Serious injury from drop attack

Travis,

I am so sorry to hear this. I am guessing we are about the same age. Have you looked into disability?

 

That is not going up at all...Hang in there. Good luck with your recovery.

 

Do you have good hearing in the other ear? I lost all hearing in my right ear at age 49. Yeah, i would like to have it, i cant echo locate any more, i cant hear people who whisper in that ear etc etc but it has not really been a problem for me. I do not consider myself handicapped from it. Good luck.

 

Your situation sounds so much like mine before I had my laby. I think the big difference is after my major drop attack where I tore my rotator cuff ( no where near as serious as a broken neck!) I made the decision to go ahead and have the laby before I killed myself or someone else. By this time I had stopped driving the car, stopped riding my bike and stopped doing anything that might harm me if I did have a bad fall. My hearing was all but gone so for me it was a no brainer. I can't imagine having a broken neck and dealing with what you are dealing with. My OTO told me that if I end up with meniere's in my good ear and eventually need another laby that I would not have to live a life in silence. He left my cochlear so I would be a candidate for a cochlear implant. I can't tell you what to do but from my experience if I were you I would be running to an OTO and have a laby ASAP. I am so sorry you are going through this but remember there is life after the laby. I drive, I ride my bike, I hike I do all the things that I love to do. My hearing is pretty good, can't determine where sounds are coming from and I have a hard time in loud,noisy places. Sometimes my mm ear feels pressure and the tinnitus can be crazy but this is just a reminder that I do have meniere's and all these things I can live with. I could not live a normal life with drop attacks. I wish for you the best.

 

Once you share with the OTO that you have a broken neck from a drop attack that could have killed you? Who ever you go to might change their mind? Drop attacks are nothing to dismiss to save a diseased ear. Of course this is my 2 cents worth I will be interested to see what your OTO recommends. Good luck.

 

I feel for you tdoak. When people talk about, “Meniere’s can’t kill you,” I am always tempted to point out that this particular symptom CAN lead to death. Best of luck to you, and I hope your doctor helps you the way you want. ::hugs::

 

I agree with redwing. It's time for the laby.

 

I can just hear my last conversation with Dr. Mattox at Emory after reading this. It went exactly this way.

"Dr. Mattox i am no longer your patient, i am your 22 year old son coming to you with menieres asking his father how to have a normal life"

His response to me: "Son take it out and don't look back, get on with life"


OR

MY CONVERSATION WITH DR. RAUCH

"Dr. Rauch if your were standing in my shoes raising 3 young kids and running a company what is your decision"

Dr. Rauch response: "If i had an ear like yours i would take it out and if anything in the future needed to be done i would just live without my ears and use a Cochlear implant to hear. I have many patients living normal lives without a vestibular systems, I will call Dr. Mattox for you and tell him i recommend the laby"

Dr. Rauch was no BS, straight to the point and very matter of fact....Just what i needed to hear from maybe the OTO in the world who has seen the worst of the worst cases of mm. Same with Dr. Mattox

...........10 days later i had the laby and my life back.

 

Read my old post and you will understand my next comment . Don't let menieres control your life , get the laby surgery and get on with your life . If you lose all hearing there are other good options out there . I had many if not all of your symptoms and the laby cured me as it did bulldogs { Joe } . Good Luck my friend . Find a great dr and get the Laby . Larry

 

I am so sorry for all you are going through at once.

If I read correctly, it sounds like you were not on the full dose of Valtrex when you had the drop attack. Maybe you need to be on that amount for now because of the stress you are under. I have had returning of symptoms on less than the full dose. I'm trying Famvir now, but haven't tried going down from the full dose yet.

And if you feel good about the laby, I hope you find a way to do it.

 

Hi Travis, i don't know about those supplements, but are you avoiding high arginine foods? They feed viruses.

 

Are you taking the brand name Valtrex? I once had a resurrgence of symptoms because I was taking generic Valacyclovir and the pharmacy changed the generic manufacturer without telling me. It took me months to figure that out. From my non-doctor perspective, it sounds like the AVs were working for you, but just not quite enough. Your family situation sounds extremely stressful and maybe you just need to be on the full dose for a while and/or could be a brand issue.

 

I had the same thing happen and switched to name brand because of it.