Any tips for fatigue and vertigo?

[lovemy6monkeys]

After being gone for over two weeks, the fatigue is creeping back and I'm finding myself exhausted by 2 every afternoon. Some days I'm lucky enough to be able to grab a 30 to 45 minute nap, but not every day.

I'm also starting to feel some slight vertigo. Nothing as bad as my first episode, and even that wasn't horrible, but I feel it slightly off and on.

I'm hoping to find some tips for dealing with either or both issues. I would like to avoid medicines as long as I can so. I'm still in limboland and I know that if I get diagnosed medicine will be a daily part of my life....until then I will still try to avoid it if I can LOL

Thanks for any ideas you can give me :-)
~Jess

[supermum_ms]

I did read it but for some reason i'm still feel slightly confused, confused like i've been trying to put an ikea shelf unit together and the instructions are written in English but to me its all double dutch lol. I must be brain dead, when i read your explanation its really good, quite straightforward but for what ever reason i'm confused when i try to relate it to me, because if i'm right in my understanding then that could mean i've got even more multiple and distinguishable issues and it is sort of comforting to lump them altogether and think they are related or at least caused by the same thing.

On that note, I've been very interested in Autonomic dysfunction and the dizziness/lightheadedness that i describe when i get the sensation of blood leaving my head - near fainting, I think fits well and truly into the autonomic dysfunction basket. This is a good explanation, slightly long winded but worth reading.

http://publicacoes.cardiol.br/abc/2000/7406/74060008i.pdf

At the end of the day, the 4 separate things i experience (1 & 3 every day since April 09) and then inarticulately described could just be 4 separate issues. 1- dizzy from autonomic dysfunction (2 - true vertigo (3 - proprioception and (4 - BPPV from inner ear infection ROFL the things that affect me the most are 1, with 3 a close second and after a year i doubt they are leaving me anytime soon. Hmmm not sure if i was happier being confused lol!

Cheers.....JJ

[Quixotic1]

JJ - did you read the essay I wrote that ess gives a link for above?  I tried really hard to distinguish the sensation of blood leaving your head - near fainting - from realy vertigo.

Q

[Nancy T]

I agree with Quix about not trying to give exact definitions to "dizziness," "vertigo," "lightheadedness," "imbalance," etc. etc. When discussing symptoms with a doctor or anyone else, you should always describe how you FEEL--exactly what your symptoms are--instead of relying on any of these words to convey what's going on.

Good doctors will not care whether you use "vertigo" or "dizziness" or whatever word. They want to know things like does it feel like you are moving? does it feel like the world is spinning around you? and also very importantly, what brings the symptoms on, what makes them better, what makes them worse.

Although some people (and even some doctors) may hold to specific definitions for "vertigo" and "dizziness," these words are not defined and used widely and precisely enough to be really useful.

In other words--forget about the terminology; just tell what your symptoms are, when they happen, what makes them better and worse.

A brief feeling of spinning (a few seconds to a minute) when turning over in bed (or when you lie down or get up) is classic for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). This occurs in the general population, especially in older people and in people with certain other ear problems. It's not a symptom of MS; it's due to tiny crystals breaking off one of the balance organs in your inner ear and getting into a semicircular canal where they don't belong. It's usually very easily corrected with a canalith repositioning maneuver, a.k.a. the Epley manuever.

[supermum_ms]

Oh bugger (ozzie slang for @#$^) i thought i had this pegged down but now i'm confused all over again lol!

I thought dizziness and light headed was the same thing, i could use either, when i stand up, head down, or even look up, i get this quick, instant sight zonning out, feeling of brainlessness (lol is that even a word?), i'm a colapsing blob, i've always thought this was from the lack of blood getting to the brain.

but sometimes i feel like i've been turned around, spun off my axis though i havent really moved, its that feeling of lost in my own space, disorientated until the bloods flowing again. When i'm in an exstreme fatigue fase, i can not be verticle, its like my system has shut down all persieved unnecessary functions, my thinking brain is on strike and that light headedness feeling is constantly switched on.

When i think i'm experiencing vertigo from my brain malfunctioning, i feel like i'm walking in a blow up kids jumping castle, the floor is no longer solid, i walk or sway into walls and door ways. I use furniture and walls to hold myself up and moving forward, i dont have a feeling of the room spinning (i associate the description of the room spinning the same feeling with being overly drunk) though being on a moving ship is close to what i'm feeling.

When i think i'm experiencing a faulty where i am in space (is that called propriception?) i'm thinking it might be connected to what i've been thinking as vertigo because its to do with my overal perception when i'm in motion is off. Its a combination of visual and my brains faulty reaction, if i experience a lite environment then it suddenly goes dark, i loose my balance, i dont know where i am and i freeze or risk a fall. It also happens if i stop suddenly or turn around quickly but the freezing then is not intentional and i fall anyway, so probably something else there lol.

My eyes are doing this thingy too, which makes me feel a little sick and spun but its only for a few seconds, they seem to be doing it when i go to look back to the left for the next line of text i'm reading, sort of an over shoot, quite random but it feels strange. It sometimes happens if i look down whilst i'm typing, my heads not moved so just my eyes, slightly disorientated and sickly feeling.This one's new but i;ve had a pretty bad oral abscess and my ear drum hurts to i'm thinking its because of the infection and nothing to do with my usual wonky self.

So tell me please, am i right in my definitions of dizziness from blood circulation issues, cereballa vertigo and inner ear/infection vertigo? Or did i just add to the confusion?

Cheers.........JJ

[Quixotic1]

I don't really have active vertigo any longer.  When I had it nothing helped much.

For the little bit of uneasiness in space I still have, The Provigil I take for fatigue helps steady that out quite a bit.

I think insisting on a specific type of description of dizziness in order to call it vertigo is silly.  In my experience people use the words that mean something to them.  If they have had experience with the world moving around them (like on a boat), then they might say that.  However, if they have experience where they were the one in motion (some carnival rides) they might say that they feel like the one moving.  We have a member here that states it feels like her brain is whirling inside her head.  No doc should discount the sensation because the description is "wrong."

I believe the best distinction in between the sensation of beginning to pass out and the sensation of you or space whirling around.

Quix

[essdipity]

I'm not sure what med Quix uses and don't want to tell you wrong, so am hoping she sees this.

We have had a lot of discussion of dizziness/vertigo on this forum. Here's one good one:

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Multiple-Sclerosis/Vertigo-vs-Dizziness/show/673207

You will see that not every doctor agrees with yours about the definitions. For me, I tend to say vertigo because it is more medically specific.

ess

[essdipity]

Hi, Audrey. Glad you have joined us. Welcome!

Could you start a new thread and tell us about yourself and your symptoms? That way more people will see it and you'll get more comments.

ess

[Audrey_M]

Like Erin3013, I'd like to know what meds Quix is on that help with vertigo. I was prescribed Klonopin 8 years ago and it really does not do much. Because it is a benzodiazapine, it is highly additictive. I'd really like to get off the stuff, but have only managed to wean down to .25 mg per day. Withdrawal is wicked.

I'm also wondering how many people are using the word vertigo correctly to describe their symptoms. To a doctor, vertigo means a sensation of spinning and is much different from dizziness or lightheadedness (my ENT was very specific in making the differentiation, which isn't always easy for us laypeople). I have had both, with vertigo most commonly occuring while rolling over in bed.

[Erin0313]

  I am trying to find a med that will give more energy and not feel so totally wiped out. I have only tried 2 ( I think) Amantadine and Ritalin.

The Amantadine had no effect on me at all. I might as well have been taking a placebo. The Ritalin is overwhelming! If I stay completely focused on a task I can tolerate it otherwise I feel like I am going to lift off and fly away ( and not in a isn't this fun kind of way). For now we are cutting the Ritalin pills in half but some days I fly and others I don't feel it.

I don't get vertigo often but have noticed that my neurontin can make it worse.

Maybe Quix will share which meds she is taking that have worked so well for her and we can try them too.

Good luck
Erin :)

[jensequitur]

Ah, good!  I've tried to stay away from the fatigue meds for that reason, but I'm glad to hear that they aren't debilitating.

I tend to overdo it myself, so I know what you mean.

[Quixotic1]

I disagree that the anti-fatigue meds only postpone the inevitable, Jen.  It hasn't been that way with me at all.  If I limit my activities enough, I don't have extra fatigue to deal with the next day.  If I overdo - a real danger in the beginning when it feels so good to be able to get anything done - then there is the piper to pay.  I pretty much know now, that I still have to conserve energy.

As for the vertigo - it stabilizes my head quite a bit, but there is not more vertigo after the med wears off.

Quix

[jensequitur]

All I can do is sleep when the fatigue and vertigo comes on.  I've never tried any anti-fatigue medication, but the only thing that does is postpone the inevitable.