Hi :-\ everyone Today is my first day here on the web-site officially...see I have been in denial that I have this horrible disease for over 4 weeks since my diagnosis and figure, I just shake my head one morning, or try to blow air out of my ears like after you go deep water diving, and everything would go back to normal. Uh.......nice try Karen...think again..... Here's how my life changed August 15 2006 I was in my private office, no one else in my building that day, which was not uncommon for me, sitting at my computer working away after being on vacation fhe prior week, and I had to catch up with about 200 e-mails. It was 2:30pm and I received an e-mail from my assistant that was really funny...you know, those one's that you should not forward because of the internet policies at your company. As I was laughing, I called my assistant who was working at another office out of town and said that was awesome, where did you get that? I hung up the phone, then looked back at my monitor........and....WHAMMO.........................everything around my office started spinning out of control going in the left downward spiral. I thought...whoa....no tequilla shots for lunch today, no hangovers, had felt perfectly normal....WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON.....Buy the time I could think those things, I was dialing 911. MY blood pressure went up to 180 over 110, I was throwing up like the exercist but I had not eaten pea soop for lunch, I started sweating like I had a very high fever...all systems were crashing, and I thought even thought I did not have any heart pain, I thought I must be having a heart attack or a stroke because I thought I was going to black out and someone would find me dead in my office alone about a week later. Ambulance and parametics arrived- What a fun filled trip that was with these beautiful hunky parametics, and I in my beautiful designer banker garb barfing all over them...(nice picture in your head right about now....eh?) When I got to the hospital via the parametics, still throwing up and spinning, all I could do was keep my eyes closed because it only made matters worse. The ER doc immediately thought I had food poisoning, but started me on an iv with anti nasua meds, and ran me through the hospital like a lab rat to make sure I didn't have a stroke, or heart attack. The doctor said, you have a severe vertigo, gave me a bag of meds and eventually went home later that night. I dont remember much about the next few days, but was tired constantly and eveytime I tried to walk down the hall way, I would just bounce off the walls until I finally got to my destination. Within the next week, and a few more fun filled days of double vision, a weird swooshing sound like a heartbeat through a stephiscope in my left year and two valiums I had to take to get through the MRI, a neurologist diagnosed me with menieres disease or the possibility of M.S. The best part of being diagnosed with this disease: (yes there was one or two) It ruled out many other horrible things that I and my doctor thought I may have...ie...brain stem tumor, a stroke, and M.S. (the M.S. is still a possibility, but when she told me she believes it's Menieres disease and not M.S......I said, I will take door number one and I am not interested in the cash Monty! (now I am aging myself) The second best thing about being diagnosed with this disease: It was a GIANT wake up call for me to get myself healthy again. I was a salt-aholic, diet soda drinking, salt and pepper everything even before tasting it for all of my life. I also allowed myself to get out of shape after blowing out my left knee playing volleyball 8 yrs ago and gained 60 lbs. eating the wrong things and not exercising. Now, I am health conscious, and since the symptoms have slowly gone away from my first attack over 6 weeks ago, I am now walking every day on my treadmill slowly building up the time and speed, and getting off my butt. In fact, I replaced my nice leather sofa for an eight foot new nordic track treadmill, which conveniently has a TV flat screen monitor on it so I am now a nordic track potatoe. My delimma: I have committed myself to get back to work after two months ago and next Monday the 2nd will be my first day back to work. I am a Vice President and Private Banker for a very large financial institution, and my biggest fear is....does my elevator go to the top floor like it used to, because I still feel like I am in a fog somedays, and I have gone through a few bad days of being depressed. I have a very stressful job also....like I am sure many of you have. I am a private banker and my "book" (my clients) are all multi-millionaires. People with huge wallets have huge demands on their banker including advise with their investments, credit decisions, should I buy that yacht or jet or lease it, kinds of delimmas...don't laugh but I get client calls all the time, even during the time I have been off work about, Karen- I just purchased a 200 acre piece of land that I want to develop commercially, and I know you are sick right now, but what should I do? How much of it should I finance and what terms can I get on a $20mm commercial construction to perm financing deal? Can you do this for me in 45 days? SO, this is my first post, even though a long one, I find it even amazing now that I can formulate sentences 6 weeks after all of this started, and feel pretty good again, and am trying to cope with this disease. Thanks and good luck to everyone and hope this is a good place to talk about this road in my life. All the best Karen The dizzy banker in the Wine Country-California
You tell a great story...too bad it isn't fiction, huh? You are doing great things for yourself by getting healthy. Keep in mind that many of us are seriously affected by enviromental allergens and reactions to some types of food. If that is the case we can help ourselves to some degree with avoidance. There are many meds to keep us from going into the whole vertigo/vomiting thing, and others have had good success with meds for dizziness too. Here's hoping you find the right combination to help you. Welcome to the forum.
Hi Karen and welcome to the forum, I am sorry to read that you’ve come down with MM but you’ve come to the right place to share your experiences. Vertigo has got to be the worst aspect of this disease; that is something we can all bank on. When I had my first vertigo attack I was in the privacy of my home and tried to get to the telephone to call 911, but I was too ill to even get to phone, much less try to dial a number while the world went round and round in stomach turning fashion. Perhaps, your effort to improve your overall health will be a silver lining for you. I certainly made efforts to reduce my sodium intake and also reexamined my overall diet to see what I could do to improve my health. There were plenty of things that I adjusted. I wish you luck with your return to work. I am a little concerned about your high stress position. Make sure you have ways to unwind from your workday. Stress is a precipitating factor for many of us. Wobbles
here are the responses to this post from when it was on The Front Porch http://www.menieres.org/forum/index.php/topic,147.0.html
Karen, Welcome to the forum. you are fun! What you experienced sounds like acute labyrinthitis. Meniere's is what the diagnosis is after extensive testing by expensive specialists. And since I have been erroneously diagnosed with many different vestibular disorders, I can tell you---they make mistakes! I was diagnosed with each of the above mentioned things, and I have neither as it turns out. See an otoneurologist or an otologist and get a second opinion, or even a third. These things are very difficult to diagnose. If they did it that fast, it's a guess by a professional who is inexperienced in these things. Whatever you have, we are glad you are here. We are sure going to enjoy your company on this forum. thornie
I can relate to you on many levels. As a woman and a professional, this disease has inexorably changed my life. I was hit for the first time while a stay-at-home mom eighteen months ago. Now I would like to go back to work as an attorney, but have serious concerns about whether I'll be able to perform, given the brain fog and how often I am unable to stand for long periods of time. Can't see how I'll be able to go to court again. And talk about high stress! On the other hand, I have long suffered from generlized anxiety disoder for which I have never sought treatment. I just lived with it, though it really detracted from my quality of life and probably made me a pretty unpleasant person to live with at times. The anxiety was a great motivator and enabled me to achieve tremendous objectives at work. However, I feel that MM was my giant wake up call...finally forced me to deal with my underlying demons. I think the anxiety is the root cause of this disease...the MM is the only way my subconscious could really get my attention. Although I've always had a good diet and exercise regularly, including yoga, I am now back in psychotherapy with a practitioner who uses hypnotherapy as well as EMDR (technique for rooting out causes of anxeity), go to an osteopath for regular body work (the neck/shoulder paid is GONE, I mean GONE), acupunturist because, what the hell, it might work, and the endorphin release afterward is wonderful!!! and finally a pyschiatrist for an evaluation for anti-anxiety medication. (Though no benzodiazipines for me.) I am also questioning the MM diagnosis...I don't have any hearing loss (thank god) and don't get full rotational vertigo. Just mild dizziness, the same kind you get when you stand up and all the blood rushes to your head. My dizziness feels more like I'm falling or trying to talk on a moving train. Not room spinning dizziness. And I've had tinnitus for 20 years with no other symptoms. Anyway, I'll be going back to the oto-neurologist to explore some other factors, such as the presence of TMJ. But had it not been for MM, I would not be doing the much-needed overhaul of my life.
Hi Karen, I hope your first day back to work has gone well and that some of your fears are now gone. As for your question, I must say, I have the same one. I was hit with this disease suddenly in February of this year. It hit very hard and very sudden. I tried to keep working, thinking that with determination I could get through....but unfortunately more than a good perspective was required. I had to leave work at the end of May to try and regain my strength. I have a high stress job as well - although I do not deal directly with the kind of numbers you face, I am accountable for the data used to make all the top decisions within a large crown corporation. Making mistakes is unacceptable. I have now been off work for 4 months and I'm happy to report that much of the brain fog has lifted - only just recently though. Time has been the biggest assistance - I think that cognitively speaking, my brain is beginning to adjust and compensate for whatever damage was done. I also spent my time while on leave dedicated to getting better. Three months of Vestibular Rehab Treatment (specialized physio therapy) has really helped. That being said, I'm not sure that my elevator will return to the top floor either. I sure hope it does. If not I will do what so many others have succeeded in doing - I will find a way to redefine myself and my career. Some even say that their lives are better for having faced this disease...it can be a real wake-up call, a time to change the way we approach life. I can only hope that I realize that kind of benefit. All the very best to you, Amethyst
Good luck......I agree that stress can really add to my buttons that set this off. Also doing too much physical work. I don't agree that for me anxiety is a cause, rather physical work. But we all have different buttons. I agree that seeing a menieres specialist is crucial for you. Being on a high salt diet is something that you can eliminate right away.....at least you have many things you can try, you are lucky in that. Are you on a diuretic? That for many of us takes enough extra fluid out of our systems to relieve the symptoms......for me it really helps. There are so many maintenance drugs you can take too......valium on a wavery day helps me greatly, and I don't need it every day. Is it possible that you can hire an assistant while you ease back in? I think that you need to see a specialist to guide you properly. I agree that I wouldn't take the emergency doc's or a neurologist's diagnosis.....you need a MENIERES specialist. Is that a neurotologist, gang? Good luck, so much to you. Let's hope it was a weird combo of things that set this off and with the right treatment you will be back to yourself. There are MANY things that while not permanent cures, can give you years of relief, such as Sac surgery or gent injections. These should be a last resort. Not trying to throw too much at you, the meniette is a huge help to me- www.medtronic.com. Best wishes and luck to you, Lisa
Hi Karen, I also would advise the Meniette machine. It is a great help to me also. No dizzyness or vertigo/vomiting since 2002. I went through the same thing you did. Awful, but I do get alot of endurance everyday from my Lord. I have a lot of head pressure and noise. Very annoying. Hang in there. Good luck on going back to work.
Hi Karen, Welcome to our the forum so graciously provided by Ray. You'll make a lot of friends here and get a lot of good advice. I hope you had a good first day back at work. I've done the 911, ambulance ride, hospital emergency room visit bit myself. Leon
Hi Karen. Since you are newly diagnosed and since there is a possibility that you could receive further enlightenment on what you have, and lets just suppose you do have Meniere's there are several question or answers that could apply to you. My first two WHAMO attacks happened when I was not at work, one following a peanut buster parfait from the DQ. I thought that it would teach me that because I have a lactose intolerance. Now I realize it was the chocolate. Anyway it put me flat in bed and spinning like a top and I swore off any dairy after that. Years later and another time time I got up spinning like crazy and feeling nauseated and had a hard time getting my bearings. It was the middle of the night and hubby out of town so I woke my daughter and had her drive me to the ER. I was pretty nauseated but didn't throw up. I was told I had a panic attack...breathe in a paper sack next time I felt like that. I returned home and vomited and was out for the count till that blew over. The next one happened years later at work and in front of 13 of my co-workers. I was older now and thinking a stroke or aneurism. It came completely out of left field. I couldn't walk, light sensitive and vomiting up stuff I didn't know I had eaten. I had been feeling light headed and sort of floating feeling days before and things sort of looked like heat off a hot pavement does - like visual blurring and strobing vision in the days leading up to the attack. From there it just continued to get worse. I had also been having problems with my phoen - thnking I had a staticy phone and later found it was ME. Why did I tell you this? Because the disease progresses differently for each person. I only told you about the attacks. I had been visiting the Dr. for noisey ears and fullness and sinus and allergy problems and never could find a reason for how I felt and why. I had seen PCP, allergist, ENT, neurologist and back again to the primary care physician. They couldn't tell me what was wrong. Since everyone differs in how their symptoms present thmselves and the order, it is safe to say that - "I don't know if your elevator will ever go to the top again." Mine did after the first two attacks and I seemed alright between for the most part until that memorable day at work. http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/expert/Meniere_s_Disease This is a good link that tells about the different stages of the disease. Often the very earliest appearance of symptoms get blown off by the Dr. or yourself. They seem inconsequential at the time and you forget until you look back and see a well traveled path. It seems that stage of the disease is left out becausemost forget about it. I continued to work until the Dr. forcefully told me I was disabled (I am bilateral and have been since the beginning and at the time the attacks were frequent and out of control) and to quit work and that happened almost 3 years later. Here is a really informative information site about Menier's disease. http://oto.wustl.edu/men/ Remember you are unique - like everyone else. I joined this forum in June of 2000 and found a whole lot of people who helped me along the way. I had already done a little research, but waited to join a support group when facing disability. I could not believe that this silly disease would bring such changes to my life. I was in total denial and thought I could beat it with a positive attitude and determination. That didn't work. The thing is, many people are able to get their symptoms under control and continue to work, while others are not able to do so. Meanwhile, you are in a good place for support and acknowledgement and support. We are just full of good information and stories, trials and tribulations, and sucessful and other not so successful treatment protocol and/or traveling the path. Knowing you are not dealing with this alone helps. At least there is that feeling of validation when someone else can say they experienced the same thing. Here's your room key! Welcome to the group. ??? Grab a chair and we'll talk, cry, laugh and share experiences both good and bad. dizzjo
Hi Karen and welcome ! Yes, you can work, and it sounds like that's your plan. The one thing I will say is stress and exhaustion are big triggers......so please take care of yourself.
Hello my new friends Thanks to everyone who is helping me with this disease, I really appreciate the immediate friendship and great knowledge you all seem to have on Menieres Disease. I did not go back to work this week as planned, unfortunately I got the spins again Friday and my doc decited to create a new cocktail of meds to try out. I will let you know how it is going, hopefully will start to feel better again soon. Karen aka Dizzy Banker
I am sorry about your setback. Try not to get discouraged. Healing an inner ear can be a long process and you may need to take a long term point of view. Joe
Miz Karen, Ma'am, I reckon you be faced with what a lotta folks on the forum have been dealin' with. You appear to be a gal of some fortitude and that will serve you well. I sure do wish you fulfillment on this journey. OBB
