My Meniere’s Diagnosis

Spinning out of Control

Sometimes it really feels as though if you change the routine just a little bit things go spinning out of control. Side effects from one medicine, change the timing of something and everything falls to pieces. For a long time I’ve been getting an allergy shot every other week (every second Monday.) I get a bit of ear pressure and roaring for a couple days. I feel like I’ve run a marathon and am worn out for a few days, but the spinning usually doesn’t hit. Well… we had a big snowstorm and I missed my usual time and made it Wednesday instead. It (as expected) hit me harder than usual. I didn’t make it to full vertigo but had a day or two of dizziness (moderate to heavy). I consider the dizziness to be a stage below the vertigo and it hit New Years day. (No alcoholic drinking was going on either.)

But currently that little bit of dizziness is the least of my concerns.

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Goodbye October

I’m really glad to see October go. I alternated in the month of October between working way to much and then spending the next week sick, then working way to much and the next week sick. The first week I missed I thought was due to a mild case of H1N1, the second week I missed WAS a case of H1N1 (H1N1 log if you’re interested. Anyway, the really unfortunate thing was that I had decided to try and wait three weeks between my allergy shots again. So…. after the three week gap I got a shot and the next week I had all sorts of symptoms (along with H1N1). I had started on prednisone two days before I came down with a fever, that day I had spinning, and kept the stuffy ear and tinnitus for a bit better than a full week with it culminating in not one but two spins towards the end as the flu was going on it’s merry way.

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Prednisone and Meniere’s Disease

First off, I think I’ve finally managed to learn how to spell prednisone! I was just about to call this prednasone and meniere’s disease… but I think I’ve finally got it straight. (Although my spell checker thinks it’s wrong either way. I guess I don’t have medicines in my spell checker?)

Anyway… I have been on prednisone again this week. This is, I think the 4th time I’ve had a short run of prednisone. It’s been prescribed with the idea that my symptoms are a result of inflammation. (I see a lot of references to prednisone being prescribed for auto-immune type issues.) Anyway, it’s been some week! Saturday night I had a lousy nights sleep. I was spinning in my dreams and woozy Sunday morning. Got the prescription filled and was starting to get things done Sunday evening (I think I worked on my antivirus removal tools page at hubpages that night.) I was feeling better though…. and then I didn’t sleep much that night.

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Back from the Allergist – New Prescriptions to try to escape the Benedryl fog

I don’t know how else to put it, but the benedryl fog. The last month or 2 benedryl has helped to keep me from experiencing the worse stuffiness/tinnitus/spinning, but it’s making me feel like a zombie. I take a full dosage in the evening around bed time, but several days I have also had to take a half dose during the day. I’ve been taking one in the morning and if necessary (more crackling/stuffiness) then one in the late afternoon. That along with astelin and I feel like I’m just a fraction of myself. I don’t have energy or spark to get out and do anything. I spin my wheels at the work that I start, I feel like I’m thinking in oatmeal or molasses. So, today the question was what else can I try to keep the stuffy head stuffy ear/ear pressure away while I’m continuing with the allergy shots.

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Take medicine and live with the side effects or don’t take it and live with symptoms….

I think I mentioned that since that last round of attacks I had been perhaps a bit too eager to take my allergy medicines to try to fend off the next round of attacks. Well, after the really big slip up on a Thursday of Zyrtec the night before – 2 benedryl and then alprazolam (xanax)…. I had decided to not take zyrtec at all since 1) it was 24 hours and I had a tendency to forget the next day that I had taken it. 2) It really hasn’t been as effective as the benedryl. So…. I had been taking two benedryl at night (the full dosage and one in the mornings, one in the late afternoon to fend off the beginnings of stuffy ear. To put it simply the last few weeks I’ve felt fairly lousy. I seem to have no energy, no get up and go (all got up and went…) Well, Sunday evening it was almost a week since my last shot so I thought it might be time to lay off the benedryl and I didn’t take it before bed.

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Aftermath of an Attack Lingers

It’s frustrating to find the words to describe what I feel lake in the days and weeks after the last attacks. I had two attacks in one week, which is a first… that was, I think, three weeks ago… I say, I think because it’s all running together. I slept the better part of the weekend following those episodes. I’ve been tired and a little lightheaded most every day since. I’ve also been on the watch for any sign that the scales may be tipping towards another episode and trying to head it off if at all possible. Which led to a big mistake last Thursday…

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The beast still comes to visit | Meniere’s symptoms acting up

(Updated June 5th – see the bottom of the post.)

I see that the last of my scheduled posts about my initial diagnosis have now finished posting. That February trip I was talking about in the last post that I had my first need to get the prednisone filled was February/March 2008 and really the rest of 2008 was on the whole MUCH better than 2007 had been. The symptoms still acted up from time to time, a little roaring/stuffiness in the ear occasionally. Nothing really severe enough the rest of 2008 to require prednisone, but several days that tipped the spins enough to require the xanax to take the edge off. I’ve been getting the allergy shot every other week (Still – backing off to less frequently caused the symptoms to be a bit more active). I’ve even taken to using a rainbow (water based) vacuum at the house in the hopes that the dust will not be blown back out into the room in vacuuming. (The water is essentially the “bag” of the vacuum with the rainbows. The water get’s changed out after each vacuum and we dry it outside so there’s little chance of it becoming a mold risk for us. And no, the carpet doesn’t get wet….)

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Dizzies not quite gone

We had taken a short weekend trip when I had to cash in that Prednisone prescription. One night stay in a hotel just as a mid February get-away. We had to cut on the air conditioner that night and the next morning as I was loading the car things started spinning. Not full blown vertigo (spinning vortex of death as I’ve started to think of it), but on my own classification scale it was heavy dizziness. I took a Xanax and we made it back into town. I got the prednisone prescription filled and took it to the letter.

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Ear Nose and Throat Doctor (ENT)

So, by the time I was at my ENT appointment I was still having the pressure and roaring in my ear (always the right ear.) I was still off balance and dizzy. Especially after car rides. It was hard to watch motion. (Sitting in a lobby facing the street was almost torturous.) I went through several tests at the ENT including a hearing test and was Diagnosed with Meniere’s Disease. He said that the hearing loss matched the classic “loss curve” for Meniere’s and he prescribed my with Alprazolam (Xanax) and also wrote a prescription for a diuretic that I would use daily.

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The allergist

I then went to the allergist as I had been referred and discovered that I was allergic to dust mites and a mold (aspergyllum…) They started treating me for the more severe reaction, dust mites and couldn’t really say that would solve my dizziness/vertigo, but diagnosed me with Eustachian tube dysfunction as a likely cause for all that. My shots began and I found out in the early phase of “once per week” shots I could come in as often as I like as long as I left one day between shots.

I was eager to get things going (and to get as much as I could on the 2007 year health insurance as we had already met our $5200 deductible.)

So from October through late December I got allergy shots 2 to 3 times each week. I managed to get in Monday Wednesday Friday shots many weeks. Through all this time I was feeling miserable. Fatigue, roaring/pressurized ear/constant mild dizziness and off-balance.

So, I called the doctors office again and asked for a referral to an Ear Nose and Throat doctor. I just wanted to have another opinion on getting my balance back. (The worst was a car ride Thanksgiving weekend. I felt like was still riding in the car a week after I got back.)

So I got a referral to an ENT (Ear Nose and Throat Doctor.)