its in my head :):)

Hi Jeanne - What a great post!! Thanks so much for your valuable input!

 

don't forget to wear your sweat shirt

 

Jeanne, I would be careful at accepting a meniere's diagnosis. Sometimes we ache so much to put a name to our symptoms, we are willing to accept a diagnosis even if it isn't the correct one.

Meniere's is an episodic disease, especially in the starting years. Some symptoms like tinnitus and hearing loss may become chronic many years down the road. However, chronic lightheadedness or dizziness, as you describe, is never meniere's disease. I can back this up with countless medical data if you would like. Violent vertigo attacks that occur episodically are what people with meniere's experience and the attacks can last for hours. Sometimes, transient dizziness follows for a day or two. Here is one of the best, and most recent decsriptions of true meniere's disease:

Meniérè’s disease is a clinical syndrome that consists of four symptoms:

1) Episodes of severe, incapacitating vertigo lasting on the order of several minutes to a few hours (usually 30 minutes to 8 hours or so). The vertigo is usually a sensation of spinning, but can also be a feeling of being pushed or pulled (pulsion). In rare forms of Meniérè’s disease, patients experience sudden “drop-attacks”, which cause them to fall suddenly to the ground without warning and without loss of consciousness (the so-called otolithic crisis of Tumarkin). These attacks last only for a few seconds, but because of their unpredictability and severity are potentially the most devastating amongst all forms of Meniérè’s disease.

2) Fluctuating, slowly progressive hearing loss-- the hearing loss is of a “sensorineural” type, arising in the inner ear. The hearing classically will worsen during a vertigo attack, and may improve after resolution of the acute symptoms.

3)Episodic tinnitus (abnormal perception of sound in the ear; usually a roaring, buzzing or ringing)-- there is frequently a baseline tinnitus in the ear, but this typically worsens temporarily with a vertigo attack.

4) Aural fullness-- a sensation of plugging or clogging in the ear that worsens when a vertigo attack begins.
As emphasized above, more important than the presence of these 4 symptoms in a single patient, is the pattern in which they occur. Many patients with ear problems will have one or all of these symptoms at some point. Patients with Meniérè’s will have all of them (or at least 2-3 of them) come on together in distinct episodes.

Meniérè’s attacks are usually very distinct. Patients with Meniérè’s disease will typically remember the first attack they had, and can catalogue each of the distinct episodes as they occur. This differs from many other types of vertigo and balance disorders in which the symptoms are more vague and the episodes less distinct. In between the episodes, most Meniérè’s patients feel well, though they can have significant disability from the uncertainty of when the next attack will come on.

Source:

http://www.umm.edu/otolaryngology/menieres_disease.html


You mentioned a clicking (ticks) sound in your ear. This, too, is not meniere's disease. This is due to a condition called Myoclonus of the Stapedius and Tensor Tympani.
There are two muscles within the middle ear attached to the middle ear bones. These are the stapedius, attached to the stapes, and the tensor tympani, attached to the malleus. Normally, these muscles function as a protective mechanism against loud sound. When the muscle begins to spontaneously contract, it usually does so in a rhythmic pattern and gives the impression of a repetitive ticking, clicking, or fluttering sound. Although it is annoying, this type of tinnitus is not dangerous, is often brief, and usually resolves without treatment.

Lastly, it sounds more to me that you may be suffering from BPPV: Vertigo that is caused by movement of the head. This is what you were originally diagnosed with so I would further explore this. Your depression and anxiety are making your symptoms so much worse and robbing you of your life. If these are treated, you will feel so much better.

This I can promise you.

Good luck!

 

thanks for the replies guys

yes linda i was sick before hubby's back
the only tests she did were to find out how i feel about hubby being on worker comp ???
and then she proceded to tell me she had a patient with tinitus
whose boyfriend left her and the tinitus started, and when she had treated her
she woke up one day and it was gone, so she cured her
sorry i just have to laugh
needless to say i will not be going back there again

lisa

 

We should start an It's All In Your Head Club

When I ended up in the ER back in December the first thing the doctor did when he entered the room was asked whether I was under a lot of stress. He didn't even ask me; he asked my husband. I told him I was not stressed out until the world started spinning at a million miles a second and I could not stand on my own. He put me on an IV because I was very dehydrated and told me he wanted to give me ativan. Again I told him I was not stressed out and that I didn't need an antianxiety med. He ended up giving it to me anyways without my permission. It did help make the attack a little more tolerable but it didn't stop it. When I was feeling a little better the doctor discharged me and told my husband that he should try to reduce the stress in my life. Looking back now, that day was a turning point for my husband and I. He never treated me the same again and he has never aknowlaged that I have a health problem since.

I didn't write this for sympathy but to prove a point. Doctors are suppose to do no harm but when they are making assumptions like this with no test results to back it up, they are causing harm. It was later that I found out that ativan is also a vistibular suppressant and in June I found out that I had lost all vistibular function in my left ear. I have inner ear dysfunction not stress.

Nassman please do not take this the wrong way because I am not trying to criticize you. I know you are well versed in the literature but science is biased even though they try not to be. Culture and belief of what is already "known" color science and the questions asked as well as the approach used to ask those questions. Because a link was established between anxiety and dizziness first it took many years for anyone to even consider that this relationship was much more complex. It was only after a paper came out showing that agoraphobia could be split into 2 groups, those with mental health problems and those with vistibular problems, that the medical community started to look more closely at some of the common "mental health" complaints people with inner ear problems have and at last are asking the question "are these complaints psychosomatic or somatopsychic" and "how do you tell the difference". I was reading an article a while ago that stated that the authors were beginning to think that vistibular dysfunction maybe more prevalent then currently believed because an unknown number of inner ear patients were being treated as mental health patients.

I'm not a doctor but I do know me better then anybody and what is wrong with me was not caused by anxiety.

For those of you who actually read this far, here is a link to a free book that helped me out more than I can say. The whole book is good but chapter 4 deals with the question of psychosomatic vs somatopsychic.
http://www.menieres.co.uk/vertigo_and_dizziness_book_download.html

I hope it helps you as much as it has helped me.
Gwen

 

The psychologist that said that remark to your husband should consider going back to school. That is the most absurd remark I've heard in a long time. Would'nt it be nice to put the psychologist in our shoes, for just one day? Dizzyness, drop attacks, hearing problems, ear pressure, the list goes on. It takes alot of courage to get through the rough days; we need support and upderstanding.
Sincerely,
ChatKat
I

 

----------------

 

I agree, excellent post Gwen! When this all first started for me in '79 or '80 (I wasn't diagnosed with ANYTHING! til 2004!) it was always - "Are you pregnant?" Funny that's what they asked me and not was I under stress. ???

 

In the days of Prosper Meniere, they put people like us in insane asylums because they didn't understand what was happening to us. He is the one who determined it's not in our head but in our ears.

My point before was that Lisa had dizziness BEFORE her hubby had his problems. If the doctor had bothered to ask if she had the symptoms prior to hubby's situation, the doc would have known the symptoms were not a result of anxiety about hubby.

 

Nassman, thanks for the words of wisdom. I have been searching since 1969, and was diagnosed. In 79 and 84 they performed surgery on my 8th nerve. It's a decompression surgery they were performing in Pittsburgh. I was left with surgery but the attacks still happened. I have done acupuncture, therapy (physical & psycho), taken tons of meds, allergy shots, and other forms of cures. I will not jump. I am aware that this is hard to diagnosis, and am willing to listen to another doctor with a plan.

 

she did ask linda and i told her but all i got from her was it was because hubby was sick
i will not go see her again thats for sure

if i feel i need another shrink i will find a new one

lisa

 

Amazing, these people expect respect, and don't give their patients any respect, terrible!
It is true, we need to lean on each other, because until you have walked in someones' shoes you have no idea where they have traveled and what it felt like!

 

Yeah, one that doesn't tell you it's all in your head!!

What happened to Ripper Roo? I liked that name Lisa! I liked Wally Wombat, but figured everyone knew me as Robyn, so it stayed the same.

 

BLESS YOUR HEART! I WENT TO 5 DOCTORS BEFORE I FOUND ONE WHO KNEW ABOUT MENIERES! SEVERAL OF THEM, I GOT UP AND STAGGERED OUT OF THE OFFICE AND TOLD THEM HOW STUPID I THOUGHT THEY WERE! ONE DECIDED THAT I WAS SUFFERING FROM
EMPTY NEST SYSTEMS....GZEEEZZZ. MY NEST HAD BEEN EMPTY FOR 22 YEARS AND I HAD MY GRANDSON LIVING WITH ME AT THE TIME.
ONE THREW A DIET PLAN AT ME AND DIDN'T EVEN GIVE ME A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN THAT I HAD ALREADY BEEN THROUGH THE ALLERGY TESTS! ALL DOCTORS DON'T DESERVE TO HAVE A LICENSE, BUT THEY DO AND AS PATIENTS, WE HAVE TO WEED OUT THE QUAKES AND FIND THE ONES WHO ARE COMPETENT. GOOD LUCK...GOD BLESS...TWINKLE

 

Hi Lisa,
You should have told her that its not in your damn head..its in your damn ear!!!
People just have NO clue of what we go thru in life!!! Hang in there!!

Maggie

 

YES,I DO BELIEVE IT AS I WAS SENT TO A SPECIALIST AT SW MEDICAL CENTER AND THE PHYSICIAN THERE THOUGHT THE PROBLEM WAS DEPRESSION AND OFFERED ME A MOOD ELEVATOR!!! I DECLINED AND LEFT THERE, NEVER TO RETURN.
I DON'T WANT ATTENTION...I AM NOT DEPRESSED...I AM FRUSTRATED THAT NO ONE CAN GIVE ME ANY ANSWERS OR TREATMENTS THAT MAKE THIS GO AWAY!
I HAVE TO ADMIT THAT THE ACUPUNCTURE AND CHIROPRACTIC CARE HAS HELPED MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE.
HANG IN THERE...HUGS, TWINKLE

 

Lisa, sadly it doesn't surprise me that that doc said that. What I have done in the past (don't know if they have a surperior at a hospital) is send a "clarification" letter to anyone she is associated with, a nice one, explaining that you were taken aback by her commenting on an area where she has a lack of education. I did that once for a doc who told me "it was my time of month" for another issue that I almost died from, (undiagnosed hyperthyroid) and got great satisfaction when his section head had him call me. Sorry that that uneducated person was able to even be in a position to talk with you. Lisa

 

Gwen and Dianne, excellent posts. I so agree with Dianne's point that GOOD docs who are specialists are able to diagnose patients who dont' fit the exact book specified symptoms. I had a doc who successfully diagnosed me with ulcerative colitis. I had no pain, which is a major hallmark of the disease. I was lucky enough to "get bumped up the ladder" to the most expert doc, and was lucky to stay in his care for many years. AND YET, this nice, wonderful doc (who I have the utmost respect for) missed my Type 1 diabetes symptoms, and then later my thyroid symptoms (lost 15 pounds on the first, and 25 on the 2nd, and went into thyrotoxic shock in the ER, almost didn't make it) The other docs thought it was a nervous condition or something All idiots. The point is, everyone has to be their own advocate, it's true, but good docs will think outside of the box. My ulcerative colitis doc was GREAT in his area, and had the wonderful grace to say to all of his residents I met later, this is a patient we continually screw up on....he also has a wonderful sense of humor. I really like when he says that. Lisa