Meniere's, Hearing Loss and Tinnitus

For many years I have been blessed with excellent health. But in September of 2008, I was driving back to Houston after a visit with my daughter and about 5 miles from home, I became extremely dizzy. I had never experienced anything like this and frankly, it scared the dickens out of me. But I made it home and went straight to bed. Of course, the first thing I thought of was I was having a stroke. The dizziness lasted for several hours.

Over the next couple of months I had 3 more dizziness attacks. So I finally made an appointment with my Dr. and he told me I had a very bad inner ear infection. So he put me on antibiotics. That made sense to me and it put my mind at ease. After I finished the antibiotics I had a couple more attacks so the Dr. suggested that I might have Meniere's disease and wanted to do some tests. I had never heard of Meniere's, so I immediately Googled it and didn't like what I found. The prognosis was not very encouraging.

He did an MRI, then and ENG test and one other one. He couldn't say definitively if I had Meniere's or not without the last test. Since I have a phobia about my ears, I decided that if I had another attack, I would consider it. For the next 10 months I had no attacks. So I concluded it was probably just stress and dismissed it.

In November of 2009, the dizziness started again. This time as bad or worse than before. So I decided to see another ENT. Luckily I found one who has an excellent reputation for being an expert in the field. He looked at all the previous tests and concluded that I indeed did have meniere's. He then put me on valium, niacin, a histimine and Lipogen. Immediately, the attacks were shorter and not as bad. I've only had two bad attacks of vertigo, mostly dizziness and loss of equilibrium. He also put me on a low salt diet and told me to keep a daily log of my dizziness for a couple of months. Then we would look at it and make any changes that need to be made. Some days I am encouraged and some days I am discouraged. The worst part for me, is never knowing when the dizziness is going to hit or how long it's going to last, so planning activities is a bit tricky.

Along with all this, I lost 56% of my hearing in the right ear and experienced mild tinnitus. Sometimes it is worse than other times. At this point, I'm not sure hearing aids will be helpful because they might just amplify the distortion. I have tried to educate myself with Meniere's and tinnitus. It is not curable, but can be managed in most cases.

There is a video bar at the bottom of this blog. William Shatner shares his story about his experience with Tinnitus. Plus there are three other excellent videos on Tinnitus. Be sure and scroll down and watch them.

I am sure others have stories. I would love for you to share them with me and all the others who have had similar experiences.