By foggy.brain 
My story
My Vestibular Migraine Diagnosis began during my childhood. Since I can remember I have been having migraines usually with sensitivity to light and noise. Many times, after coming back from school I remember going to my room and close the blinds to ensure there’s no light coming in. It was a relief but truly didn’t know I was suffering of migraines since such young age. During my teenage years I remember carrying a bottle of pain killers and taking several daily. My migraines were occurring regularly, I am thinking at least 5 days every week.
During my twenties and thirties, the migraines increased on severity and became a daily thing in my life. I don’t really recall having a pain free day it only varied on severity. Still, at this time didn’t know it was migraines attacking me.
When it all started
I remember very clearly the first time I got a vestibular migraine; it was in the middle of winter. I was helping my son who at the time was living in university. It was a very weird feeling, mild dizziness with no pain. I didn’t make any change assumption or really cared much for it.
The dizziness came back the next day a bit more intense, I remember it was hard to read as the words were blurry, still then didn’t any assumption and kept on with my life.
After a few weeks with the same feeling. I started getting worried, also work got a bit more stressful due to some changes in staff I had to take care of more responsibility and put in a bit more hours than normal.
The attack!
One day I was walking in the office hallway, and I felt like I was sinking and about to faint. I had to grab onto the wall and stay there to breath and regain control. It was very tough to walk as I had this massive dizziness as if my brain was spinning inside my head totally without control.
This severe attack lasted for a couple of weeks. I had to stop driving and started taking the bus to work, it was scary! Then I decided to consult my family doctor, she was kind but truly did not take it seriously. She suggested the “square breathing technique”, I felt like crying that day as the dizziness was very severe. I wanted to have something to relieve it and desperately wanted to go back to normal.
This situation went on for 6 months, going back and forth between my family doctor and 3 or four specialists including an internist, ear, nose throat and neurologist. No good solutions or a diagnose. So I decided to travel to South America, where I grew up as health care system is easier to navigate. I saw a neurologist who ordered few MRI exams and discovered I had 3 herniated disks in my neck. I came back home to Toronto with this in mind, few neck exercises and a plan for physiotherapy. Not surprisingly I had no relief after a few months of trying.
The process of My Vestibular Migraine Diagnosis
My husband discovered he had a benefit at work for a company called “Best Doctors”, so I reached out and found out they review all exams and provide a diagnosis, I gathered all exams and submitted for their review. After a few weeks the response came back, Vestibular Migraine is what their answer was.
They recommended to initiate a treatment with anti-depressants which apparently after few weeks of use had the ability to suppress the dizziness feeling. For some reason I was furious and enraged, didn’t believe the diagnosis nor did I take any medication.
I went on feeling sorry for myself and kept looking for other options, went again to my family doctor asking for a referral to a neurologist. Finally they ordered a brain MRI to see if there’s any issues that could be driving the non-stop dizziness. At this time 3 years had passed!!
They found a tiny tumour, but the doctor said almost everyone has one like this and had no impact to any function in the brain so totally harmless.
The breakthrough
At this point of my Vestibular Migraine Diagnosis run out of options when I heard there’s a balance physiotherapy that might be helpful. So I went, they did a bunch of tests and defined it was not a vestibular malfunction. The physiotherapist recommended me to read the Heal your Headache (HYH) book and look for Facebook support group for vestibular disorders.
By joining the group and reading the book I realized the Best Doctor’s diagnosis was correct. Indeed all symptoms of vestibular migraine, so I acted immediately, I followed to a T the recommendation of the HYH book. I stopped taking any medications and remove all trigger food groups including my beloved coffee.
I found relief almost immediately, it took a couple of weeks, and I went back to maybe 2-3 days a week of pain and mild dizziness. It was a blessing, I had more “normal days” than off days and kept improving.
At this time, I was able to sign up for “CrossFit” gym again, I found that during intense workouts my dizziness disappeared so there was something to be explored, more to that on Trigger management chapters.
Tips
- Trust your instincts, if you know something is wrong keep looking for an answer
- Surround yourself with loving people that care about you, it is important to find support
- This is the most important one: Never give up!! If you think you have tried everything you are probably mistaken there’s always something else, you can try to alleviate your condition. Don’t give in to the pity party!