Early Meniere's Disease

[Nic1982]

Would anyone be willing to post their experience at the start of menieres please?

My T started 8 weeks ago with ear pressure, subsided after a week & the had on/off dizziness for 5 days. Still had ear pressure but T & dizziness had eased until 2-3 weeks ago. T come back & now I'm feeling dizzy again :-(

In particular did you notice your hearing loss? My hearing test was normal but if was after symptoms had subsided, but I've never noticed a drop in hearing?

 

[Mad maggot]

It was suggested to me in the beginning by my GP and an ENT that my symptoms were possibly menierres. I researched and found that like many other diagnosis it's just a name for a bunch of symptoms and doesn't mean much. It's just a problem doctors come across and have no idea what it is but people have this bunch of symptoms so they tell you, you have mennieres and there's nothing to be done.
Now if you believe mennieres exists please don't get your knickers in a knot with me. I've had other qualified doctors tell me just what I've told you. So even doctors do not agree on meniers and whether it is a diagnosis of a specific cause or a name for a bunch of symptoms that can be caused by many different things. If people choose to accept the mennieres diagnosis that is totally up to them and their own research.
I'm just telling you not to accept this immediately. Research and make up your own mind and then decide what you think is best.

 

[PaulBe]

Funnily, naming a cluster of symptoms as a specific disease seems to often hinder its proper study. I did see a paper implicating Middle Ear Myoclonus in Menierre's particular cluster of symptoms. The same paper also described visible inflammatory changes of the inner ear tissue when the tympanic membrane was pulled back and the fibreoptic was passed through. Sounds like a still misunderstood disease process in search of interested study rather than a convenient "I don't have to do anything and still get paid" diagnosis.

 

[Quentino]

Sounds like a still misunderstood disease process in search of interested study rather than a convenient "I don't have to do anything and still get paid" diagnosis

What do you mean?

 

[linearb]

What do you mean?

I believe the suggestion that it is not the fault of specific medical practicioners that some complex and ill-defined conditions still lack a complete understanding and the sort of bulletproof, full diagnostic criteria which come from a complete understanding.

Put differently, if you had gone to an anatomical expert with these symptoms in the middle ages, they might have prescribed leeches to drain the demons living in your ear. We're in a much more sophisticated world now with SPECT scans and functional MRIs, but still have much the same problem.

 

[PaulBe]

What do you mean?

Linearb said it better than I could.

 

[Teri]

My experience:

onset: fluid in ear...ear pressure...left ear only
fluctuating hearing loss (most profound in left ear)...mild loss in right ear that additionally fluctuates
loud T
dizziness
headaches (not new symptom but continued)

diagnosis: endolymphatic hydrops/meneires (used interchangeably)

a year later.....

mild ear pressure
mild/lower T (in both ears now...but MUCH more noticeable in left) head noise--T still reacts to noise
milder dizziness
continued headaches


Never was given an MRI but a CAT scan (not sure why)
Taking a diuretic daily
lowered salt intake
no alcohol
less caffine

 

[PaulBe]

Taking a diuretic daily
lowered salt intake
no alcohol
less caffine

Does any of that make any difference?

 

[Teri]

@PaulBe
I have not had any severe symptoms for over a year....so....perhaps.

 

[Nucleo]

Does any of that make any difference?

Eh. I came across an article that mentioned drinking lots of water might be the best treatment for Menieres.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16885753

It was from 2006 and it doesn't seem there was any follow up study.

 

[SueR]

Drinking a lot of water would counter the sodium, I'd think. So same as lowering sodium intake ?

 

[Nucleo]

Drinking a lot of water would counter the sodium, I'd think. So same as lowering sodium intake ?

That's the idea behind prescribing diuretics.