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Old 04-07-2008, 02:26 PM
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Erin524 Erin524 is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2007
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Erin524 Erin524 is offline
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Erin524's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 5,020
15 yr Member
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There's also Meclizine, but it can make you drowsy too.

Dramamine does make a non-drowsy version, just ask the pharmacist which one is which.

Vertigo was probably one of my first symptoms of MS. First time I had vertigo was in early 1997 (about a year after I had mononucleosis) and I and my doctor both thought that it was an ear infection. It could have been an ear infection at the time, but I'm still not too sure about that, since I had vertigo hit me anywhere from 2 - 6 times a year since then...and I never had a clue it could have been MS until after I'd gotten diagnosed with MS last year.

My vertigo was the worst it had ever been about this time last year, and it took till probably mid-august for my doctor to finally try steroids on me to make it go away. (2wks of oral prednisone)

We tried treatments for BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positioning Vertigo, which is where little calcifications called Otoconia break loose in your inner ear...the Otoconia's are sometimes called "ear rocks")

My doctor and also my neuro think that my vertigo was from some sort of irritation or inflammation on my 8th Cranial Nerve tho.

I have prescription Meclizine and a bunch of little travel bottles of Dramamine leftover from last year. I think I prefer the Meclizine because the Dramamine gives me a little headache when it starts to wear off.

I havent had much of a problem with vertigo since the steroids last summer. I seem to only get the vertigo back now if I've got really bad insomnia, or when I'm sick.

When the vertigo was bugging me last year, it was really weird. Different than what it was when I first started to get it in the late 90's. It felt like it would come up one side of my body, usually the left. It would come up my left side, I could feel it go from the left, and then it would swirl around my head and I'd usually fall backwards or slide sideways. I was lucky last year that most of the episodes happened when I was sitting down (usually on my bed) and it would feel like gravity was sucking me down to the point where I couldnt move because the vertigo was so horrible.

I actually had two episodes of vertigo hit me while at my regular doctor's office while he was trying to help me figure out what was going on. The first time I was there for something else, but was sitting on the exam bed when it hit. Right in front of the doctor. He said he was watching me, and all of a sudden I was slumping backwards. He was freaked. That's when he gave me the Rx for the Meclizine.

The next time it happened, he had left the room for a few minutes, I got off the exam bed because I dont like sitting on them, and I'd sat down on the chair in the room, and opened up the book I'd brought to read. (Harry Potter) I was reading a page, and the eye movements from reading triggered that vertigo. I was on the floor leaning against the wall when the doctor came back in. Told him what happened, and I think that's when he gave me the Rx for the prednisone then.

I should mention that Dramamine and Meclizine are anti-emetics...they're an anti-dizzy/nausea medication and both are sold over the counter, but can also be sold by Rx.
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momXseven (04-07-2008)