Symptoms common to MAV & VM

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Chronic vestibular conditions are complex, and not everyone experiences them exactly the same way, but there are many common symptoms, though you may not experience all of them. Specifically, sometimes sufferers only experience the vestibular symptoms whilst not having any aural symptoms. Sometimes the aural symptoms are experienced, but only in phases, whilst the unluckiest get aural symptoms 24/7.

The symptoms of VM are thought to be caused by some by a central issue in the nervous system and the brain. There is, however, a fair amount of controversy around this and the aetiology of the conditions has yet to be fully determined scientifically. Several hypotheses are well established however. Causes of MAV can vary.

The presentation of these conditions morphs. Even after several years of the condition it is very possible to experience a symptom you’ve never had before.

Symptoms common to MAV & VM include:

24/7:

  • Dizziness
  • Light-headedness
  • Imbalance, unsteadiness on feet
  • “Marshmallow floor”
  • A feeling one leg is heavier or longer than the other.
  • Ear specific:
    • Tinnitus (fluctuating, intermittent or persistent)
    • Dulled hearing
    • Ear pressure
    • Ear pain
    • Fluid sensations in one or both ears
    • A feeling of ear ‘fullness’
  • Motion intolerance
  • Nausea
  • “Brain rumbles”
  • Vision specific:
    • Eye strain
    • Visual Hallucinations
    • Trouble focusing
    • Discomfort in front of or intolerance of computer, TV or video screens
  • Rocking or Push-pull sensations & false motion
  • Discomfort in reclining position, e.g. in bed and/or during turning.

Attacks of varying regularity, degrees of severity and duration:

  • Incapacitating & incredibly uncomfortable migraines that involve intense motion intolerance that can last over 10 hours
  • ‘Regular’ migraines with or without aura.
  • Spinning attacks, where you feel the world spin around you which can cause intense nausea
  • Rocking or Push-pull sensations & false motion
  • “Magneto Head” where you feel your head is being pulled to the ground
  • Brain fog, where cognitive function is significantly impaired, you feel like you can’t think. This is a scary and debilitating symptom, but just like the others, it passes eventually.

There’s an expanded list below including more unusual ones!

Take me back to the Welcome Page

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User Submitted List of Symptoms!

An expanded list including all the symptoms that our board members have reported. You may not experience them all! Please bear in mind, though, that not all of them may be officially recognised as VM/MAV/SEH symptoms!

Vestibular:

  • Dizziness
  • Spinning attacks, where you feel the world spin around you which can cause intense nausea (true vertigo)
  • Light-headedness
  • Imbalance, unsteadiness on feet
  • Motion intolerance
  • “Marshmallow floor”, a feeling the floor is made of soft material.
  • Feeling that path/road etc is moving up and down as you walk on it
  • Rocking or Push-pull sensations & false motion
  • “Magneto Head” where you feel your head is being pulled to the ground
  • Mal d’embarquement - feeling like you are on a boat or just got off a boat, seasickness on dry land

Visual:

  • Eye strain
  • Visual Hallucinations/Visual distortions, e.g. where colours seem too vivid, or buildings seem to be like surrealist painting, clouds seem like animations or true hallucinations such as seeing things fall or fly by that aren’t there
  • Visual snow, flashing, colours, spots, ‘trails’ and after images, etc - non-classic visual aura
  • Trouble focusing
  • Sensitivity to bright light/photophobia
  • Discomfort in front of or intolerance of computer, TV or video screens
  • ‘Visual lag’ ie where there seems to be a time lag between motion, eye and brain
  • Appearance of objects moving in parallax eg looks like trees are moving behind each other, like horizon is moving against sky or a portion of the visual field is rotating

Ear-centric:

  • Tinnitus (fluctuating, intermittent or persistent)
  • Dulled hearing
  • Ear pressure
  • Ear pain
  • Fluid sensations in one or both ears
  • A feeling of ear ‘fullness’
  • Sensitivity to loudness (* Hyperacusis (everything sounds too loud)/phonophobia)
  • Dryness ‘cracking’ in eustachian tube.

Neurological:

  • Nausea
  • “Brain rumbles”
  • Incapacitating & incredibly uncomfortable migraines that involve intense motion intolerance that can last over 10 hours
  • ‘Regular’ migraines with or without aura (i.e. with headache?)
  • Brain fog, where cognitive function is significantly impaired, you feel like you can’t think. This is a scary and debilitating symptom, but just like the others, it passes eventually.
  • Slurred speech
  • Unusual headache sensations, eg crawling headache up back of head, headache or scalp/painful scalp, head pain in specific and unusual areas
  • Classic migraine visual aura without headache (blind spots, scintillating scotoma, zigzagging lines, etc)
  • Anxiety or sense of doom
  • Feeling of unreality/displacement (eg i’m standing in my road, but it doesn’t feel like my road)
  • Pain or pressure in the crown of the head or behind the eyes
  • Brain zaps, brain hiccups or electrical storms

Neuropathic:

  • Numbness of face
  • Numbness of tongue
  • Numbness of hands, feet, legs, including tingling of legs, general feeling of weakness

Other:

  • Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
  • Tightness of stomach, churning
  • Bloodshot eyes during and between episodes
  • Fatigue, or cycles of fatigue and restlessness.
  • Insomnia due to symptoms
  • Exaggerated motion sickness or motion intolerance (eg being passenger in car could cause nausea, or could cause headache or brain fog and other symptoms)
  • A sense of crawling tiredness behind the eyes when you’re trying to process motion etc during these episodes
  • Neck pain
  • Feeling like you have sinus or ear infections when you don’t

Especially odd ones:

  • A feeling one leg is heavier or longer than the other.
  • Discomfort in reclining position, e.g. in bed and/or during turning.
  • Heavy head - where you feel like you’ve been drugged and are barely awake/conscious
  • “Rubber ball head” i.e where you feel like your brain is bouncing around like a rubber ball
  • False fever: slightly raised skin temperature and feeling of fever, without real temperature rise, sweating [NB always get this checked out in case of real fever]
  • Shivering, a feeling of being frozen from the inside out. Hands and feet colder than the outside air.
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James,

If you think this is better under another thread, feel free to clip it and move it. The more I think about it, the more I think it might be better in my Journal.

I can’t imagine how I’ve missed this list after being on mvertigo.com for all this time.

The list has symptoms that I’ve had, but did not associate with my VM problem.

  • Rocking Motion - since sometime in the mid 1980’s I’ve been aware that when I drive and come to a stoplight, while I’m waiting for the green light, I perceive that I’m rocking ever so slightly forward and backward. At first I thought it was a vehicle issue, until it happened in another vehicle. This was decades before my diagnosis, so I was at a loss to understand it, not knowing what I know now.
  • Dryness ‘cracking’ in Eustachian tube - I had this symptom for the first time a month ago. Not realizing it was a VM symptom I booked an appointment with my ENT and had it checked out. Of course, they didn’t find anything. If I have it again, I’ll know not to waste the time and money on a doctor’s appointment.
  • Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) - I’ve had issues with alternating diarrhea / constipation since about 1985. I had no idea why, I just assumed I wasn’t eating properly. But for the past six years I ate under a doctor’s supervision, and I still had the problem. Now I wonder if VM might not be the problem.
  • A feeling one leg is heavier or longer than the other - I believe I have a variation of this symptom. When I climb stairs, my right foot will “drop” when I lift it of the treadle to move it up to the next. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it can cause me to trip and fall. For that reason I’m always extra careful climbing stairs watching my right foot to make sure it doesn’t drop.

it makes me wonder what other issues I have may be caused by VM. I also wonder if we aren’t wired with this problem from birth. I recall back when I was about five or six getting extremely nauseous from riding in the car. The odd part was, on those rare occasions that Mom would let me ride up front, I didn’t get sick.

That makes me wonder about our Alaskan cruise. I was horribly Motion sick on the way up and on the way back. Four days laying face down in my cabin with the lights off doped up on meclizine. If I could have hung out on the bridge with the Captain, maybe I wouldn’t have gotten sick?

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Glad I’m not the only one who has observed this one.

Yeah but I doubt it’s that simple (in general). There has to be a proper aetiology and explanation for it. I can’t fathom how a migraine condition causes dryness in the Eustachian tube. Or is it something to do with the jaw joint itself? I do wonder sometimes if the causation is in the opposite direction, but in any case there simply isn’t enough science to explain it sadly.

17

I can’t fathom how a migraine condition causes dryness in the Eustachian tube.

I never did associate it with my migraine issue. I had a lot of sinus congestion due to the drought conditions here and my ears were having a hard time equalizing the pressure. One morning toward the end of the sinus issues, my right ear, which also happens to be the good ear, started making crackling noises as if water was in the ear and having trouble finding its way out.

I didn’t give it much though since I’ve had water in my ear before and it normally clears itself within an hour. By that night, it was still there. The next morning it wasn’t any better, so I made an appointment with the ENT’s Nurse Practitioner.

On the day of the office visit, 7 days later, the symptoms had completely disappeared. But, I kept the appointment anyway. She examined my ears and all she found was a cerumen particle sitting on my ear drum. She said that couldn’t be the cause, but vacuumed it off anyway. She said if it happened again to call her.

That was three months ago, and not even a hint of its returning.

18

What?!

Now you are sounding like me! … for the few months leading up to MAV going bananas I had a sensation of water in my (middle!) ear every morning but would clear on simply righting myself from bed.

(note nothing to do with outer ear so not visible to physicians on a casual clinic visit)

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It must be a loss of testosterone related to the aging process! :rofl: :joy:

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I was 44 when this happened I think.

21

Well that blows up the old age theory. I’m 73 and this is the first time it’s happened to me. I seem to be a late bloomer with a lot of these unusual diseases/disorders. It’s been within the past 20 years that I developed Keratoconus, the last 10 years since the VM started showing up,

Actually, I only went to the doctor for annual checkups until I was 54. Then not only did the wheels fly off, the whole wagon started to fall apart. Since that time I’ve had:

Triple Bypass Cardiac Surgery - Bypass three blocked arteries that supply blood to my heart. If the arteries had failed completely, the chance of a heart attack was high.

Bicep Tendon Surgery on both shoulders - during fall yard cleanup, I snapped one of the two tendons on the top of my left bicep. The remaining stub was getting caught between bones in my shoulder when I raised my arm. This resulted in impingement pain. The procedure was to trim the stub back to the bone. One year later, it happened again.

Plantar fascia release - for most of by adult life I had suffered through planar faciitus. This surgery was to open the sheaf so the tendons inside could move freely.

Carpal Tunnel surgery both hands - Elective surgery to open the sheaf to allow the tendons free movement without being restricted by the sheaf.

Fingernail and nail bed matrix removal - index finger - my dermatologist saw a dark spot under my index fingernail that she thought was melanoma. When the hand surgeon removed the nail, he found the growth had also invaded the nail matrix, which he removed as well. The biopsy turned out to be negative. This by the way, was the most painful recovery out of every surgery that I ever had.

HOLEP (Laser Prostate surgery) marginally successful - I had developed an enlarged prostate that was squeezing my urethra and making it difficult to completely empty my bladder. The surgery was initially successful. But after nine months I was back to the original problem.

TURP Trans Urethra Prostate Surgery - This is the same surgery as the HOLEP surgery, except instead of vaporizing the tissue with a laser, they cut the tissue out with a hot wire and remove the trimmed tissue through the tool that is inserted through the urethra.

Bone Conduction Hearing Aid Implant - this was elective surgery to implant the receiver for a bone conduction hearing aid.

Aside from the last item, these were all surgical procedures to resolve medical issues that were life threatening, causing pain, or threatening future life threatening situations.