You’ve read a lot about my health challenges and I am moving closer to answers. I have had this since I was a child: vertigo, the feeling of dizziness, allegedly due to “sinus” but now I am convinced it is part of migraine syndrome. The feeling of spinning is horrible and thankfully, the violent spins I have perceived, are not common, but when they happen they are extremely disconcerting, frightening. They are like nothing I have ever felt before. However, lately, on and off over years, I have been feeling unbalanced. Not quite right. I walk and feel like I am on a listing ship. When I sit at my computer I have often felt like my head wasn’t situated correctly on my neck. I have felt like my neck was misaligned. I feel like I am tipping. Forever, on occasion, I have felt that if I took the slightest step back or to the side I fell off a step. As I sit here now, I am into the fourth hour since I got up, fighting this feeling. I know there is migraine activity because it feels like ants are crawling on my scalp, like my scalp is contracting, and tightening. The brain is under protest. it sometimes feels like my glasses are on crooked, or that I am wearing the wrong ones. And yes, my eyes are checked regularly and no, it’s NOT my eyes.

I mentioned that I began the new migraine drug, Aimovig, which is a monthly self-injection drug that is directed at migraine pain, which I have been able to manage with over the counter pain killers and migraine medicine. For the two months I was taking the drug I didn’t have to use any Advil or Imitrex. I was due to take the third dose of Aimovig  on September 3rd. (it has to be a month apart). But, due to a mix-up from the drug company pharmacy that owed me two free months’ worth and didn’t deliver, this month’s dose is late:  I had to pay out of pocket(about $150.00 co-pay) and hope my freebies will eventually arrive. My feeling is that old symptoms are returning so in a way it was good to see this and assume the Aimovig is helping. It is supposed to be delivered today.

Getting back to the issue at hand, I had an assessment at an incredible physical therapy place that specializes in rehabilitation of balance and addresses vertigo. No other physical therapy place I have ever experienced for myself or others has ever had this orientation: balance.

Thank you to my friends, Claudine and Richard for the recommendation.

The person in charge is a doctor of physical therapy and a remarkably brilliant professional. The assessments I received indicated that:

💡 Just like a previous specialist found about four years ago, I do NOT have benign positional vertigo. This condition would not be corrected by the “Epley maneuver.” (My problem is not due to wayward crystals in the inner ear.)

💡 What was found, is that my eyes and my vestibular integration are off. This is likely the cause of the wonky, listing feeling I get. I am going to have therapy twice a week in hopes of helping this. No guarantees, but the doctor was hopeful because in the motor integration tests I was always able to recover my balance. The subtests were very comprehensive and simulate moving floors, walls, with eyes open, eyes closed. No one has ever taken my condition to this point, nor has anyone offered a solution or even a hint of one. The ENT Balance specialist who saw me years ago, after two days of testing said, “I am sorry I can’t help you, you have migraine.” After all of that, those were biting words.

When the body in space is compromised, (not rare as we age as many people of sixty-five, fall) a lot of living is affected, especially independence. When traveling in any vehicle everything looks like it is coming at me, my vision center becomes over-stimulated; it’s an awful feeling.

If you have been experiencing similar issues, I hope that perhaps I have offered something to think about and some insight.

This is why I am experimenting with medical marijuana and CBD oil. There has to be a cure.

The first of the series on CBD oil/medical marijuana, begins here.

The previous post is here.

The next post is here.