It is just so darn hard to figure out my triggers. I start feeling so good, so close to normal and then BAM, I’m dizzy and I have no idea what it is. I’m in NYC where I always seem to feel better. I walk up to almost 10 miles a day when I’m here. I am not on my computer very often and I’m on my phone less and less. Sometimes I feel almost 100% normal when I’m in New York. It makes me feel like maybe I’m allergic to something in Boston. But then I start doing my normal New York things like getting an iced decaf latte every morning, like eating my delicious gluten free bread with lots of seeds, like being outside when it’s really hot or being outside when it’s raining. And I can’t figure out what it is! I I have to be better in one month’s time in order to get on an airplane to be the trail Angel for my husband who’s hiking the PCT. He’s been looking forward to this trip and planning for it for 3 years. He’s very thin and if I’m not there for him I fear he won’t eat enough or have enough to drink. Plus I really want to share in the experience with him. It’s something we’ve been dreaming of and planning for years.
The issue is I don’t know how quickly my triggers affect me. I would love some advice and hear other people’s experiences of their triggers. I know when I’m on the computer, it’s immediate. I feel really woozy. But with food it’s hard to know. I’ve been avoiding fruit for instance because fruit has always been hard for me to digest and the sugar I think is also hard for me. I had maybe 20 cherries last night. Perhaps that is what made me feel badly this morning. But perhaps it’s the seeded bread I’ve been having for 3 days in a row. Or perhaps it’s the daily decaf latte - my one real treat that I can’t live without. I just don’t know. And it’s making me crazy. Any advice or suggestions or insight is very welcome. Please tell me what your triggers are and how long it takes for them to come out. Thank you so much.
I gave up and took the meds (and once on them just accepted the ups and downs). I worked quite hard to work them out, but failed. I suspect that was because I had an ear injury that was unstable and that added a lot of noise. That said I drink a lot less coffee these days and have almost completely eliminated alcohol.
The weirdest thing for me is I would get peaks of tinnitus often after meals, but this wouldn’t coincide with peaks of dizziness - the two seemed independent, perhaps because peak dizziness is when I was probably leaking most of all, and peak tinnitus was when I was leaking less (or not at all) and the pressure had built up.
In an attempt to find triggers, I used this app for a while but eventually gave up since the meds made me feel so much better I obsessed less so got lazy recording my activity, but its very good:
Yeah, so similar experience then in that respect (aural symptoms versus dizziness)
However, I went to China recently where I ate a lot of salty food which didn’t seem to ramp up my symptoms at all. I was dizzy there but it never stopped me and the distraction was really helpful. I had fun!
I had my last vertigo attack shortly after returning … so seemed to have done me some good!
My two dizzy docs are Steven Rauch ENT and Greg Whitman, neurologist. They work in the same and different offices and they both have a different diagnosis for me. Maybe I should try Preisol and get a 3rd! It’s a mysterious ailment - treat the symptoms and see what makes you feel better. I am (finally) noticing that following the migraine diet really helps. Almost every little things on it has a modest effect on me and some things (alcohol, chocolate, caffeine, milk) have major effects.