After 6 months of the dizzy/balance stuff and not being able to work, I finally got to see the dizzy/balance specialist yesterday. I had went for a lot of testing in November but had to wait until yesterday for the results. I have Migraine Associated Vertigo (MAV). I had migraines when I was in my 20's for a few years but hadn't had them since. When this vertigo/balance problem first started, I wasn't having headaches then, hadn't even had a mild head ache in years. I only started having really mild headaches several months ago that were there one minute, gone the next. Now I wake up with them in the morning and have them all day and it is easy to tell, they are building into migraines.
Pay attention all you who have migraines now or have had them.. Most people who have MAV have a history of migraines in their past.
When I asked him how this went from vertigo, into dizziness and balance problems, he said it just morphed into that. With vertigo, the feeling is the room spins. With the dizziness it feels like the head spins. I started out with the room spins, now the head spins..What I have to figure out is this... Do the migraines come and make me dizzy or does the dizziness give me the migraines? If it is migraine induced dizziness, a special diet and medication can handle it and I would say soon as I start the medicine, I should know if it is working or not.. stop the headache, stop the dizziness? But if I keep having the dizziness, that means my vestibular system is causing the dizziness and head aches..
I get extremely ill when I go in the stores where there are a lot of lights, that started in October. One night the lights went out in our area and that caused me a major setback, it threw my whole system out of wack and I lost everything I had gained in physical therapy for the previous 6 weeks. This has just kept changing, the longer I am into all this, the more it changes. I do not walk like I am drunk anymore but I do walk rather odd because of the balance issues. Standing still I am swaying this way and that way, constantly adjusting myself so I won't topple over so a day out where I am gone very long, I am exhausted when I get back.. It created a lot more work for those other senses so I have a lot of eye pain and wear out easily. As silly as it sounds, my brain also gets TIRED!
The whole idea of it is this.. Our eyes, ears, brain and body all work together to keep you balanced. My ear is sending mixed messages to my brain so my other senses are working overtime..
I had my second MRI done and got that report yesterday and there appears to be something on that one that was either not seen on the first one or just overlooked by the person who read my MRI film. There appears to be another probable tumor, another possible Meningioma. This doctor said there was no change in either from the last MRI..and while they are on the same side, they are in different areas.
The last thing is today is Dec. 9th... My short term disability runs out on the 11, on the 12th, I go on long term and once on long term, my job is terminated, so Sunday, I will no longer have a job.
