[Winks]

We had major snow storm move in yesterday. The day before it got here my vision started getting a little fuzzy, like my eyes were really tired. Yesterday I woke up with a terrible headache which lasted all day and overnight. The headache is still here today. It is not the normal kind of headache that I get if I am sick, it is like it is lightning bolts starting where my head injury was and going across my brain.

This has happened to me twice before with fuzzy vision right before the storm hits, then nasty headaches that no medicine can stop. The first time I went in and the doctor did some special types of MRI and CAT scans and everything was totally fine.

I really think it is a reaction to the pressure changes. It only happens with storms where there is a huge pressure shift.

My question to you all is: does anyone else notice things like this?

[nightnurse30]

I know of other people whose migraines are affected by drops in the barometric pressure. It didnt happen to me with my PCS....but i remember seeing a post on here where people were talking about it and how it affects their PCS. Its like your own personal weather predictor....that sadly comes with headaches. Hope it changes and u feel better soon.

[Everwilde]

Most certainly the weather is a factor. I have logged symptoms for almost three years now (accident 5 years ago) looking for things that cause all of the head pressure and fatigue with lots of other goodies. I quickly saw that bumps were a factor, and lack of sleep was a factor. I had gone to a NUCCA Chiro for a few years, and finally got the neck issues settled down, but still had issues. Some mornings I woke up, and wondered what hit me in the night.

I read about people with migraines that were affected by pressure change, and so I downloaded the weather data from wunderground archives and lined up the spreadsheet with my symptom data spreadsheet. Incredible correlation! This accounts for maybe 80% of my remaining issues! Needless to say we are considering relocating.

I presented this idea and data to my neurologist yesterday, and he said that a lot of his patients say the same thing, but medicine has not yet found a reason, and so they really cannot say that it is true. Well, I am not sure what it would take to prove it, as I had years of data to show him.

For me, any barometric pressure change greater than 0.2 in mercury (up or down) will produce fatigue, hot head, and head pressure. Unsettled weather creates problems, while steady weather is wonderful. My neurologist said that maybe the weather change was just triggering an atypical migraine (no headache).

We were out west visiting relatives a few times in the last year, and my symptoms almost all disappeared while there. As soon as I got home they came back. We are going to go to AZ this winter, and test this theory a little further.

I live in WI, an we have maybe 160 such pressure changes in a year. Yes, almost half the days of the year. The summer is better, but winter and spring can be brutal. Hawaii never has changes this great, and the best place I found on the mainland is Miami (3 incidents per year) and San Diego (10 Incidents) Denver was the worst in the nation with well over 200. We think that humidity also affects me, and so are going to try dry AZ. Madison WI is ranked #2 for the most migraines per capita in the nation.

I found very interesting comments on an article on the dailyheadache, but cannot post a link as I do not have the rights here yet. Search 'Edmonton AB Migraines Killing Me' and the link should come up. One lady in Alberta had daily migraines, and moved to California, and the headaches all went away. (Post #14 and #22) One couple moved all over the place until they found heaven in AZ (Post # 33). It seemed that a lot of the people with issues lived in the North and especially the Northeast.

Anybody else have input on this topic of weather creating issues for those of us with PCS?

[Mark in Idaho]

I have a friend who moved here to Idaho to find the weather that was least of a problem to her health. She has tried Texas and was miserable. The heat of Arizona has its own problems. You should check out Boise or other parts of the Idaho banana belt. I think our pressure changes usually have only moderate swings. We rarely get any Canadian weather influence. When we have a low trough, it tends to pass through quickly.

[Theta Z]

You wrote: "Anybody else have input on this topic of weather creating issues for those of us with PCS?"

It is certainly true for me, subtropic here on the Gulf Coast South. I actually live just up the Bay a little ways from where it meets the Gulf of Mexico. When the barometric pressure is falling, just as you say, even mildly say a couple days before a storm, I'm "in malaise", as we might say. I know that there's a change, in me, and then I look at wunderground and the barometric pressure confirmed is falling. When the storm is actually here, I feel a change to the better, to homeostasis, yes.

Our physical bodies are long-known to be "a part of the greater whole" and science confirms that. It's no different than "Old Uncle Wiggley" and his rheumatism when many of us were kids. Grins.

Yes, Mark, now that I've acquired asthma recently as well (and I've never liked humidity) --- being from Colorado (beautifully high & dry, e.g. like Idaho) --- I have often thought of how/if I might in fact feel/do/be/recover more fully/better were I able to go home to Colorado to live. However at this time, I'm in no condition financially or otherwise to make any such changes in my location. And it is Autumn now here, the humidity is gone, and it's simply spectacular and easy living here on out from now through April. So, I'll ponder again this Winter, just how I might manage to become an annually migrating snowbird next year before next May!

Theta

P.S. I do not always experience 'malaise' with each and every time barometric pressure falling. By 'malaise' I am speaking for myself of specifically physical discomfort, physical pains, physical changes and such. Clear? I cannot make any correlations myself with for example, "more foggy-brain", etc.

[Everwilde]

Yes, we are only trying AZ in the winter, and then we have relatives in Eastern WA, and the changes there should be about half what we have here in WI for the rest of the year.

[Jomar]

Many members on all of the forums here post about weather/barometer related symptoms increasing /changing.

Those posts always pick up when fall starts to arrive.
Chilly & damp weather, as well as quick or extreme barometer fluctuations, often affect my RSI/TOS/myofascial condition.

[Theta Z]

DownHere the coldfront moved in Saturday with a cold rain. Overnight temps have been in the mid-40s & upper-30s, daytime highs this week are (only) in the 60s; sunny yet very cold-windy coming off the Bay from the NW.

With the advent of the front's arrival & barometric pressure falling, I began to feel the physical malaise set in on me once again, e.g. the pressure in my head where seemingly simply everything hurts, again. {{{ S-i-g-h }}}

I am fortunate that I had nothing pressing that I had to do this Veteran's Day holiday weekend.
The city's Saturday parade was rained out, so I was quite content to stay snug & warm at home all weekend, in my jammies no less. Lol.

I awoke early Sunday morning with a roaring headache.
When I get one, it's fortunate for me that nowadays it's a rare occurence; albeit I've learned to live with some degree of a dull headache nearly constant --- for which I no longer have even bothered to take any meds. It simply is, and for me by now is no big deal, of no concern in the bigger picture of my life.

Today has been sunny, clear, yet a brisk-cold wind whipping off the Bay. I walked one of my lil Maltese-mix buddies this afternoon --- snug in his fur-hooded bomber-pilot jacket .
He's ~12, yet he was so invigorated with-it-all today that I had to run (into the wind) to keep up with him. So fun.

Yet the cold wind today has me beset this evening with the old, original tender neck pain. Arrrghh.

I soaked in a hot lavender epsom salt bath & took a cup of tea with me here to bedside and have a hot water bottle on my neck. The heat feels soothing & relaxing to my neck. Given the early-newly-winter temps for DownHere, ice just didn't intuitively seem appropriate & especially since I've not done anything to newly injure my neck.

Ordinarily I would have promptly taken rx Flexeril (cyclobenzaprine), a mild muscle relaxant antispasmodic rx med, which I was rx'd & used with good success over the previous 3 years since injury. I do not have a current Rx for that, so it is not an option. The quintessential hot water bottle is feeling a good welcomed comfort & some relief from the neck spasms. Yay. It's a good night & I've no complaints. Yay.

How are ya'll doing with the barometric pressure/ winter weather related changes this year? Thinking of you.

Thank you each & all for being here.

Sincerely,
Theta