Quote:
Originally Posted by karilann
I don't think mine is quite the same, but one of the first symptoms of mine that took me repeatedly to the doctor was maybe simular? It would happen under certain situations where I would all of a sudden feel like I was floating and that the world was whizzing around me and I was no longer in sync with everything that was going on around me.
After a while I chalked it up to an anxiety attack but it wasn't. However; when the feeling started...then I would have an anxiety episode!! I used to tell the doc that it was like I was moving in a different direction than everyone around me. I didn't feel sad or cry....just afraid especially when I was driving. I get it in the grocery store while moving down the isles and looking to the side and under flurescent lights. Doc does think its an MS thing. And yes, tell your doc even though you feel looney. Just tell your doc that you are afraid of admitting it. When I finally told a doc what was happening to me, I fell into his arms sobbing......the feeling tormented me. No I was not nuts and neither are you. Big Hugs and be sure to tell your doctor.  |
What an excellent description, Karilann! I truly understood that and I don't think anyone who hasn't experienced it could have said it better!
I used to have that same feeling. I told my neuro it was as if I was detached, looking down or back at what was happening around me, that I was still and the rest of the world was moving, or I was moving past everything. I told him it was like being the highest I have ever been without being high, like I was floating and drooling and no one noticed, like how it feels when you come out of anesthesia after surgery. I'd have to tell myself to breathe when it was happening or I wouldn't.
I never could explain it well enough for him to understand and that frustrated me and I quit trying. It happened when I was driving, in stores with crowds, fluorescent lights, heat, etc. It was a feeling of unreality like I never had before (well, I did, but that was back when I was a teenager and I stay away from those drugs now!)
It was my ophthalmologist who figured it out. It had to do with vision, perception, spatial awareness, cognition and how my brain was interpreting things that I saw as opposed to how I used to see and how my brain used to interpret things. It was a part of my relapses for years, and I hated it!
One thing I did, besides steroids, was to get an eye patch. It covered my bad eye when I had this feeling and honestly, within 5 minutes I would be fine! I'd put on the patch and sit quietly, or lay down for a few minutes and it would all stop. It sucked having to use the patch but it was the only thing that made it stop.
Hoshi, give the vision thing a try. Get tested. I had nystagmus, diplopia and a host of other words I can't even remember now! Thankfully it is all gone since Tysabri, but when my old neuro told me my MS wasn't "debilitating", I was incensed and very nastily said "Maybe not in YOUR world, but in mine it is HUGE!"
I got a new neuro after that! I kept the eye doc. He was the one who diagnosed me after my first clinical episode of ON.