Time to get Serious.

About 70 miles south of Superior in Phillips, WI. Had a nice time despite a bit of dizzy. Fortunately, no vertigo. Per advice on this board, I chose to be dizzy out on the lake at night under a full moon doing something I love with someone I love rather than be dizzy in bed.

OK, get ur minds outta the gutter, we went fishing.

 

Time for another update. The good news is I've been 60 days with no vertigo. However, the flare cycles are still present including weekly dizziness. Doc is weaning me off my 200mg dose of verapamil for a week, then I start a new med called Topiramate. I hate the thought of giving up the no vertigo progress. But as I used to say in my youth. No guts, no glory.

 

I have the time so I figured I'd do an update. I'm 2 days out from another month free of vertigo. I can also add that I have been free of dizziness since I discontinued the Verapamil. I feared the return of vertigo events during the medication transition from Verapamil to Topiramate, but my sitch only improved. So much so I contacted my Doc to ask if I could freeze the ramp-up of Topiramate at half dose which he agreed. I really believe the Buchholz diet is what has cleared my head. My flare cycles are pretty much gone. Aside from a dead ear and tinnitus, I am feeling pretty good for a 61+ years. I wish I had tried the Migraine diet sooner in my journey. I ignored it because I didn't get headaches.

 

It's been an interesting few weeks as I was forced out of my normal rhythm with regards to diet. Had to eat restaurant food for several days which meant loss of control of sodium uptake and hidden migraine trigger foods. As expected, I am paying the price with an increase in head pressure and dizziness. For me, it takes several days for the abuse to manifest in symptoms. Fortunately, I expected this and climbed back on the wagon prior to the dizziness moving in. One thing I find interesting is how we focus so much energy on all the supplements we take in and how little energy we focus on all the crap we should cease and desist to take in.

 

I'm about one week out from the 5 month mark of no vertigo. Life has started to return to a somewhat normal state. After my last post, I figured out that I was likely experiencing some side effects from the Topiramate and cut myself back to a single 25mg tab. Dizziness is actually a side affect of most MAV meds. Besides the Topiramate and a 1/2 dose of a diuretic, I pursue the MAV diet, LOSO and supplements (most of JOH). The syptoms that remain are deafness in the affected ear, tinnitus and pressure. While there is some slight variation in these symptoms, they never go away. Every now and then, I experience a sight imbalance, but nothing worth complaining about after the past few years.

If I can muster the courage in the new year, I will try to ween off the topiramate and diuretic 100% and try to control the vertigo with the MAV diet, LOSO and supplements alone. Like I said "IF" I can muster the courage.

I hope everyone has a blessed holiday.