Well i just got back from my dr.'s today. Here is a few things they saw. I’m not looking for a new diagnose by the way-so I just want you all to know that. Anyway, in my right ear they noticed some fluid in the middle ear area. It must have been missed the other 5000 times all doctor’s have checked my ears over the last year and a half. They prescribed me some nasal spray and decongestion med to help clear that up. They also want to do a ct scan of my sinuses (haven’t had that one yet). They think my dizzy problem could possibly be a deviated septum or sinusitis. I told them my right nostril is always stuffy, but is clear sometimes. I do believe the nasal congestion can be caused by migraine but whatever. Sounds like I should do the nasal meds to clear up the fluid in middle ear anyway whether it’s caused by migraine or not, so I got no problem taking those meds. I told them that I know I have migraine on the right side. He also said a deviated septum could be the cause of the migraine and getting that fixed could get rid of the migraine too. I wish he were right and that’s all it would take, but I doubt it. They’ll probably end up ruling all of that out after the sinus ct scan anyway.
He told me he’d rather have me propranolol instead of verapamil because my bp is normal and he doesn’t want to screw with it. He said the prop at the dosage I’m getting won’t affect it at all. I’m going to be at 20mg taken at night with it. He said I might get a little sleepy with it at first but I’ll get used to it and I’ll be on my way.
Greg, I’ve had fluid in my right ear since my dizziness started and my allergist ordered a CT scan of my sinuses as well but it was all clear. I have very bad allergies and started allergy shots in August. So far so good, and I’m on about four allergy meds until I make it to my maintenance allergy shots.
Did they check for inflammation in your nasal passages? I have a lot of inflammation but since I have known allergy issues, it’s not surprising. My issues could certainly be making my migraine worse. If you do have sinus issues, did they talk about referring you to an allergist?
Anne, no they did not refer me to an allergist. She never mentioned anything about swelling in the nasal passage, but she did look up there with her little light.
All my migraine stuff is on the right side. Although I don’t really get headaches. I don’t feel congested up, I don’t sneeze a lot. It’s just my right nostril is always a little more stuffier than the left one. But yet there is fluid in the middle ear. Could the middle ear fluid be causing my constant dizziness? If that clears up, will the dizziness go away. I kind of want to wait to start the prop now because what if my problem isn’t migraine after all. I’m very skeptical now on anything else that could be causing me constant dizziness if migraine isn’t mentioned at all. I’d hate to go chasing after a different diagnose when migraine is probably what’s going on here. I guess I’m just confused right now.
I think you should start the propanolol. I can’t tell you whether your dizziness would go away if the ear fluid went away but I can say that for me, the only thing that has worked has been migraine preventative medications.
The allergies may making migraine activity worse but for me, I highly doubt they are the sole cause of my dizziness because I’ve still had the ear fluid and found relief from the dizzies with meds. I’m a clear-cut migraine case though so I don’t doubt my diagnosis at all at this point.
I’d suggest starting the propanolol and have the CT scan and see where that takes you, but don’t delay starting a treatment that could potentially help.
I got used to the propranolol drowsiness pretty quick. I went from taking 20mg at night and feeling like a zombie all day the next day, to 40mg in the morning and feeling fine. Only reason for the switch from night to morning was b/c I found that it kept me up at night. I am one of those people who are uber sensitive to medication (I get loopy off of a naproxen for pete’s sake!), but my body is pretty well adjusted to propranolol. I started in July but am still only at 40mg, want to take my time to titrate up because I’m so paranoid about side effects at higher dosage.
I think I’m gonna wait a little bit before I start the prop, because yesterday after I took the nasal spray and the decongestion pill-within hours I got a pretty good relief of my dizziness. It wasn’t as constant and I was noticeably better. I don’t know what the hell to think right now. I’m going to see how things go in the next week or so. I wonder if the sinus congestion is causing my migraine. Or is migraine causing the sinus congestion? Very confusing at the moment.
I’m only suppose to take this nasal stuff for about 14 days and then I’m done with it. But if my symptoms come back like before, what do I do? I’m a little skeptical about chasing and spending some bucks on some sinusitis stuff to get me better when migraine could be the ultimate cause here. But what if the cause is sinus related? I need some advise here.