I'm just curious about everyone else's experiences with certain things, in the journey with this disease. 1. Do you know what your triggers are? I am still learning mine and having trouble nailing down specifics. If you do, what are they? 2. Do you feel like your attacks come soon after you eat or drink a food trigger? I've gotten some impressions from reading that some folks will get attacks pretty quick after they eat or drink a food trigger. I feel like my attacks come hours and days after eating something bad for me. This is making it difficult determining what specific triggers are. 3. For those of you that use Ativan, when do you take it? I never know how strong my attacks are going to be. In fact, I rate them according to the number of Meclazine I have to take. I don't want to waste an Ativan taking it for a 1 or 2 pill attack. But i'm thinking that by the time it gets up to a 4-pill episode, it might be too late to take the Ativan. (I have taken as many as 6 Meclazine before. That's all for now. I'm sure I'll think of more later. Thanks!
#4: i see so many folks lamenting their coffee and caffiene beverages. What about decaf and half-caf beverages. Does anyone think they cause issues too? I've read someplace that both caffienated and de-caffienated should be given up. thanks again!
I take acyclovir and have been symptom free for almost 3 years due to it. I have low tinnitus which is drowned out by background noise. I know my food triggers for MM and MAV. MM food triggers kick in within an hour and I get symptosm, hence I avoid them MM food triggers only affect me or someone with MAV when you reach your personal threshold. Could be an hr or 2 days depending. I avoid those as well. My MM and MAV food triggers are nuts and dried fruit both migraine triggers and high in arginine which can override the antiviral if I don't compensate with a higher amount of foods with lysine . More triggers for me are grapes for MM bananas for MAV yogurt for MAV. Avocados for MAV. I can eat my food triggers in small amounts now and then w/o consequences. I might have more food triggers but offhand cant recall atm. My food triggers are worse during allergy season, my threshold is a lot lower then. I eat chocolate a lot so the caffeine in chocolate doesn't bother me neither does salt. I dont drink coffee and if I drink tea its decaf tea only because caffeine in tea makes my heart race and I feel jittery. If its days after I would guess you have MAV (headache not required) as well as MM.
Stress and lack of sleep/fatigue are MAJOR triggers for me. I eliminated caffeine for the first year after diagnosis - no impact. Reducing sodium caused by blood pressure to drop too low so dr had me go back to normal. For me: ear pressure, hearing reduction and excess noise in my ear...those three issues will be in place if I were to get a vertigo attack. BUT I can have all three and not have a vertigo attack. No real rhyme or reason that I have been able to come up with. Ativan, I put under my tongue when an attack hits (full room spinning attack). It shortens my attack to under 2 hrs. With regards to unfortunate vomiting - that is one reason why I always get driven home from work. Although I have at times ended up puking in a bag. Hate it. Best I can do is to hope the ativan kicks in before I start to puke. definitely recommend trying to get anti-virals. They have done wonders for me. Good luck
SO, VICKI, that's what I'm saying about knowing what you're food triggers are. I can't figure mine out, because there doesn't seem to be any correlation, in time, or food. ncimger: my situation is the same as yours: "ear pressure, hearing reduction and excess noise in my ear... those 3 issues will be in place if I were to get a vertigo attack. BUT I can have all three and have a vertigo attack." and yes, the new aspect of vomiting is oh-so-special.
I guess i need to look up MAV, and it's symptoms. I already know I have an acoustic neuroma, diagnosed and monitored biannually, by MRI. Adding MAV into this mix might be more than I cand handle.
theres a good thread about migraine associated vertio (MAV) in our database and if you search the forums and looks for a thread I made with a chart how to distinguish between MAV and MM since the symptoms are very similar.
i did go see that link, Vicki, and I still believe I have MM, as well as the Acoustic Neuroma. There seemed to be other aspects of MAV that just do not apply to me.
then I would write down what you ate 1-2 days before you got symptoms. A pattern might emerge. Be careful not eat foods that have a higher arginine to lysine ratio.
Suggestion...start keeping a daily journal of what you eat, what kind of stress level you are having, what kind of symptoms and the severity of those symptoms, how many hours of rest you had the night before, etc.....this will help you find a pattern, if there is one.......mine is stress....and salt. If your doc will take the time to look at your journal with you, they may see something you don't. Caffeine is something that will make your tinnitus worse. But, if you are already anxious about your vertigo attacks, then caffeine does not help your stress level. I gave it up. Giving that up was easier than maintaining a 1500 mg or less daily sodium intake diet. I've read so many things and everyone has the same but very different story. YOU have to find out what works for YOU. Take care and good luck!
I would have constant Ear Fullness when eating great , other times I eat Anything I want for weeks and feel fine, and my most noticeable Triggers i have is carbs and sugar. I love pasta so now I get brown rice pasta Which works well. Lack of sleep is def A trigger.( wish I could sleep its 4 am and This will be a problem tomorrow) I have restarted meclizine because now I Vomit when I get dizzy, I take 50mg 2 or 3 times a day. That might be excessive But I too find it hard to know at times what Triggers as well. But banana do bother me Too . Good luck redbikegirl
The only way you will be able to truly find out what your triggers are is to start from scratch with the same food for each meal for a couple of days. I started with egg on toast. Then add just one item at a time. If that second food causes problems ditch it and try something else for a few days and so on until you have a list of safe foods and drinks. I agree keep a food diary. It can take some time but its worth it. I know my triggers and I know my threshold and like somebody else said your threshold level can be affected by things other than food, like stress and lack of sleep. My triggers were caffeine, msg , baked beans, bananas, alcohol, soy sauce and orange juice. I no longer have all of those as triggers because i don't suffer from vertigo any more. I could possibly get away with alcohol but I don't see the point in taking the chance. If you haven't tried serc( betahistine) that could give you some relief whilst you are sorting out your threshold and triggers. If I was to go through again what you are going through I would definitely get some antivirals as I believe the root cause is the herpes virus
RedBikeGirl, I too am just finding out my triggers and/or threshold, it seems to me that my triggers and threshold seem to hit a day or two later also, but one of my triggers that I cannot do anything about is the weather, and we have been having major weather changes the last few days in MT. So that means I have to watch my stress and what I eat! I have managed to stop coffee for a whole week! Praise God! It has not worked wonders yet, as I have been having wobbly days for 1 week but no vertigo! Today I woke up with increased tinnitus, I drank decaff apricot tea with splenda in it for the last 2 mornings, not today, I am drinking water, but I also ate chocolate chip cookies, corn bread and drank A&W root beer, (too much all in one day) along with the weather I am mighty close to the threshold and am having some stress which I hope I get taken care of today. When I start to feel dizzy at work I really stress because I do not know if it will escalate, so I probably use more ativan and meclazine at work than anywhere else. I am still learning too, I might have to start a food, weather, stress diary like it has been suggested! I am getting closer to retirement age and so I switched positions at work to only work 2 days a week to see if it would help with stress, the only problem is the two days are 12 hour days in a long term care facility which might be too much stress, but I am working on it, hope I can get my physical tolerance built up, I am walking on my elliptical on my days off as much as I can for exercise. Good luck to you! This site is wonderful because we do not have to be alone with these symptoms anymore and are among people who understand!
My triggers are not enough rest - trying to do too much in a day or week -- not following a low sodium diet - and stress. Everyday is a dizzy day - i just measure it on a scale of 1 - 10. Most days are a 2-3 - If i haven't gotten enough sleep I am at a 5 ish -- when I am stressed at work and have worked too many hours and haven't rested - my ear will start ringing loud - the aural fullness comes and the spinning starts - IF i can get myself to bed in time I will avoid the puking for hours which I call a 10 - the last two weeks i had two 9's - full spinning but didn't puke.
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I will try keeping a diary for a while and see what correlates. I am already on very low to no caffiene. I've been off any carbonated drinks and alcohol since September 14th. This is more to control my GERD/Hiatal Hernia than for the MM. I will occasionally cheat and have a half-caf coffee, or a real Coke Zero, but mosty decaf coke zero's and coffee, and decaf green tea. This most recent Fall weather change seems to have thrown me for a loop. I've been having the woozies and minor dizzy spells since last Thursday (10/1). I don't know that I can eat the same thing 3 meals a day for a couple of days. I applaud you, jaypr, if that's what you did. You are a stronger more determined person that I am. I have emailed my MD and asked him for the antivirals, including one of the articles about them I saw posted on this site. I'll give him a call tomorrow to see if I can chat with him about it. I've changed jobs to a much less stressful one recently and I always always always carry Meclizine and Ativan in my pocket. Zofran for the upchucking, but it didn't work last time.
Hi Eating the same meal for a couple of days was nothing compared to going through the horrors of hours of vertigo and vomiting. I looked at it at least I'm eating when there are so many people in the world with little or no food. If you do have a go at the elimination trigger avoidance diet there is only one way obtaining a list of all the foods/drinks that are safe and that is by starting from scratch otherwise you'll never know for sure. Best of luck
My sister had an acoustic neuroma. After tons of research, she chose the House Clinic in LA and had it removed. The surgery was quite long but was a success. The House Clinic specializes in this surgery and they even have a "apartment complex" that you can stay at for recovery. All of the patients in the complex were acoustic neuroma surgery patients and had varying degrees of the size and the length of time that they had the tumor. My sister did not have Meniere's symptoms, only slight hearing loss. Her hearing did improve after the surgery. Do you think removing the tumor would eliminate the Meniere's symptoms? In response to your question regarding the antivan. I take it if I start to have that funny feeling that an attack is imminent. I let it dissolve under my tongue as instructed by my doctor. It really does help.