Bilateral MD?

I currently have unilateral only (hope it stays that way). I have been on anti virals for about 10 months and doing well on them. (I had diagnosed Meniere's for about 5 years prior.) It is my understanding that if the anti-virals work for you they can also help to control the spread over to the other ear.)

 

Katers, welcome, I am unilateral but have tinnitus in my good ear. I have had mm for over 15 years. My tinnitus started in my good ear just about 3 years ago. I don't worry too much about it, just pray that I don't ever wake up with aural fullness, or the spins (had a laby in my mm ear so no spins on that side).

 

Many people have tinnitus w/o having MM. My good ear gets tinnitus on and off for years now, (I have MM for 50 years )but I am still unilateral...so far

I am on antivirals for over 2 years now and have no vertigo attacks since starting them, and if you MM is caused by an HSV, which is the cause for a majority of MM patients, you should try and start taking them, might protect your good ear as well.
Check our database for studies and articles supporting a viral cause for MM, print them out and show them to your doctor and hopefully he will prescribe them for you.

 

I was also diagnosed with unilateral and concerned
Of the other ear I sometimes experience
A slight fluctuation in both together so it's
Depressing bc I just got my first symptom
2 months ago a feel its progressing
Quickly I was told sometimes the other ear is just reacting
And there is no hearing loss but on occasion I will
Get a slight drop in the other ear with hearing
So this may be a true sign if you only get
Ringing its probrably just sympathetic which
A friend of mine deaf in one ear has and it's not md
Good luck to u

 

I've had MM in my right ear for 31 years, and it didn't start in my left ear until about 19 years later. I had a long time to "adjust" to Meniere's before becoming bilateral. One way I could tell which ear was causing problems or causing an attack is that the first few attacks were definitely starting in my newly affected ear. That ear would get fullness and my remaining hearing would be distorted. But as the attack progresses, it becomes harder to tell and becomes kind of unimportant at some point. I really feel for you, if you are actually having MM develop in your other ear so soon. But you have come to the right place. There are many people here with Meniere's and there are a ton of resources. Best wishes to you!

 

If you don't mind me asking did you lose
Most of your hearing? Is it common after 2 months
To have a significant loss in the lower tones
So fast? I had the hearing test done while
My ear was full and blocked the next day felt better
Did first steriod injection not painful at all
Also, if its unilateral does the good ear
Feel stuffed ? Although the good ear I can unblock
But I feel congestion don't want to go deaf was just
Coping with losing hearing in one ear .thanks for any
Input

 

Thank you katers
I am also on antivirals whether or not it is
Helping I do t know yet did you lose
Any of your hearing the within the first few
Months? I'm just trying to get an idea
Of how progressive I have it seems like
Every 2 or 3 days my hearing in the left ear
Drops out for a day my dr seemed very
Concerned to have me come back right away
For an injection after the hearing test
Hoping this slows down a bit

 

I was bilateral from the start, and lost all the hearing in my left ear and about 2/3 in my right from the first major attack in May, 2002. The hearing in my right ear has gotten progressively worse, but was a slow progression until the last 18 months, when it seemed to accelerate. I had a labryinthectomy in my left ear in 2003, and my balance function in my right ear continued to decline to where it was measured at less than 10% this past December.

This is just anecdotal though.

 

I am now bilateral. I was unilateral for about 14 years but over the last year both ears are now affected and dizziness and tinnitus has increased quite a lot. I coped fairly well being unilateral, but I am not too good with both ears being affected. The loss of hearing is my biggest problem. Coping with everyday task that require me to be involved in discussions with others is hopeless. I have hearing aids but they don't work for me, only make other noises louder. I am getting to the stage I prefer not to mix with people, go anywhere except when I am with my wife. She has to do all my communication for me, which is unfair on her. We are both now in our 70's and it is making life difficult for us and concerns us for the future

 

Rod--

I am exactly where you are. I avoid social situations because they are terribly frustrating for me and those around me. My poor wife has to do all my communicating except on the computer, and it wearies her. A lot. We are both 67, so not far away from you age wise. I DO have a CapTel phone, so I can "read" what people say, but the sound of the phone is irritating and the captions aren't always that good. I can lip read fairly well, but sadly, people tend to talk too loudly, and that scrambles my head so I can't really make out their lip motions all that well.

You and your wife have my sympathy. My wife and I really know exactly how it is for you. We both try to disengage from the world as much as possible, which is isolating. Especially for my wife. I was always a loner. She was the opposite, and I feel as though I have infected her somehow, or that her attachment to me causes her subconsciously or not to seek to share my fate. My great hope is that when I pass she will have some good years left to rediscover other people and have a life more suited to her. Menieres is really a curse, for those of us who suffer it, and for those who must suffer along with us.