Struggling with new diagnosis

Unfortunately, I have a very demanding job with extremely long hours that is sometimes stressful.  I don't want to quit though.  I'll just have to try harder without burning myself out.

Joel - I'll give you maybe some positive news. I heard different things from different people, but the good news was that I heard of other people who had Meniere's who managed to have a pretty normal life.  It seems to me that the symptoms in everyone are very different (as well as the extent of how debiltating the disease can be). My ENT told me (and I read this on some websites), that sometimes Meniere's just goes away on it's own. In other cases, it's a chronic situation that people will have for the rest of their lives. Hopefully we will all have the luck of having the Meniere's symptoms just go away!

I think the people who seemed to be living w/ Meniere's and have a "normal" life, seem to control their sodium, caffeine and alcohol, but especially the sodium. I think the advice about decreasing stress and sleeping is also good (I've been trying meditation, breathing techniques, etc. and that helps a lot).

I've only been on this site for about 2 weeks and I've found it's the one of the best forums out there. I'm in Indianapolis, Indiana, US and there's not a lot of resources here. A lot of the "forums" seem to be fronts for selling books and supplements. This site, however, has been a wealth of information. I've been dealing wiih this for about 8-9 years. It's hard to say exactly when the symptoms started. I've tried the low sodium (that seemed to make things worse). I've had an endolymphatic shunt which helped for a couple of years, but that was never advertised as permanent. My next bad episode I had steroid injections and then eventually a round of low dose Gentamicin injections. My hearing suffered very limitied damage, but the effect of the injections only lasted about six months. After a year of increasing symptoms, I am now on another run of Gent shots. The first didn't cause any vertigo so it's on to round two. My best advice would be to keep trying things until you find something that works for you. And don't take "this is something you have to live with" as an answer. Keep looking for what works. It's different for everyone. I'm lucky that I've only suffered limited amounts of rotational vertigo. Most of the time I'm just regular dizzy, seasick and unsteady. Don't give up. Keep plugging away.

Hi Joel

Sorry to hear about your MD. The early months are very unpleasant and it can be hard to imagine ever getting back to something like normal. For me it took nearly a year to find a really experienced specialist who told me for the first time "people with menieres get better". It was well worth finding a private consultant with a lifelong interest in vestibular problems, should have done so as early as possible. I cut out salt and alcohol , and also reduced caffeine and eat smaller healthier meals. Trying to get regular exercise, walking for hours, sleeping well and avoiding stress all helped. Vestibular rehab exercises gradually help to improve balance and desensitise you to the "travel sick" sensations from certain movements. I'm two years in now, work full days , drive whenever I need to , have been surfing, cross country running , kayaking, mountaintain biking, climbing, hiking, and recently took a flight and had a great skiing holiday where all the balance training meant I could ski as well as ever (to my great surprise). There is hope- but be bold, do all the right things, and work hard at getting better once your attacks start to get less frequent. Your brain will eventually sort out all the wierdness with balance and hearing, but it has to be challenged and not protected. Although napping was essential in the early months to get over all the hours of puking and vertigo, I was told to stay awake and active as much as possible - every movement you make helps to remap how you see, balance and move. Kwells travel sickness pills worked better for me than anything else during nasty episodes of vertigo. I haven't taken anything for a year now , which I believe helps your brain to compensate for the change in your balance organ ( instead of masking it). Now getting some hearing directionality back (although almost deaf on one side) but the nasty oversensitivity to certain harsh sounds has gone and I can enjoy live music again. Tinitus is there, loudly before falling asleep, but I know that it's just a helpful sign that "i'll be asleep soon " and not something that will keep me awake. Everyone is different, but things can and do get better. Maybe worth taking some time away from work or reducing hours to make sure you can get plenty of movement in every day ? Might help you to compensate more quickly and make the fullest possible recovery ? As for new treatments, steroid injections seem to be very successful in some patients, without the risk of further hearing loss. I wish i had tried this early on. Worth keeping an eye out for trials in your region... Anyway, best of luck, and look after yourself. I can promise you things will be better in a few months time as the illness "burns out" and you can start to compensate for the damage....