Well 2 out of 3 of them are still true! Meds have changed
I did in fact get better on 4 MAV drugs. Well enough in fact that I got down to just one, and a TINY dose: Amitriptyline 15mg. But because I gained weight in prison (too many carbs, no access to fresh greens) I also went on propranolol 20mg 2x a day because my BP goes up with weight gain. But I’m having trouble losing weight the way I used to. And I need to get back down to normal and get my BP back to normal.
So… The purpose of this post is to see how people have done on Verapamil. I know the constipation issues - no problem for me since I always have the other problem. And I want to take Magnesium again.
So - how has Vera been for you? I’m super sensitive and take small doses of everything. What dose did you start on? Any issues with thinking and concentration? I’m working on a book so don’t want to get floozy.
Thanks!
And P.S. you CAN get better. I’m almost at 100% now.
Hi, interesting lady. Yes, Verapamil was my first migraine preventative. It was working pretty well for MAV as I remember, but something weird was going on in my body. I was just feeling really tired, faded and sort of woozy all the time. My doctor and I kept monitoring my basic metabolic tests over time and notice my creatine and BUN creatine ratio kept climbing and climbing until I basically had stage 2 kidney disease. They had never seen this affect with Verapamil and it left them all confused. My blood pressure remained 120/80 throughout the entire ordeal, so it didn’t have anything to do with blood pressure. So we stopped Verapamil and my numbers came back to normal over several months. It remains a mystery.
Anyways, this is a rare story, so don’t let it stop you rom trying Verapamil. It was definitely helping the MAV component. I only thought I’d mention this story because I wanted to illustrate how important it is to listen to your body and if something doesn’t feel right, get some basic health testing done. But you’ve lived with MAV a long time I’m sure you know that already. If I were you I’d definitely try Verapamil, despite my weird story.
Glad to see you are hovering around 100%, I am at the same point!
Verapamil was the last med I trialed and it seemed to help my MAV for the short time I took it. Some of the positive effects even seemed to last for a while after stopping it. The first time I attempted to take it was after I had signed up for a class but decided to stop after a few days cause it made me a little foggy and was giving me terrible insomnia. Unfortunately the insomnia didn’t go away when I tried it at a later date. I also found that I needed to take it with a full meal or else it would upset my stomach sometimes until my next dose. I was pretty light headed on it too. When I took my blood pressure it was usually close to what it normally is but I did get a couple of readings that were below 90/60. Overall, I found this med easier to take than some of the others I have tried but I was not very comfortable while on it. I was on 120 mg SR.
