Bilateral worries and Meniere's

Meniere’s disease is a difficult thing to deal with for a few reasons. One there is no cure which means you have to somehow have to lessen the symptoms of it, like vertigo and nausea. Another thing is that it seems difficult at first to distinguish whether you indeed have Meniere’s disease or maybe some other inner ear and balance problems.  Then if you are diagnosed and you think that things can’t get any worse, unfortunately they can.  Having Meniere’s disease in both ears (bilateral) is really challenging.

Peggy wrote in a comment about having worries about becoming bilateral

Here is the comment…

David, I have a concern I'd like to open for discussion, but I don't know where to put it. I'm afraid I'm starting to go bi-lateral. I've noticed in recent weeks that my right ear, which was previously unaffected, has started ringing. I'm very frightened about this. Mind you, it would really increase my chances of getting SSD, but still... I don't want to lose all of my hearing and balance. But I'm not sure what to look for. I'll make an appointment to see my ENT specialist, but I had to get through a weekend now before I can call them.

For those who have bi-lateral MD, how did you first realize it was affecting both ears??

I hope that isn’t the case because being bilateral seems to complicate how to treat Meniere’s disease.  I was told by one of my doctors that when one ear loses its balance the other ear is supposed to pick up the slack.  What happens when both ears are gone?

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Related posts

              Challenges with bilateral Meniere's
              How would you know if the meniere's went to the other ear?

My meniere’s lately

For the past few weeks I have been feeling more than a little lightheaded, that feeling you get when a dizzying spell might occur. It is probably a combination of things such as the heat here in Atlanta which has been really unbearable even though I spend most of my time in doors.  The worst part of that is when I do have to leave the house (and the air conditioning) the humidity plays havoc with me.  And once again I ran out of a medication and didn’t refill it right away! (I wrote a post about this same thing a while ago and I still made the same mistake!)

Something else that may also contribute to my light-headedness is the changing of some of my non-meniere’s related medication. It is always a gamble when you increase meds or start new ones. This particular medication was supposed to help me relax and sleep but unfortunately it did quite the opposite! I woke up in the middle of the night feeling very agitated. Plus I seemed to have broken out into a rash on my legs. So much for that drug!

I just wanted to give an update on my Social Security Disability claim. Right now I am working on the appeal part with my lawyer. I know that it is going to be a long haul but it is something that I have to do.

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Stairs and Meniere’s disease

There seems to be a lot of things that causes problems with my meniere’s.  A wrote a post last week on driving and I know in the past I have written about plane rides giving me problems.  I receive a comment last week from Peggy about walking up and down stairs.

This is from Peggy…

I'm not sure where to put this, but I wanted to ask if other people have had problems with stairs in a multi-level house? I'm considering a move to a smaller, less expensive house (yes, MD and the resulting unemployment mean we need to downsize) and am trying to figure out whether we should only look at ranch homes.

Our current house is a three-story structure, but the stairs are very regular and well built and have never given me trouble. Today, however, we looked at several homes that are older and have uneven floors and tight, twisting staircases. They made me feel as if I was seasick.

Has anyone else experienced this? Should we be trying to achieve one-floor living?

I know that I don’t like walking up and down stairs (of course elevators aren’t that great either, but that’s another story) My knees get kind of wobbly when I do have to walk up steps I don’t if that is a fear of heights or if it has anything to do with meniere’s. I do know that I wouldn’t want to have an attack while going up or down stairs.

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Car sick and Meniere’s disease

For the past year since I have been on disability (or trying to get on disability) I have been rather careful about driving anywhere unless it is relatively close to my home. There were times when I had to drive farther than that and I got through it but it certainly wasn’t a comfortable drive. Probably the thing that I worry about the most is having a sudden attack without any warning.  It is bad enough if you are just riding in the car but when you are driving its really scary.

Last Sunday   my family and I decided to drive up and see my wife’s mother who lives over an hour from us. I don’t know what came over me but I wanted to drive at least going up to her house and my wife reluctantly agreed. I guess I just wanted to see if I could do it. The drive was pretty good there wasn’t as much traffic as I thought there would be. Most of the drive was on 4 lane interstate so there wasn’t much stopping and starting until we got closer to her mother’s house. When we finally came to a stop light I slowed down and I could feel my head getting dizzy and it also seemed that my body was still moving. Luckily the light changed and once I started to move again things became okay.  We got to her house with no problem after that.

Looking back I should have never driven that far and in the future my wife will take over the wheel.

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