Neuropathy and Motion Sickness

Hi,
Yes I have always taken twice as long as the boat trip to get my land legs back. Not attributed to anything other than regaining my land legs. Now with vertigo who knows as I haven't taken a sea trip in years and don't imagine that will change anytime soon.
Cheers

what meds are you taking? gabapentin combined with at least 2 other meds addressing nerve damage can cause falls in elderly.

I only take Gabapentin for Neuropathy. I get my normal/occasional weakness and numbness with my neuropathy, but I only experience abnormal balance issues associated with motion after I’ve traveled by car/plane/train/boat for several hours of commute. I recover from it overnight, but activities the evening of travel are difficult because of the constant feeling of swaying. I know it sounds weird…

Well, you are not crazy. I too have noticed that after a long flight I have issues - muscle cramps in my quads, and I’m challenged to get through the airport. The good news is I understand what’s going on with my body and don’t freak out. I also have had shortness of breath during and after flights, and the weird thing is when the plane takes off and there’s a change in cabin pressure my chest constricts and I have trouble getting it to fully expand again. My strategy now is to drink water throughout, sip through a straw and to expand my lungs fully before we takeoff . My first time experiencing this was flying from the East Coast to Hawaii. By the time I landed in Hawaii, I ended up in the emergency room. I have since decided that when taking a long trip I will break it up with an overnight stay half way.

Debbie, lately I’ve been starting a thread about bouts of vertigo - not spinning, but feeling like I’m on a boat. I’ve had brief episodes for years, but am now on my third prolonged bout in 16 months. They are very structured, always occurring about 1.5 - 2 hours after I get up. The point of this post isn’t to detail all the interventions I’ve done, just to ask if anyone else with small fiber polyneuropathy experience bouts of vertigo like this? That’s my starting point with this conversation. Thanks.

I've always had motion sickness from when I was a little kid. I couldn't read on car trips I'd throw up. later it was on boats would get sickened throw up.

Ha, I learned as a kid to stay off Merry Go Rounds / barf every time: Never read, never in a moving vehicle:

Have you tried taking a motion sickness med like Dramamine or Bonine, both OTC, when you travel? You can take it prior to embarking and continue it for a day or two afterward. If might eliminate the feeling you describe and would be an easy fix.

Here is an inexpensive option to try. I discovered that the motion sickness bands actually work for me for motion sickness. They have pressure points on the inside of the wrist. Maybe something like this would work? It’s worth a try. In fact, it just occurred to me that I could try these for my morning dizzy spells. Since my spell should occur in about 2 hours, I’m going to put them on right now!

You know what? My “Vestibular ENT” didn’t even suggest it, and your suggestion sounds like a very simple & safe thing to try, especially since they make Dramamine in a non-drowsy form. I use to take it when I would go far off-shore fishing or on cruises (all before I became handicapped). We owned boats for 30 years and I never needed anything but for long voyages. It hadn’t occurred to me to take one before these types of travel because I guess I hope I “won’t have a problem this time”.

I have some vestibular testing with this doctor next month, but on my consultation last month, he prescribed Valium, saying that if the swaying starts, the Valium will help stop it. I am handicapped from my PN and use a walker most of the time; the LAST thing I need is to take a drug that will make me loopy and an increased fall risk, and the last place I’d want to experiment with such a drug is when I’ve traveled to an unfamiliar destination! I need to be able to safely get to bathrooms and would like to enjoy travel, not sleep through it. So that bottle is home tucked away on a shelf somewhere. I’ll ask him next month again to explain his reasoning for it, but I always fear that some specialists aren’t looking at my big health picture and safety risks when they’re focused on just a small part within their expertise.

I can’t thank you enough for this idea; I’m going to put Dramamine non-drowsy on my shopping list and keep it in my car!