems normal, what do you want from me, buster?
Any way, fast forward ten-plus years and zowie, my balance suddenly was so gone that I couldn’t even stand up. . . leading, eventually, to the MAV dx.
Out of curiosity, as I wonder whether this was just a fluke: was this plausibly a harbinger? Did anyone else notice such a progression?
It’s weird isnt it, how much variation we have with MAV… in my case definitely fast onset for the balance side - over a day or two. No whisper or hint of earlier problems. I am dead sure my balance difficulties (which continue 24/7 but are not terrible just not good) onset suddenly June 2010. They came in the package of all the ugly stuff - except the migraines which I had been previously “gifted” .
Well I dont twirl on ice that sounds fun. But forever (and at least weekly) I have done sport involving standing on my tiptoes to serve…One day i could. Two days later and to this day if it comes to that I couldn’t. If I forget I topple gracefully to the left. Have been MRI’d a couple of times and pass nearly all tests except those standing on with squishy cushions, feet together, unsighted, dark etc.
Apart from a bout of the vapours or two during pregnancy (at rock concerts etc), I had like you had better than A1 balance forever. No dizzy with migraine. Nothing wobbly about me at all …before…
But fluro lights and specific sounds had gone off a bit for a couple of years before all this so maybe there are earlier signs…cheers wendy
Thanks, Wendy.
Interesting: maybe there can be precursors, different for different folks; and maybe we just look back and try to make sense out of what happens to us and draw spurious connections.
It may be that some of us are wired or “built” in such a way that our vestibular systems are weak spots that function fine earlier on in life, but when we’re no longer kids the weakness may start to show up, either with a hint or with a “big bang” event.
Maybe the hints are subtle.
I don’t remember having any problems with any amusement park rides when I was a kid. But as I got older, I do remember going as a young adult and being able to go on roller coasters but NOT on anything that would spin in a circle. A lot of the kiddie rides would spin you in circles, and some of my friends wanted to be “silly” and go on those rides, and I remember trying one and feeling just awful. I think I may have tried once or twice again, and getting the same result, so I figured out I was no longer able to go on spinning rides. But I could go on the steep drops and sharp turns of the roller coasters and not feel sick (scared and thrilled, but not nauseated).
David, I had motion sickness as a child (I remember being given “sea legs” by mum and dad) and laying down in the car with dry biscuits. I had two perforated eardrums as a baby. When I was 11 I was doing 100 cartwheels down the road, in Cyprus when I was 15, I was doing 100 somersaults in the sea (always had to be 100!) so I know I was OK then. Late teens, early 20s, lots of hangovers (didnt we all) they were rotton migraines, looking back. Alongside that, ear infection from outdoor swimming pool, perforated eardrum again. All night party, drank too much red wine, woke, couldnt get out of bed, room spinning (this was my first major vertigo attack). Stress used to give me bad stomach ache (looking back it was abdominal migraine) I remember having the classic zig zag lines as a teenager, my headaches were often bad, but I always thought “migraine” was far worse headaches than I got at that time (I found out later how painful they can be). I remember going on the “waltzers” in my early 20s getting off and feeling sick as a dog for an hour after, when everyone else was fine as soon as they came off. That was the end of fair rides for me.
Summary … dodgy ears through childhood, migraines started through teenage years… then they joined up … would love to know the actual mechanism though.
that sounds fun. But forever (and at least weekly) I have done sport involving standing on my tiptoes to serve…One day i could. Two days later and to this day if it comes to that I couldn’t. If I forget I topple gracefully to the left. Have been MRI’d a couple of times and pass nearly all tests except those standing on with squishy cushions, feet together, unsighted, dark etc.