Any thoughts on this?

[Sailorsong]

Monday night at 2AM I got up to go to the bathroom. When I got up the room seemed to be slanting to the left and as I walked I was steering to the left as well. When I got to the bedroom light switch I had a very hard time turning on the light due to tremors in right hand and arm.

When I finally go to the bathroom I had to hold on to the wall to keep from falling over to the left as I went. I then only made it back to the bathroom door. Eventually I laid down there in the doorway as I had no sore spots on my body from a fall.I got up and went to my bedroom and saw that it was now 3AM. So I lost about 1 hour of time laying on the floor.

The next day when I got up at 8AM I noticed that the right side of my face was feeling numb from the top of the cheek bone to my chin. I have had this as one of my MS symptoms in the past though most of the time it is on my left side. The numbness continued for the rest of the day with no other problems of left leaning or tilting.

I happened to have a Cardiologist appointment that day so I mentioned this to him. My BP, pulse and everything else he checked with my heart was normal.  His conclusion was one of three things as possible causes.

1) my MS.
2) BP went too low
3) Pulse went to low.

He is having me monitor at various times during the day my BP and pulse and let him know if they drop real low.

I wear a fitbit watch and in looking at the data for that night it indicates that during the lost time (2:15 - 2:57) I was asleep. It also indicated that the lowest resting heart rate was 57. So I guess that eliminates a pulse rate drop.

I just happen to have an appointment with my new VA Neuro this Friday. So I hope I can get some thoughts on this for when I talk to him.

Dennis

[Sailorsong]

I do agree with your assessment about my brain not being fully awake causing balance problems. I do have balance problems during the day quite often, usually when I am getting up from a seat.

In fact every morning when I get up I have a lot of problems with my vision. It is like my pupils are not dilating correctly for the amount of light in the room as everything seems much too bright. About  1/2 to 1 hour after I get up light levels finally seem normal and I can finally read things. It take my brain that long to realize that it should be dilating my eyes for the light in the room.

  Where I do disagree is with the knock out. I do think I just did go back to sleep on the floor. I remember thinking I better sit down before the sleep episode thing. Here is my reasoning on this.

  According to my Fitbit it take 0 minutes for me to fall asleep at night, though I am only getting 3-4 hour of real sleep at night. And since I was probably not fully awake during the trip to the loo, I probably fell asleep as soon as I sat down onto the floor. From there it would be real easy for me to end up laying down in the door way.

  I do know that the Fitbit is recording the time I get real sleep is somewhat accurate. The worse my nightmares are at night the lower the amount of time the Fitbit says I slept. With such little sleep it is no wonder that I am always so fatigued. The only time I do get more sleep at night is when I stay in bed for 13-15 hours. Of course after that much time in bed my back is killing me the next day so I still don't get much done even with higher energy levels.

Dennis

[LeeLeeCos]

Hi Dennis. My name is Lisa. I was diagnosed with MS in 2007. What your describing is something that has happened to me many times. How bout like when you lay down and the whole world goes round and round!  I have discussed this form of what I was told is my balance is way off. It's also been termed to me as, wall walking.  Miserable disease but we must always say it could be worse. Keep moving and try to remain positive :)

[supermum_ms]

Dennis, i've been thinking the listing to the left etc could be all to do with your MS.......MS often creates the wonky balance system right and getting up in the middle of the night to go to the loo, your balance may not of been fully functioning, add to that the darker environments can also screw up our brains where we are in space, self preservation can automatically take over when the brain can't work out where you are in space and it can make you drop.

The above makes sense to me because I list to the left and weave around like a drunken sailor on my way to the loo in the middle of the night. I also have the fun of my brain trying to drop me when it can't work out where i am in space (eg walking on wobbly surfaces -grass, unstable pavers, sand etc). When i'm fully awake i can fight to stay up on my feet, doesn't necessarily work out that way, i still end up on the floor a lot more than i care to think about but if the drop happened when i was half asleep or dealing with the bad fatigue, i'm pretty sure i'd drop like a hot potato lol before id even register i was going down.

It's not at all like the feeling of what happens with fainting or vision greying-blacking out lol hard to find the words to describe what it feels like to be standing one minute and going down the next lol i keep coming up with just feels normal and your clueless something off upto a certain point before the act of falling registers. IF this self preservation drop was what happened to you, it might explain why your heart rate was unaffected and if you were still half asleep at the time......oh could your brain of actually put you back to sleep whilst you were laying on the floor or do you think you could of hit your face hard enough to of been knocked out and your thinking you'd woken from being asleep on the floor?  

Your numb face part might of been from the impact of hitting the floor and or staying for an hour laying on the hard floor, i've hit my face or head a few times and whilst sometimes there is no bruising to see, it does usually trigger the nerve issues i already have in my face, no matter if it was a gentle bump or a big thumping.

lol i can see it in my pea brain, not sure i'm making it clear enough or if i'm just flapping my gums :D it's an idea though lol ahhh dear Watson the answer could be a touch of MS weirdness with an added touch of knock out....

Cheers.......JJ

[Sailorsong]

I am tending to feel the same way about it not being a BP drop, but still I am taking my BP as the Cardiologist requested. No problems have shown up other than being a little bit high now and then.

It turns out I just saw a MS NP at the VA. Found out they only have the MS clinic for one morning per month at the VA. She didn't really mention what she thought about the incident, but did put in an order for for new brain & spine MRI. So I guess she thinks it is also MS related. It will be interesting to see that results of the MRI as I haven't had one done in around 5 years.

Dennis

[Sailorsong]

Why didn't I think of describing it like you did (car alignment) LOL! That is exactly how it was. Well except that I was also physically leaning to the left as well. I've had the steering effect quite often in the past (not sure how many walls I've run into). But it never had the leaning to go along with it before.

Dennis

[Sailorsong]

Every time I get my BP taken (by myself or a nurse) I compare that reading to my Fitbit and it matches exactly. So I'm pretty confident that the pulse rate is not the problem. Plus the reading of 57 is fairly normal for me as my BP medications lower my pulse quite a bit. I have seen it go as low as 47 with no ill effects for me.

Dennis

[doublevision1]

*sharp DROP in BP.

[doublevision1]

It doesn't sound like a sharp from in BP. Usually that would present as lightheadedness, maybe a bit queasy, clammy, pale, sometimes results in fainting. I'm thinking along the lines of what jensequitur describes. Let us know what your neuro says.

[jensequitur]

That was one of my very first symptoms! I had the hardest time steering - I went to the left instead of straight through a doorway, and kept whacking my left shoulder on the frame. It was like the alignment on my car was off and I had to hold the steering wheel sideways.

As to what causes it, I'm not sure, but I have some brainstem involvement and that could have been a factor. Cerebellum, periventricular, frontal lobe, and medulla oblongata.

[Corriel]

Hi Dennis, that sounds more than a little scary to me. A friend of mine thought she had some heart rate/pulse issues because her Fitbit was showing a lot of dips and highs. She did an ECG and wore the 24 hour heart monitor and everything was fine. I mention this only because the Fitbit may not be accurate so hopefully the neuro will schedule you for some official testing to be sure.

Not sure if this is MS related or not though and I hope that he can help you figure it out or at least get you on the path to figuring it out.

Good luck on Friday!
Corrie