please forgive me folks, but i need to have a good whinge!!!
I developed / acquired a few weird symptoms last january in the car on the way to a friends house (luckily i was in the passenger seat!) essentially it came on all of a sudden like car sickness. nausea, general grotty feeling but worst of all was a kind of dizzyness. not dizzy as such, more that feeling when your 8 pints of guinness into a night out and you feel like your walking down a corridor on a cross channel ferry in a bad storm!
aside from feeling off colour, I thought nothing of it and carried on for a couple of days.
day 3, still feeling ropey and a bit worse than day 1 so i thought i'd visit the quack to see what they said as its unlike me to be ill (injured / broken yes but not ill!). doc floated a couple of suggestions but essentially they suspected something along the lines of migraine, labyrinthitis or vertigo. drugs prescribed and duly taken, same with the next set and the next set and the next set. nothing touched it (out of about 4 different medications) and the dizzyness, nausea and now with occasional crippling headaches cutting in too had been a daily thing for about 4 months. finally got a referral to a neurologist (with a predicted 8 week wait to see him!)
during this time i started feeling a bit better (probably due to the drug i was taking which is used in higher doses than i was taking as an anti-psychotic!) and the dizzyness and nausea had subsided quite a lot and provided i didnt get hungry and stayed well hydrated things were nearly back to normal.
queue the neurologist. an mri prescribed to rule out any tumours, or abnormalities (all clear on that one) and his diagnosis was vestibular migraine. treatment... come off the crazy pills and 'get used to it' with regards to the dizzyness / unsteadiness thing and let my head adjust to its new normal without any drugs that were essentially turning off receptors in my head and simply masking the symptoms.
it took at least another 3 months before i felt 'well' again and have spent the last 7 or 8 months in not too bad shape BUT highly susceptible to the symptoms returning if i do certain things to trigger it. it can be daft things, not drinking enough fluid, looking up for any length of time (painting ceilings i found out is like my kryptonite!) prolonged exposure to bright light, not enough light or loud noise (pubs, concerts even the cinema can trigger it)
as i now sit here i have my bike 90% rebuilt (just chain and new gear inners to put in place) and my old roadie / commuter project hooked up to the turbo trainer which i used the other day and, well, my fear came true. low speed cruising i'm fine for 15 / 20 minute bursts but as soon as i put down any sort of pressure / speed i start getting wobbly again fairly quickly. probably a heart rate related issue triggering it (monitor is on order to experiment with what level i need to keep it under)
this is just frustrating me now. I realise there are people in far worse positions than me in more pain, discomfort or inconvenienced to a greater level by an ongoing illness but this has hit me just a couple of months after finally getting my knees sorted out so in reality, i've had to take about 8 years out. as a result i haven't been frequenting here as often (mainly because seeing new builds and looking at aftermath threads is just irritating!) but i'm hoping i can work out a way to manage my issue to still get out there and enjoy my riding again.
If there is anyone reading who is in a similar position with a vertigo / labyrinthitis / vestibular type issue please, please let me know what you do to manage it as this affliction is slowly grating away the last bit of my patience!
many thanks for reading my whinge folks and don't take a clear balanced head for granted!
I developed / acquired a few weird symptoms last january in the car on the way to a friends house (luckily i was in the passenger seat!) essentially it came on all of a sudden like car sickness. nausea, general grotty feeling but worst of all was a kind of dizzyness. not dizzy as such, more that feeling when your 8 pints of guinness into a night out and you feel like your walking down a corridor on a cross channel ferry in a bad storm!
aside from feeling off colour, I thought nothing of it and carried on for a couple of days.
day 3, still feeling ropey and a bit worse than day 1 so i thought i'd visit the quack to see what they said as its unlike me to be ill (injured / broken yes but not ill!). doc floated a couple of suggestions but essentially they suspected something along the lines of migraine, labyrinthitis or vertigo. drugs prescribed and duly taken, same with the next set and the next set and the next set. nothing touched it (out of about 4 different medications) and the dizzyness, nausea and now with occasional crippling headaches cutting in too had been a daily thing for about 4 months. finally got a referral to a neurologist (with a predicted 8 week wait to see him!)
during this time i started feeling a bit better (probably due to the drug i was taking which is used in higher doses than i was taking as an anti-psychotic!) and the dizzyness and nausea had subsided quite a lot and provided i didnt get hungry and stayed well hydrated things were nearly back to normal.
queue the neurologist. an mri prescribed to rule out any tumours, or abnormalities (all clear on that one) and his diagnosis was vestibular migraine. treatment... come off the crazy pills and 'get used to it' with regards to the dizzyness / unsteadiness thing and let my head adjust to its new normal without any drugs that were essentially turning off receptors in my head and simply masking the symptoms.
it took at least another 3 months before i felt 'well' again and have spent the last 7 or 8 months in not too bad shape BUT highly susceptible to the symptoms returning if i do certain things to trigger it. it can be daft things, not drinking enough fluid, looking up for any length of time (painting ceilings i found out is like my kryptonite!) prolonged exposure to bright light, not enough light or loud noise (pubs, concerts even the cinema can trigger it)
as i now sit here i have my bike 90% rebuilt (just chain and new gear inners to put in place) and my old roadie / commuter project hooked up to the turbo trainer which i used the other day and, well, my fear came true. low speed cruising i'm fine for 15 / 20 minute bursts but as soon as i put down any sort of pressure / speed i start getting wobbly again fairly quickly. probably a heart rate related issue triggering it (monitor is on order to experiment with what level i need to keep it under)
this is just frustrating me now. I realise there are people in far worse positions than me in more pain, discomfort or inconvenienced to a greater level by an ongoing illness but this has hit me just a couple of months after finally getting my knees sorted out so in reality, i've had to take about 8 years out. as a result i haven't been frequenting here as often (mainly because seeing new builds and looking at aftermath threads is just irritating!) but i'm hoping i can work out a way to manage my issue to still get out there and enjoy my riding again.
If there is anyone reading who is in a similar position with a vertigo / labyrinthitis / vestibular type issue please, please let me know what you do to manage it as this affliction is slowly grating away the last bit of my patience!
many thanks for reading my whinge folks and don't take a clear balanced head for granted!
