Diagnosed this week with Menieres Disease

Apologies before I post this as I know I have a lot to say and a little rant coming lol, but i'm feeling a bit emotional today after I was finally diagnosed with Menieres 2 days ago.

I'm 36 years old. My dizziness started 17 months ago. I'd always suffered with Migraines with Aura (since age 15), fuzzy head feeling and occasional nausea, mild hearing loss/sensitivity in right ear, but didn't particularly effect my daily life. Had glue ear as a child and Grommets in both ears 3 times. Eventually grew out of that though.

The first experience I had with Vertigo was while I was shopping in the supermarket in October 2015. It only lasted a few minutes, during which time I just held on to my trolley and waited for it to pass, thankfully it did, I finished shopping quickly, and got home as quickly as I could. I still felt off balance though and have done for all this time. Sitting down and driving is fine, but as soon as I stand and start walking I feel drunk.

I saw 3 different GP's about it in the first year. They all fobbed me off telling me it was just anxiety or side effects from the Anaemia I had at that time due to heavy periods, fibroids etc. I had an operation in the December that year to fix my 'lady problems' and felt terrible after the general anaethestic. Still, no one would listen to me and take me seriously at how dizzy I was. I was discharged the following day having to be held up by my husband all the way to the car. Back to the GP I went, and was given several medications like Propranolol for anxiety which made me feel worse, went back and was given another which I refused to take as after just one I felt much worse and when I read the leaflet in the box it was prescribed for Schizophrenia! Nothing helped. I gave up, had so many family and friends telling me to 'snap out of it', 'sort myself out', 'stop being a recluse' etc. I just tried to get on with it in the end and battled through the dizziness. But by then i'd actually developed anxiety and was scared to leave the house alone or with my daughter who was only 4. Noises and bright lights made my dizziness worse, the fullness in my ear felt like I had constant earache. I let so many people down because I was ill but couldn't fully explain why so people found it hard to believe me.

11 months after the first dizzy spell and after months of trying to be 'normal' I was stood in my daughters school playground and the floor started moving. I had to sit down on the school steps and a teacher gave me some water. I recovered quickly again thankfully, got to my car and drove home, but I made an appointment with my GP straight away. My GP surgery is 30 seconds up the road from me, but how I walked there that day is a miracle. By then I think I was in panic mode, I started dripping with sweat, was shaking and very off balance while standing/walking. They gave me a prescription for Cyclizine and told me that would help. It didn't. Made me worse actually as I was sick, more dizzy and anxiety went through the roof to the point where I had a full blown panic attack.

To cut a very long story short I ended up finding a lovely GP in the end who really helped me. I first saw her in October last year. She prescribed me Betahistine for the dizziness and Citalopram for the anxiety. She also referred me to ENT. Its been a rocky road since then, especially getting used to the Citalopram, had lots of tests including an MRI which was pretty scary. Had my final appointment 2 days ago and the ENT consultant confirmed I have Menieres.

Its a small relief to know I wasn't mad like people thought, but today I feel really low because of the two years of stress and upset i've had. I have to call the DVLA today and inform them, and although my consultant said I should be ok now i'm on medication i'm paranoid they'll take my licence, which is my safe place as driving/sitting is fine, but walking is not. I want to have a rant at my family and friends for their ignorance but on the other hand I know how hard it must have been for them not knowing how to deal with me as no one knew what was wrong. I've missed so many family parties, gatherings etc thanks to the anxiety it brings and they get frustrated with me. I can only hope that now i'm diagnosed they'll try to be a bit more understanding, but so far no ones really expressed any concern. I know i'm not alone as seen posts like this before I was diagnosed. Any tips on dealing with this and family members etc would be very helpful.

Rant over! (That feels a little better 🙂

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