Headache-free

Last Saturday I woke up feeling great. I bummed around the house a little, went to the gym, did a couple errands, came home and was bumming around again, got up off the couch...and felt a little dizzy. Not room-spinning dizzy, but just a feeling of unstableness.

This feeling actually happens to me somewhat regularly. I associate it with a sinus infection. Like, my sinuses are so swollen that they are pressing unequally against my inner ear and throwing off my balance. Nice. I just had my tonsils removed in hopes of lessening my sinus infection frequency and now, it seems, here we go again.

So more bumming on the couch, I suddenly felt the sensation of being stabbed in the head with a knife. Headaches for me are not uncommon though, so I wobbled over to the pantry and found my OTC tension headache WALGREENS brand medicine and took a dose. The stabbing went away and left me with just a dull headache. Tolerable.

But by Monday I was still dizzy and mildly headachy so I made an appointment with my ENT for the next morning and told my supervisor:

Me: I don't think I'm going to be in tomorrow. I've been feeling dizzy and headachy since Saturday and....

P: Oh, me too! It's just stress, Man.

Me: .....oh......well......I scheduled a doctors appointment for tomorrow, so I'm not going to be in to work

P: Oh, okay. Well, take care of yourself then.

So now I kind of feel like an asshole for having the same symptoms he does, but where he just sort of blows it off as stress, I'm off to the doctor. A nurse once told me though that dizziness is a symptom that should NEVER be ignored.

So it turns out that it's a common misconception that dizziness is associated with sinus infections. Apparently it is NEVER associated with sinus infections. So that, plus the fact that I've been previously diagnosed with migraines, plus the fact that I was feeling zero congestion, my doctor said that my dizziness was related to a migraine and that there is a condition called "Headache-Free Migraine" where you get all the side effects of a migraine but without a headache. So he said to make the dizziness go away, we needed to treat the migraine. He prescribed. Topamax.

My favorite drug-review website is AskAPatient.com. Here are some selective pros and cons for Topamax:

PROS:
Lost 70 pounds in 3 months (someone had this in the CONS list....I'm calling this a major PRO!)
Didn't necessarily increase mood in a euphoric sense, but made me much more mellow
Decreased headaches (glad to see at least ONE person mentioned that...)


CONS:
Word search problems (I think they mean it was hard to find the right words to say, but this makes it sound like they were struggling with Word Search puzzles. I guess, ironically, this is a good example of their "word search problems)
Rage
Suicidal thoughts
Almost broke my hand
Intense crushing pain inside my head
Started having hallucinations where I was being followed around by a small elephant and I saw and talked with my dead mother
I told my Dr. that I was standing at my kitchen sink doing dishes and I looked up and saw myself standing there in front of me, looking back at me. His advise to me was that I should call mental health.


Wow. Well after 2 days of taking it, I discovered the reason for the extreme weight loss. It made me SUPER nauseous! I was walking the mile to work and at least a dozen times I seriously thought that I was going to HARD CORE yak all over the sidewalk. I kept thinking there was NO WAY that I was going to make it to the bathroom at work in time to puke. (It turned out that I was able to hold it back and did not puke at all....but I think it was a VERY close call).

So I called the doctor's office and spoke to a nurse who said the doctor is now recommending Elavil:

PROS:
Aids sleep


CONS:
I've had about 35-40 migraines in the past 3 months (....ummmm.........)
WEIGHT GAIN!!!! (damn it!!!!!!!!!)
Nightmares & sleep talking
Extreme sugar cravings
Forgetfulness
Not knowing what day it is (I already have that problem)
Can no see word to spell (does it cause poor grammar too?)
Ringing in ears

Extreme fatigue Confusion Lack of judgement Hallucinations Short and long term memory loss I sleep very, very well and feel rested when I get up! I still get the migraines though so severe and frequent I have to take a double dose of Maxalt at once just to avoid another trip to the ER (so you're also on a 2nd migraine medication....but at least you're well rested.....)

So I'm starting my first dose of Elavil tonight. And based on the reviews, I'm fully expecting to be calling the doctor on Monday asking for a new medication.