Hello everybody, I am excited by all the information available at this forum, and I guess I will benefit a lot from it. For the time being, I would like to try and give a short history of my problems (diagnosed as Meniere) and ask some questions. My episodes started in December 2009. I did not go to doctor before the second episode that happened in January 2011, so after 13 months. I have had ten episodes in total with remission periods as follows: 13 months, 8 months, 5 months, 13 months, 15 months, four months, three months, three months, eight days. I have no prior notice of an episode, and between the episodes I have only mild tinnitus - high frequency hum in my right ear. During an episode I also acquire high frequency tinnitus in my left ear (right ear hum seems to stay unaffected), I have (non)rotational vertigo, nausea, vomiting "to death". After I fell asleep after a few hours of hell and wake up after another few hours I am mostly OK, vertigo is gone, but the left-ear tinnitus might fade out in a couple of days max... After five years and 10 episodes there is no hearing loss, and my vestibular sense seems to still be within boundaries of a "normal sense". During the last three episodes I was on Betaserc therapy (2 x 24 mg a day), I was thinking I was a kind of "episode-safe" if on therapy, but episodes occurred anyway. I was spared of vomiting the three times, maybe because I took antihistaminic "Clometol" just after I felt problems. There are some other details I might come up with in another mail. I would like to ask some questions now: 1. Are there MD patients who have no problems between the episodes after so many years after the first episode? My doctor thought my right-ear tinnitus was due to some ear damage not related to MD. 2. Are there people whose episodes sometimes start right after waking up, while still laying? 3. Should betaserc really suppress episodes? I have a weak theory that my two last episodes happened in the morning because of the level of betaserc in blood was low (I used to take one pill in the morning and another one before going to sleep, ca 11pm). If I am right, if I either increase the number of pills or somehow divide the daily dose in a smarter way, I should be safer. I could put some more observations, but this message is too long already. Later... Sorry for my bad English, I am from Serbia (Europe)
To me it does sound like Meniere's. I have not only had attacks while laying down, but I have had them start & wake me up in the middle of the night from deep sleep. I can tell you that it is a horrible horrible way to wake up. I started anti-virals a while back and have been doing well on it. I do have Ativan/lorazapam tablets that I put under my tongue at the time of the attack it lessens the length to usually less than an hour - and that then minimizes the vomiting. Good luck. There is great information here for you!
I too used to get vertigo while asleep (laying down) and it is such a horrible way to wake up. I am also taking antivirals and have been vertigo and dizzy free for 2 years. When I used to get vertigo attacks I did have some balance issues and little dizzy spells like if I turned my head fast or looked up and then down. Some people between attacks feel normal. You're symptoms sound like Meniere's to me. I would suggest you look into antivirals, there are some good threads about it in the forums database. I don't know of this applies to you or not but about half of us who have MM also have MAV, migraine associated vertigo, the symptoms are similar to MM and a headache is not a requirement for it. There is a good thread about MAV in our database as well. Good luck! and keep us posted.
Thank you for your response. Do you combine anti-virals and betahystine? That Ativan you mention, are these ordinary pills that are usually ingested with water or some specific form intended to be put under the tongue?
OK, I can see that dr Gacek therapy does not mix betahystine and antivirals. so OK. But please write something more about Ativan, all I can find Ativan-wise on the Internet is about pills you ingest, not ones you put under your tongue. Are these the same?
Yes the Ativan/lorazapam I take is a typical oral pill. But instead of swallowing it my doctor told me to place under my tongue to dissolve. This gets into your system faster and since the attacks can cause vomiting, you don't "lose" it if you throw up.
Dr. Gacek, based on the description of my symptoms, thinks I have a form of VN. I am on day 19 of 800mg acyclovir TID. On day 14 I felt out of balance in the evening. Did not want to check if it is gonna develop into full episode, went straight to bed. Usually I would have problems to get a comfortable position, but not this time. Also, my legs would usually be very active not being able to finally settle, but not this time. I was afraid to actually move my head so don't know about that aspect. In the morning I was OK. I am thinking that the imbalance was actually due to my generally poor psychical condition on that day. I am so stressed as we all are. Just a few days ago I started to feel psychically better.
I'm happy to hear you are feeling some improvement. The good news is if you have VN it should resolve, unlike Meniere's. Keep us updated please