I recently received a comment to one of my posts from October of last year. The post was dealing with Meniere’s disease. Rick, who wrote the comment, brought up a lot of good points and he talked about a medication that I hadn’t heard of before, at least I don’t remember if I heard of it before (brain fog!). Chlorthalidone is a diuretic that is used primarily for high blood pressure. AS for its connection with meniere’s it is considered by some to be effective in controlling the vertigo.
Rick said...
I have had meniere's for about six years now and had been seeing a specialist (until he retired). It took a painfully long time to diagnose and a few years of different medications to see what would work. Having meniere's is very stressful and I urge anyone who has it not to give up. The last medication i tried was Chlorthalidone 50 mg, and actually started out on 25 mg. I as told by the specialist to try playing around with the medications and see if something would work for me. When i was first diagnosed, I was having episodes up to three times a day and lasting for about two to three hours followed by a one to two hour nap, which made it very difficult to carry on with just about anything, including work. I had been taking the Chlorthalidone for about one year at this point, and then started trying different things with it. I was convinced that this not the drug for me because although it had greatly reduced the episodes to about three times a week from three times a day, I still felt it wasn't doing enough, as even three times a week was too much. I was taking the medication in the mornings(after breakfast) and it was still resulting in numerous dizzy spell during the day and some of them turning into full blown vertigo, making it hard to cope. I ended up switching the medication to the evening and within ten days was experiencing far less episodes. I have been doing this for two years now and have not had one severe meniere's episode since then. I usually get dizzy spells, maybe once every three months now lasting less than fifteen seconds, a huge improvement. I urge everyone who has meniere's to discuss with a specialist if there would be any advantage to try something like i have tried, and good luck to all. Although a disease that can destroy anyone's quality of life quickly, you can see that a simple thing like changing the timing of taking medications can sometimes have a huge impact.
Good luck to all!
Rick also shows that you can’t give up the fight against Meniere’s disease. Just by switching the time that he takes a medication helped him.
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Wednesday, March 24, 2010
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6 comments:
I've learned about so many things, both on this blog and menieres.org, that I'm now keeping a list. Whenever I read about a new drug it makes me wonder if Valium doesn't work for everyone with Meniere's. It's working beautifully for me. Between the T-Bio, 3000mg L-Lysine, and Valium as needed, I am in a good place. I'm down to 1-2mg Valium about every 4-5 days. I wonder if I should upset the apple cart, so to speak, by trying any new meds. I guess the value for me would be having options for if/when what I'm doing now stops working.
If things are working I don't think I would try to change anything.
I agree that it is a good idea to keep up with all the information that you can about this disorder.
David
I recently had one gentamicin injection and I have had the two attacks in the last month but without the vertigo. It came with pressure in my eustation tube, sweating, brain fog and loss of hearing. Does this mean I should go back for a second injection? The doctor did say I would have more attacks but in less itensity and duration. At the time I had only one attack and he had asked me if I wanted a second injection. I advised that he knew best. I am wondering if other people with the disease who had the gentimicin injection and feel th at it was a sucess, do you still have these attacks without the vertigo?
In the long run I felt like the gent injections did me good. The first few months after the shots were bad because my balance was out of whack. but since then I haven't had any major attacks. I have certainly felt dizzy and at times nauseous but nothing like before.
Good luck and stay in touch
David
I was hoping that the shot would cure the dizziness like the doctor has said it would. I think I need to go get another gent shot. It sounds like I and others with this disease will never be free of all the symptoms. Are you finding this to be true? Dave, I sure appreciate you sharing this with us, its hard to get information from my doctor on all the issues I am dealing with.
God Bless,
Jeff
Jeff,
Unfortunately, I still have some of the side effects of meniere's, although I haven't gotten as sick since I had the gent injections.
Hang in there.
David
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