Hi Lovell,

My name is Joanne. I too have had this disease in my
right ear only. I don't have a shunt because my ear
doctor told me that they don't work. (sorry for those
who have them and it works I don't mean to offend
anyone). My doctor told me that if I have it in one
ear there is a good chance that I will never get it in
the other ear. Some cases I guess are different from
everyone else. Right now I am just on medication for
it. It has been helping somewhat but the next step
would be surgery of some kind. I know how you feel
with the dizziness and being off balance. If you need
to chat feel free to email me.

Good Luck,
Joanne
--- "lovelllee <lovelllee@...>"
<lovelllee@...> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> My name is Lovell. I live in the midwest and don't
> have much
> opportunity for support groups which I could
> certainly use. I've
> had Meniere's apparently since 1988. It wasn't
> diagnosed, however
> until 1993. I've been through what alot of you have
> been.
> Hopefully, I only have it in my left ear but that
> has been about all
> I can take! I've had a shunt that seemed to work
> for about a year
> and then came back even worse. (I hate to say that
> for the ones who
> have had a shunt and works for them). I then had a
> vestibular nerve
> section which, thankfully, relieved the vertigo. I
> still have a
> feeling of dizziness but just not with the spinning.
> Also, the other
> symptoms like tinnitus, fullness, blurred vision
> etc.
> Now I live with the fear of getting it in the other
> ear. If that
> should happen I would probably loose the hearing in
> that ear also,
> but they couldn't to another nerve section because
> then I would have
> no balance. This scares me more that loosing all of
> my hearing. I
> wake up at night with dizzy feeling and now almost
> as a reflex, have
> panic attacks. I think it must be kind of like post
> traumatic
> syndrome. It's like a nightmare you can't wake up
> from. I've been
> to a psychologist and several medical doctor's all
> trying to help
> me. The psychologist mostly suggested to keep busy
> which I do and
> does seem to help some but not always. Some of the
> drugs I have
> tried only seem to make the meniere's worse in
> different ways like
> the tinnitus. I am now on Prozac and that seems to
> help some but not
> much and would be open to trying any other
> suggestions.
>
> My question is, have any of you tried anything that
> helps you. Any
> drugs that help?
>
> My heart goes out to anyone that has this disease.
> It may not kill
> you---it just drives you nuts!
> '
> HELP!
>
> Lovell
> I'm on Prozac now and it does seem to help some.
>
>


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