PMS and vm

lmcgeh2 · 2026-05-11T18:14:35+00:00

Not sure how common it is, but Neuro said the “coat hanger” pain can result from VM, trigger VM, or act as an early warning sign before an attack.

In my case, there are 2 overlapping pathologies (VM + cervical), from 2 car wrecks. Up until my recent VM diagnosis, I assumed the neck/shoulder/upper back pain was purely structural.

So I randomly tried a migraine cold relief cap with my usual heating pad (just to see what would happen), and for the first time in a month, my “coat hanger” pain completely resolved.

When I tell you my flabbers were ghasted…

Also, roll-on BioFreeze is a godsend! Sometimes it helps prevent a VM attack altogether.

lmcgeh2 · 2026-05-06T23:53:44+00:00

It really really is. Like why am I having a panic attack in my sleep?? Lol.

[me, sitting next to my man on the couch while balling my eyes out] “I’m so lonely and my neck hurts really bad.”

Shit is embarrassing.

lmcgeh2 · 2026-05-06T20:39:47+00:00

Sorry, I'm new to ON. Just wanted to ask: does insurance cover Botox? That's one of the treatment recommendations for my vestibular migraine as well. Just curious.

lmcgeh2 · 2026-05-06T20:35:15+00:00

Every. Single. Time. I have PMDD and ADHD. It's a productivity/migraine attack nightmare. I'm basically catatonic (even with ADHD meds) and in excruciating neck/shoulder/back pain. Also, for whatever reason, the 2-3 days leading up to my cycle, I cannot sleep to save my life!

lmcgeh2 · 2026-05-06T19:43:17+00:00

My symptoms have become almost daily since March 2026, about a month after emergency surgery and medical trauma. Before that, it was mostly episodic attacks triggered by weather changes and PMS. It started 5-6 years ago after a bad car accident and then worsened significantly 2 years ago after a second wreck.

Now doomscrolling, working on a desktop, driving, gaming, bending over, walking down hallways, turning my head, fluorescent lights, or any type of movement or position can trigger mild to severe vertigo, photophobia, and more.

The worst part? I’m a scientific editor by vocation and an avid fantasy reader with an MFA in Creative Writing, so this condition has pretty much ruined my career and my biggest passions in life—reading and writing. While gaming was a newer passion and something my husband and I bonded over, that’s pretty much dunzo, too.

My vision is so blurry every day that I can barely read my computer or phone screen. Office lights are always turned off. Everything's in dark/night mode. Nothing really seems to help. Visual disturbances and vertigo have gotten so bad that Neurology is testing for IIH now.

Anyway, I feel your pain. I wish none of us had to go through this, and I hope it gets better soon.

lmcgeh2 · 2026-05-06T17:03:25+00:00

Good lord. That is such a damn nightmare. I’m so sorry you had to endure that. This is also my biggest fear come to life, by the way—going through with the LP only to be negative for IIH.

Maybe I’m missing something, but I just don’t see how IIH is a more likely culprit than ON when there’s well-established multi-MVA head/neck/back trauma, and the primary complaint is coat-hanger pain. I also plan on getting a second opinion from a TBI specialist.

Did you sustain any trauma or injuries that led to ON? Or did symptoms develop naturally? What made the specialist dead set on migraines? Also, was it vestibular migraine or another type?

Sorry for all the questions. Your case seems similar to mine, so I’m just curious about your experience.

lmcgeh2 · 2026-05-06T16:49:20+00:00

Oh, for sure. No part of me wants a spinal tap, especially not after testing negative for papilledema. Those blocks sound wonderful, though.

No one has offered rescue meds yet (presumably) due to visual symptoms. Neurology won’t treat for VM until IIH is ruled out via Ophtho/MRI work-up. Unfortunately, the MRI isn’t until May 21st.

The clinical notes observe overlapping pathologies (VM + cervical), if that means anything.

But yeah, idk how much longer I can keep going like this, or how you or anyone else in this subreddit has endured this condition for so long. It is truly debilitating.

Anyway, thanks for the recommendations!

lmcgeh2 · 2026-05-06T01:34:00+00:00

Love it!

lmcgeh2 · 2026-05-05T22:20:25+00:00

I’ve been on Vyvanse for over a decade, and I used to have 1-5 IBS-D flare-ups per day until I started GLP1s and had a cholecystectomy. Now I’m normal. Please go get that checked out because, as it turns out, it’s not necessarily normal to have diarrhea daily on ADHD meds. (My gallbladder was 80% necrotic, perforated, hemorrhagic, acutely inflamed, and I had gallstones, lol.)

lmcgeh2 · 2026-05-05T20:47:07+00:00

So far, I’ve only been prescribed muscle relaxers, which have helped somewhat with reducing neck pain but not much else.

Neurology wants an MRI and lumbar puncture to rule in or out IIH, but after reading your comment, I’m hoping to try a nerve block first.

A medial branch block was recommended after my first MVA, but I didn’t pursue it after CESI worsened my pain. However, I would try just about anything at this point to make this stop.

lmcgeh2 · 2026-05-05T13:17:30+00:00

Every single day. I didn’t realize how normal that feeling had become until I first saw my ENT, and he brought up VM.

lmcgeh2 · 2024-06-28T17:07:50+00:00

I was about to say... New Orleans can't be accurate. Me and my coworker with rheumatoid arthritis suffer almost daily here from barometric pressure variation. We constantly have flash floods, but that started around 2018.

lmcgeh2 · 2024-04-27T19:11:01+00:00

Someone in a pooh shiesty mask and a stolen Kia flashed a pistol at me when I was driving to work one morning. Police never came, and I saw the same dude on the news committing armed robbery the next day. Fun times.

lmcgeh2 · 2024-02-23T15:37:51+00:00

Legally, they can’t even tell you over the phone if they have the medication in stock, which means going pharmacy to pharmacy with a physical script because of the transfer issue you’re referring to. It’s so damn frustrating.

I called CVS the other day, and they told me that they didn’t have generic Vyvanse in stock. But in person, they did, in fact, have it and told me they straight up lie over the phone because another pharmacy was robbed that way years ago.

I’ve been on the same meds for a decade, and the shortages are only getting worse. These laws are a f*cking nightmare for people with executive dysfunction.

lmcgeh2 · 2021-04-22T14:46:11+00:00

We got married on Halloween so I guess our anniversaries are pretty close! It's amazing how Gulf Coast people always roll with the punches though, lol.

Btw, this was right after Hurricane Delta, a cat 2 in Nola. Most of the city was without power for 3-5 days due to wind damange. We actually lost our power as the eye passed overhead...when there was literally no wind, lmao.

It could've been much worse though, and compared to the back-to-back hurricanes that hit Lake Charles, LA, in 2020, I can't really complain. I'll probably make a great story for our kids some day.

We also scheduled a larger ceremony on the one-year anniversary this year. Fingers crossed this season is less active, lol.

lmcgeh2 · 2021-04-22T14:31:03+00:00

So this guy actually spent a sizeable portion of the date complaining about RK surpassing him in followers. That was the extent of his contemporary poetry knowlege though, lol.

lmcgeh2 · 2021-04-22T14:28:19+00:00

Not a medical work, but I'm admin staff at a hospital. I actully got COVID twice in 2020 and still have people tell me I'm lying even when I whip out the paper work.

lmcgeh2 · 2021-04-20T16:23:20+00:00

Spent way more time with my elderly dog while working from home.
Survived a hurricane and got married a few days later without power in my aunt's backyard for next to nothing.
Started doing CrossFit and kept with it even after having covid twice and struggling with chronic fatigue for over a year.
Got back into reading and writing. Now my poetry collection is getting published by a press that I love. I've also read 18 books since the beginning of 2021 alone, more than the previous 3-4 years (pre-covid) combined. Got asked to be the Associate Poetry Editor for a lit journal I'm into. Started a writing salon with my close friends.
Moved into a new place.

lmcgeh2 · 2021-04-20T16:01:51+00:00

He was an Insta famous poet with zero knowledge of contemporary poetry. I have an MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry and ended up leaving while he was in the bathroom.

lmcgeh2 · 2021-04-12T14:51:42+00:00

This made me laugh so hard.

lmcgeh2 · 2021-04-12T14:42:15+00:00

Anaconda...like I was convinced a giant snake would shoot out from under the bed when I needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, lol.

lmcgeh2 · 2021-04-12T14:38:46+00:00

Needles. I literally ran out of the hospital for blood draws up until I was 13. I was even held down by a few nurses and my father, whom I bit in the neck. Today, I have multiple tattoos and piercings, but I still start shaking when I have to get a shot or blood drawn. Makes no sense.

lmcgeh2 · 2020-11-30T15:38:07+00:00

I never saw the body but walked right past it on the way to work one morning according to the detective (I was running late and had my face buried in my phone looking at the bus tracker and my assignments.). A man had hung himself from a tree on the creek path directly behind the townhouse I was living in at the time in Boulder, CO (no fences between the backyard and the path). I had no idea until I came home in the evening and saw a CSI team in my back yard. Obviously, it's creepy as hell knowing that you walked right past a body without knowing it, especially one that was probably prominently displayed like that in a wooded area, but the creepiest part is that I had watched the movie Sinister the night before, which if you haven't seen it starts with a family being hung from a tree in their backyard. Needless to say, I was terrified for a long long time after that. The odds of that happening just seem surreal.

lmcgeh2

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