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?

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.

I finally had an appointment with the Rhuematologist almost two weeks ago now and had another round of blood drawn for yet more tests. (7 this time… I think that’s a new personal record.) They prescribed meloxicam as an anti inflammatory and I was told not to take ibuprofin while I was on it. I was also told it would take about a month for me to tell if it was working or not.

Since then, I got another allergy shot and now am feeling a bit low the tail end of this week (as usually happens after the allergy shots…) I just get so tired in the days following the shots…. it’s hard to describe, but everything seems to be fatiguing. Well, my joint aches are worse right now too. I don’t know if it’s the weather change or the shots. I’m beginning to think that the shots may correlate with more aches and pains.

I had a call from the Doctors office and called back today and while they didn’t detail the results from the blood tests they said that it was a potential connective tissue disease and they would talk about it more at my next appointment (which is in March.) So, I looked just to confirm what was a “connective tissue disease” and sure enough…. Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sjogrens Syndrome and a couple others are in the same family of ailments.

At my appointment he had speculated a few possibilities. 1) Since it coincided with having H1N1 it could be lingering joint inflammation from that infection – it’s not unheard of for such things to last a year after the event. 2) the beginnings of Rheumatoid Arthritis or 3) Siliac Disease – which as I understand it is a severe form of Gluten Allergy. But, from the testing now it’s sounding as though we’ve found the beast behind door #2.

Yes, I’m down today. Of course, I was also down the day my first round of testing came back and everything was normal. I started questioning my sanity and if all of this pain wasn’t just my mind making it up for me. I can’t win – it sounds as though it was what I expected and I’m down. They also said the tests are not conclusive, but for that matter it could just be due to being in an early stage of things.

RIght now I’m REALLY hoping that in the next couple weeks I’ll notice an improvement with this medicine. So far it doesn’t seem to be an improvement, but even the drug information said 2-3 weeks (although we’re closing in on 2 weeks.) I guess what I’m really scared of is if it is related to the shots. I really don’t want to go back to where I was before I started the shots. With the near constant ear pressure and roaring, dizziness for weeks on end. While they certainly haven’t cured me as the January spin proved, I seem to have found an equilibrium of sorts. (I had been delayed getting a shot due to snow before the cycle that led to the last vertigo.) I seem to be better off if I go exactly every two weeks.

But then, if that’s encouraging and leading to the joint pain? Hurt all the time or give up your hearing and balance in one ear. There’s a good menu of options. It’s like the do you want it to hurt now or later commercial…… except more along the lines of do you want to ache now or be nauseous and deaf now? I’m not sure which to choose, but I’d probably have to choose deaf and nauseous. If anything else maybe that illustrates how bad these aches have been. Sometimes I want to make a request for a reward for the whereabouts of the person with a voodoo doll and pin.

I know there are a lot of people worse off and I suppose there’s a lesson in all of this, perhaps to slow down and not pour so much time into work. I wonder if the stress from that is what has brought all of this on. In spite of that, I just need a day to be down about things I suppose and think through them…. and get ready for what comes next.

The ear pressure and light dizziness varied so much after that first vertigo spell that at times I could forget that anything was wrong. Really it was as though everything was normal and then for stretches it was as though I had an ongoing affliction, unable to hear well, off balance, etc. I thought I had managed to prevent drastic spells with my sudafed regimen, but the Vertigo was about to come back with a vengeance.

Thursday, August 30th 2007. Another day I remember just as clearly as the first vertigo attack. Again I had a morning computer appointment. This time I had taken the highway and the appointment went without a hitch. I also teach piano lessons and had an early afternoon lesson to get to at the music school. My routine was to get some lunch at a drive through and then eat at the school. I remember as I crossed the Smokey Park Bridge I started feeling a bit funny. Things were spinning somewhat. My ear had been clear that morning. “This can’t be happening” I remember thinking. I’m not going to let it happen.

I tensed my muscles and gritted my jaws…. I made it to the drive through and managed to order lunch. By the time I was at the music school I remember hanging to the sides of the stairwell trying to get upstairs. I again put on a happy face and feigned that all was well. I ate what little I could and tried to think calm steady thoughts and hold still as best as possible. When I stood up to walk down the hall to meet my student I could tell this was going to be a lot harder though as the “seas” were a lot higher than they had been when I came in the building. It was severe dizziness at this point.

We greeted and made it down to my studio for the hour long lesson. I thought to myself I would try to make it through the lesson and then see how I felt for later in the day. As it was I made it about 40 minutes into the lesson. I remember trying to point to notes on the page and my finger wouldn’t stabilize it was as though the notes were rotating in a circle around my finger. I felt flushed, I had cold sweats things started spinning worse and worse. Finally the room was violently starting to spin and I abruptly told my student that I was sorry but I was not feeling well and would have to go ahead and end the lesson there. She very quickly gathered things up and headed out, I didn’t even walk past the door of my studio, but went back inside to sit near the trashcan.

The room starting spinning more and more. I had a few dry heaves into the trash can. I then started calling my students to cancel. One I recall called back as he had missed my call and hadn’t checked the voicemail. I remember answering in between dry heaves over the trash can.

Before long I started hearing the sounds of the after school lessons starting to gear up. Some get out a bit earlier and I remember thinking to myself that “I’ve got to get out of here.” I remember feeling like I didn’t want anyone to find me there like that.

As things subsided a bit I managed to gather up what I needed. (A few books, calendar, phone list, phone and the trash can.) I made my way out to the car and had my plan set to get to Sisters of Mercy Urgent Care in Weaverville.

The ride was worse than before. Things were spinning so violently. The highway was better though because I could continue looking straight ahead. The worst part was the stop sign at the Weaverville exit. The traffic was busy and if I kept looking in one place all my peripheral vision rotated around that spot, but turning my head jumbled everything. I feel like I sat at that sign for 5 minutes before having an opportunity to pull out. I made it to the urgent care lot and again like walking through a fun house tunnel I managed to make it inside.

I remember the waiting room lights were fluorescent and the flickering bothered my greatly. I remember sitting there with one hand shading my eyes and trying to look at one spot on the floor. Trying desperately to keep my eyes focused on that one spot.

I was seen and it was verified that I was experiencing vertigo. My eyes were moving as is typical during a vertigo attack. I was prescribed meclizine for the dizziness and something else for the nausea. Fortunately there is a pharmacy in the same strip mall. So, after I walked out of urgent care I sat down on a bench to call my parents. I told them I planned to walk to the drug store and get the prescription filled as it would take a while for them to fill it.

My Dad drove out to pick me up. By the time the prescription was filled things were a bit better I was down to “mild” vertigo if there is such a thing. I rode to my parents house, took the medicine and laid down on the bed with the world still spinning around me. I woke up around 7pm (I left urgent care at 4)

When I woke up I felt a bit off balance, but not too bad outside of the lingering fatigue. (Which I think I carried for a couple weeks this time.)