Hi folks
Here I am in the neuro-otology waiting room. Surrounded by dizzy people, fluorescent lights, and poor buggers coming out of the rotating chair room. My docs running late. I’m quite anxious actually. Will post after I come out.
Dizzy-izzy xxx
Praying for you!
Linda
Well I’m out! On train home now. Whole expedition has been exhausting. Left home at 1.30 pm and it’s now 6pm. Made all the more difficult by fact i can barely walk as i broke my toe last night. But I did have v long session with her. She’s made another appt to see me in a week in the joint balance/headache clinic. She’s concerned that me being on Dothiepin isn’t doing any good and I should try amitriptyline. So she’s given me a script to take 10 mg ami for a week and reduce the dothiepin from 100 to 75 mg tonight.
She saw how depressed I am and how my whole life’s being messed up by this. I also told her about my memory and concentration problems. Apparently there’s evidence that the hippocampus shrinks in MAV. Excellent! Didn’t ask if this was temporary or permanent but will do so next week (if I remember lol).
I’m anxious re taking ami on top of doth but thats typical of me. I’ll keep everyone posted.
Dizzy Izzy xx
Well done on getting through today! Its ever likely you’re exhausted. On a lighter note I’ve just had to google hippocampus!!! My concentration and memory are terrible too so I know how you feel. Try not to be anxious on the meds - you need to try stuff to get this kicked in the head. I’m was prescribed Lyrica just before Xmas and unfortunately googled it and found lots of horror stories! I took it anyway, and apart from putting on weight I’ve had no side effects. I know everyone is different, but you owe it to yourself to try anything to beat this monster!
Hope all goes well
Tracey x
Good on you Izzy for hanging in there and soldiering on with this medication hunt. You’ll be fine transitioning from one tricyclic to another. They’re pretty easy drugs to play around with like that for most people. You shouldn’t be feeling depressed though so glad the doc is trying something new. You’ll definitely come good again and feel better soon.
I do know of one neurologist (James Adleman, Headache and Wellness Centre in North Carolina) who adds an SSRI to a tricyclic if depression continues to be a problem. You can listen to his talk on migraine management here if you feel like it:
http://mvertigo.cloudapp.net/t/managing-migraine-james-u-adleman/806
Can you ask next time for a reference for this hippocampous thing? I’m going to run a search on PubMed later to see what pops up but your doc would have read soemthing in the literature about this. If you can grab the reference I’ll get the article. It would be good to see what sort of evidence they are basing that observation on.
Glad it all went well … Scott
Thanks guys for your encouraging posts. I’m not particularly med sensitive but I hate ‘waiting’ for side effects to strike!
I’m gonna take the ami in a minute so hope I wake up early enough to go to work!
On the migraine/hippocampus thing, I’ll try and remember to ask the doc next week about this. A quick google doesn’t throw anything up other than shrinking hippocampuses(campi?) are associated with general aging and Alzheimers. That got me worried but was v relieved to find this article from the BMJ: rxpgnews.com/headache/Repeat … 6941.shtml
I’ve booked myself in for a reflexology session tomorrow after work which I love, forgetting I’d broken my toe. It’s now gone purple all the way across my foot and looks really scary. It was kind of amusing at the balance clinic today with all these dizzy people staggering along the corridor and me getting lots of sympathetic looks for my limp, as in ‘poor her, this balance thing’s obviously affecting her gait really badly’, when in fact my balance was fine, it was just my agonising toe. Felt a bit of a fraud…
D-I xx