Meniere's Disease Support Group
Meniere's disease is a balance disorder of the inner ear. The symptoms of Meniere's are variable; not all sufferers experience the same symptoms. However, "classic Meniere's" is considered to comprise the following four symptoms: Periodic episodes of rotary vertigo, hearing loss, tinnitus, and a sensation of fullness or pressure in one or both ears.
Hi all.
Sorry I haven't been around lately. I've been on a major organization crusade in my house, and then took my son to FL for our annual visit to my family and Sanibel Island. Thank God for good drugs, or I wouldn't be able to still do this trip!
Anyway...as some of you may remember I started acupuncture treatments 5 months ago. In the last month I seem to have noticed a change to my symptoms. My balance was never affected before, and now I'm noticing balancing issues. I seem to be getting more flashes of dizziness, but they are limited to just that...flashes. Out of the blue my head feels a sort of "buzzing" feeling. Then its gone. And its happening a few times a day. But I feel generally better than I used to the rest of the time. I'm not having that sick, "off" feeling anymore. And it used to be when I got a flash of dizziness, if I didn't tend to it right away with valium and sitting still with my eyes closed, it would go into full blown, vomiting vertigo.
Oh yeah, the "buzzing" slightly dizzy feeling is isolated to the very front of my head. It's happening very often, and seems to happen even more when I'm lying down. If I turn over in bed, I get a more severe flash of this type of dizziness, but it passes immediately. And when I get up in the a.m. it takes me about 10 minutes of moving around the house before I feel stable. Which is also new.
I'm wondering if I'm entering the end stage of MD, with more complete destruction of my center of balance in my affected ear. Or maybe the acupuncture is reducing the vertigo? I used to release no mucus from my sinuses. Ever since I started acupuncture, I now have sinus drainage and actually blow my nose on a daily basis.
I'm also wondering (hoping, praying, pleading, but not really believing) that maybe with total destruction of my inner ear my vertigo symptoms will go away. And maybe my balance problems will increase. I'd rather deal with balance issues than vertigo any day!
So...I apologize for the length of this, but I really value all of ya'lls experiences, knowledge, and input. Anyone else had there symptoms change suddenly like this? What is your best guess as to what's going on???
Sorry I haven't been around lately. I've been on a major organization crusade in my house, and then took my son to FL for our annual visit to my family and Sanibel Island. Thank God for good drugs, or I wouldn't be able to still do this trip!
Anyway...as some of you may remember I started acupuncture treatments 5 months ago. In the last month I seem to have noticed a change to my symptoms. My balance was never affected before, and now I'm noticing balancing issues. I seem to be getting more flashes of dizziness, but they are limited to just that...flashes. Out of the blue my head feels a sort of "buzzing" feeling. Then its gone. And its happening a few times a day. But I feel generally better than I used to the rest of the time. I'm not having that sick, "off" feeling anymore. And it used to be when I got a flash of dizziness, if I didn't tend to it right away with valium and sitting still with my eyes closed, it would go into full blown, vomiting vertigo.
Oh yeah, the "buzzing" slightly dizzy feeling is isolated to the very front of my head. It's happening very often, and seems to happen even more when I'm lying down. If I turn over in bed, I get a more severe flash of this type of dizziness, but it passes immediately. And when I get up in the a.m. it takes me about 10 minutes of moving around the house before I feel stable. Which is also new.
I'm wondering if I'm entering the end stage of MD, with more complete destruction of my center of balance in my affected ear. Or maybe the acupuncture is reducing the vertigo? I used to release no mucus from my sinuses. Ever since I started acupuncture, I now have sinus drainage and actually blow my nose on a daily basis.
I'm also wondering (hoping, praying, pleading, but not really believing) that maybe with total destruction of my inner ear my vertigo symptoms will go away. And maybe my balance problems will increase. I'd rather deal with balance issues than vertigo any day!
So...I apologize for the length of this, but I really value all of ya'lls experiences, knowledge, and input. Anyone else had there symptoms change suddenly like this? What is your best guess as to what's going on???
Kerry
Couple of things, the first as what Kerry says if the MD was getting worse you would have both deafness increase and balance decrease. If this is not happening then it might be something else.
I always have a tendency to want to kick the ball back into the court of autoimmune disease or conditions. MD is thought to be one of those conditions so it makes every since that you may have others too! The big one this year is allergies. I don't know if you have ever been tested for them or not. I can tell you in my case I have many allergies. This year has been so weird weather wise, this is the first year I have lived in Tennessee where we only had 3/90 degree days, we have had typically over 50 in a normal year. The rain up here has been unrelenting where I remember in years past having not rain for 100 days at a time. We are over 50 inches above our average for the year and it is only August! The impact on plants and the woods has been dynamic. We had many adult trees pollinate early and often all summer, everything is very green and lush, I think I am living in a rain forest!!!! I lived in Fla for 20 years and our trip this year was miserable with the pollen, orange blossoms and all! These are perfect conditions to set up an allergy or even a sinus infection. You are fortunate to have the guy who can answer all these questions for you already on your roster, that man is your ENT. Tell him about this and get his perspective. I had a similar thing two years ago and had a full blown allergy infection. I had to get that thing stuck up my nose (not fun but not the worse). It cleared up after antibiotics.
Unfortunately MD burn out happens when most all the hearing is gone thus the vertigo may lessen but you are also left with a balance disorder because the balance center on that side of the head is also shot. The two share a relationship and are both part of the inner ear.
Hope this helps some, again just guessing out loud.
God bless!
Rich