Meniere’s Disease

By catherinebroughton1 On December 11, 2012 · 11 Comments

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My poor love, who only two days ago was well enough to walk round the shops and buy me these flowers, is in bed with yet another Meniere’s attack. At least he is in bed. If he is in a chair he sometimes has to let himself drop to the ground where, he says, he cannot fall any further.

This morning I gave him a small dose of Bromazapam, which seems to help. It makes him sleep (it is a tranquilizer) and sometimes, if we are lucky, the attack has passed (or at least eased-off) by the time he wakes.

I went straight on to Google, as I have so many times before, determined that I was going to find The Great Cure for him. No, no way. There are so many different variations of the illness, so many different triggers and so many people with ideas of how to cope with it, that it is impossible to do anything other than trial-and-error. I did, however, come across a blog which said this:

Meniere’s is a sneaky, cheating, ambushing disease which, after hitting you hard and making life unbearable, goes and hides – only to pounce back at you when you are least expecting it.

Yes, that sums it up.

Something that both Bruce and I are eternally grateful for is that it is not as bad as it could be, nor as bad as it has been. We remind ourselves of that every day. It is small consolation, however, when you are feeling sick and dizzy and too ill to stand up.

Meniere’s disease is not understood.

It seems to be generally agreed amid the medical fraternity that it is caused by an excess of fluid in the inner ear. The wrong messages are sent to the brain, resulting in dizziness, vomiting, headaches, nausea and distorted sounds. A characteristic of Bruce’s symptoms is that (whether he is feeling ill or well) he cannot tell where sounds come from – the telephone ringing in front of him sounds to him as though it is behind him. He tells me his eyes won’t be still and that they keep “darting off” to one corner. That seems to me to indicate that there is some kind of migraineous link.

Stress seems to be a trigger in a great many people. Air pressure seems to play a role. Any kind of stimulant – coffee, tea, alcohol, even cheese is a trigger. Loud noises or constant enclosed noises (like a lot of people in one room) could cause an attack. There also is evidence to suggest that there is a family link, and we wonder if there is indeed an “ear weakness” in the family because our younger son suffers from tinnitus and my late father-in-law went totally deaf as a result of meningitis. Meningitis can affect victims in different ways, and in this case it was the ears …. so yes, I do think there is some kind of “ear weakness” to be taken in to consideration.

One thing seems to be for certain and that is that there is no cure. This is an illness that my husband will always have now. I’d like to be able to encourage him and say that it will go away one day, but the damage to his inner ear is such that there will never be any “getting better”. So we enjoy the days when he is feeling well, and – thanks Heavens, that is most days – and cope with the days when he is feeling ill. And we just be grateful that it is not as bad as it could be nor as bad as it once was.

Catherine Broughton is a novelist, a poet and an artist. She is English and lives part of the year in France and part in Belize – when she is not in the UK. Her web site is turquoisemoon.co.uk

11 responses to Meniere’s Disease

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Catherine Broughton said on May 3, 2013

There are several official sites for Meniere’s Disease – just put Meniere’s in to Google. Glad you found my blog interesting and thanks for your comment.
Krystle said on May 2, 2013

If conceivable, as you clear expertise, would you mind updating your blog with far more information?

It really is damned valuable in return me.
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Catherine Broughton said on February 3, 2013

Thanks for your nice wishes.
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Catherine Broughton said on February 3, 2013

My husband was given Tanganil for years and years and he always claimed it did nothing to help. Then, just recently, the doctor said he doesn’t prescribe it any more – because it doesn’t work ! Goodness. I always champion docotrs, being from a family of doctors, but there are moments when ……
Mike said on January 29, 2013

Hi Catherine,

I really feel for Bruce as I endured 7 years of hell with Meniere’s disease. I have been symptom free since 2002. I found a way (nutrition and lifestyle)
The thing to remember is that Meniere’s is an idiopathic condition, meaning they don’t know the cause. So what they are saying when they say you have meniere’s is, we think we know what is happening in there but we don’t have a clue why. The ye then send you on your way with diuretics and if you are unlucky tranquilizers and say live with it. (least ways that is the experience of most people who contact us.) The is a reason for the inflammation in there and we can find it. We have been working hard with menieres-disease.ca on triggers and causes and although yes although it seems there are so many possible triggers, the original causes we have narrowed down to a handful of very common threads we have noticed after years of research and communicating with sufferers.

We are bringing a book out very soon and creating a membership site for sufferers. We hope to be able to sow doctors real statistics and real data in the future and hope that everyone looking for answers will be much better informed in the future and get relief much quicker.

Keep an eye on our blog menieres-help.com/blog and we will be posting news on that very soon. You will probably notice that we talk a lot about certain supplements that almost always give people relief as they have me. Sure we can live normal lives with no symptoms, but the supplements are expensive so we have been spending years looking at causes so people can do something about them.

And I will challenge ANY medical professional to a debate on this. We are tired of people coming to us after being told by their doctor there is nothing to be done, take the medicine and live with it. Sorry Docs that just is not good enough.

There IS light at the end of this twisted tunnel of ours. We just need to open our minds to all the possibilities. IN my case…a twisted spine, affecting my neck and in turn my ear.
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Catherine Broughton said on December 12, 2012

Hmmm … yes, that sounds like a great idea. Thanks.
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Catherine Broughton said on December 12, 2012

Thank you. I have passed these good wishes on to Bruce – he is still in bed today, having got up and staggered about a bit last evening. All the best to your grand dad. And Merry Christmas !
Catherine Broughton
turquoisemoon.co.uk
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paulinesmolders said on December 11, 2012

Dear Catherine,

I found your blog very interesting. My grandfather has menieres and mostly is affected by unsteadiness, he becomes very dizzy and finds it hard to walk in one line without support. Though the disease has cost him a lot, he has found a balance in his life and hasn´t had an episode in decades. I hope your husband finds his balance as well, and wish you all the best.
Claire Gillis said on December 11, 2012

Good luck with it all!! Sounds like you both have great attitudes to it.

Most practitioners nowadays will do skype/ phone consultations (obviously not for the osteopathy). I know some people who’ve had fantastic results with their health.
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Catherine Broughton said on December 11, 2012

Many thanks for this, Claire. I will certainly look in to it. We have tried acupuncture which seemed to help a little bit for a while, but I fear nutritional therapy may be a bit too much for the French … but I will have a good search!
Claire Gillis said on December 11, 2012

Hi, it may be worth considering seeing an experienced nutritional therapist (not sure how well known the discipline is in France!) to support as there may be other factors that can help boost overall health and therefore lessen symptoms (great that you have some known trigggers!) and also cranial osteopathy can be very beneficial to some people.