Saturday, January 23, 2010

Meniers Disease

In the early 1990's I was having a problem with getting dizzy. Sometimes it would last just a little while, sometimes it lasted for hours. Once it started, I just had to wait it out. Most of the time I would go to bed, wait for the spinning to stop, then try to sleep. There were times when if I moved my head, I had to throw up. I couldn't stand because I was so dizzy, so I had to crawl to the bathroom. Not good!
I went to my Dr. to find out what was wrong with me. He did a CAT scan but found nothing (My husband thought that was great!) to be concerned with. The dizziness didn't happen every day or even every week. I was sent to a specialist.
Dr. Verjabedian came in for an interview. I sat on the exam table while he asked me questions.
"Do you smoke?"
"No."
"Do you drink coffee?"
"No."
"Do you drink alcohol?"
"No."
"Not even at meals?"
"No. It's a religious thing with me."
Finally he got to the question, "Do you eat chocolate?"
"Yes."
"O.k. You need to eliminate that from your diet."
I sat there in shock! Eliminate chocolate? Is this guy un-American? We both just sat there looking at each other. "How about we go back to the question about coffee and I admit that I drink coffee? Then we can keep the chocolate?"
He laughed. I went without chocolate for over a month while being tested.
I went through extensive testing of my ears and hearing with just the conclusion that I have lost substantial hearing. I knew that! Could have saved lots of money and been happy eating chocolate.
Dr. V. put me on anti-vert, a drug for dizziness. It didn't help with the 'attacks'. The only thing the drug did was make me loopier than usual. All I wanted to do was sleep.
Finally, after eliminating everything else (this took months), the verdict came back as Meniers Disease. Why? I think it was used as a catch-all for whatever they couldn't diagnose.
The year we move to Rochester was the worst year for me. Since then, the attacks have pretty much gone away - thank heaven!!!!

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