migraines and dizziness

snugglesrn - okay, that situation I can relate to 100%.  The short story - my mom has suffered with sciatica for years, got hooked up with pain doctor who decided to only treat her by writing Percocet scripts.  For five years, she was taking tons - never once did he check labs, especially Liver Function.  He did implant electrical stimulators in her back two times at 100,000.00 a piece.  The last time, she never recovered.  He wouldn't listen that she was sick.  Lo and behold, she ended up in Liver and Kidney failure.  She has never been the same.  Since February, we have been to doctor after doctor.  No one wants to listen that her mental ability is way off.  They take one look at her chart, see what meds she has been on and is on and you can just see the look in their eyes change.  Then, they blame it all on the meds.  I tried telling the last neurologist that she is on 1/4 of the meds now that she has been on for years and he wouldn't listen.  The new  pain doctor says that her neurological status isn't his field - we need to talk to the neurologist.  The neurologist says its the meds, talk to the pain doctor.  The PMD says to ask the others.  She can't have and MRI because of the implant.  IT IS MAKING ME CRAZY!  Will nobody listen? 

The pain doctor that treated her (and I use the term "treated" very lightly) has never called us back since she went into liver failure.  He will not send her charts to anyone.  Wonder why????????  If I were him, I would be running for the hills but you know what, it's not worth fighting.  His office is booked from morning til night with hundreds of patients - all waiting on scripts, nothing else.  I truly believe pain docs like him are what gives the business a bad name!  The new pain clinic actually functions more toward many more avenues - labs, x-rays, physical therapy, meds, etc. 

Sorry for the ranting but I wonder how many others feel like a bouncing ball - just bounce from doc to doc with no one wanting to take responsibility???

Hey snugglesrn - how was your trip?  Glad to see you back!  Good luck with getting off the Topomax - are you starting any new meds?  You may have told me (maybe you said Verapamil) but I must be getting old, I cannot remember.  I have been hoping the the neurologist would eventually break down and agree to try me on Topomax (my brother has had good luck with it, although he says his memory is sometimes a little foggy) even though I have a hx of kidney stones, but now I am rethinking that.  I also loved the idea that one side effect is weight loss - I swear, since these stupid migraines have started, I have gained about 20 pounds.  Is it some of the meds or are the meds just my excuse?  I often wonder if it is the narcotics?  Ever heard of that?  Maybe it is just wishful thinking that it is not just my uterus/ovary free body that is doing it.  I haven't changed much of anything.  If anything, I eat less and I have truly been doing the same amount of exercise but still.......

Have a great day and I'll say a prayer that those nasty migraines (both kinds) stay far, far away.

CRANKY 1 said...

Hey Snugglesrn,

I really get your frustration having to wait to see a new specialist, which seems to take two or three months just to get an initial appointment. 

My last abortive has ceased to help anymore, and being highly suseptible to weather fronts, I'm getting a migraine every day.  I'm changing my PCP, and he's looking into prescribing my old abortive, Stadol Nasal Spray, which is the only one that worked consistantly.  My former PCP took me off of it last October, because she thought I was taking too much (it's a narcotic).  Well, geez.  If you get a lot of migraines, to have to hit the abortive a lot. 

Well, I went into total panic mode yesterday after two days in a row of migraine headaches, and went back to my old PCP's office because they take walk-in appointments.  My reason for going was to deal with the panic attack I was having, knowing that storms are predicted for every day the rest of this week.  I didn't see my old PCP, but the doctor I did see said she would discuss switching back to my old abortive for me.  I know it's bad to have two different doctors working the same problem, but I'm sick of having to fight the system.  Call me a "drug seeker" if you want, because technically I am.  I'm not trying to get drugs to get high, I just don't want to suffer through more migraines.  It doesn't seem that the medical profession can destinguish between the two.  It seems if you know too much about medications, dosages, etc..., you are automatically assumed to be a junkie.  Patients should not be penalized because they have a good understanding of their medical situation.  I hate when doctors think they are mind readers, and make assumptions about you based on arbitrary information.

I've got to stop venting now or I'll end up with another panic attack.  Wish me luck with one of my doctors.

Leigh Ann

I know the feeling..and sometimes we need to vent. I don't want to suffer through more migraines. I have suffered through them over fifteen years. I dealt with a Physician's Assistant(All I could get at first) who was apathetic to my problems and wouldn't do squat. Then after seven years and a huge viral infection..when they got worse..she said..what do you want ME to do about it??? I said SO this is the way it's gonna be HUH?? I turned and left and NEVER went back. She stabbed me in the back too. She never recommended a neurologist for me. Never recommended a rheumatologist..knowing I needed one. Never did a thing. Nine and a half years of hell with this woman. I feel I have been shafted. And her and her doctor have been booted out of the hosp they were affil. with. Not a surprise.

 

I feel like you Cranky..If I keep going..I'll have a panic attack..and I don't have them. Maybe it's time to start.. Good Luck to all of us.

HighlandWolf,
I am sorry to hear about the difficulties that you are experiencing. I know how frustrating it is to deal with the medical profession. I agree with Baseballmomof3. There are some really good doctors out there-It is just a matter of finding them. All of my doctors are great seperately but they don't seem to work together well. I found a great neurolgist but it took me almost 6 months and a really crappy neurolgist before I found the good one. I think the best advice that I can give you or anyone else is don't settle for a crappy doctor or anyone in the medical profession for that matter-You deserve to be pain free and you deserve a good doctor to accomplish it!
Good luck trying to find a good doctor. I hope you have plenty of pain free days to come.

Hey Baseballmomof3: So far I am still migraine free. My husband and I are going to be trying to get pregnant within a year so hopefully I stay migraine free so I don't have to go back on Topamax. I don't go anywhere near Aquafresh Extreme.

I have heard about a pain management doc. I haven't heard of it for migraines but I do have a friend that broke her back and did nerve damage to her arm in a car accident and she went to a pain doc. She says that because of the pain doc that she was able to join the police academy, graduate and now she is a Sherrif and doing very well.

I give you credit-I don't know how you go to work with your migraines. I couldn't do it. As far as ER meds that are used for migraines-my hospital when I went gave me two shots of nercotics and two pills and it broke the cycle of my migraine but I wouldn't want that everyday since it would be easy to get addicted to.
Now that my migraines are gone (hopefully for good) I am looking for a job-Do you know how long the neurcotics stay in your system for a drug test. All the jobs around here are requiring a drug test which is fine (I don't do illegal drugs) but I don't want to explain to them that I got the nercotics for my migraines and that I am a migraine sufferer.
I hope you have pain free days soon!

I get dizzy/lightheaded with my migraines, actually when I first started getting migraines that was my worst complaint! I was falling down and passing out because of it. I've been tested up down sideways and backwards and nothing is wrong with me that they can find, but I still do end up w/ the dizziness every time I get a migraine (2-3 times a week). The first thing you need to figre out though is if it's dizzy like your going to fall down or dizzy like your going to pass out.. they are two different things.

Hey Leigh Ann:  Please keep me updated on what your PCP says about the Fentanyl patches - your experience with the Pain Clinic is exactly why I have been afraid to pursue going to one.  I truly don't want shots in my head.  My neurologist has said over and over that my migraines are not related to problems in my neck, my muscles, my hormones, etc.  So.....I can't imagine that any kind of steroid shot would help.  Yet again, I am back to the age old question of, I have found what works (at least for now), I am happy with what is working, so what is the stinkin' problem.  Yes, I am taking meds.  But, many take meds for all different problems.  My Relpax, steroid and yes, the narcotics (that is becoming a curse word), all work!  Let me have them.

Thanks I did, finally today. A good,thorough one. A PA-C who knows his stuff, but he's only filling in for the one I want,who's on maternity leave and will be back in October. She is also very good. It's interesting my Rheumatologist recommended highly those two. Instead of some doctors. I am well pleased with my visit. My memory is so bad I had to have my cousin come with me today to help me remember what I needed to tell him. I am also going to have to go to Barnes Jewish Hosp. in St.Louis,Mo. They suggested that on my replacing my neurologist. He does not listen, and prescribed me a sulfa drug. I am allergic.

snugglesrn said...
HighlandWolf,
I am sorry to hear about the difficulties that you are experiencing. I know how frustrating it is to deal with the medical profession. I agree with Baseballmomof3. There are some really good doctors out there-It is just a matter of finding them. All of my doctors are great seperately but they don't seem to work together well. I found a great neurolgist but it took me almost 6 months and a really crappy neurolgist before I found the good one. I think the best advice that I can give you or anyone else is don't settle for a crappy doctor or anyone in the medical profession for that matter-You deserve to be pain free and you deserve a good doctor to accomplish it!
Good luck trying to find a good doctor. I hope you have plenty of pain free days to come.

Leigh Ann and Snuggles - haven't heard from either of you in awhile and have been worrying about you both.  How are you both doing?  Leigh Ann, any luck with the Fentanyl patches?  I am curious to find out what your doc said.  As for me, my neurologist has now, thankfully, written a letter with a script to the Urgent Care so that they can treat me for migraines that I am unable to control with my home meds instead of going to the ER.  I have absolutely no complaints about my ER (they have been awesome) but the neurologist just thought it would make better financial sense to use the Urgent Care - way less money than the ER.  The Urgent Care never carried the meds that I am given in the ER so they needed a letter from my doctor in order to be able to stock those meds.  Anyway, I am all set if and when I need them;  however, I am about to break a record - tomorrow will be 4 weeks since I have had to go to the ER.  I am using my home meds exactly as the neurologist has prescribed (pre-treating when the weather changes or before I go to bed after working all night) and so far, it has been great.

Just wanted to check up on the two of you.  Please let me know how you are doing.

baseballmomof3,

For the most part I have been doing ok. I have been having some migraines but nothing like before so I can deal with the pain as long as I can see, think and move. I think the migraines that I am having now is from stress. I am having problems with my marriage and I recently went back to work. So my stress level has been extremely high. Just wanted to check in with you. I hope you are doing well.

 

I have read your posts of doctors and office staff thinking your a med seeker because you need releif. I too get looked at like a drug seeker. My biggest critic is my sister who is a nurse at the clinic I use. (i live in a very small town and dont have any other options or I would go to a different one) She knows when I go to the doctor and what meds I get and she criticizes my every move. I take the medications because I need them not because I want to. I am soo frusterated with this. She practices confidentiality like she is supposed to but that dont stop her from giving me her opinon. She yells at me if I take a darn midol because meds are bad and she thinks I over use them. When you get migranes on a regular basis am I wrong for treating them on a regular basis. She has never experienced a migrane so she dont quite understand the pain associated with it. She has seen me crying my eyes out for the pain to just go away but she thinks just let nature take its course and let it go away on its own. any opinions on how to handle this.

Hey! Hoping you feel better soon. I am in similar situation so hang in there.
You can get dizzines from migraines even without major pain- I do.
You may want to check out inner ear problems ie menieres(not sure of spelling).
My ears just about pop with barometric flucs.. And as for Dr.s alot of them are not informed re updated treatments.
If they dont know they should get better informed and not write u off.

Wow, I have been reading all of your posts and I am surprised to find people that actually know how I feel.  What a relief.  I have been suffering with migraines since I was nine years old and I am 31 years old now.  I wasn't actually diagnosed until I was 12 years old because my doctor didn't think that a nine year old could get migraines.  I started with dizziness 8 years ago and I have been to 10 different doctors including a gastro doctor and having my gall bladder removed over this.  I didn't realize that the dizziness was coming from my migraines until about 10 months ago when I saw my second ENT and she did my ear test and suggested that it was my migraines even though I am dizzy all the time not only when I am having a migraine.  I didn't even associate the two since I had the dizziness when I didn't even have a migraine.  She put me on migraine preventative medicine, Topamax, and it helps a little, but I still find my self taking pain reliever 2 or 3 times a day so it must not be helping that much not to mention I still have the dizziness all of the time.  The dizziness is the worst part for me, it keeps me from being able to do so many things.  When I go places and the lighting is different there I get dizzy or if the smells are different I get dizzy and I will even feel faint or start sweating and sometimes get the most painfull diarrhea.  Leaving the house at all is a chore.  I have four kids and I just can't live like this.  After reading all of your posts, it doesn't seem like there is much hope for the future as far as finding a good medication to work.  I am seeing a neurologist in a couple of weeks and I hope he can help me.  Good luck to all of you.