Was this hyperventilation?

[Freaked]

I was sitting in the car on the way home from a stressful day, and we were talking about something unpleasant from a TV show. I'd been feeling this sensation i sometimes get where it feels like my legs aren't there. Like i can feel them when i touch them (touch wood), but they feel way too 'light' other than that; it's freaky. Then I started to notice my legs felt heavy, kind of burning and weird to move. The right one kept getting stiffer feeling and got jerky when I was moving it. It was like a cramp. I also noticed when I tried to sit up that the left side of my chest had gotten very stiff. When I got out of the car walking felt a little jerky. I've had hyperventilation lots of times before and it's caused bad buzzing and a bit of jerking all over, but nothing exactly like this.

The thing is last night I was super dizzy every time I lied down and couldn't sleep cos of it, and my neck got stiff. A few weeks ago i woke up at 6 extremely dizzy; i don't know if maybe it's my labyrinthitis back in a more aggressive form. I had an mri with contrast like two weeks ago (though that was more looking at a specific cyst than anything) and they didn't see anything worrying. Just very freaked out about TIAs :-( I'm 22 btw.

[HoneyLove]

That sounds like motion sickness, or vestibular problems brought on by travelling - it's really common in people with balance issues.

I think you should look at the possibility of vestibular migraine, or chronic migraine. And also at whether these problems are being triggered by tmj.

I think I've said this to you before, but if you're living near Dublin I can give you the details of an excellent balance therapist who might be able to help you, he is one of the best people in the country to see for balance problems.

[Freaked]

Hi HoneyLove, thanks for the offer. The thing is I have no idea if this is a migraine issue or not or how I'd tell. I do possibly have TMJ at this point; I've noticed my outer cheekbone area is very tender. I've had labyrinthitis for a long time and it doesn't normally effect my balance anymore, but the thing is that due to other health issues, I can't take decongestants anymore, so I've had it chronoically for months.

[HoneyLove]

Migraine is usually diagnosed from symptoms, and exclusion of other illnesses. Often it's very obvious to a trained eye that the patient is suffering with migraine, when you may not recognise it yourself. Migraine is not just a headache, some people have migraine without any headache at all.

It was this very balance physio who was able to tell me I had vestibular migraine, without his help I'd still be lost trying to figure out what was wrong. A neurologist confirmed his suspicions of migraine just last week. I would never have thought it was migraine myself since I dont have typical migraine headaches, but now that I've read a lot about it I understand how it all works. It was on his suggestion that I asked for a referral to a neurologist in the first place.

He works with all kinds of balance issues, including labyrinthitis. He can test your balance system, see where your issues are, and set a course of treatment that should help.

The thing with labyrinthitis is that it's not something you just have, it's usually just a one off event that can damage your balance system. You get better as your brain learns to compensate for the damage, but sometimes you can decompensate and get dizzy again. Balance therapists can help you learn to compensate for that damage by teaching you to retrain your balance system again, so that the dizzy spells happen less often and you will recover from them more quickly.

To be honest it sounds like you could really do with someone who knows a lot about balance issues, most of what you describe sounds exactly like problems with the vestibular system. The therapy you are looking for is called Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT), the very least you should do for yourself is call up this kind of physio and have a chat with them - they'll be able to tell you if you're barking up the wrong tree or not.

If you have *any* issues with balance, and I don't mean literally being off balance, but instead issues with vertigo, labyrinthitis, dizziness, visual problems, then VRT is one of the best things you can look into.

You shouldn't have to take decongestants constantly to keep the vertigo at bay, that doesn't sound like you're getting the right treatment for your problem.

Have a look at vestibular.org and mvertigo.com for much more information on problems with the vestibular system.

---------- Post added at 14:51 ---------- Previous post was at 14:50 ----------

Have a read on this information on vestibular migraine, see what you think:

http://www.mvertigo.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2392