[randomguy]

At a loss. Went for a family lunch over the weekend and man, symptoms worse than ever. On the drive there I was also experiencing serious symptoms, including partially losing vision/seeing black spots everywhere and having to pull over for a few minutes, feeling as though I could pass out. Upon arriving to the restaurant, symptoms were terrible. I could not focus, as all of the noise, lighting, etc were causing extreme sensitivities, to the point where I held my head down for several minutes in front of the whole family and closed my eyes. The symptoms lasted a full hour with no break in between and thought I would have to leave.

Lately when the symptoms come on, I feel as though it is something very serious. As though I am having a stroke and could lose conciseness and maybe not wake up again. I feel an intense flooding in my brain, where I get very faint and lightheaded, have a hard time hearing and vision sometimes gets spotty (black spots, etc). My symptoms are definitely injury related and not anxiety. I rarely feel anxious, until symptoms come on strong. I have always been completely comfortable with my family.

I am wondering if there is something significant that I should be getting tested for? It feels as though I am not receiving enough blood to my brain and it's about to shut off. My neck has very much been acting up again too the past few days, which I know may be the culprit. The symptoms are unbearable and overwhelming, to the point of feeling like I need to go to the hospital immediately.

I have had 2 CT's, MRI, etc over 2 years ago and ruled everything out on that end, but have an appt this week with my GP and wondering if I should be reviewing other options/tests to further rule things out? I feel deathly ill in these instances and although I try to avoid them, sometimes still do them and pay the price.

Are there x-rays, etc that I should be looking at for upper cervical issues? I did have an upper neck x-ray completed around 2 years ago, nothing visible and everything looked 'normal.' I have not been able to get very much info out of docs on this. Would another MRI be of any benefit as a follow up? I do not want to receive anymore CT radiation and will be avoiding.

[davOD]

Sorry to hear of all your troubles.....but you really should not be driving....If something happens, you may get worse or hurt or kill someone else....

Please take this post as being helpful....I was told to stop driving well over 9 years ago....I would feel awful if I made my bad situation worse to someone else...

[Mark in Idaho]

Random,

First, you need to understand there is a difference between conscious anxiety such as fear of crowds, bugs, heights, worries and the physiological anxiety within the brain from too much stimulation. The brain can kick into an over-drive condition from a simple trigger. The crowded restaurant is a very common trigger. I always have ear plugs for these occasions. Our conscious thinking does not cause the anxiety. The stimulations in our environment do.

The spacey feeling, disoriented, confusion trying to make sense of speaking, and others are the brain responding or over-responding to too much stimulation.

Add conscious anxiety such as "Lately when the symptoms come on, I feel as though it is something very serious. As though I am having a stroke and could lose conciseness and maybe not wake up again." to over-stimulation and you have a recipe for trouble.

You are not having a stroke or going to die. Your brain is just overloaded.

If you were a backpacker and trained hard to be able to carry 60% of your body weight on trips but then were injured and laid up for months, would you expect to be able to carry 60% of your body weight on your first backpacking trip ? No, you would not. You would need to rebuild capacity/strength to do so.

It is the same with your brain. Its capacity for stimulation and tasks has been severely reduced. Forcing it to try to do these intense efforts will cause a failure. But, it has to rebuild capacity slowly. One cannot force it.

If you brain is still struggling with this, there are only work-arounds (ear plugs, frequent breaks from the voices, etc) until the brain slowly regains some ability to tolerate these stimulations.

The spotty vision could be a visual migraine. They do not have to be painful. They are also called silent migraines. Worth asking a doctor about this.

Driving is a sensory intense activity. Add a bit of stress from knowing the restaurant will be challenging and things can get worse in a hurry.

The imaging you have received would not show a subtle neck injury. Few are trained to see the instabilities. There is a post that was just top posted about active imaging the upper neck. Upper cervical chiros can help with this in some cases. This is not a 'treat with range of motion exercises' condition. It takes months of personal discipline with sleeping and resting posture.

There are ultrasound protocols that can look for vertebral blood flow but you need a tech who understands how to put the vertebral arteries under positional stress. There was a post about bruit blood flow that can indicate an reduced flow area.

Hearing and balance specialists have a simple test. Your sit in a chair and lean forward and turn your head to the right. Hold it and try to keep talking. If your speech changes, it indicates a reduction of blood flow. You only want to do this with a trained professional observing. In some, this position can cause a stroke.

So, What have you been doing to help your neck and what are you doing that may be causing stress to your neck ?

btw, If you were driving, you should consider if it is safe for you to drive until you get a better understanding of what happened during your recent drive to the restaurant. Pulling over was great but what if the symptoms came on fast and severe ?

Use every opportunity to let somebody else drive. Riding shotgun can be a great exercise in learning what the stimulations are in a driving environment. My first few months of riding shotgun were anxiety ridden. Took a lot of discipline to learn to settle my mind in those environments.

My best to you.

[randomguy]

Originally Posted by davOD

Sorry to hear of all your troubles.....but you really should not be driving....If something happens, you may get worse or hurt or kill someone else....

Please take this post as being helpful....I was told to stop driving well over 9 years ago....I would feel awful if I made my bad situation worse to someone else...

Yes, completely understand where you are coming from. This is the first time I have had an episode like this while driving. Driving generally doesn't bother me. I was more seeing stars than blacking out. Although still alarming...

[Bud]

Random,

One thing I have learned about anxiety/panic....whatever it is threatening you with, it will always be something drastic and next time it will be the big one that gets you.

Not allowing those fire breathing threats to intimidate us is a must.

This has been the roughest throw back week for me in months too.

Bud

[randomguy]

Originally Posted by Bud

Random,

One thing I have learned about anxiety/panic....whatever it is threatening you with, it will always be something drastic and next time it will be the big one that gets you.

Not allowing those fire breathing threats to intimidate us is a must.

This has been the roughest throw back week for me in months too.

Bud

I firmly believe that weather changes drastically impact my symptoms. The past three summers have kept symptoms manageable, however the lead up (winter/spring) is when I am always the worst. I may seriously consider spending a good amount of time away during these harsh Canada months when they come back. Only issue is, I don't think that I can fly.

Thank you for the input Mark. I will discuss some of this with the GP on Friday and see what they have to say. I have a routine dental visit today (fillings), which aren't so routine to me. It will be torture, but have been putting it off for a year.

[Bud]

Random,

I have had a rough week and it has been a north wind and unsettled weather.

Today the wind died and I am much better....I do believe there is a pattern that has developed, my wife thinks so as well.

Bud

[randomguy]

Originally Posted by Bud

Random,

I have had a rough week and it has been a north wind and unsettled weather.

Today the wind died and I am much better....I do believe there is a pattern that has developed, my wife thinks so as well.

Bud

Yes, definitely. The past 3 summers my symptoms were 60-70% reduced. Last summer I was playing light tennis, walking, biking, etc. with mild symptoms most of the time. Winter rolls around I the dizziness, faintness, lightheadedness come back with a vengeance tenfold.

On a side note, I had a light upper back/neck massage 2 days ago and my symptoms are at least 25% reduced. I had put off massage for around 3 months and it does make a noticeable difference in my symptoms. I will keep going every 2 weeks for maintenance, as this had previously worked quite well for me.

The dental visit was not good yesterday. Tons of flooding and felt on the verge of passing out after 3 injections of local anesthesia. Very glad that's done.