My Meniere’s Diagnosis

Health Stuff…. Meniere’s spins, joint aches, lactose tolerance

Health Stuff… If you’ve ever gone through it you probably dread the conversations you get. So many people mean well and try to help. You get all sorts of diet, treatment suggestions, news and magazine clippings…. it does get tiresome.

I have added to my diagnosis in the last few months. I’ve been diagnosed for the last two years with Meniere’s Disease, but in the last several months have received a diagnose of “likely” seronegative rheumatoid arthritis. I had been having joint pain all over since October (which was a rough month for flu bugs at our house.) I can’t help but think that may have triggered all the problems. Right now they’re trying to regulate medicines, but I’m on the prednasone, plaquenil, a couple of allergy medicines (as that is a trigger for the Meniere’s…. (sigh) and a myriad of more conversations I can have where I get recommended foods that are antiinflammatory. I know – they are trying to help, but good grief… sometimes you just need to try one thing at a time and see what happens. (Unfortunately many of the treatments take a while to take effect, or have side effects that are scary.)

May/June was a very active spinning stretch. I had about 5 episodes through a stretch of a few weeks. It seemed like a spin every 3 days. I think the start of it was a missing of the allergy shot due to a fever and then several necessary visits into the attic to identify a leak location. So, I’ve had it all lately vertigo (although it was “mild” vertigo – I didn’t have the MAD spinning that I have experienced before…)

I can’t help but wonder if the two diseases are related for me. Both of them seem to have inflammation as a symptom and autoimmune related causes. I guess my immune system is just working too well…

Here’s a weird note. For some 20 years I’ve avoided milk like a vampire avoids the sun because of several experiences of terrible stomach upset after milk. For the last 15 years I really had wished I could drink milk and resolved to try it again when I had a free afternoon (because I new I’d feel like I had a stomach full of knives afterwards.) Well. Sunday evening I took a chance and poured a skim milk, added chocolate (great cold drink for a late spring (Hot) evening btw..) No bad effects. So, every night this week I’ve done likewise and have been on a roll energy wise (I’m thinking that may play a part in my energy of late as I’ve been on this low dose prednisone for quite a while so I doubt it’s that.) If anything my stomach/digestion seems to be perking along better than it has been over the last several months.

So…. that’s weird. I’m assuming that before maybe it was the fat (I seem to recall that it was something like 2% skim and I think what we have is …. well best described as 0% skim.) Who knows, maybe my stomache chemistry has changed?

The Spoon Theory

I don’t know exactly when I first read “the spoon theory” – but WHEN I did, I knew “that’s me.” I hope it’s okay to repost this here, it was originally posted at But you don’t look Sick. Last I looked I wasn’t able find the writeup on the butyoudontlooksick.com site. (Although I did find a fun list of the top 10 worst suggestions given to someone with a chronic illness. I’m sure most everyone can relate.

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Another Spin, More Joint Pain and Possibly Rheumatoid Arthritis

What a fun winter it’s been! (Slight sarcasm.) I enjoy snow and we’ve had it in spades this year in a way we haven’t seen for many years. I haven’t really been able to enjoy it much though for the joint aches and pains which seem to be worse in the cold. After my last post I had another vertigo attack on January 6th. How do I remember the date? It’s funny – I usually have a hard time remembering what I had for lunch yesterday but I can recall the dates of my attacks for quite some time. I remember it was a Wednesday and I had to cancel the afternoon portion of my schedule to get to the house and crash. Thursday was a wash as well. I started a round of prednasone that day as well. My joint aches seemed better over that following weekend. Which unfortunately has made me suspect that this may be Rheumatoid Arthritis coming on.

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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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