Four years ago I woke up with vertigo, I was 38 years old.  I previously had small episodes of dizziness, but nothing like what I was experiencing.  Everything was spinning, whether I was sitting up or lying down, eyes open or eyes closed.  I quickly began vomiting from the motion.  My daughter drove me to my doctor’s office, where they told me I had BPPV, gave me a shot of anti-nausea, and sent me to an ENT.  He confirmed the diagnosis and sent me home with a prescription for anti-nausea and told me to sleep sitting up until the vertigo subsided.  It took two weeks to finally completely go away.

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I had my first Migraine at age 15. It started with the typical visual aura – a small zig zag point in my vision, slowly expanding out across my vision and I was then hit with the headache. After describing what was happening to my mum, she informed me it was a Migraine, as she suffers them too. Looked like I had inherited it from my mum’s side.

I suffered Migraines rarely after that, maybe one every few years. They always took the same path, the zig zag aura followed by a blinding headache where everything is just too bright, sometimes accompanied with vomiting, but usually just nausea. I could never ever work out what caused them. Was it chocolate, cheese, lack of sleep, too much sleep, missing meals, monthly cycle, hormones. I could never ever pin it down to one thing.

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That was how my Team Manager described me. I was at work and it was like someone had flicked a switch in my brain. I was disorientated, confused and had slurred speech. I was aware of what was going on around me yet couldn't do anything as the words made no sense, although in my head they did.

When I consulted my doctor, she thought it was vertigo, but I said, surely that does not include the speech and confusion? In 2009 she sent me to a Consultant, and after about 9 or 10 months I was diagnosed with Basilar Type Migraine, or Migraine with Brainstem Aura as it is now known as.

I was off sick for about 2 years. and it was diagnosed as a disability but lost my job as a result of it in December 2011. My life has not been the same since.

David, Nuneaton. UK