Migraine

Saturday morning began with me fainting in the bathroom, hitting my head on the tile floor. That didn't help the migraine I woke with.

I was quite disoriented, so it was a trip to the ER. My BP was very low (81/52). After some IV fluids, guarded walking, and no meds, my BP went up to 93/62. The fall just caused a few bruises (lovely) and a lingering head pain.

I'm still not feeling quite right and have decided want to come off all the preventative medications, beginning from square one. (DH and I were discussing this a couple of days prior to this event.) I'm waiting for a call from my HA specialist to discuss at the very least, coming off the Verapamil.

I'm ready to feel and act like me again. I miss me and get frustrated with the woman in my place.

Liz,

I'm sorry you're having such a hard time. ER visits are not fun. Neither are med changes (I'm having a hard time with my current one also). I'm glad you're going to talk to your doctor about making changes. If it doesn't work, try, try again ...

I can relate to the "missing the old me" part. Migraines really do change us in so many ways. I don't know if this will help or not - but sometimes when I am feeling like I've lost everything in my old life, I try to find a few things that haven't completely changed and focus on them for a bit. It reminds me that I'm still in here somewhere! For me it's swimming - I used to be a competitive swimmer, and I still swim for exercise (really slowly on my not-so-good days). Being in the pool has all sorts of good memories in it, and just being in the water is familiar and comforting.

You're still you. You plus an illness, that is. Which is different than being an illness.

I have my own Verapamil story, as a sidelight. I didn't know that my bp was affected until I fell twice when I was on it. That was back at the beginning of my migraine career when I was still doing one or two preventives at a time, and wasn't savvy enough to be careful when starting one. I rode my bike with my six year old (I know, stupid...) and lost my balance and hit a telephone pole. Thank God I was wearing a helmet, and wasn't hurt, just scraped up. Then three days later I was leaning over the tub to fill it up for my child, lost my balance, fell into the tub, and partially dislocated my shoulder. It took BOTH falls for me to realize that the medication was disrupting my bp and my balance. You can't imagine how embarassing it was to tell my doctor that I'd been riding my bike ... she looked at me like I was insane.

Good luck. Give it time. You really have nothing to lose by trying new solutions if the old ones aren't working.

Lynne

Aw Liz Im ss you went through all that!
I too have my Varapamil stories. Passing out, seizures, and constant dizzy from too low of BP. also, once I cut back on back on the varapamil, my constant migraine for 2 months let up!

Im glad your ccalling your HA specialest! I think it would help going off the varap, or at least lowering the dose if its making you pass out and that low of BP!
Keep us posted!

Tawsha

Liz

I'm sorry you've had such a rough time with your meds. Lynne is right, though. You are still you. Hopefully your HA specialist will be able to take care of the meds issue so that you'll be back into feeling much spiffier territory. Hang in there, and let us know what the doctor says.

Aww, Liz, I'm sorry to hear you've had a tough time of it lately. I was on verapamil for about 2.5 months when all of a sudden I had a bad reaction to it and had to come off of it. It never treated me very well, either, so I wasn't sad to see it go. Hopefully you'll start feeling better and soon.

Keep hanging in there - we're always here for you.

Liz,
I'm so sorry your going through all of this. To end up in the ER to boot. Has your doctor called you back? There is just no easy solution to any of this. Going off all the meds leaves you with the migraines, but the medications have their own set of problems.

The right combination is out there, it does take persistance and patience.

Take care,

Cindy

Thank you all for your encouragement. It helps to know you are there.

I'm still waiting for my doctor to call. I've called the office a few times and the receptionist assures me he has the message and she'll give it to him again. After a rough morning, I've decided to take action of my own.

I have an appt. with my PCP tomorrow to discuss some strange symptoms that I can't continue. I have a few different interesting stomach complaints (I'll spare the details) and I haven't been able to eat much at all for the last few days. It seems to be a good place to begin.

My interest in coming down from my preventatives is they don't seem to be preventing the migraines, not to mention the side-effects aren't worth it. I've given all of the ones I'm on more than three months, so I'm secure in letting them go.

If I don't receive a call from the HA specialist today, I'm going to call my former neuro. for an appt. I'm amazed that when DH called him Saturday (when I fainted) there wasn't an option to leave a message.

Frustrated and sick-

Hi Liz,

Don't we need to figure out why you fainted, or why your BP was so low to cause you to faint?

New doctors all the way around?

Hang in there. We're here.

Liz, good luck with your appointment tomorrow. Let us know how it goes, ok? I'll be thinking of you.

The ER doc. said the fainting was due to the low BP, which seems to be because of the verapamil. Despite me cutting the verapamil dose in half (I checked with my pharmacist, since I didn't hear from my doctor), my BP is still a low 82/61 this morning.

My PCP advised me to stop the verapamil. She said that I seem to have a stomach virus and I'm having a difficult time fighting it because of the low BP. Blood tests have been run and I'm still waiting to hear from the HA specialist. Amazing- It would seem that I am not a priority.

I'm still on Lexapro 20mg and Trazadone 50mg, along with vitamins. Maybe I should wait for the stomach thing to clear up and see how I feel. Then I could work on coming off or decreasing those.

I feel more comfortable contacting my former neuro. than my current HA specialist. Perhaps just switching to another doctor in the practice, but I'm not sure.