Okay, almost a month into my new life as a Cymbalta user, I'm on the right track, but my experience has been thus far marred by illness.
After I made the switch from bedtime to morning pill-swallowing, I sort of had to start over on the side effects – grogginess and mild nausea. That seemed to let up after three days or so, and then things were looking promising. I had a decent day in there. Then I got slammed by a horrendous stomach flu. I spent a full day throwing up in most hellish fashion, and then was flat on my back exhausted for two more days. Just barely getting on my feet after that, Elias came down with the croup. I was up half the night a couple nights in a row tending him. Then Isaac got sick. Then I got what they had too, in my weakened state no match for another nasty virus. This one was sinus-oriented, and I've been neti-potting like a fiend with slow results.
At the moment, after a full week of total abject exhaustion, and splitting headaches, I'm again starting… just starting… to come back to the living a little bit. Today… normal?? We just got a note home from school warning us that strep throat is stalking the children, and as I was dropping Elias off he began to complain about a sore throat. That is to say, pray for us!! It's a race between evil germs and the arrival of spring. 55 sunny degrees today and bulbs starting to peek out of the layers of wet leaves. Possible salamander migration at the next rain. C'mon spring! Deliver us.
Meanwhile, I did go and see my neurologist. Indeed, "my neurologist" is a phrase I never, ever expected or intended to use in my life. Can I tell you that I'm in love? I LOVE this man!! I'm practically Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah's couch about it. He, and he alone (well, except vestibular therapist Vince, whom I also love dearly) seems to understand my situation. Not just understand, but care! And is showing a stallwart determination to actually help me, hang in there for months to come, work the problem until I'm fixed.
First off, we went through a detailed questionnaire in which I rated my dizziness in all sorts of ways, situations, types of dizziness, and so forth. the result was that compared to when I last saw him in early December, things are all much , much better! Am I normal? Can I go on with life now? Not quite… no… but far enough along the path that we can now tell and measure that it's heading the right way. That means that this diagnosis shows clear signs of being right, and this treatment (low-dose Cymbalta, plus high salt, minus all dietary migraine triggers, plus medical legwear) is actually making inroads!
So… hurray! There's a light at the end of this tunnel, and if it coincides with the end of a long, dreary, cold, and dizziness-filled winter, all the better! In celebration of this promising situation, the kids and I have started several flats of seeds. Isaac is growing his favorite veggies– cucumbers, peas and basil. Elias is growing things that have big, easy to handle seeds, pole beans and pumpkins. I'm growing flowers– giant pansies and purple salvia and white evening primroses.
The neurologist reviewed the what-the-hell-happened question– horrible virus last spring attacked my inner ear, causing nerve damage, which led to an inner brain chain reaction of migraine syndrome and also POTS. I asked him to explain the relationship between the migraine and the POTS, and he said frankly, "We don't know." It could be that the POTS causes the migraine, because low blood pressure chronically deprives the brain of blood flow. Or it could be that the migraine causes the POTS, because the brain ultimately controls your heart and blood pressure. Or it could be that they are just coinherited, on the same gene, or common to the same sorts of people. Further study is going on even now to try to figure this out.
I vented a little bit about my horrible, depressing, alienating experience with the Syncope Clinic and the cardiological goddess. I told him, "I had to wait for almost three weeks for this letter, and then when it came I couldn't understand a word of it. It told me nothing." He said, "I couldn't understand it either– it was pure jibberish!" (Now I don't feel so bad…) He asked me, "What did she finally diagnose you as having?" I said, "Beats me– I thought you'd know. The only thing approaching a diagnosis that I saw was that on the prescription for my support stockings it said, 'Chronic venous pooling.'" He looked up my tests and said, "It didn't look like there was that much pooling in your hemodynamics testing." I said, "Well, be that as it may, that's the only thing I could ever find out." He said, "Well, she prescribes high salt and support stockings for everyone, so there's no indication in that." And we just moved on, giving up on that whole, time-consuming, expensive, pointless dead end.
On a lighter note, he added that "I've treated people with just POTS with Cymbalta. I've treated people with just migraine with Cymbalta. But my FAVORITE use of Cymbalta is for people like you– with both." He was quite impressed that I was able to rid myself of my shoe-related dizziness by simply (? It's not at all simple) changing my diet. He said, "We changed your diet and fixed your feet–? How is that possible?" And then went on to answer his own question. "Well, your brain controls everything, and if it's malfunctioning there's no end to the symptoms you might have. And if it's functioning better, things can miraculously resolve."
Hallelujah. My brain is in good hands now. I can't wait until I'm finally done being sick and can really REALLY see how the Cymbalta is working…