wonderful visit to the ENT

[bazookaman]

I went to the ENT yesterday b/c the hearing in my left hear was bad. Unfortunately hearing loss in one ear in the low frequency range is apparently not a good thing. So he gave me two diagnoses. One is an acoustic neuroma and the other is meniere's disease. How mother fucking exciting.

[Paul F.]

If there's a bright side (and I know it doesn't help), it's only ONE ear.

Take care of yourself, man...

[OWC Jamie]

You've had episodes of vertigo ?

[bazookaman]

billb wrote:
You've had episodes of vertigo ?

Nope. That's the thing. I've had no vertigo.

Well. I take that back. Many years ago, I did. But my doctor and I traced that back to an OD of my cholesterol meds. Switched meds and never had vertigo again. Still haven't.

My only symptom now is the low frequency hearing impairment. But he did say meniere's can still manifest itself with JUST hearing loss.

[OWC Jamie]

Interesting, always thought if there was no vertigo it wasn't Meniere's.

We all hope it's neither.

[bazookaman]

That's what I thought as well. That vertigo was kind of the stand out symptom of Meniere's. I too, hope it's neither. Although he didn't exactly give me a third option as far as what it could be.

[bazookaman]

Cochlear endolymphatic hydrops is an uncommon variant of Meniere's disease. Meniere's disease occurs because of a condition of the inner ear whereby the normal fluids of the inner ear fail to resorb in a timely fashion while fluid continues to enter the channels of the inner ear. This leads to a build up of fluid pressure and eventually, in severe cases, rupture of internal membranes of the inner ear causing attacks of roaring tinnitus, whirling vertigo, and hearing loss. Cochlear variants of Meniere's are thought to exist whereby the fluid accumulation is isolated to the cochlear (hearing) portion of the inner ear without affecting the vestibular (balance) portion. Since the apex of the cochlea is wound much tighter than the base, the apex is more sensitive to pressure changes than the base. This explains why hydrops preferentially affects low frequencies (at the apex) as opposed to high frequencies (at the relatively wider base of the cochlea). Symptoms improve after the membrane is repaired as sodium and potassium concentrations revert to normal.

[anonymouse1]

I was diagnosed with the same two options in March, but my symptons were much worse-the hearing in one ear sounded like a broken car speaker, and at times I was staggering due to loss of balance. I threw up a couple of times due to vertigo. And today I'm about 95% healed. Some advice based on my experience:

Don't let them give you oral steroids. They will fck up your body. In my case, I started to develop cataracts-a known side effect, but the first doc didn't even say a word about it.

I switched docs. The new doc said "We can give you just a little steroid injection through your eardrum--no systemic problems. And you have to severely limit your intake of sodium--no eating unless you know how much salt is coming in."

I tried the limited salt diet for a while, and it helped a little bit. Then I did some research. Here are my conclusions; your mileage may very.

Nobody knows what's going on with Meniere's-not what causes it, not what cures it. Many folks get relief with a sodium limited diet, so that's worth trying. The second doc also gave me a mild diuretic, and that really helped. I'm still taking it, but not everyday anymore.

I'm convinced that at least for me, and probably for many others, Meniere's is stress-related. Studies show a direct correlation between the stress hormone, cortisol, and incidents of Meniers's. Interestingly, there's no such correlation between high blood pressure and Meniere's.

So I took steps to reduce my stress. First thing was to look at how I was taking on stress, by agreeing to commitments that I really didn't feel were right--i.e., not standing up for mself (again, YMMV-your stress causes may be different). Then I saw a superb acupunturist; not just someone who has the certificate, but someone who is a profound expert--people fly her around the world to teach. After seeing her for about 3 months, I got dramatic improvement.

Summary: No to steroids, yes to diuretics, find out ASAP how you're stressing yourself and fix it, and find the best acupunturist you can. It worked really, really well for me--I feel very fortunate and even blessed. Good luck!

[Rick-o]

Bummer! I hope you can resolve your health issues without hearing loss.

My sister, and a good friend both have/had meniere's disease. And both of them had surgery that cured the symptoms but caused hearing loss in the affected ear(s).

[bazookaman]

After suffering from several bouts of heavy duty vertigo from my cholesterol medicine I think id prefer hearing loss. If it came to that.