Meniere's Disease

Ah, such fun, a Meniere's attack.  It's been almost exactly 12 months since my last full on attack.  Never know how long they will last, as I recall the one last year was close to 3 weeks long.  I've never been able to identify a common pre-condition that sets them off.

Meniere's is one of those fun things that no one quite knows what the cause is.  One theory is that it's a autoimmune disease, but they really don't know.  The main symptom is vertigo, which is NOT dizziness. It does tend to cluster with other autoimmune problems such as arthritis, which I have, big time.  The obvious source is the inner ear and I have had inner ear problems all my life.  I've also had serious tinnitus since the early '80s and I wonder if there is a connection.

I have found that doctors are worthless with respect to both tinnitus and Meniere's.  I've tried every possible treatment for the tinnitus, none have worked.  With both, most doctor tends to think it's all mental.  Well, no question, I'm mental alright, LOL.  If they can't identify the exact cause, it must be all in your head, not real in the least.  Yeah, right.

I read about 6 months ago that there had been successful  treatment for a case of Meniere's with surgery.  I personally had doubts and thought that the surgery was worse than leaving it alone.  But, when you first start getting the attacks and they are coming often and long term, surgery might be a real relief.

The thing is that the apparent natural progression of the disease is that the attacks come less frequently with time.  That is the case with me.  When it started some 15 years ago, they were often and they lasted what seemed forever and they made life pure hell.  With time they were 2 or 3 a year and now I appear to be 1 a year.

I think I was lucky, I figured out fairly quickly how to hold my head to stop a body dropping case of vertigo and if the world did start to spin, I got pretty good at stopping it.  Early in the disease there is no stopping the world from spinning and you just lay there waiting for it to stop, it doesn't matter if you're eyes are closed or open, it's like being inside a clothes dryer, it just won't stop.  Yeah, I remember that, I'd have gladly gone for surgery.  Some people are never able to stop the clothes drier from spinning.  I am ever so thankful that most of the time, I can get it to stop spinning in under 5 minutes and usually in under 1 minute.

I remember those early day, when the world would spin for 10 or 15 minutes and all you wanted was to die.  Hopefully I won't ever go there again!