I am so glad I found this forum, I am slightly dizzy right now(the minute I lifted my head off of the pillow), I have Menieres disease in both ears, it was found because of tinnitus, hearing loss and fluctuating hearing, the vertigo started about 3 weeks ago with a bang! I have had vertigo infrequently for the past 30 years, the doc thinks I started with tinnitus, hearing loss and infrequent dizziness when I was in my 30's. I could live with one good ear, the vertigo didn't happen too much, and no one knew what was wrong for years, but I could hear with my left ear, I was OK! Then in 2010 I started having low pitched tinnitus in my left ear which made it very had to hear low sounds (like the sounds of men's voices) a few times the hearing loss got better and it was captured on my audiogram, and the ENT doctor suspected MD from the start, sent me to a specialist, the specialist thought I had MD with more problems from hearing loss than dizzy. About 1 month later I was dizzy for 6 days out of 10! Hope my mind didn't grab on to the idea of dizzy and so I became dizzy, now this past week I have been dizzy for the past 4 days, it does let up sometimes when I take Ativan 0.5, (I took ativan about 45 minutes ago)I have to alternate with Meclazine 25 mg every 8 hours, it isn't enough, but I don't want to get hooked on Ativan. The specialist recommend a Meniett device, it is on the way. I live in a small town 500 miles away from specialist. I am supposed to get tubes put in my ears first by ENT doctor here, I hope I can get in SOON. I have missed work all week, and I am trying to stay out of the pity pots, I have too many years ahead of me and I want to hear my granddaughters and childrens voices! Thanks for letting me ramble on!
Linda I'm pasting my response to you here from the other thread Hi Linda, acyclovir is an antiviral, some doctors believe MM has a viral cause and antivirals seems to help many of us but not all but a majority of us with symptom relief. They believe an HSV embeds itself on a nerve in the inner ear. Here is a paper by Dr Gacek showing a viral cause for MM and how he treats it in his clinical practice which he has a 90% success rate with antivirals. I believe his protocol is on page 104 of the document http://www.mm3admin.co.za/documents/docmanager/6e64f7e1-715e-4fd6-8315-424683839664/00056616.pdf I have MM for 50 years and have been symptom free except for tinnitus which is drowned out by background noise for over 2.5 years due to taking acyclovir.
If I am dizzy, meclizine every 4 -6 hrs helps me to stay upright and just fight through the balance issues. However, if I have the full blown vertigo attack (with the room spinning violently for hours) I put the Ativan under my tongue and that will help shorten the full vertigo spinning to an hr or so. If/when I get attacks, mine are always in a cluster. I could have 4 in a week each week for a month, and then nothing for several months. I have a hearing aid for my bad ear - my loss in that ear is now pretty significant. Started with primarily the lower tones. Hearing aid helps alot - not just for hearing but it seems like I am not quite so tired when I use it..probably because my mind is not working overtime trying to hear. If you don't have one, I would recommend trying to get a hearing aid. Most places will do a 30-60 day trial so that you can be sure it helps. Most important is finding a good audiologist that can work to fine tune the aid, as well as being open to adjusting as needed when your hearing changes.
thanks, I do have hearing aides, on good days they work wonderful, no stress, but when I go through some bad days, I can hear sounds with my hearing aides but have a very hard time understanding words, especially on the telephone unless people talk slow and deliberate
Linda I have hearing loss but not from MM or any other disease. My hearing loss is mild-moderate and its in midtones