As I wrote in another post, I saw a more experienced ENT who asked that I get on a migraine preventive drug sinse she suspects my ear condition is more likley MAV than MM. So….onto Gabapentin..ugh…hate the side effects of these drugs..anybody tied this stuff? Also, how do i sus out then whether I should still be on JOH regimen and the AV's? I find this all confusing especially after making some great strides of improvement from these approaches. We all are guessing, especially the Kaiser MD's although they sound very sure
The JOH regimen and antiherpetics (AV's) don't cause any problems --- but can markedly reduce symptoms after a few months. If after six months you've gotten no relief, you will have lost some money (sadly), but you will have given those options full chances of suppressing Meniere's and MAV symptoms and the root-causes, the herpes viruses. Good luck with gabapentin (Neurontin). It's primarily an analgesic, to reduce pain. Most with MAV don't have pain. And it fails to nail whatever is causing the pain or MAV. It's a whack-the-symptom drug, not a very useful long-term therapy that suppresses any root cause of the MAV. --John of Ohio
holly I don't have experience with that drug buthere is Dr Hain's flow chart for Mav treatment. and here's a link to his section on MAV http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/central/migraine/mav.html
Thanks and I spent my whole day researching Migraine prevention drugs…saw this chart..just looking for any personal relatedness with this particular drug approach to MAV. Happy New Year!!
Fwiw, I took it for an unrelated issue. I had some pretty severe nerve pain in my shoulder and arm following cervical disc fusion surgery. If I remember, I was taking 300mg once a day. Did nothing to relieve the pain. I only took it for about 3 weeks. I don't remember any symptoms or side effects from it, and seemed to tolerate it just fine. It just didn't work I seem to remember it is occasionally used to treat chronic migraine headache, though it is rarely a first-line drug. I tend to agree with JOH, it may have some application for chronic pain, but MAV seems to be a bit of a reach.
@JOH..big improvements with the ear after being on your regimen and the AV's for almost 90 days. But the headaches persist and when both the head and the ear are flaring, it becomes hard to function. The new drug is migraine prevention. My new MD has yet to answer the question that if it is the right drug for me, will it lessen too the ear distress. No answer. No surprise. @Michael..my PCP had me on Nortrypyline but that made me hugely unfunctional. She says if I am unwilling to trust her and take what she prescribes, I need to find a new MD. I challenged her on her recommendation after much research and hit quickly her egoic response. Oh well….
Good luck. I've tried all of the meds for migraine at one point or another. None ever worked for me. Just tried Botox - first treatment so far has done nothing. They say it often takes at least two. Hmmm. We'll see, I guess.
I did the botox shots and cannot tell if it helped. Only did it once cause I hated my forehand being frozen. It put more attention on my head which I didn't like. Sumatriptan works sometimes but that tends to make my occipital ridge, neck and shoulders very tight and that give me another kind of headache. If I take 1/4 .5 mg Xanax, that stops it enough. 2.5-5 mg of Norcol twice a week works very well but my MD doesn't like it. But she doesn't live with the headaches either. Happy New Year!!