Do I feel sick all of the time?

The other day a family member asked me if I feel sick all of the time because of my dizziness. They are not the first to ask me this. I replied that I am very fortunate that I do not feel sick all of the time. His response? A bemused, confused facial expression. I was sorry to disappoint. I don't blame him since how on earth would he know what a chronic vestibular disorder feels like,for me anyway.

In fact feeling sick has never been a huge issue during my dizzy years. Now don't get me wrong there are moments here and there when I will suddenly become extremely nauseous. I could be combing my hair and EEK! I have to stop and sit down and breathe or I could be talking to somebody, concentrating hard and without warning EEEEK! the sick alarm rings and off I scurry to find somewhere airy and cold.

During my early dizzy years I would feel sick half hour here and half hour there a couple of times a week but never had to actually be sick. I just accepted it and never made it a big deal. There are three things however that I tend to avoid since being dizzy and they are big TV screens, video games and cinema screens. These three things are pretty certain to accentuate every dizzy symptom I have making me a watery mouthed nauseous wreck. Even scrolling on my smartphone can make me queasy. The motion on screens can leave me feeling wretched for hours after. The nausea is sudden and strong. I write about this lovely subject because only the day after I was asked if I feel sick because of the dizziness I played a game on the xbox for 5 minutes and felt revolting. I realised that I do feel sick more often than I thought.

I think people assume that because I am dizzy then I should be vomiting every single second of the day because thats what they would expect me to do or expect themselves to do.The fact is I do not feel like I am going to vomit all of the time and I am happy about that. There are moments I turn bright green or more accurately ghost white but one would expect to living with a vestibular disorder.

Swimmyhead

So called prime of life

Hi Guys

Just got back from my 6 month dentist check up. Everything was good but lying back in that chair was dizzying to say the least. All I see is a dentists face peering over me whilst the ceiling is on a never ending spinny loop. As I mentioned in a previous post my symptoms have intensified recently so I am back to my overwhelming dizzy ridden self.

As I was walking through town on my way back home I got more and more disorientated as people walked by me and as traffic zoomed past in my peripheral vision. Every uneven path I walked upon sent dropping or lifting sensations to my brain. Fifteen minutes later I reached my front door and felt completely out of it and needed a second to compose myself in order to put the key in the door. If only people knew how tough this disorder is.

It disheartening that after nearly 8 years I am still having to feel like this from a simple 15 minute walk. I'm supposed to be in my prime. I guess I am going to skip the so called prime of life. Still I have felt worse I guess but jeez how can something be so relentless.

I still have hope though since I begin appropriate migraine treatment this year. I am just waiting for the date.

I just realised this is my 100th post. That is a lot of rambling indeed.

Swimmyhead

A wonderful and insightful blog by Tamar Schwartz

Here is a link to a wonderful and insightful blog created by Tamar Schwartz who was diagnosed with Migraine associated vertigo. Visible person invisible problem.blogspot.co.uk

Swimmyhead

It's Back

After my previous optimistic post about feeling pretty decent these past 2 months the vertigo has decided to increase once again. The past three days have been more difficult than recent weeks. I woke up on Wednesday with a pressured/heavy head and fuzzyish vision back to being slow and motion sensitive. The floor is once again lifting me up and down with every step I take and the surrounding environment is swaying in and out of focus, oh the joy.

Once this heavy head sensation increases all my balance and visual symptoms worsen. This pressure has been absolutely constant throughout my journey until recently. Headaches and head fullness have been much better lately hence the improved past 2 months but it's back and so here I am feeling rotten. There is  just no consistency with this thing. There is nothing to do except endure it and wait for the milder moments.

Swimmyhead

The darkness

I was not planning to blog today only a certain experience I just had has urged me to do so. During the entire 7.5 years of living with vertigo standing or walking in darkeness (dark room,dim room ) have been exceptionally demanding and taxing on my vestibular system. I mean the visual movement/swaying and the sense of being pushed and pulled really intensifies as soon as I am standing or walking in the dark. My sense of space becomes confused and steadiness becomes a major problem. It has been this way for all this time. Every night I turn the light off before bed and then take a short few steps to the bed immediately becoming extremely unbalanced and disorientated. It's the same heightened vertigo sensation that happens even in a slightly lit room or outside on a dark evening walk. Darkness dramatically increases my symptoms.

I remember many years ago during my vestibular rehabilitation period I would tax my self further by turning all the lights of in a room (nearly pitch black) and focus only on the bright red light glowing from my tv set standby light. I would do this in darkness most nights in hope that my brain and senses would somehow recalibrate. With intent I would stare at this small light trying to maintain my twitching jerking gaze upon it all the while feeling like the room was lifting me up and down and the room appearing to sway left and right. I would also try to stand on one leg in the dark and gaze at the light holding this one legged position as long as possible thinking this extra balance demand would in time at least improve this darkness issue. If you have had or do have vertigo you will appreciate just how hard it is to stand on one leg for a period of time (seconds) in daylight never mind doing it in the dark.

I say all this because I just turned my lights off and for some reason realised how much steadier the world is.I have just stood in the same position all those years ago and there is movement but nothing like before. Hell I just stood on one leg and held position for 20 sec quite the feat since I used to fall within 1-5 sec/I guess I have come along way. It is easy to forget this when I still have those bad days and weeks but the majority of my time these past 2 months especially have been steadier.

Since starting this blog I have posted  a couple of times about a random week or two here and there feeling better only to take a complete nosedive back into vertigo ridden hell. I have never had more than a 2 week period where symptoms stayed less intense. These random better weeks only started happening 6 years into my journey.

However since Dec 1st I have had my longest period of less intense symptoms that I have ever had ( just over 2 months). I did have a really bad week a few weeks ago but snapped out of it only to continue this more manageable intensity of daily symptoms. How do I know it's better lately well I find myself not thinking about dizziness every time I walk from one room to the next and I don't find myself suffering in a overwhelming state of constant head fullness and vision fuzziness at all times and the blasted moving floor is not playing as many tricks on me. I don't know how long this will continue and I still have all the same symptoms daily but I hope my symptoms continue on this less intense steadier path. I sure appreciate the lift in weight.

I hope this gives you long term sufferers out there some much needed hope. You and me will get there eventually.

Swimmyhead

Dizzy Poll

I have been asked to encourage us dizzy people to complete a Dizziness poll created by fellow twitter follower stadsbader - dizzyme You can complete the poll via this link m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1547866628796275&id=1432266323689640 …. The results will be used for a doctor seminar this coming March.

The Winter Dizzies

Hi Everyone

Well after a full December of less intense dizziness and vertigo I am sadly back to feeling heavy headed and out of it. To go a whole month with my symptoms much less intense is a first but hopefully not the last time. The main symptom that basically vanished was my full pressured like head. You know that heavy, full, swaying sensation. It feels like a balloon expanded under your skull. That went away as did any noticeable headaches for the whole month and because of this my balance and sense of well being and clarity was much better and the visual and internal movement appeared and felt much less. I no longer felt like I was being pushed and pulled because of every shift of weight I made or because of every movement my eyes tracked. The sensations were steady and under control instead of all encompassing and erratic.

Why I had an easier month I do not know neither do I understand why I woke up roughly six days ago with a heavy head and weighted and all of the usual symptoms heightened. So it is back to feeling like a robot and taking more care and thought when turning from one room to the next.Small things like cleaning my teeth are once again a brain shaker. My visual perspective of height and depth is just plain wrong ( I know this since my kitchen now appears to be back on an angle the walls are breathing and I swear the ground is closer today). Also that zombie like vacant stare at an object but can't quite connect visually with it sensation is in full force. That being said I remember days even worse.

Anyhow I am pleased I had that month it is certainly a positive in my journey thus far. It's now the new year and hopefully by the end of 2015 there will be significant improvement as this is the year I finally commence treatment with a specialist neuro-otologist.

I best leave you guys now as this typing is sending me of my rocker (head is buzzing with swaying fullness)

Happy new year guys maybe this will be the year you and I get better.

Swimmyhead