Quote:
Originally Posted by Mere
Cyclelops, I was diagnosed with abdominal migraine about ten years ago at Johns Hopkins. As a child, I had stomach pains and migraine headaches started at puberty. After the Hopkins diagnosis, I was referred to a headache specialist and prescribed the whopping dosage of Verapamil (480 mg). Prior to Verapamil, I was on a Beta Blocker for the tachycardia. Verapamil is one drug I have been tapering for tomorrows testing.
I have also been diagnosed with "complicated' migraine as I can have paralysis in my face (left side) and my eye waters and I have trouble talking. Also, parts of my body feel huge, not painful, just huge and out of proportion... Also, I have severe chest pain. I have had some help with nitroglycerin in the past from the pain. It is indescribable. I would imagine it is similar to what a heart attack feels like. But everything goes back to normal after an hour or so. Also, dilaudid did work for this pain (when I had some).
When I am in a flare, I often find it difficult to use my arms (as if there is a temporary paralyzing) though it is swift and passes quickly.
Do you think the abdominal migraine/complicated migraine be related to the SFN and autoimmune issues? Or, is it coincidental?
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Mere,
I have suffered severe autonomic dysfunction for years. One thing that caught my mind in your last post was the chest pain. I'll assume the did a routine work up for that?
My thought is whether you could be having cardiac spasms (vasospasms). These are actually an autonomic dysfunction caused by spasm of any one of the arteries around the heart. I have these frequently and truly understand how they feel just like a heart attack. nitro is my best friend!! In a sense they are like a short lasting heart attack as the artery can momentarily collapse during spasms, thus giving you that crushing chest pain and other symptoms.
They can be extremely difficult to diagnose because they are hard to catch in the act by echo or heart cath (and the cath itself can cause one so not the best diagnostic tool either). Diagnosis is usually more clinical according to my cardio at Johns Hopkins. I do have some indicators with significant heart wall dysfunction during stress echo, so between that, clinical, other autonomic dysfunction, and ruling others things out, we've come to this conclusion.
I'm certainly no doctor, but if you are having other autonomic problems, then maybe the chest pain is related to autonomic vasospasms.