transtympanic steroid injection
Posted , 10 users are following.
Hi I am 30 years old man suffering from meniere's disease on the right ear for the past 4 months. I have had 17 episode of extreme vertigo attacks where the whole room starts rotating and I start vomiting, which lasts for an entire day. The vomiting was so extreme that one time it made wound in my stomach inside and I kept vomiting blood too. I have been to A and E 4 time where twice I had to be carried on an ambulance but they keep saying everything is normal and keep discharging me . I also have slight loss of hearing, ringing in the ear and ear fullness feeling. These symptoms intermittent which means in between attacks I have normal hearing perfect balance no ear fullness.
I cut down salt and avoided caffeine cheese alcohol and am currently having 32mg of betahistine 3 times a day(96mg dailiy) but it has no effect on the attacks
I had all sorts of blood test MRI unrine, stool sample, Xray, blood pressure, sugar, ultrasound everything was normal. However my ENT consultant after doing my audio test told me I was most likely suffering from meniere's disease on my right ear, so he booked me for a caloric testing which is tomorrow. He also said that he will be giving me only one transtympanic steroid injections to the ear. (I live in england and we have NHS and I had to wait 3 months to get and appointment with the consultant since its free).
Sorry guys for this long explanation but here is my question finally.Has anyone had steroids injections to their ear which has stopped their vertigo attacks? If yes did they go back to their normal life work driving etc? I can live with the hearing loss ear fullness and tinnitus symptoms but not the vertigo and vomiting.
I was an engineer on site I lost my job, I cant go out of my house so it has ruined me physically, emotionally and financially.
0 likes, 31 replies
roxanne76357 Gurung
Posted
hey.
I have had the infections in my left ear. They help for a short period of time but unfortunately the vertigo can come anytime. My attacks have slowed down over time which i am grateful for. I am can tell when the vertigo is starting so i know to sit down. I still drive and work but i know when not to.
I know have a hearing aid in my left ear and it really helps the tinnitus and i can hear much better.
take care
roxanne76357
Posted
i meant injections sorry lol
Gurung roxanne76357
Posted
Thank you for your reply roxanne.
Do you think the injections helped to reduce the number vertigo attacks or do you think they reduced naturally? You know I have an attack at least once every week so I cant go back to work.
Gurung roxanne76357
Posted
sorry my next question is do you think the injection helped to reduced the number of vertigo attacks or did it reduce naturally over time? I have attacks at least once every week so I cant afford to drive or work. Thank you
Bluesmann Gurung
Posted
i had them helped for about six months drink lots if water excercise are you taking any type of water pill? how long have you been taking the betahistine? it takes awhile to get into tour system its not fast reacting
Gurung Bluesmann
Posted
Glad to hear that it did work for you Bluesmann.I can only dream about doing exercise because some light work or driving can trigger my vertigo attacks. Sorry I dont know about water pills at all. I have taken betahistine for 4 months the dose gradually was increased from 21mg to 96mg daily as it didnt help reduced the attacks at all.
roxanne76357 Gurung
Posted
Honestly no I don't think they helped. initially i had the injections to help keep what hearing i had from getting worse.
Hateful disease.
Gurung roxanne76357
Posted
wow I am shocked I hope they work for me I have to wait quiet a while once I seen my ENT this is how it works in NHS England. I guess I have to look for options to get gentamicin or surgery to be done abroad so that I can get back my life as soon as possible.
roxanne76357 Gurung
Posted
its been 3 yrs for me now since diagnosed. Honestly its has gotten better but i do have flare ups once in while. I thought for a while i was losing my mind and not a soul understood.
My advice is to take injections for a while and see what happens, take the Serc every day. Stop what your doing if the dizziness starts and sit. The bad days for me are hard but they are less and less.
roxanne76357 Gurung
Posted
also ENT should do the injections. they do mine here in Canada. No surgery for me, ever..
Gurung roxanne76357
Posted
i when to the consultant yesterday and I had a very bad attack at that time. He will see me again and he will give me steroids first then maybe surgery is a possibility. He saw me in a really bad shape I couldnt walk on my own and I was throwing a lot as well. I will keep an update of my struggle against this vertigo. Have a nice day.
lorelei19467 Gurung
Edited
I'm so sorry to hear you lost your job. My Meniere's came on slowly but when the vertigo attacks started they were in a cluster and I really thought I had a brain tumor. It's hard to believe all tests show you're healthy yet your body is going through all of this.
I found with all of the different oral steroids, intratympanic and all of the other stuff they try, xanax has helped the most. It's a low dose but really helps with the overall "off" feeling I get and tinnitus as well as the anxiety of course which makes everything worse. I've also heard CBD can be helpful with this also- I've yet to try it. Google "Mind Over Meniere's".
To answer your question- I had a tube placed in my hear so I could put steroid drops directly into my inner ear. I thought I was cured but after a few months the symptoms came back. The severity definitely lessened over the last couple of years. Everyday is a different day and I enjoy the good ones to the best of my ability and the bad ones I try to stay positive knowing it will pass. I also do acupuncture which I think helps somewhat.
Try anything you can because what works for one may not work for another. Wishing you relief in the new year!
Gurung lorelei19467
Posted
thank you for your reply and sharing your experience I will update my treatment with you guys. Hopefully you or nobody get this attacks its a very dreadful experience.
wendy45166 Gurung
Edited
Hi there,
First just let me say although we all have the same disease with the same symptoms everybody's body tolerates it differently. Some may have all symptoms of menieres and some may have only a few. How your body reacts to it or to treatment is just that. So remember we are all different. Menieres is a progressive disease so typically over time it will change as your course of treatment will change. Some are lucky and treatment choices work and they go in lets say remission and don't have anymore problems. My experience with injections when I first started with menieres was positive. I got about 2 yrs symptoms free. Over a short period of time I started progressing with more symptoms and went to the betahistamines, lasix, diet...the whole process. Did not respond to those. Attacks went from small dizzy spells to full blown vertigo but only lasting a few hours. Next treatment was placing a shunt to relieve excess fluid. That helped about 2 months then the devil came! Attacks out of nowhere and came on so quick I couldn't respond and began falling and injuring myself. ENT said only way to completely stop the vertigo was a labyrinthectomy. I was scared but at that point I really had no choice as I couldn't even be left alone. My independence was completely gone. My attacks would come on and last 12-24 hours at a time...Spinning and vomiting. I proceeded with the procedure and am happy to say I am back working, driving, going dancing and living life again!! Yes I am totally deaf on the left side, yes I had to go through some not so fun therapy, and yes my balance can be tipsy at times but I will take that any day over spinning and vomiting and basically bed ridden. Yes there is about a 20% chance it could move to my other ear and if so, nothing can be done but I would rather live life for today as tomorrow is never promised. SORRY for the long post, just speaking my experience. GOOD LUCK to you!
Gurung wendy45166
Posted
Thank you wendy for sharing your experience and I am glad that you got your normal life back. I hope the steroids work if not labyrinthectomy hopefully like your and I can get back to work and drive. I dont have too much loss of hearing but I can live with it as long as the vertigo and vomiting is gone .
wendy45166 Gurung
Edited
the deafness does not bother me at all. I do wear hearing aids to help send sounds on my left side to the right ear and that helps. I had only 20% of hearing in my ear left...so there was no point in trying any other methods to save hearing. I would recommend trying all avenues before the laby as it is permanent, however it completely stopped the vertigo. I still have fullness and a slight humming sound at times but again take that anyday! Please keep us updated..
Gurung wendy45166
Posted
wendy I met my consultant yesterday and he said maybe I need a surgey if the steroids dont work. I had a vertigo attack from 5am yesterday and when I went for my appointment at 10.30am the consultant saw me in a very bad state so maybe he decided to treat me with surgey if the steroids dont work. I will keep posting wendy.
Thank you and have a good day