Vestibular migraine

[ny biker]

I've had migraines since I was in my early 20s, and I've recently read some things that indicate I was having non-headache migraine symptoms when I was even younger than that. For years I took daily medication to prevent/lessen the symptoms. For the most part the migraines were triggered by stress and hormones. When things were really bad they would last for almost a week.

As I got older the migraines became much less frequent, to the point where I was able to decrease the dose of the daily medication (Depakote). I don't remember exactly when I did this, but it was between 5-10 years ago. At the same time I started to have problems with feeling lightheaded when I stood up. At one point I stopped taking the Depakote completely and the lightheadedness got much worse, to the point where I was dizzy while sitting at my desk at work. I went back on the Depakote then, the lowest dose, and stayed on it for a while. Eventually I was able to stop taking it altogether without the dizziness. Since then I still sometimes have problems with lightheadedness upon standing, usually when I'm hungry. If I eat something, the problem goes away.

Until this week. I'm now well into the whole perimenopause experience. Recently the hormones have been on an upswing (or maybe a downswing, I just know they're doing something). I went from several months of bad hot flashes to no flashes/major league bloating for about 6-7 weeks, then my face broke out and I had a short period. This week I'm in a migraine phase. I've had a few instances of visual aura (shimmering silver crescent-shaped blind spots) and one day I had a headache. But the biggest symptom has been the lightheaded feeling when I stand up. It's been happening very often. And the other day I had vertigo for several minutes while I was lying down. It was really weird and kind of disturbing. Yesterday it came back, though not as bad -- the room wasn't actually spinning, but things just did not feel right. I tried to eat frequently, more calories than usual with plenty of protein, but that didn't seem to help. I ended up taking a sick day from work because I had trouble focusing. I just sat and watched TV all day and by evening I felt better.

Thanks to the miracle of the internet, I'm able to put a name on this -- vestibular migraine. This describes it:

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/neuro..._migraine.html

I'm not sure yet but I think today things are better than they were yesterday. I'm able to think more clearly, but I feel like a headache is threatening. I'm working from home again just in case. I might take a brief nap at lunch time.

I used to go to a neurologist who specialized in headaches, but it's been years since I went to any doctor for the migraines. I'm really hoping this phase I'm in now ends soon. I don't want to have to go back on daily medication, because of the cost and the side effects.

[Helene2013]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I used to have to take Zomig for migraines. They were very very bad. But never got the symptoms you had like lightheaded. Since I am now more than a year over my periods, I've "only" had 2 migraines. This feeeeeels soooooo good. I still get some hot flashes but no more bloating. Yeah.

Hoping you get less and less of those issues too.

[shootingstar]

Take care of yourself, NY. I noticed myself on the odd occasion of simply turning over in bed, of getting slightly dizzy.

[ny biker]

Thanks. Luckily I was home when the vertigo hit. Now that I know that it's possible, I will be careful any time I'm feeling any other migraine symptoms.

As I've thought about it more, I remembered that a few years ago I used to get brief dizzy spells when I would tilt my head back to look up. Tilting my head back down made them go away.

Saturday night I fell asleep in front of the TV -- could not keep my eyes open no matter how hard I tried. After about an hour I woke up and went to bed, and slept until 11:30 the next day, about 11 hours in all. I'm hoping that marked the last phase of the migraine. I'm feeling better now.

[emily_in_nc]

I'm feeling better now.

Yay, happy to hear it, NY!

[Crankin]

Glad you are feeling better.

[OakLeaf]

Glad you're feeling better. Hang in there.

[WindingRoad]

After having a hysterectomy I have a renewed appreciation for the havoc that hormones can wreak on us. Feel better.

[ny biker]

Thanks! Just this week I went back to hot flashes. Taking magnesium every day (another thing I read about online, this time on the NIH site) has helped a lot with the migraine problems.

How have you been doing? I hope all is well.