Introduction & stuff

Hello!

I have been struggling with dizzness for 7-8 months now. At first I saw my ENT (as I have had recurrent ear problems my whole life and need to see him yearly) and talked to him about it. He did a ENG which showed 80% loss of vestibular function in my GOOD ear! Huh? Well, the solution to that is PT, so I started and did it for 2 months. Every time I would do my exercises it would make me dizzy, and my progress was slow, although I was dilegent. In my second PT appointment my therapist said “Lets talk about your headaches.” I told her my headaches were under control, they were only 2-3 a month (down from 2 a week a few years ago) & I had changed my diet and they were not my problem. So she gave me anouther 3 weeks of exercies which still did very little good, so my ENT decided to refer me to a new Doc.

I saw the neruo-otologist this week. After a thourogh history and exam (took an hour) he thinks that my dizzness is because of my migranes… I do have a vetibular loss in one ear, possibily due to damage from an ear surgurgy when I was in high school or a viral infection, but he thinks I have compinsated for that long ago. (He may want to re-do my caloric test with water, as the 80% loss seems high to him and I have a large mastoid cavity which can throw off results.)

He said all my symptoms are consistant with migranes, including the visual issues with things shimmering, which is daily now, and very annoying.

I really liked this doctor. When he was doing the neurologic exam he called me a clutz 3 times. Finally I said, Yeah, I know! He smiled and said that calling people clutzes helped him set a base-line. If I said, insulted “Hey, I’m NOT a clutz.” He’d know it was not normal for me. But if I say “Yeah!” He knows it’s probably just me and not nuerological… Sneaky, huh? He had actually (get this) gone through the trouble to read all the records my ENT had sent him, including my post surgury reports from an ear surgury in 2000 and a sinus surgery in 2003! He also had TALKED to my physical therpast and ENT! He remebered what I did for a living, and that my mother has cancer. He knew my insurance and what meds they covered in what quanities, and said he will write for a qaunity limit exception for me if I need to over my imitrex limits…

He thinks that this was triggered by hormones following the loss of our pregnancy at 13 weeks last year (tubal). He said that the migrinous brain is very sensitive to changes and my brain had been “on fire” for months. I had thought becasue my headaches were not as bad as they had been it could not be them, but he said in about 1/3rd of his patients their dizzness starts getting worse when their migranes start getting “better.”

The fact that I am getting “quick spins” just a few seconds to a few minutes combined with a general feeling of lightheadedness and disconnection and my visual symptoms convinced him. He said the longer periods of vertigo (which I have had a few times) are more unusal for migrane, but not unheard of.

As my migranes are currently taking 2 (or 3) Imitrex pills to take care of now he switched me to the shot. Which, I have to say, burns a little, but works great. The only thing is it makes my head feel weird, tight and buzzy, I still want to take a nap, but I wake up feeling great and not with lingering effects like the pill gave me.

He also put me on a daily pill to help control my dizzness, lamotrigine, I am starting with 25 mg a day and will step up in 25 mg increments every 2 weeks. When I notice a change in frequency of my “quick spins” I am to call, but I may require a higher dose before the visual symptoms go away…

I really hope this is the answer and it works. Who had any idea headaches could cause dizzness? I sure didn’t!

I’m glad to find you guys here, you are answering a lot of my questions!

Congrats for finding a great doc! Personally I’d be happy to have one who have heard of MAV at all… oh well :wink:

— Begin quote from “hmk123”

I really hope this is the answer and it works. Who had any idea headaches could cause dizzness? I sure didn’t!

— End quote

Just thought that I’d point out, you don’t actually need headaches to have MAV; the headaches doesn’t directly cause the dizzies, rather the migraine causes both.

Oh, and welcome :slight_smile:

Thanks, and yeah I know that people can have dizzness without ever having headaches. I feel so sorry for those people, as a diagnosis must be so much harder. My dizzness has always been indepent of my headaches, so I never put them together… And I am very lucky to have my doctor, who used to be at the Cleveland Clinic and worked with the doctor who did my last major ear surgury up there, he was actually there when I had my surgergy in 2000… Anyway, I thank my ENT for sending me to him so soon… Guess I’m lucky all the way around…