How do you explain Meniere’s disease?

I really dread having to try to give a definition of what Meniere’s disease is or at least say it in a way that doesn’t sound too confusing. Like most of you I had never heard of it before I was diagnosed with it so it is relatively new to me too.  The bad part is that at times you have to talk about it, especially with family, friends and anyone that might have seen you have an attack.

As many of you know I have applied for social security disability and that has brought on more than a few conversations about what exactly happens to you during a meniere’s attack and what are your restrictions because of this disorder.  Folks will look at you when you aren’t in the middle of an attack and think that there is nothing wrong with you.  They don’t often realize how bad an attack is till they see one. Usually that’s all it takes to understand the severity of this disorder.

After you explain about the spinning, vomiting and being worn out for a few days, you will probably hear the question, “what’s the cure?”  And you tell them there isn’t any, which is still baffling to me and other Meniere’s disease sufferers as to why there isn’t a cure.  There is a cure for vertigo, why not one for Meniere’s disease?  Hopefully with all the research going on that will change in a few years.

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Cluster Meniere’s attacks

When you have meniere’s attacks would you say they come in clusters or do the attacks happen with some time in between? For the most part my attacks have usually occurred with sometime between them, although after my gent injections the time didn’t seem to be very long. I received a comment last week from kelownagamermom…




Here is the comment

I can agree that the stress and anxiety of a pending attack make the attack that much worse. I am presently experiencing my first ever series of cluster attacks, started 4 weeks ago. Been in hospital 5 times in all, and almost again today.


I am lying in bed with my laptop, completely stoned on Gravol which I discovered can ironically have dizziness as a side effect. Also being tested for MS as I type this. The MS spectre has been raised off and on for the last 3 years, and is one that is too frightening to contemplate. This also adds to the overall stress of being on short term medical leave from work, stressing about parenting (I'm a single mom of a teen) etc. I wonder if anyone who writes to you David has had clustering of attacks like this? I'm worried something else might be going on besides the Meniere's.




First of all, Let’s hope and pray that it isn’t MS, dealing with MS and meniere’s would be unbelievably difficult. As for the question about cluster attacks if anyone has any comment or input please share it.

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Meniere’s disease and caffeine

On any website or blog that is about meniere’s you will find various ways to lessen the effects of this disorder. One of the most common remedies is watching your diet. We all know about salt and how it is bad for you because it retains fluid in your inner ear. Of course for some folks (including me) cutting back on salt really doesn’t help much. And you are also to cut back on alcohol especially if you taking certain medications that make you drowsy. Tobacco is another no-no. last but not least is caffeine which I have recently cut down on.


Why is caffeine bad for meniere’s folks?

According to Dr. Hain website “Caffeine has stimulant properties that may make your symptoms worse. Caffeine also may make tinnitus louder. Large amounts of caffeine may trigger migraine.” That makes sense because coffee or tea or anything with caffeine can really get you hopping.

Over the past month I have stopped drinking soda pop which contains a lot of caffeine. I just felt that it was time for a change and it probably would do me good whether it helped with the meniere’s or not. I was surprised to see how easy it was to stop drinking it because I drank way too much every day.

Do I feel better?

I have noticed a change in the way I feel but I can’t really say whether it has helped my meniere’s or not I will give it a little more time before I make that determination.

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Meniere’s disease and Pregnancy

As I have done in the past I get a lot of my ideas for posts from the comments that I receive. I always look and see if I have written about it before and if I haven’t then I do a little research. I received a comment from Crimson56 the other day about any connection between Meniere’s disease and pregnancy.


Here is her post

Not to stray off subject, but have any of your female readers commented on the effects of pregnancy on Meniere's (or Meniere's on pregnancy)? I'm curious if any of those readers were also within the first few years of the disease. I've heard pregnancy can complicate Meniere's symptoms, but I'm not willing give up having a family, I've already given up so much in life. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!


I looked in all my past posts and couldn’t find that I had written about that before. I searched the web and didn’t see a lot about it out there. The only post that I saw was from DoctorNDtv where someone asked a question about being pregnant and having meniere’s disease. The doctor suggested that one should be careful about certain medication when there pregnancy and meniere’s disease.

If anyone has any information about this subject or other comments feel free to comment

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Bad storms and tinnitus

One of the most common side effects of Meniere’s disease is tinnitus, where you hear a buzzing or grating sound in your ears. The constant noise can drive you crazy and it makes it difficult to do things. For some folks the sound is always there, in my case I don’t have it all the time but I occasionally have it. Usually my tinnitus comes right before an attack, sort of a warning system that something is about to happen. Another thing that brings on tinnitus with me, as I found out this week, is bad storms.


I live in the Atlanta area and as you probably have seen on the news there were massive thunderstorms, hail, hard rain and many tornados. Luckily we were in a location that was spared from tornados and hail but we did get the heavy rain and thunderstorms. The storm didn’t hit our area till late at night but the air pressure and the wind arrived much earlier than that and so did my bout of tinnitus. I guess it was around 6 o’clock in the evening when my ears, especially my bad one, started to become full. Shortly after that the sound in my ears started to get louder and the fullness was as if I was at a very high altitude. There wasn’t much that I could do but ride it out.

But after seeing all the damage and hearing about the loss of life the next day on the news I can definitely say that we were very lucky. It was terribly sad to see the vast destruction that this storm caused. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this tragedy.

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