Getting gentamicin injection tomorrow.

I've just started my second round of Gent. My first was last year (10/15). The first time, according to my journal, was much worse. So far I've had very little extra dizziness. I'm imagining that it will get worse over the next few days, but I believe that the first injection took care of most of the balance "cells". I was able to make it through most days on my own. I am married with family, so they helped at night. During the day I was on my own. I would ask a mate to come over and check on you at night. Keep plenty of good beer in the fridge and they'll be happy to stop around. (Trust me, I don't want my mom coming over either. That may be worse than the spins.) I kept a journal the first time. Unfortunately, I only kept notes on bad days and not all of the bad stuff. That's my big advice. When you go to the doctor, they may try and put words (diagnosis) into your mouth and try and get you right out. Stand your ground and ask to be able to explain everything. Keeping notes will help you remember the bad parts. We try and brush those under the carpet. Don't try and be too strong. This thing sucks and it'll suck the life and faith out of you. Keep your head up and be strong. Know that you are not alone in this struggle. Niemals aufgaben (German for "Never give up." You'll make it through. As will I. We don't have much of a choice.

 

Have a lot of ready made meals, drinks and such available so you don;t have to do any meal prep. Basically, plan ahead so you don't have to go out (unless you want to), do laundry, any of the usual chores you have to do on a daily basis. Those things needn't be a concern for you then while you are convalescing. You may even want to have a shower chair available in case you have issues while showering. It would be a good idea for people to check on how you are doing and if you need anything, for safetys sake. Do well and be blessed.

This all depends on the experience of the center where you will do the injection.  You need to ask them about this.  The more experienced a center is, the least disability you will have afterwards.  Was steriod injections tried first?

Eleftherios S. Papathanasiou, PhD, FEAN

Clinical Neurophysiologist

Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology

Is this different than the steriod injections? I read about an injection to lrevent your ear from sending messages to the brain...is this the same one? If so does it work? Im getting vertigo attacks 2-3 times a week...

Thanks for the replies.

?I had the injection.  Low dose protocol.  Interestingly he said that I shouldn't feel wobbly at all.  That my vision may be kinda wierd for a while. He wasn't even going to tell me about the typical balancing exercises that you're supposed to do after this procedure.  I had to ask for re-balance training instructions. This was at the House Clinic in Los Angeles, and he's well respected.  Maybe he uses  such a low dose that it won't create a major brain-balance readjustment process.  I find it hard to beleive that I won't have significant post injection dizzyness for weeks, like everyone says you'll have.  Anyway, I will update this post as the days go by and let people know how off-balance I get.