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I can't do this any more

Posted , 12 users are following.

patty818
patty818

I have had enough of this. I have constant rocking and swayin in my head, I'm so tired of it. It's all I think about. It comes out of no where with this headache and some nausea. I don't start vet til the end of the month. I can't even sit without feeling it. I don't know anyone else who has this or has. I don't know what's causing it, that worries me, how can this just start for know reason? Does anyone have this 24/7? I'm so tired of this. It's been 8 months and I can do anything now except work oz I have to. I don't know what to do now

2 likes, 28 replies

28 Replies

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  • Mary_McAvoy
    Mary_McAvoy patty818

    Posted

    Gillian has a great point. Over stimulation can be exhausting and can definitely make dizziness and imbalance worse. In the early days of my vertigo and dizziness, before I got hearing aids, just walking into a grocery store would make me feel like I was going to throw up. All my senses were working so hard to compensate but I couldn't sort through all the noise and bright lights. It was terrible. 
  • Old-Sparky
    Old-Sparky patty818

    Posted

    yep thinking of you.

    I know what you mean when you want to feel normal, everything becomes a task so generally you cant be arsed.

    Been dizzy for two weeks now hoping in a few days it will subside.

    Keep doing the excercises but i am not sure they help, i know for sure it get you down.

  • jonAustralia
    jonAustralia patty818

    Posted

    Hi again Patty. Exercise is a major key to recovery but last night I had a rather frightening experience doing mine. I do a Hill climb that rises 780 metres over a 3 kilometre stretch. But, there is a shortcut of straight up and it is correctly called "The Goat track". All went well at the start but then I came accross a stretch of around 10 metres that was small boulders, quite safe but giving my brain an overload of choices and sadly my brain could not handle the challenge, I went slowly down onto one knee to keep my balance. You see, this is the essence of what the virus has done to my brain by wiping out the old synapse connections between the eyes, the ears and that part of the brain that receives and decyphers the information; or in my case, just become a blur of information and the safest place is to head South whilst you gather your momentum and thoughts. I very slowly ventured forth and then it was just plain old steps (after steps, after steps) until I reached the summit. This is what we are up against and retraining the brain is not an overnight chore. Patty, just keep on keeping on, scary at times but the light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train but tomorrow's new day; I hope that yours comes soon. Warm regards, Jonathon
  • c4013
    c4013 patty818

    Posted

    Hi Patty I know you have helped me in the past and I hope that everyone here has helped you know you are not alone my head sways and I feel movement in my head even when I am still. It is soo tiring and wears you down. But patty try to keep your chin up I know it's much easier said than done. But we are all here for you. Sending our support and empathy remember we are all here. I know it brings me comfort I hope it can bring you some too. Sending hugs and flowers x

    • patty818
      patty818 c4013

      Posted

      HI c4013:

      Thank you so much for kind words and support.  You are right its hard to stay positive when your scared all the time.  I have such a hard time with knowing I'm sitting here working and then bam, it feel like things are moving and it could go on for hours or days.  How long have you had this?  Did you do any VRT?  I'm very curious how people do with the VRT.  

      Thank you again for your support.

      Patty

    • c4013
      c4013 patty818

      Posted

      Hi again Patty. This is my second bout of this the first time I started the exercises about 2 months in to it as I didn't know any thing about it. I started at first doing the exercises from a chair looking at my thumb in front of me and turning my head left and right. For me this didn't seem to help but maybe it did who knows. But I found walking out side ( in the country) so no one could see me cos you do look a bit strange doing these exercises and I'm very self conscious. You walk along for half an hour to an hour twice a day if possible but as much as you can. At first I held on to my husbands arm walking along looking left and focusing on something and then focusing on something to the right. Basically it retrains your brain. I did this regularly, as regularly as I could. I really pushed myself. If it made me feel more dizzy which it did I kept going. After about 2 months I felt a lot better and after 3 months close to normal. I kept up the exercises until it had gone.

      I have just started with it again at the beginning of feb after a series of colds/flu and blocked sinuses. I started to feel the lack of balance return. I started the exercises again but got terrible head aches maybe it was too early perhaps. I don't know but I'm suffering with it . Although I can walk around the house I have become very flat footed and I constantly need my arms out to help me walk at the moment. I have just started with earache and like my ears feel very full and blocked. Sometimes when I am not in a chair that supports my head my head feels like it bobs around. I listen to audio books and try to watch TV and engross myself in something. Sometimes the people on tv move around too jerky and it feels unpleasant to watch. So audio books are a rest from it for me head supported and comfortable.

      I'm really worried about work. As it's not something people know much about and I have been off again with this. I really really worry about this but my job is very demanding, as I'm a high school teacher and can't bear the thought of standing in front of a class feeling like this. The symtoms and the work issue together are causing me great stress. I don't know how others work with this but I suppose it depends how bad you have it and what jobs you have to undertake. It's great to reach out to others that feel the same and can appreciate what your going through. If I can help ever just message me. Bye for now Patty sending positive thoughts your way.!! Take care and I hope my story helps you.

  • Old-Sparky
    Old-Sparky patty818

    Posted

    funny they told me mine was migrain related, i never belived it.

    I went to have another check up with the consultant and he now says its not migrain related.

    Which is good, but i am still only a little further on after all these years.

    i hate it

  • manda08392
    manda08392 patty818

    Posted

    I understand and I'm sorry you are going through this and that relief seems so far away. One day I was fine and then I had a couple of isolated symptoms over a couple of weeks and then BAM! It was every day, every waking moment, apparently sleeping ones too because I would wake up in the middle of the night in pain. I would get dizzy driving to work, I would get auras followed by an even worse migraine, I would veer to the right when I was walking and it was severely affecting my memory and concentration. What I can say is from the time it became daily until 11 1/2 months later I didn't have a break and thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown but about 9 weeks of therapy I would start to have sections of the day without symptoms even though I had them every day. Then a couple of months later I would have the odd day here and there where I didn't get dizzy or have a migraine. There's definitly hope and I really hope that you get better when you start vet (I don't know what that is, I'm guessing you are in the UK).
    • jonAustralia
      jonAustralia manda08392

      Posted

      Hi Manda. Could you please explain a little of what exercises you did that made any positive change. Kind regards, Jonathon
    • manda08392
      manda08392 jonAustralia

      Posted

      I'm slightly hesitant only because I know that my symptoms may vary from the vast majority here because I don't just get vertigo and dizzy spells, I also get killer migraines with auras and I have fibromyalgia. After many months it was determined that the actual cause of all of these symptoms was loss of curve in my neck which was straightened out enough to put pressure on my brain stem and cerebellum; this causes pressure on areas of the brain that affect motor skills, balance and vision. Since that may be greatly different from this specific group forum, I just wanted to get that disclaimer out of the way.

      I do a combination of 2 chiropractic adjustments a week, 2 massage therapy sessions a week and physical therapy. Since the physical therapy is done through my chiropractors office, the same twice a week I do wall stretches where the rest of the week I do stretches at home (or in my case because of my long commute- the car).

      The stretches I do at home are mostly turtle tucks (from neutral pull back at your C7 with your chin slightly inward, hold and then gradually raise upwards and hold), neck stretches (either using an orthodic where I'm laying down and allowing my neck to dangle downwards for several minutes at a time or using a thin pillowcase/towel to stretch my neck back while I'm pulling my arms forward for 10 seconds at a time) and lots of posture type work. The more I can stretch my shoulders back, the looser my pecs and traps can be to allow the neck to get the most benefit out of the treatments themselves so there is a lot of driving with my shoulders pushed back into the seat and reading a text from my phone is up at eye level instead of down at my hand, etc. as those are the key behaviors to allow the PT and sessions to work.

      The wall stretches for PT that I do are not the only ones as I see a lot of equipment in there. But the ones I do involve a band being put on my head and linked up to device on the wall. The device has 3 bungee type cords of varying strength so I of course started on the lightest, I am currently on the medium. I have to stand at a certain distance from the wall and do turtle tucks with the band attached to my head with the resistance to build up strength. In addition, I also have to attach the band to the sides and do stretches side to side and looking away. To stretch the muscle and keep it from getting too tight with the strenghtening exercies I also do stretches with a device that I cannot for the life of me remember (It starts with a v). This device rests at the base of my neck and is very much like a giant rubber band where I have the pull the handles ahead of me at a 30 degree angle while I stretch my neck back in reps. This feels great for my neck most of the time but my arms are usually shaking from the resistance.

      None of those worked right away. It tooks weeks before I saw any progress and as I stated in my previous post there was a lot of back and forth. For example, I remember during week 7 I had the same amount of symptoms throughout the day but they were less severe and then week 8 the severity was back but I had them slightly less each day and then in week 9 there was half a day where I had no symptoms which I was really shocked about. Shortly after that time though my auras went away for almost 3 months before they came back again for 3 weeks but by that time there were other improvements. It can be very difficult to measure and even more difficult to be patient.

    • jonAustralia
      jonAustralia manda08392

      Posted

      Manda, this is just brilliant and thank you so much for the level of detail. My problem of losing balance when I check my Fitbit watch as I'm running is obviously a similar event to what you describe in reading your text. I'm so glad that you read your text at eye level hen driving or am I entering into semantics here? :-). The exercise regarding Turtle has me a little dismayed as we only have the 2 metre variety up here and whilst they are slow moving and easy to catch, I'm not sure that I am game enough to try tucking its' neck in, are there alternatives? Seriously though, please just explain a little more regarding that move as I'm sure no Turtles were hurt during the treatment and as I'm Irish by birth, I am just having a little difficulty understanding the move; this would also explain my, at times, poorinsh humour, it's what we Irish do in sad times. So, return to beginning sentiments, thank you so much, M0 will definitely rate in the data base thingy, once I've worked out how to fix this bloody ornate mirror. Jonathon of little talent.
    • manda08392
      manda08392 jonAustralia

      Posted

      Ah, I definitly understand the issue with looking at your watch or fitbit while running. I actually cannot handle running or biking due to the head rush it induces and the danger of losing my balance but I am very hopeful that after some more progress I may be able to start doing yoga again. After all you don't want to get dizzy during downward facing dog and fall on your head until you are sure you are ready.

      Also, you are correct, no turtles have been harmed during my months of treatment.

      Turtle tucks: Quick note, your vertebrae from top to the base of your neck are the C vertebrae. C1 is closest to your brain stem, C7 is the very base of your neck before the vertebrae get into the T's.

       Sit very straight in a chair with your neck in your normal neutral position. This entire excercise is the use of your muscles. It's like straightening your neck and tucking at the same time but the purpose is to train correct posture and compensate the forward neck motion problem.

      While sitting straight, move your neck from neutral back. You are doing this from the base of your neck at your C7. When you pull back from the base that puts your C7 in line with your shoulders and the rest of your neck is naturally further back over your shoulders. At the same time you tuck your chin. You are not dorpping your chin toward your chest but tucking it in towards your neck line. After holding your position for 5-10 seconds, you slowly raise your head toward the ceiling while keeping your C7 in place (back in line with your shoulders, it's as far back as is natural) and hold for 10 seconds. Repeat 10 reps at first and over time gradually increase.

      This was more difficult ot put into writing then I originally thought so I will share something with you all. The first day I was tasked with doing these stretches at home I couldn't rememeber the phrase turtle tucks either in the car or while telling my husband about it so for the first 2 weeks instead of calling them turtle tucks I put phrases to them: 'What'd you say???' 'Oh my God!' 'What'd you say???' 'I cannot believe this!'

      That's because the first part of the turtle tuck is very much like when a woman snaps her neck back in irritation or offense but instead of a neck roll, it's eye roll to heaven with the neck raise.

      Try it! Neck back from the C7: 'WHAT did you say?' and raise your head to the ceiling 'Oh my God! I can't believe you said that' I did a lot of eye rolling until the movements became more habit. Ha ha. My husband still describes it that way instead of calling it a turtle tuck.

       

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