I can usually tell before it gets bad. It's like an aura of some sort. Eyes get messed up, feel like I'm walking on air. I first make sure that I'm somewhere safe. I usually go ahead and take antivert and phenergan, even though most of the time it doesn't help. Sometimes if it's bad I'll take a valium. I arm myself with the phone, trash can and lay down on the sofa. If it's a major attack I have to make sure that I get either my son or my husband to help me move around anywhere like going to the bathroom and such because I can't walk very well if at all. I've had way too many falls trying to do it on my own and being stubborn. If there are no other options, I will crawl. What helps me is to curl up in a ball and cover my head with my arms and lay down. It doesn't stop it, doesn't make the nausea any better really, but for some reason if I try to look around makes the vertigo worse for me. Make sure to try to stay hydrated although it is very difficult if the nausea or vomiting has started. I've ended up in the ER three times in the past six months from major attacks that completely depleted me. Two by ambulance because I had no one near to take me to the er, neither one of my kids drive yet, and I wasn't able to get in touch with my husband to come home. Most important is to make sure you are in a safe place where if you happen to fall you won't get hurt bad, not driving, and let someone know you are out of commission for the day and to check on you.
When i had them, i would immediately fixate on a point in the room. Hold that as long as i could, and it usually helped.
I do the same as Scott, I immediately stare at my thumb about 2 feet from my face. It will eventually stop the spinning. My vertigo is violent, 100 miles an hour spinning.
Really? So simple. Some things are. I guess the next time I get vertigo I'll try this. I go straight to the bathroom until I feel like I can stay in bed. I keep a sort of kit in the closet. I have wash clothes, a black sleeping mask, a bucket, a pillow, and a soft blanket. I find holding my head with both hands on the sides I can feel like I'm controlling the spinning even though I can't move my head at all. Yes, I've crawled to my room too. I clang on the a/c vent with a can of air spray and my daughter knows I need help. I have someone help me to the bed but I have to go very, very slow moving my head as little as possible. I usually can't lay right down so I sit until I can.mthen I wrap a black dishcloth fold in 3s longways and I wrap it around my head. It covers my ears and eyes. That's what helps my vision part of it. I lay flat and anchor my hands underneath me. Then I usually fall to sleep.
I have woken up in the night, pitch black with a vertigo attack. As I cannot stare at my thumb, I stare at the numbers on my alarm clock. The spinning stops.
It's absolutely amazing the different techniques being used during an attack and one is so different from the other. That seems to be a theme with this disease.
Mine usually ends once I fall asleep. When I get to where I'm not feeling nauseous, I'll take a .05 KLonipin. That's probably what puts me to sleep. Plus, there's the stress on your body that's brings on fatigue as well. Some of these techniques may help someone new going through this.
I've only had one attack that I was able to fall asleep during to get through it. The other major ones have been so violent that I can't keep my head out of the trashcan. Literally maybe 3 or 4 minutes between heaves. Since we're all sharing I won't be embarrassed to say that I had one that made me throw up so violently that I pee'd on myself. Awful! Worst one yet. Like I said before, closing my eyes, covering my head and being as still as possible is what helps me.
I'm an eyes closed person too. I can't stand watching the room spin around. Laying on my side seems to feel best. Usually the whole thing is so exhausting that I will go to sleep and wake up better. Just once I've woken up with it. That was one of my worst. Probably one of my few MM vertigos, most of the others were probably MAV or BPPV. Though once I had a really horrible one that I'm sure was MAV because I was also light and sound sensitive. In the very worst cases I've hung out in the bathroom until I've vomited up everything in my stomach. Then to bed on my side with a plastic container nearby and hopefully sleep. If it's mild I try to walk around with a cane (gives your body more info about where it it is in space), sometimes that seems to help. Whenever I have dizziness or vertigo, I put on an acupressure wrist band (sea bands brand is what I get). That takes the edge off the nausea for me. I'm wearing one right now!
Another thread reminded me to add, that if I haven't done the Epley Maneuver recently and suspect it might be BPPV, I do the Home Epley Maneuver. I have stopped vertigo with that--but that is only BPPV vertigo. I also get MAV and MM vertigo.
I had a vertigo attack today in a business meeting. I stared at my thumb until it stopped. No one noitced what I was doing. Of course after I was extremely nauseous and had to keep my head still, but carried on. It takes about 2 hours for me to start feeling better. It was not fun.
Yea tdoak you are unbelievable. My vertigo lasts between 8 and 18 hours not two so I would have been dead.
It was scary. I am on antivirals (valtrex) at full dose and I had about 4 weeks since last attack. It is very frustrating.
It is frustrating but don't give up! Give it time. That's why it wasn't so severe that you couldn't cope. Think about that. And the duration was probably a lot lower than what it was. Keep me posted
tdoak, given you are on the Valtrex and it is working, I wonder if that vertigo might have been from something else, such as MAV or BPPV.
Well, I believe the Valtrex helps, but it does not completely stop the attacks for me. I have been tested and do not have MAV or BPPV. I have tried just about everything and still have not found my solution yet.