Hi Everyone,
I am 66, and have been married for 46 years. I have been active, tennis player now golfer, retired, just a good, busy life, 2 sons, 3 grandkids. Suddenly about 7 years ago, I started getting migraine headaches. Not often but I took an Imitrex and it was gone. Then started with the most violent attack of vertigo where it would just suddenly hit and take me right to the floor and get violently sick. Only lasted for a 5 min. or so, but took me hours of bed rest to recover. Over time I got more vertigo until last Nov 2011, got a terrible one and did not recover and stayed dizzy and off balance and scared and didn’t dare drive. I was diagnosed with MAV. I had never been dizzy before, just the hard vertigo, but now I’m dizzy 24/7. I am on 180 Verapamil. Tried to go to 240, but made me too sick. I’ve been on 180 now for 2 months.
II have an appt with Dr. Timothy Hain in Chicago. My first Dr. is great but I don’t live there anymore and he said Hain is the best. Anyone agree? Anyone been to Dr. Hain??? I see he seems to like the combo of Verapamil and Effexor. I think I need something MORE than just Verapamil, as it just isn’t making me feel much better, jut spinning and surging of vertigo but it stops short of the hard spin, probably because of the Verapamil.
I need to get rid of this MAV. I hate it. It has stopped my life, and now my husband has to do housework and actually cook ( just a little humor ) so he wants it gone, too.!!! Anyone have any good experience with Dr. Hain??? Does this ever go away? Am I too old now to get better??? I am a spinning lady for sure and need help. I do take a half of one .50 Xanax when I feel a surge of dizziness so bad that it makes my eyes cross, I can hardly and I cry. I never take more than 3 little pieces of the Xanax in a day. Id that making me more dizzy? It seems to just calm me down. Anyone out there know what I’m talking about here???
Very sincerely, Spinning Lady
Hi there,
You’ve hit the mother lode. Dr Hain is one of the migraine gurus. You can check him out in some of these threads:
Hello,
Welcome to the board. Just to chime in with what Victoria has said, Hain is the top of tree, one of the real experts in the field. And yes, this does go away whatever age, it’s just a question of finding the right drugs. Often one doesn’t work on its own, you may need to add another to the mix. You will be in safe hands with Hain.
And yes, all that you describe will be familiar to many people on the boards, people all have different combos of these horrible symptoms, and many people start of with intermittent symptoms and end up 24/7 dizzy for while.
Hope that helps.
H
Hi Spinning Lady,
I sent you a personal message, but just thought I would post here as well. I saw Dr. Hain and I think he is quite good. I recommend his website to newbies as it gives a ton of info. It was actually the first website I found while feverishly searching the website for what I was going through.
www.dizziness-and-balance.com.
Kelley
Hi!!
I am also on a combo of preventatives. This seems to work for me. I have always hated taking medicine but thankfully because of them I went from complete non functioning to about 90% on most days. I would also reccomend the book Heal Your Headache by Dr. David Buccholz. This book and these message boards were a God send and a life line for me when I was so very down and depressed from this MAV at the very beginning. Now I am so much more knowledgable about this and knowing that migraine is hereditary, I can keep a close eye and open ear to my “just about grown kids” in case they experience some of the same “bizarre” symptoms that I did.
Hang in there!!
Pam
I saw Hain’s partner Dr. Cherchi, he was good as well. They have a nice practice and will treat you with understanding. Most people have had good experiences there. Try to get a hotel near there, spend the night, do some shopping, have a nice lunch, try to integrate the appointment into a nice day.
Im sorry to hear about your suffering. But Im happy you got the right diagnosis, and that you are going to see Dr. Hain.
-
Im on 240mg verapamil and it does absolutely nothing for me. Im switching to an antidepressant next. I feel that antidepressants are the best choice for most MAV patients.
-
MAV will go away with the right meds and diet/lifestyle changes, sometimes it just takes a few trials of meds. You are definitely not too old to get better.