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Vestibular Migraines – The key steps I took to get better

It’s been 6 years now since this all started, and I can finally say I am around 95%. I have not had a migraine in 2 months, I am not on medication, and I go out every weekend to socialise and go dancing etc.

I STILL have triggers, but it is nowhere near as bad as when this all started. My main triggers now are extreme stress – I work in schools and the dizziness comes back after a stressful week, and goes again when I calm down!

So here are a few things I find were vital on my journey to recovery. When I say recovery, I will ALWAYS have a migraine brain but at least I am functioning nearly normally on a daily basis!

If you want to know my full story and how this came about, click here.

Being able to snorkel every day and swim again 3 years later on holiday!

WALKING – At first I was bedridden on and off for at least two months. It was so severe my partner had to leave food by my bed and on some days I didn’t know how I would walk to the bathroom so I would crawl.

I also had to crawl to get up the stairs and it took so much out of me I had to sleep after. I couldn’t read or watch T.V. I would just lay my head down and have spin-outs in the middle of the night and every time I opened my eyes I just prayed to god that I would see clearly again but everything was still moving and it remained like this for 2 years – although on a lesser level as I started walking.

So how did I do it? On the days I was not in bed, my partner would finish work, and hold me up and we would walk around the block of flats where we lived. He did this for weeks at a time!

With time I got to the stage where every day I would walk laps around my living room until I got tired on my own, then rest. I then would take it further and walk a few meters to the end of the garden, and rest. I built up this routine to involve more laps as the weeks went on until I would walk outside the house and cross the small road to our local shop.

I used to say if I could make it to the shop, I could get an afternoon treat for myself like a chocolate bar. I was so dizzy I had to hold onto the brick walls to get there.

Once again, I continued this until I would walk further, around my block on a 5 minute walk. I live in Hammersmith and eventually, I got to the stage where I could walk up the busy high street for 10 minutes to reach a local coffee shop and sit down and rest up again.

YASSS! Fist long haul holiday away after a fear of flying and having a dizzy attack! I actually had hypnotherapy to help me fly again.

I found the biggest reason for me getting better was by testing my vestibular system. I saw myself as a child all over again having to learn to walk, see etc. I did try multiple medications in the early days but I was just soooooooo dizzy, nothing seemed to work.

I finally managed to make it to 15 minute walks before I would feel exhausted and dizzy, jelly legs etc. This was around the 1 year mark.

Note: Please note I had to rest when I was really exhausted for a few days if needed, and then I would carry on walking again. It’s s fine balance between pushing yourself too much or doing too little to test my vestibular system and being mainly housebound.

Once I got THIS far, I went onto vestibular exercises.

Taking a paddleboarding lesson 3 years into my illness!

VESTIBULAR EXERCISES – These exercises vary for everyone but click here to see the exercises I used to do. I was absolutely exhausted after trying these exercises and often felt DIZZIER! But over the months, I found I could ficus a little better and my balance improved. Once I realised they were working, I went to hospital once a week with a vestibular therapist that gave me exercises to try at home. I would then go back a week later and we would time how long I felt dizzy after doing a particular exercise. I found that over time, I felt dizzy less and less and then I could stop going.

MEDICATION – As mentioned, in the early days no meds seemed to work. The only thing I took if I went out anywhere for appointments etc was Stemetil which helped to take the edge of the dizziness a little.

I moved onto Flunarizine a calcium channel blocker 3 years later which seemed to help with my vision, but by this time I was already around 80% better without meds and I found this medication gave me low moods so I came off.

I am definitely not anti-meds and will look into the med route in the future if I find my full-time job working with children is getting too much and I need to take something as the dizziness comes back.

I also still have problems on and off with sleep and I need a good 8 hours a day or I will get burnt out. I take Zopiclone which is a sleeping medication on the nights where I can’t sleep and have to be up at 7 for work.

3 years later and I managed to surf again!

ACCEPTANCE – This was the hardest for me. Luckily in a way my dad was an ex marine and even though he had passed when I got this illness, I knew he would want me to fight it and push on. But all that fighting does nothing at all if you don’t accept it in the first place.

Rather than realise, Ok, I have this now, It will be here for life and I will need to take life a little easier and manage it, I at times pushed myself like I was ‘normal’ but this was my NEW normal and I had to get used to it.

Once I finally accepted, this is what I have now……. at the 2 year mark, I came on leaps and bounds as I started to create a treatment plan to get through it. I was no longer trying to carry on like my OLD self! I also had counselling to get me through this stage as I became very depressed and at times no longer wanted to be here. Click here to hear me talking about low moods.

Click here to see a video on me talking about learning acceptance with this condition.

GETTING ON WITH IT – In the early days, months, years I was a google fanatic. I would google until my eyes and dizziness couldn’t take anymore to find out HOW I could get better.

I was OBSESSED with my condition and how DIZZY I was feeling that morning. I found this made me feel WORSE! After a year or so I thought, fuck it. Just GET ON WITH IT! This is NOT going to stop me and take over my life anymore, dictate when I can see my friends, how far I can walk, if I can see properly again. I used the anger I had to march to the supermarket dizzy as hell and go food shopping. I was NOT going to let this illness dictate my life anymore!

I found that once I stopped obsessively thinking, ‘How dizzy am I today’ upon waking and just ‘getting on with it’ as best I could, I also started to recover faster.

Weekend in Bournemouth for my best friends wedding and clubbing afterwards : )

Please note that EVERYONE is different, what might work for me may not work for you, but overall accepting this is your condition and realising the old you has gone but there is STILL a new you out there that can STILL have a life surrounded by family & friends can be vital in your first step to recovery and being kinder to yourself.

Through this I had to give up my university degree, I lost my job and the house I was renting, I even lost my 5 year relationship to the man I thought I would marry and friends too…… BUT…. I have moved to a new area, started to work again, made a ton of new friends, have started dating again and have an active and fin social life so HAVE HOPE!!!!!

Click here for more vestibular migraine videos

UPDATE! I wrote this post 3 years ago! I am not on any meds right now but recently I started to learn to rollerskate in the last few months and it’s going well!

I still get flareups if I am stressed and extremely tired on a consistent basis, then I can almost guarantee I will get dizzy and feel like I am on about for a few days until it all calms down.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CSKIon6Cf3G/

3 Big Topics That Should Be On Every Employer’s Mind

No one needs to tell you this as you already know: “your people are the backbone of your company!” Without your employees, you are nowhere. They are your brand ambassadors, they come up with solutions when it’s most needed, they provide the quality and the unique value to your product, and they also ensure that you have a product at the end of the day.

Especially as no one is making ‘things’ at the conveyor belt anymore (unless you are), the lines between product and service are blurring. And as they do, the service element and the know-how what constitutes excellent service is locked into the hearts and minds of your employees.

That’s why every good business owner knows that keeping your employees happy and feeling challenged (in a positive way) is critical to maintaining business success. Here are three key elements to keep your employees (and therefore your business) in peak condition.

The Right Price

First of all, it is about pay. This is a bit of a balancing act. As we, as humans, can be quite money-orientated when it comes to salary. End of the day, money enables us to live the life we want. Making sure you have a good pay packet is key to ensure you keep your employees. As soon as you are negotiating the minimum of a living wage, you might have already lost the battle. Of course, it’s not all about pay, but you do need to compensate at a reasonable level.

Work-Life Balance

Secondly, it should be about life, then work. Often employers don’t dare to look outside their own bubble. If for example, they have a weekly rota where they have to deal with sudden sickness of an employee, they tend to put the emphasis on business continuity rather than an employee being ill. In some cases, to the extent where they put extreme pressures for someone to still come in (“you sure you can’t grin and bear?” That’s not part of a healthy working climate. Companies could opt to go the other way. For example, the UK’s leading rota software from Deputy offers companies to create rotas collaboratively. When you involve employees in the business and provide transparency, not only do you empower them, they will also feel more involved and will go the extra mile.

Inclusivity

Thirdly, it’s about identity. You can have the highest pay packet or flexible working arrangements, but if the person they are at work is entirely different to who they actually are (in private), you might be dealing with a ticking time bomb. If, for whatever reason, your employees to pretend to be someone else, they are spending large swaths of energy they could be putting into the work itself. And it’s not only about getting the most out of someone, but there could also be more serious factors that contribute to someone pretending to be something they are not. Getting to know your employees well, encouraging them to feel comfortable at work and letting them know that you promote a diverse and inclusive culture is vital to build a better workforce for the rest of 2019.

Figuring Out The Best Kind of Marketing For Your Business

There are numerous ways you can market and advertise a business, and getting your name out there to the right people really is key for running a successful company. Online marketing techniques such as social media marketing, selling with email, blogger outreach and banner ads on websites tend to work for most businesses- but there are other options to which you can add to your strategy. Here are a few examples so you can figure out which are right for you.

Door to door marketing

Door to door marketing is considered as an ‘older’ type of marketing- it’s often overlooked by modern businesses since it can be more time consuming and expensive. This is because first you need to find salespeople (meaning there are recruiting costs such as job ads, interviews and training to consider). It takes time, since unlike putting an advert or posting a video online, these people have to physically go and knock potential customers doors, bearing in mind that response rates can be low. With this being said, it’s not a method to completely overlook, for some companies it can be an excellent way to go. Do you sell high value products that perhaps need more explaining so customers can see the benefit? In the case of things like windows, for example, customers will need to spend thousands on them and so having a representative who can answer questions, explain why it’s worth replacing them and gently persuade them to make that purchase could be an excellent tactic. If you sell lots of lower value items that need little explanation then of course, door to door marketing wouldn’t be right for you.

Events and expos

Attending events or business expos are a great way to get your company out there to lots of relevant decision makers and interested customers and businesses. Again, it’s a particularly good choice if you have a product that needs to be demonstrated or used hands- on to appreciate. It can also be a great choice for very visual kinds of business, for example if you’re selling beautiful art prints or handmade craft goods.

Flyers and posters

Another form of advertising which is often overlooked due to it being more old fashioned is flyers and leaflets- but again, it all depends on the business you run. If you’re a company that only sells to people in your local area- for example, a food establishment, a launderette or perhaps something like a student study cafe then you wouldn’t need to advertise far and wide on the internet. Instead, putting flyers through peoples doors and leaving them in places your potential customers will see them, and hanging posters can be highly effective.

If you’re noticing a decline in profits then taking a closer look at your marketing is a smart move. In many cases, simply updating your marketing materials and trying something new could be enough to generate new interest.