Inter-tympanic steroid injections-worth the risk?

I have not tried it to give a personal opinion, but I can tell you what I have read. The steroid injection is very safe and has no side effects so it may be worth a try, it does not have as high a success rate as the gentamicin injection, but gentamicin does have a major side effect which is more hearing loss.

Anyway I know what you're going through, I wanted to kill myself and I thought I would take my whole box of sedatives to die sleeping when my Meniere started. How long have you been wrong? I am telling you this because it is very likely that your Meniere will improve slowly over time, but you will have to be patient. My attack was on February 15 and until May it was torture, from then on I had some good days and some bad ones, although the dizziness became less and less strong and lasted less, but this decrease occurs very very slowly. July was a good month for me, however in August I had some moderate dizziness again, September was very very good and October for now too. I took vitamins, betahistine, iron, magnesium, a healthy diet, better sleep, some gentle sports, and above all, relax.

The steroid injection is risk-free so you don't lose anything by trying it, but if gentamicin injections or surgery are proposed to you, I would wait a few months to see if my Meniere really remains constant or if it gradually subsides. I insist that the improvement is very slow and is almost imperceptible in periods of one or two weeks, but when months pass and you compare the duration and intensity of the dizziness you can see if it is actually improving (write down in a diary the strength and duration of dizziness to keep a chronology).

 

I had it done...no improvement.

 

I had two injections, no reward but no adverse effects either.

 

I had this done several times over 5 years or so. Never helped me. It was uncomfortable at best, but not super painful - just a big poke at the beginning and it's over. The harder part was laying on my side for 45? mins trying to not swallow or move after. It's amazing when someone tells you not to do something how badly you think you need to do it.

After the last round, I did have a bad symptom flare. The other 2ish times it just did nothing.

 

I had three injections over a period of about a month, it does burn at first but no other side effects. Unfortunately it did not help my Menieres.

 

I'm with Mustang. I had a series of three injections a week apart. There was some discomfort, but nothing horrific.
I hadn't had any vertigo from the injected ear at that time and had the injections to try to restore hearing. Three days after the last injection, I had vertigo from that ear.

 

I had two injections and each of them gave me vertigo after a few hours after injection. Did Not help me at all.

 

Same as others have posted, slight poke but it's over quickly. I was hopeful that I'd see improvement after each procedure (studies i believe stated 70% or better success rates) but I've had the greatest vertigo relief following sac decompression and betahistine.

 

Have you figured out what your main triggers are? I know for me, personally, I had a serious attack after eating pickles and then another day after I had dark chocolate. I guess it's the sodium in the pickles, and, OH, do I LOVE my pickles. The dark chocolate I have no idea why it triggers the fluid in the inner ear. This disease is a roller coaster and not much fun. Good luck to you!

 

Gina, for me it is not "A" trigger. It is the sum of several triggers. It's like a glass of water that is not full. Everything is fine. Then you drop in trigger1, then trigger2, then trigger3 and bam, the glass is over flowing and you are in bad shape. I try to reduce or eliminate all possible triggers. Keep the glass from overflowing

 

I don't really remember. When I was diagnosed the Dr. said he was really sorry, it's a miserable disease, there is no cure, here's a pamphlet, go home and read it. Needless to say I was devastated and pretty much gave up. I mean no cure means no cure, nothing to do.

Then, on this forum, I read about some people who found relief with mega dose Vit C. So I found some liposomal Vit C, it was quite rare and expensive at the time, and I drank it and farted and drank it and crapped and drank it and bloated and stank up the house and had some more LOL

BUT - it started to work! It was the first glimmer of hope I had so then I really went to work on it with the Heal Your Headache book and anti-virals from India and voila, I could control it after a couple of years of trying.

Then I got stupid and careless and now I'm back on the forum LOL.

But I think I've almost got it under control again. Hearing is improving, balance is good. Fullness not bad.