The Doctor thinks I might have Meniere's Disease. Its awful. Anyone have any experience of htis

[GColdtimer]

I started having vertigo attacks accompanied by sickness, deafness and ringing in the ears about a week ago. I have had about 4 bad attacks and tonight I had to call a neighbour to come and get DD out of the bath, do her milk and carry her up to bed for me. I managed to put her down and now she is asleep. DH will be back about 9. Its awful. The doctor has been vague about whether this is a one off viral infection or the start of something longer term.

I need, a) a bit of sympathy because "dizzyness" isn't eliciting a lot from family and friends and b] any information/experiences.

Thanks (currently in bed, not moving anything apart from fingers!).

I think Spacecadet had this, though i'm ot sure if she still posts.

Is your GP going to test you for anything? My Mum had something similar and it turned out to be a nasty ear infection

No, he has given me drugs to treat the symptoms and said that it should pass within 2 weeks. He said if I have another attack he will refer me to ENT. It is all a bit vague to be honest.

You could have an ear infection, a friend of mine had it so badly once, she couldn't stand up without going really dizzy and sounded like you describe.

It turned out to be some kind of infection of the 'balancing water' - there is obviously a better word for this!- reservoir right inside the inner ear which controls everything, if it goes off kilter it can leave you like that for a long time, but does get sorted with antibiotics in the end.

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That sounds like my mum. Fingers crossed you feelbetter soon twofalls

I feel very sorry for you if it is Meniere's. My grandma and a good friend have both had it. I know the dizziness and nausea are awful.

My friend found that lots of sleep and drinking loads of water really helped reduce the frequency of attacks. A low salt diet is also important if I recall. Also a drug called Stematil helped reduce the nausea.

here

there are lots of links on here from diagnosis to treatments

sounds horrible, hope you feel better soon.

Oh, I hope it is just a one off thing like your Mum, thanks wildwoman. It is terrible. I have been crawling round the house on all fours and any movement makes me want to throw up. Not great with a 16 month old on the loose. Just scared myself because looked up Meniere's disease and NHS Direct indicated that once you had it, you would get random attacks for life. Will stop looking!

Poor you, I suffered really badly last year, although seem to be ok now(touch wood!) The only time my balance is affected at the mo is when I go on an aeroplane, fast ride or boat etc. Easy things to avoid.

I did have lots of tests done with an ENT and then with a neurologistic, eventually it just cleared up on its own, It did take quite a long time thou, so dont be afraid of camping out at the drs because if he is going to refer you to the ENT then that takes time.

shit scrap that link tf

My friend had the odd attack again after the infection had gone and in the end sorted it out with acupuncture, think she's been ok for over 3 years now.

Thanks for the links and the sympathy. The Dr has given me something to control the symptoms. The first lot knocked me out which would be fine if it wasn't for DD. I have taken different pills tonight which seems to have helped. I don't know what either of them are called, I will have a look when I call walk without the room spinning!

two falls, I suffer with this as does my dad. Its extremely scary when it does happen. I tend to find that when I'm getting an attack I get a fuzzy headache on the right side of my head above my ear. The first attack I had started at 4 in the morning last year, dh called NHS direct and they said it was just motion sickness, went to the hospital and doc gave me a shot of anti-sickness drugs. when I spoke to my mum the following day she said its the same as what my dad suffers so got checked out by my gp properly. It took 3 days to get over the initial attack as it just seems to knock your system for 6, tho when my dad gets them he ends up laid up for a couple of weeks.

Have read a couple of different reasons for the attacks, mainly due to stress and also its a way of your body telling you that you need to slow down and take a break.

Buy some anti-sickness tablets to keep in cupboard as they do help. If I think I have a fuzzy headache then I stay at home at least I know I'm safe there.

HTH and hope your feeling better soon.

{{{hugs}}}

thanks greatauntie, I am sorry that you suffer with this. It really is awful and wipes you out doesn't it? I hope you don't get them too often. Thinking about it, I probably am a bit run down so it could well be my bodies way of telling me to take it a bit easy. You poor thing and your poor dad too.

Thanks for the hugs.

thanks twofalls, Have been quite lucky have only ever had 2 attacks, the first one was very bad knocked me out for days, and the second was a couple of weeks ago, I could feel it coming on and went and laid down, dont think I gave it a chance to turn into a bad one.

two falls, hopefully you are feeling a lot better now..ys more likely that you have labyrinthitis, an virus which attacks the inner ear and causes the symptoms you have had, or something called vestibular neuronitis which is similiar but attacks the vestibular nerve..you should make a full recovery from both, but its important that you move about as much as possible to allow your brain to "compensate" for the inner ear problem and do not take anti vertigo meds if you can avoid it because in the long term, they hinder your recovery..its not unusual to feel dizy for up to 12 weeks after having either of these illnesses so dont be alarmed, if dizyness persists beyond this time, ask to be referred to an ENT.

Thanks spacecadet that;s really helpful, I am feeling a lot better now thanks, the really bad vertigo attached stopped within a couple of weeks and now I just have dizzy spells when I do certain things, but I can cope with that. I only took the drugs for the first few days because they made me feel awful!

I feel so sorry for people who have these symptoms long term - do you, someone mentioned that they thought you did?

funnily enough I was diagnosed with Meniere's this afternoon (about to start a new thread on it)

I had lots of different hearing tests and some balance tests

the consultant has prescribed a diuretic (to lower the amount of fluid in the inner ear), told me to restrict the amount I drink, put me on a low salt diet and most importantly, told me to try to reduce the stress I'm under (cue much hollow laughter ... dh lost his job in the summer and the only contract he's been offered is in Abu Dhabi for 6 months so I'm basically a single parent, ds1 has Tourette's and ADHD and is 'challenging' to put it mildly, and ds2 has dyspraxia, dd seems ok though as is the cat )

she said that with luck the dizziness might not come back, or not with such ferocity - the times I've had an attack I've been unable to move and have been vomiting for hours and it's left me feeling really weird and sort of dis-connected from reality for a few days afterwards

from the tests they did today I've realised I have no sense of direction in the dark so I'll try not to do too much hiking at night

I hope you feel better soon - I had to wait a couple of months for the ENT referral as the clinics are very busy

oh you poor thing. THe attacks are so awful aren't they, I know what you mean about being dis-connected. I feel so sorry for you as its such a horrible thing to have, especially given everything else you are coping with. No advice really but hopefully just a bit of sympathy. xx