Hello everyone. I hope that all are as well as our unwanted lodger (MS) will allow.
I was all set to go to the shops this morning, but before I left the house, I had a rip roaring spasm of vertigo, which made me have to sit down pretty pronto. This is a known MS symptom of course, but I haven’t had one for at least eighteen months I think. Does anyone know why we actually get vertigo? Needless to say I didn’t go to the shops after all as I had visions of collapsing next to the cashpoint.
Both times I have had vertigo my gp has been adamant it wasn’t ms. It can often just occur from particles floating in the fluid in the ear disrupting your sense of balance (it’s called BPPV - benign paroxysimal positional vertigo, or something). I have read on some MS article as well that vertigo is often just naturally occuring rather than ms. And if you’re prone to BPPV then you just are.
Vertigo is horrid though, I do sympathise. Just don’t necessarily assume it has to be ms causing it.
Thank you for your comment zedsee. I don’t know if it is good news or not that it could be down to something else?!?! It is strange that I tend to get vertigo when I am very tired, so I suppose that it could have another cause. Thank you for replying to my post.
my vertigo is caused by a lesion on my brain stem,they thought it was my ears causing it at first,but turned out to be the ms,i hate it its one of my most disabling things.
Mine is the same Jaki’s, it’s there all the time but get worse with stress, exercise or tiredness. Remarkably my body has learned to cope with it & I seem to have got used to feeling ‘tipsy’ all the time - a couple of glasses of wine actually make me feel more normal!
It happened to me whilst driving a fast car on the QE2 bridge, years ago. I don’t know why, never understood it. It just happened and always does on bridges, even ordinary ones. That QE2 bridge is serious.
Hiya Moira, the vertigo, or, inner ear problem has nothing what’s so ever to do with MS, I’ve been bothered with vertigo long before my diagnose of MS in 97, it comes on me due to neck movements, I take a pill-stemitol-usually lie and sleep for a few hours, them back to some sort of normality, take things easy for a while, then, that’s it for months, or longer, more than a year, or more, it is frightening at first, the room spinning if eyes kept open, all I want to do, is sleep, but these small pills work wonders, for me anyway, Brian
I’ve suffered and still suffer with vertigo on and off - my lesions are on the cerebellum. When seeing my neurologist a month ago I told him about the vertigo and that I’d been to the gp about it a few times recently and that they had just said it was ms related. I said to my neurolgist that i suspected it was an ear problem as opposed to the ms and he agreed and actually thinks its more likely to be an inner ear Eustachian tube problem and I’m waiting for my appointment with an ENT specialist. It’s worth mentioning that there’s crystals in the inner ear and they can become dislodged causing vertigo. I’ve previously had the epley manoeuvre when I had a bad spate or vertigo last year and it worked and a couple of days later I felt fine. Because I keep getting repeat problems with the ear causing vertigo they want to get it checked out. It is worth getting your ears checked just in case as its easy to put everything down the the ms which is what I had originally done.
Thank you for all of the replies. The only trouble is that now I am even more confused! I thought that vertigo went with MS, like eggs go with bacon. I will certainly ask my neurologist when I next see him as he might be able to enlighten me …or not. He might be just as confused as I am. I will certainly get my ears checked though as at least I could rule this out. It was very disappointing to see the ceiling spinning as it must be at least eighteen months since I had that.
I am still awaiting dx, and have no idea whether I actually have MS or not, but balance issues/vertigo have always been my most prominent symptoms.
I have been investigated by ENT who have confirmed this is not being caused by my inner ear, and so it is being suggested it is neurological. I have had an abnormal brain MRI and am seeing a Neuro to discuss the results in September. None of the usual vertigo tablets have worked on me, so I am hoping that they will be able to do something as it is ruling and ruining my life at the moment.
It will be interesting if, along with all my other symptoms, MS is mentioned.
Saw your post purpledot and thought if ask what tablets you have tried and also if you have tried doing cooksey cawthorne exercises? My neuro Physio last year gave me them to do and they are really good at trying to overcome dizziness/vertigo. They aren’t an instant fix but the more you do them the easier the symptom becomes
