I am so happy to post a success story!
I started with Topamax back in September when I was first referred to a neurologist after months of dizziness that ending up with an overnight stay in the hospital when I wound up having to pull over to the side of the road dizzy, disoriented, with fuzzy vision, and sick to my stomach. It took me a long time, until the middle of November, to get to the dose I am on now, 62.5 mg. I had trouble with the side effects, flu-like symptoms at the lower doses and brain fog at the higher doses. I was able to work, but it was hard on me and hard on my family. What was probably the hardest of all though was that I was told that I could only drive in the immediate local area, to school, the grocery store and work, about a mile in radius, until we ruled out a long list of possible conditions. Even after my clean EEG, MRI and MRA, I had to wait.
Since the middle of November, I have been on 62.5 mg of Topamax and my symptoms have gotten so much better. Fairly quickly, I noticed that my horizon became level again, then that the right side of my head which had felt too “light” felt the same as the left side of my head. Since the middle of December I have been completely symptom free half the time. Of the days when I have had symptoms, they have generally been mild face, head, neck or stomach pain, and/ or some mild dizziness. I’ve taken Motrin only a few times. I have had three periods where I was significantly uncomfortable - visual changes, light-headedness, I’ve needed to hold on to something for stability, the right side of my head has been too light. Each of these has lasted less than half a day. These periods are what I felt like for weeks or months at a time before the Topamax.
I think the current thought is that my symptoms are close to being controlled with some breakthrough. I can now try Imitrex to see if the breakthrough symptoms will subside with that. I will stay on this dose for another month to see if I get continued improvement and go see the neurologist again. That’s really good news. But the best news it that I can drive again! I’ll start gradually to see how I tolerate it and it’s all subject to common sense and judgment, but I am so relieved and hopeful. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized how stressful these doctor’s visits are and how much is riding on what these doctors say. We’re so fortunate to have a forum like this to share and vent for both the good news and the bad.