still trying to figure out if I do in fact have MAV tho I tick a lot of the boxes…
today’s question: apart from the many forms of vertigo / lightheadedness / unsteadiness that are described here, what is the story with other associated “prodrome” type symptoms
eg: visual issues (in my case blurring)
numb patches on face (i get it on the tip of my nose - not true numbness if I touch it but feels numb)
strange arms sensations (mine are bilateral and not pins and needles just a heaviness with clumsy fingers)
speech issues
the reason I ask is, from what I read online prodrome symptoms come and go within around an hour and are then followed by the headache in regular migraine. but i get all these on my list for hours at a time. then again the vertigo / unsteadiness also lasts for hours. and they often happen at the same time as one or more of these ‘prodrome’ type symptoms.
Hi, I have wondered this myself because I have not been able to understand exactly how it works for MAV. I will summarise as briefly as I can my position and see what you think. It started in April 2009, I felt off for a week or two before the dizziness started. I was needing to wee loads and I felt like my memory had gone worse. I felt generally a bit grotty but nothing I could pin down to a virus or something obvious. Then I woke up one morning and felt off balance and more strange and then over the next week panic attacks and severe anxiety set in. I also felt very fatigued. To cut a long story short, I went on feeling dizzy and tired and my neck started aching for the neck few years. The dizziness slowly improved over time but never went. Then this summer I started to feel more dizzy and it built up until by August I was having spin attacks and feeling really dizzy. I noticed in the build up period I needed to wee loads again, my mouth was dry, my memory was worse and I felt really sensitive to light, I had random sore skin feelings, headaches, sore points on my head behind my ear and when I looked up it said it was called allodynia (linked to migraine). Lots of symptoms I looked up all pointed to migrane. I had not considered it before. Then I found this site and now I have been diagnosed with Migraine vertigo.
So I guess for me I can’t quite understand if I have chronic migraine all the time causing the dizziness etc or do I have migraine attacks, (ie in April 2009 and August 2012) which mess up my vestibular system and cause the imbalance for the rest of the time. If the symptoms I have described above are part of the prodrome and postdrome phases then for me they certainly last a lot longer than a few minutes or hours. For me they last days and weeks and then leave me with chronic symptoms. I would love for someone to be able to explain it and tell me exactly what happens in my brain. I am not sure I will ever get that knowledge though because all my tests have been normal so far and it seems as though the medics are still learning when it comes to migraine. I hope someone can help you with an answer x
you might want to read Heal Your Headache: The 1-2-3 Program
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it might help with some of your questions. Its a great read
Thanks for the replies to all of you. I will try get that heal your headache book programme - thx for the tip robert!~
I am seeing the neuro on Tuesday and even tho I have a current script for Ambitriptyline I am going to wait till I’ve seen him as even tho I am pretty sure I have MAV (lots of boxes ticked) I also have ongoing symptoms that preceded this and that don’t fit the MAV picture and I want to talk to him about all of it and have a consultation without any meds in the system first.
I have started high dose magnesium meanwhile tho. so far no help and in fact tho the vertigo / unsteadiness and rocking are my worst MAV-type symptom i also had a killer headache all yesterday afternoon after working for 4 hours on a complicated spreadsheet (something I hate doing that requires lots of looking up and down and scrolling onscreen).
