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About 2 years ago or so (give or take a few months) I was diagnosed by my doctor with Meniere's Disease.

For those of you who don't know what Menier's Diseas is, it is a diseas which causes extreme dizzyness, vertigo, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), and hearing loss. Noon truelly knows what cases it, but my doctor said that my particular case is probably caused by excess fluid in the ears, and may stem from a surgery done on my ear canals when i was 8 months old.

Out of all of the symptoms, I have... all of them. I am often dizzy or lightheaded, occationaly naseas from the vertigo, get a ringing in my ear when there is either a loud noise or dead silence, and have trouble hearing myself and others.

This here rant, is for my to get out EVERYTHING about my Meniere's Disease which is botheringme, or getting in the way of my lifestyle...

I love to eat. I love foods, of all kinds! Sometimes I can't stop eating, because the food just tastes so good! But when I get a spell, or "attack" as my doctor calls them, I can't eat anything. If I am thristy, I am lucky to get down water, and if i am hungry, i better be damn well prepared to dealwith it. For me, vertigo and dizzyness go han in hand. I get bth nasease, bad headaches, and I am incredibly tired. I have had people, my parents mostly, become very frustrated because I don't eat my supper or something similar.
It's also bad when i get sick. If I puk something up because it was spoiled or whatever, I ontinue to dry heav for the rest of the ay becuase the virtigo kicks in and continues to tell my bain to empty my stomach.

Dizzynss SUCKS. i have litteraly fallen to the floor because I suddenly didn't have the ability to stand. i have almost fallen out of my seat in class, or down a flght of stairs, durring an atack. My bst friend understands, and if I m dizzy she will hold my head still againt her shoulder or lap, becuas eit is the only way to convince my brain that no, the room is not spinning.
I am very happy that she understands, she is a very sympathetic person.

The ringing in my ear... is no problem really. Aside from being annoying, it cases no problems at all in my life...

But te worts ting, the most painful, domonant, an embarressing part of my Meniere's Diesease, is the hearing loss.

When I was getting tests done form my ears, long before I had ever heard of Menier's Disease, I was sent to get my hearing checked. i passed with flying olors. To this day, I can still ace any haring est the school or hospital gives me.
But it's different in real life, when there are not speakers litterally shover into my ears. When my parents are telling me about my chores, when my teachrs are giving instructions, when my friends are telling stories... I miss out. I have just barely passed assignments because I missed something my teacher said (yes, WITHOUT REALIZING IT) or gotten in trouble for doing one thing when my parents told me to do something else. It is very frustrating, and just makes me want to cry...

The other thing about my hearing loss is my volume. If I can't hear my voice, i can't control it. When i was a child, i gopt in trouble alot for yelling when I thought was talking, or even taling when I should have been whispering. Some of my better friens understand, and tell me discretely when i am getting to loud.

But lately, it's been getting worse. I will be sitting with my boyfrind and his family, and suddenly see from their body language that I am being loud, or am told by my mother not to yell at her (as much as I would love to sometimes, I would never actually yell at my mother).
All my lifeI was called loud, noisy, obnoxious, and annoying my classmates and bullies because I was so loud. I am still very self concious about it, but I can't just look at a random classmate and say "I have haring loss, so if i scream at you,tell me" I mean, I don't want them to know... I don't want anybody to know... but it's so hard to hide!



So as you can see, this s**t is REALLY getting in the way of my life. My doctor has told me to take dramamine, but even the less rowsy formula knocks me out, so I can't take it before school. I was also given water pills to drain the excess fluid, but I never take them anymore because they just don't help... i dont know what to do...

This rant really helped with some of my imediate stress, but of course there are still the unchanged factors which will come right back.

It is mopstly my family. They don't seem to understand that I CAN'T CONTROL THESE THINGS. Even my mother, who was the one who the doctor gave all of the information too. I guess that's mostly what gts me... being astrosized at family gatherigs because I can't hear or I am being loud or something...

Oh wel... i guessit will eventually get better...

Thanks to anyone who read this, wheatheris was out of sympathy or pure curiosity... but I really really just needed to rant...

Thanks heart

I feel the same.
Sometimes, we just gotta vent to the computer because there's people out there that just don't wanna hear it.
As for me, I don't have your disease, but the ringing in my ears has not ceased for a long time.
And to top it off, I still continue to listen to my iPod every single day.
At night, it really scares me, how the ringing just takes over the quiet night, and I can't sleep.
I just wanted to assure you, that you're not the only one with hearing problems. good luck to you. ^^

I am so sorry! I understand having medical stuff get in the way of school. I have arthritis and asthma so gym is tough and im embarrassed about how unathletic i am. but if any of ur classmates r jerks to u, just tell em to screw off and deal with it haha. it doesnt matter wut they think because in truth, their opinions r as meaningless as them xD good luck in life, and dont let them get u down!