Something positive :)
Hi! I wanted to share my story especially to the younger generation of people with Menieres who may feel hopeless.
I’m 23F and I’ve had Menieres for a majority of my life. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been struggling with hearing in my left ear and vertigo. (I’d say around the age of 4/5.) No doctor could figure out what I had. I went to every specialist in the books and they would determine it as dehydration or lack of vitamins. I was finally taken seriously at the age of 16 and I was officially diagnosed with Menieres disease.
I’ve had my fair share of treatments and all of them either made me worse or did nothing. Bethahistine, steroid injections, etc. I even lived in an area where some of the best specialists in the country are at and they didn’t have the best solutions for me.
So what did I do? I took things slower than normal teens. One step at a time. I transferred to home school and graduated high school on time. I no longer could do competitive swim, but I took things slow and got back into it even if it caused me slight vertigo. Hell I could no longer play piano or violin because certain notes gave me vertigo, but I slowly got back into it because I loved it so much. I decided I was going to do college slower than others. Overtime, I adjusted to meniere’s and learned how to live on my own with it. I conquered my fear of driving, I was able to drink alcohol, eat fast food every once in a while, I’m a senior at UCSD about to graduate, and still live like a young adult without a trace of the disease. I learned my own ways of handling vertigo attacks. I purchased over the counter meclizine and Nature’s Fusions vertigo essential oil. I only take the meclizine before the attacks get bad. Also before the spells do get bad, I resort to low sodium meals until I feel okay again.
To TDLR: there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. There may not be a cure or a treatment that works for everyone, but there is still hope that one day there will be. Just keep living, don’t be afraid to take things at your own pace, and most importantly, don’t let this disease stop you from pursuing your dreams.