Showing posts with label vertigo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vertigo. Show all posts

Thursday, January 14, 2021

It's still not a banana

But it probably is Meniere’s disease. Which isn’t really a disease, any more than the reactive airway disease I have is a disease. (I don't have asthma, pinky promise.)

Way back in 2014, I got my ears thoroughly checked out by both an ENT and an audiologist. I had some mild low frequency hearing loss, also fullness in the ears but I hadn’t yet had any vertigo or much tinnitus. I mean, let’s face it—as I’ve said elsewhere, I was a military musician for years and you cannot perform the 1812 Overture with real howitzers and not have some tinnitus. But it wasn’t bad, not yet anyway.

About a year later, I was back with the same issues: very full ears that actually aren’t full but sure feel that way, very mild tinnitus and increased lower frequency hearing loss. At that same visit, my ENT uncovered some pretty severe sinus infection issues I’d had for years; I ended up having sinus surgery which helped so much. And I also ended up with a hearing aid—I posted then that I gasped when I heard in stereo again, it had been so long.

But less than a year later my hearing resolved, which I did not expect. That’s when Meniere’s was first suggested and I pushed back hard. I felt like that was a BS diagnosis, and that people who are diagnosed with that tend to get slotted into the crazy, crackpot, difficult patient. No thanks.

I don’t remember exactly when I had the episodes of vertigo (probably because I don’t want to remember) but they were brutal. The world tilted and rotated; I couldn’t walk but had to crawl to the bathroom to puke my guts out for a couple of hours. That happened oh maybe three or four times and then vanished. (Yes, another Meniere’s symptom which I didn’t want to acknowledge.)

In the last six months, my hearing in my left ear has deteriorated a lot, the pressure in both ears is immense and the tinnitus in my left ear is more like standing right next to a Boing 767 engine roaring along on an international flight. It’s loud and it hurts

Then this last Saturday, I had an absolutely brutal episode of vertigo, complete with throwing up for several hours. I still feel the vertigo lingering at the edges but God willing, I’m not at the fall down and need to puke stage.

But that got me off my butt and I called my audiologist again, who said oh hey you have to see the ENT first. But he’s just going to send me to you! Yes, but you have to go to him first. And in a nice piece of luck, he had a cancelation the very next morning, which was yesterday. 

And yes, my hearing has deteriorated again. My audiologist reprogrammed my hearing aid for me on the spot, so now I’m hearing in stereo again. The ENT was great, did a really thorough review of my records with him and discussed everything in detail. Since I’m now presenting with all four symptoms, it’s pretty much a certainty that this is Meniere’s. He suggested considering a brain MRI since it’s been a few years (how sad is that that I’ve had more than one?) but doesn’t expect that will show anything. I don’t either but I agreed to get one because I also said I didn’t have melanoma, argued with my orthopedist that my pelvis was not fractured and didn’t really believe my oncologist that I had breast cancer.

So. Clearly I had better rely on my medical partners rather than my own opinion.

Here's my results from 2015 (dots show from 2014, the lines were from that day's test):


And from yesterday (dots are from 2018, the lines are from yesterday):


The right ear (which is weirdly on the left) now shows some typical high frequency hearing loss which generally happens to us all. It's the reverse slope hearing loss in the left ear that's the stumper.

The MRI is scheduled for January 28 so more to come. 


Sunday, January 11, 2015

A get well plan

I have a theory about the vertigo, shoulder pain and piroformis pain I’ve been enduring for the last half a year.

When I experienced the last awful round of vertigo (awful being characterized by not being able to stand up and also puking my guts out, no exaggeration, for several hours), I did a lot of online research. Yes, there’s a ton of misinformed advice out there, but I stuck to the more reputable sites like the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkin and other places like that. I learned that our ears have these crystals or rocks that can get all out of whack—although the first time I read about ear crystals, I thought it was utter bunk, I’ll be honest. Apparently these crystals get displaced and that’s what may cause the vertigo.

In addition to some drug treatments (which I am not really interested in, the side effects are not great plus I’d rather not be on drugs for the rest of my life), there’s a maneuver you can do which sort of treats your head as a snow globe and helps get those crystals back where they belong. As I read all this and looked at the maneuver, I realized that the increase in debilitating vertigo also coincided with some changes I’d made in my workout routines.

For the last 18 months, I’d shifted my focus from yoga and Pilates for strength to weight workout. I like being stronger and thought the weight workouts probably gave me more bang for my workout bucks. But this change meant that I neglected flexibility and also didn’t really get into any twisty, head down positions (hard to lift weights downward, right?). That meant I wasn’t doing poses that mimic the Epley maneuver, a possible treatment for vertigo. It also meant my hamstrings, piroformis and shoulder muscles weren’t getting stretched and strengthened in ways that mimic normal physical activities.

The week after Christmas, I went ahead and did the Epley maneuver at home and haven’t felt any worse (figured it was a low risk chance to take—doing that might help me and certainly wouldn’t hurt me). At the same time, I ordered a couple of new workout DVDs that are more about flexibility with strength rather than just strength.

So I'm incorporating the flexbility workouts while continuing with physical therapy. I’m hopeful these changes will help me with all three issues. It almost certainly won't hurt.

Here's a video of the Epley maneuver:


Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Vertigo—vɜrtɨɡoʊ

Until recently—as recently as Sunday—I would have told you that vertigo and dizziness were the same. Not so! I know now because I looked up inner ear + nausea after a truly wretched night of vertigo (not dizziness) and puking.

According to Dr. Google, dizziness is more about feeling as though you’re going to faint. You might see black spots and things may whirl but the emphasis is on the lightheaded feeling you get. Vertigo is feeling that everything is spinning around even when you know for a fact it is not (and it most certainly was not on Saturday night—but you couldn’t have convinced my brain and my stomach otherwise).

Thanks to seasonal allergies and bad ears, I generally have a few weeks every year when I can’t hear well because my ears are clogged. I’m pretty certain that I have woefully ineffective Eustachian tubes that don’t do a very good job draining my middle ears.  This lines up with my childhood experiences, when I did have a lot of ear infections.

This year, the tree pollen count started quite early and has been exceptionally high. So even with my normal regime of anti-allergy medications, I’ve been struggling with my ears. I’d had some bouts of vertigo but nothing like what happened Saturday night.

For about two hours, I barfed every 10 to 15 minutes while Kent, who truly is a saint, waited patiently for me to sort of shove the bucket his way before I gingerly lay back down again on the bed. He told me later he really wanted to rub my back or something while I was so ill, which while sweet would have earned him growls from me. I hate throwing up, absolutely hate it and I can’t stand to be touched while it’s going on. Just let me be miserable and then you can rub my back when it’s all over.

The next day, though, I was really curious. I knew I didn’t have anything seriously wrong, this whole episode was so clearly tied to my ears and my allergies but I wondered if there was anything else I could be doing. And that’s when I learned about the difference between vertigo and dizziness. Now you know it too.

As a sort of gross aside, the vertigo is mostly gone. In addition to ditching one OTC for a different one, I also suspect that my very vigorous puking somehow opened up those Eustachian tubes enough for my ears to drain.

And just because, here's an ear worm for you. Ear worms are nothing like being dizzy or having vertigo.