Living w vertigo 6 years now. Had all the fancy testing done for a ridiculous amount of money @ DUKE to tell me it’s not my right inner ear. It’s MAV. That still blows my mind as whenever I get headaches & the vertigo, it’s pressure on/around my right ear & inner ear aches. Finally found a fantastic Neurologist I started with 5 months ago who has me on 80 mg Verapamil AM. It’s been 3 months and I feel so much better…got all symptoms down to a minimum EXCEPT for spins at night when I lay flat or move from side to side. Just started an additional dosage of 40mg at 5PM to see if it will help remove the nighttime spins. Today is day 5 with the addl 40 mg and it doesn’t seem to be helping…if anything it’s making balance alot worse when I look up or reach up for something? And I am still having problems leaning to the left or right? I am barely 5 ft. tall, normal bp, 110 lbs. HELP!!!
p.s. for what it’s worth, the Verapamil working on just the 80 mg has lessened my bouts of anxiety tremendously!!!
that’s great that you are making progress!!! what symptoms do you think the verapramil helps with most? do you think the drug itself is helping your anxiety, or is it the decreased vertigo that is helping the anxiety? how long did it take to start working? maybe you just need to give the increased dose some more time?
Kathleen,
How are things going? Still good with the paxil/verapramil? is it helping your walking a lot still? I want to try this med but my dr wants me to try norvasc first- it seems like no one on this forum takes this???
Thanks for your words of encouragement. I’m at the bottom of the barrel now though. Tried that extra 40 mg of Verapamil on top of 80 and it did nothing. I actually feel more “floaty” and off balance than I did before I added the 40 mg. Feel like I’ve taken 3 months step backwards. Saw the Neuro today. Now we’re going to try the Scopolomine patch, followed by a regimen of Ibuprofen 3x day and possibly prednisone. In the meantime, he’s having me do MRA to see blood vessels in my neck- it may be arnolchiari malformation causing this. Need to narrow it down. He even discussed going to MAYO clinic (flight and many many states away where I know noone). Where do people get the $$$ to do all these things? 6 years living with MAV and I am beyond frustration. Some days I think I need a psychologist and anti depressants more than I need the Neurologist.