Meniere's Disease Medical condition Meniere's disease is a disorder of the inner ear. It can cause severe dizziness, a roaring sound in your ears called tinnitus, hearing loss that comes and goes and the feeling of ear pressure or pain. NIH Symptoms Symptoms of Meniere’s disease include: vertigo (attacks can last anywhere from a few minutes to 24 hours) loss of hearing in the affected ear tinnitus (a sensation of ringing) in the affected ear a feeling of fullness in the affected ear loss of balance Headaches nausea, vomiting, and sweating caused by severe vertigo. Miserable stuff, but another progression of hearing loss. I've only had one really severe episode of vertigo, and carry my Meclizine around like folks with heart trouble carry nitroglycerin tablets. The only thing I've found that helps take my mind off the constant pressure in the ears and the loud hiss noise is going to sleep imagining I'm on an international flight, going somewhere pleasant, or returning from somewhere miserable. I'm reducing salt, caffeine and alcohol intake, and have some physical therapy scheduled. Anybody else have this? I hear the good news is it goes away in ten or twenty years.
I have 75% hearing loss in both ears and some of the symptoms you listed above but have never heard of Meniere's disease until now. Nothing from my doctor of audiology, nothing from my primary care physician. I will be talking to them.
I never heard of it either . Doesn't sound fun either . I hope the doctors are able to help you find some relief . I have tinnitus real bad , and that's bad enough without all of your other symptoms .
My boss on my first job after school was diagnosed with Meniere's syndrome about 6 months after I started. He was missing for several weeks undergoing treatment. The main symptom in his case was a complete loss of balance. Quite a bit of recovery, but he usually made sure to walk near walls for both the visual cues and something to bounce off if needed. I was transferred before learning anything more than that. Best of luck with it, hd.
I've got a referral for physical therapy, and it sounds like intentional small doses of head movements that really screw up my balance in an effort to build tolerance to it. I do a lot of crawling and bending at work, and do it slowly, so as not go spinning off onto the floor. The only cool thing about it so far is that I can feel the presence of motorcycles with loud pipes before I can see them and can hear helicopters way before they come into view. Almost a sub-sonic perception of sound that's much like the effect you get when chewing with ear plugs in. Not quite as annoying, but close. makes me wonder if the character of Corporal Radar O'Reilly on M.A.S.H. might have been afflicted with Meniere's. My Veteran Service Officer has it so severely that he has to spend days just laying perfectly still. I was close to that when I was doing double ground loops with vertigo, but I can fight through it.
Interesting... I have some fairly bad hearing loss: something about being on deck when the 5" ers were going off w/o real hearing protection. A finger shoved into the ears is NOT proper protection... I can usually "feel" the local life-flight, and mil-spec rotor craft before I can actually hear them. The Ospreys when in tilt mode especially. Probably due to the interference of the rotors spinning in opposite directions.
I have had high freq hearing loss since my first hitch in the USAF. Four years working on jet planes. Even the mouse ears didn't block all the damaging noise. In my second hitch in the Navy, active sonar pinging really drove me batty. I'd actuall feel sick while the pinging was going on. Part of life on an ASW Frigate. It all left me overly sensitive to very low freqs. I find the Homeys' loud ground pounding cRap music physically painful. I tend to listen to radio music with trebel full on and bass at minimum.
I have had tinnitus for a decade or three...(I blame being a mortarman (81mm) and later as a mortar platoon commander). It is bearable and doesn't interfere with my life unduly. I had a brief bout of vertigo as a consequence of a middle ear infection...not nice at the time, but it cleared up quickly with antibiotics thankfully. I try and protect my hearing as much as possible.
That's it. My best description would be.... It was like drinking cheap tequila for 3 days, then having someone roll you down Pikes Peak, in an inner tube, while blowing hot and cold air in your ears then pouring beer in. All while having a headset on with dancing dots flashing and zipping in front of your eyes! Then when you try to get off the exam table, you smash your head into the wall. Then 2 nurses can hardly pick you up, while asking, " Are you OK?" To the original poster. I wish you good luck. Although the disease is listed as a qualifying disability. As per .gov website. I am still being chewed up and spit out of receiving any disability. 5 1/2 years and counting... They deny, deny, and hope ya die. If you have any questions. I will give honest answers. If you are a prepper type person. I would suggest going into hyper drive while you can.
@livin' in the woods, are you waiting on a service connected disability? I've been in prepper hyperdrive since before Y2K. This hasn't kept me off roofs, out of bars, or off my bike so I think I'll work through it. Sleep is good too. G'nite.
I have a mild version of this, though I dont get the vertigo/loss of balance! I lost about 80% in my right ear due to a couple hundred rounds of .50 BMG next to me head with only a helmet and coms gear on! Left ear is about 50% and holding. Tinnitus is only on the right side, and I usually only notice it at night before I go to sleep! I did finally get a decent set of hearing aids through Costco, best set I have ever had, and after fighting the V.A, I got it coverd!
I found these two images that pretty well illustrate what it's like on a bad day. You have to laugh it off and keep going. I've found that remaining still while focusing on a distant spot and maintaining my focus on it while I move my head from side to side helps get my stability back. An old Seabee friend told me that he can ease the spins by closing one eye. Thankfully, I haven't had to try that yet. I have adjusted to the vial of Mecizine that's attached to my car keys, just in case.
I dont have what you have but i have tinntinitus and some vertigo. I have to have my neck and jaw adjusted as well as do regular head and neck exercises or i cant hear people on the phone. Most days i can just ignore the constant ringing. I am never without it. And some day's its a roar. I really sometimes wonder if modern lifestyle, phones, tv, constant noise exacerbates the ringing.
Had my first real honest Vertigo a few weeks ago, put me on my ass for a good 12 hours! It was so bad that I had to have the room full dark and quiet, and had to lay on my back as still as I could, I couldn't close my eyes or I would spinn out of control and puke my guts out! Worst feeling ever! Took some Dramamine, and it kind of helped, but had to go the full bout regardless! I don't wish that on anybody!
Father in law had it bad, Dr prescribed a suppository that was the best thing he could find, he would get so ill and vomit if he moved that he would end up in the hospital. It isn't a joke and I hope they find a way to treat yours. They got his under control and he learned how to minimize the severity of the attacks. Hope they do the same for you and we are praying for you. Hard to estimate how important our sense of balance and stability of our inner ear is.
It's certainly a factor, more for keeping us awake when our body needs sleep. I have been happily free of all but the slightest equilibrium problems lately. The only change has been an increase in quality sleep time at night. This has made my whole life happier. After last night I have to start a new chapter on warm vs. cold sleeping. For me it's the difference between vivid dreaming and no dreaming. Last night it was an explosion taking out a friends eyes and waking to his screams as I tried to help. My heart was pounding. When I fell asleep again I had a dream of having a cat bite my thumb. That was bad enough. In my dream the cat wouldn't let go and we were trying to pry her mouth open. I was thankful that the reenlistment dream didn't come around again. Finally awake enough to understand the problem, I shucked off the top covers and slept the rest of the night dreamlessly.
Yep, I've had this since the mid 70's. It medically grounded me from flying. When they say vertigo for up to 24 hours, they're full of it. Mine would last for days and came with the worst motion sickness you could imagine. It wasn't till 1982 that an ENT specialist put me on a salt restricted diet and gave me a diuretic and motion sickness pills to take when I was symptomatic. I would have vertigo attacks several times a year and would last up to a week. However since reducing my sodium intake the frequency and severity of my vertigo attacks started to diminish. Finally for the last 20 years I've only had two or three very mild attacks that lasted only a day or so. My equilibrium is still messed up, for instance I can't lie on my back and tilt my head back like I would do when working on my car, I get spacey and nauseous. My hearing has diminished, mostly due to jet noise, and I have tinnitus. It's always with me, don't know what I'd do if it ever stopped.
