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Joined: Jul 26, 2004 Posts: 118 Location: Sunnydale, USA
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2004 1:46 pm Post subject: vertigo
In the middle of the night I sat up rather quickly to pull on an extra blanket and the room started spinning counterclockwise. This vertigo lasted a few minutes. This happened to me once before, a couple years ago (before my dx), and also was in the middle of the night when I got up to go to the bathroom. I will ask my neuro, but I'm wondering how likely this is MS related, or did I simply jog my inner ear when I sat up quickly? How many of you have had vertigo spells like this?
My first MS symptom was vertigo. The Dr. thought I had a virus in my inner ear. I never felt the same after the vertigo and three years later I was dx with MS.
last summer i took my daughter to a amusement park for her birthday and all the rides go up and around, so i was constanly looking up at her, well for a week and a half i had vertigo so bad that evry time i sat up i threw up from being so dizzy, my doctor (when i was finally able to sit up for more then 5 mins) gave me antivert, and helped immediately.
Joined: Jul 26, 2004 Posts: 118 Location: Sunnydale, USA
Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2004 12:06 pm Post subject:
teachk: no, I'm not on any meds for fatigue, but that's good to know.
sunshine12: I'm making note of antivert in case this gets worse! thanks!
Interestingly, when I told my sister about this brief vertigo bout, she said she recently had one too! She was thinking it was a new manifestation of migraines, which plague her periodically. I made sure she wasn't talking about mere dizziness--she said the world was definitely spinning. (Counterclockwise, in fact!) Hers lasted long enough to make her nauseous. She wants to seek a medical opinion on hers--it will be interesting to compare notes.
This is probably one of those "fun" things I'll never know for sure if it's MS or not. Nice to know I'm not the only one!
Joined: May 19, 2004 Posts: 99 Location: Waltham, MA
Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2004 9:53 pm Post subject:
Vertigo is definitely something that happens in a lot of people with MS. I have had regular bouts of vertigo for a few seconds to half a minute long. I know others who have had it for extended periods. It can also be caused by drugs or viruses as has been mentioned. Here's an interesting treatment that doesn't require medication, only physical manipulation, that might be tried if you have problems going forward:
http://www.bostoncure.org:8080/article.pl?sid=03/06/25/1026226&mode=nested
Joined: Jul 26, 2004 Posts: 118 Location: Sunnydale, USA
Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 5:28 pm Post subject:
As a followup to my original vertigo post, my sister (who does not have MS) saw a neuro about her vertigo. He seemed to think it was BPPV (benign paroxysmal positioning vertigo--click on Art's link above), and if it got worse for her, she might consider the physical manipulation that Art mentioned. When I saw my neuro, I asked about whether my vertigo episode was due to my MS or not. He didn't seem to think so because it was very short-lived and occurred when I sat up quickly in bed (which is more characteristic of something like BPPV).
For those of you with vertigo that you think may or may not be MS-related, you should read the abstract of the article in the link that Art posted. Sounds like BPPV, not MS activity, was the most common cause of vertigo for the MS patients studied. BPPV can be diagnosed and treated. Without drugs, for a change!
Joined: Jun 11, 2004 Posts: 36 Location: McLeansville NC
Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 4:43 am Post subject:
My first symptoms were also of the vertigo variety - but I only noticed it at high speeds while driving. (un)fortunately soon thereafter, I started having real vision problems (nystagmus and diploplia) which was something tangible they could see and helped lead to a quicker diagnosis.
Was really frustrating back then. Knew something was wrong with me but couldn't SHOW them anything.... Then when my vision went to shit -- I had something they could start with. (Funny, it was actually an eye doc who sent me to my first MRI that sent me on this journey)
My neuro described it this way to me.... There is inner ear dizzy and brain dizzy which may feel the same to the patient, but they need to be treated in a different manner.
Inner ear dizzy is generally treated with something like antivert (which was their first stab at my problem way back when).... I found the stuff made me more "vertigoish" than I already was.
Since I guess I'm brain dizzy - we finally found Alprazolam (a tranquilizer) at low doses did the trick for me.
For what its's worth....
Blessings on your journey
=Greg _________________ I'm learning to breathe under water. It's quite beautiful down here.
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