seekhelp
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 15067
posted
I was at a neuro-opthamologist this week. As I mentioned before, I have endless issues feeling off-balance and head pressure and ear pressure/fluttering, etc.. I keep suspecting that I have some sort of inner ear disorder causing some issues.
He said because my ENG test was normal several times that there is no inner ear damage. He suspects I'm having some form of atypical migraines causing the head squeezing, headaches, and other problems. He does not feel it's the cause of my fatigue though.
I never have an aura before the head pressure starts. No flashing lights. Just out of nowhere I'll feel a tight band squeezing feeling around my head and it's all downhill. Today in the afternoon, I was feeling somewhat decent and in five minutes my world turned upside down.
I got a lot of pressure in my head, dry heaving, and later got a splitting headache. I just didn't feel the same at all. Actually it seemed to happen when I went in my basement. I felt like I sniffed a funny odor or something, but these things happen even when not in that area of the house. When I tried leaning forward to do anything, I got intense pressure in my head.
But going back to my original point, my doc said low doses of Nortiptyline (tri-cyclic anti-depressant) have been extremely helpful for migraine relief in his patient base. He said the typical dose of this drug is 150 mg a day for depression, but for this issue it's 20-40 mg a day at night time.
Has anyone here gave it a shot? if so, any improvement? I don't even know if I have migraines, but I have no quality of life due to this pressure in the head. It's relentless. It's the one symptom that makes me insane!
I'm waiting on results of a C3a/C4a blood test. I'm very curious to see if my C4a is very high or not this time around. I suspect it will be.
Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
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posted
I've been prescribed nortriptyline (brand name Pamelor, if I remember correctly) for chronic migraine. It didn't make much of a difference, in my experience... but nothing really has as a preventative aside from Topamax, which dumbed me down so much I had to quit taking it. Good luck...
Posts: 2 | From CSA | Registered: May 2011
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posted
My daughter was diagnosed with migraines and took another tricyclic a/d for a few years. She took amitriptyline. It helped with sleep, anxiety, and headache. It did keep her headache under control for a few years.
Now, she is taking Doxepin, another a/d in the same class.
I think it is worth a try.
Look into the possible heart side effects, though. My daughter has had to have periodic EKG's done to check, depending on the prescribing doctor.
Posts: 984 | From US | Registered: Dec 2007
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seekhelp
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 15067
posted
When you say 'headaches', was it pain or a dull squeezing pressure around the head? With me, 90%+ of the time I get pressure not pain. That's the one symptom I look for relief with.
My doc didn't say a word about possible heart effects. He said it's benign. Why do they never mention any of this?
Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
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desertwind
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 25256
posted
I take Topamax.
I find that a small dose of 25 mg.s of Topamax helps decrease my headaches about 75% and takes away my CHRONIC flashing lights 100%. I am able to get down to as low as 12 mg.s for it still to be effective and I do not have the nasty side effects of the Topamax - Dopamax.
I am a bit strange in the sense that such a low dose of Top. is effective for me. Most people have to take 50-100mg.s for migraine prevention. If i had to take that much I could not function.
Posts: 1671 | From Tick Infested New Jersey | Registered: Apr 2010
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posted
She was never able to describe her headache. She had it all of the time and she said it was between a 9 and a 10 on the pain scale. She would only say it hurt all over.
Now that that headache is gone most of the time, she does say she feels a pressure headache some of the time. She says it is different than "the headache".
Her LLMD prescribed Diamox for her to try. That was supposed to relieve pressure. It didn't do anything for "the headache". We haven't tried it for the pressure headache she gets now, because she doesn't have it very often.
You might look into Diamox, too.
The doctor that is prescribing the Doxepin didn't talk about the need for an EKG either. For headache, the dose is much smaller than its usual use, so maybe it is such a small risk that it isn't worth mentioning at that dose.
Since you have the high blood pressure problem, I thought you should look into it.
Posts: 984 | From US | Registered: Dec 2007
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