The Mystery of Meniere's Disease

When I received a call at work from my husband, the sound of his voice was almost unrecognizable. It was muffled and guttural, but I could hear the fear in his voice. He said he was on the bathroom floor and couldn't get up. The room was spinning badly, he moaned and he was having trouble hearing. Of course, I rushed home to find him where I heard him last. It took a while to get him up, and into the bed, but he said he couldn't open his eyes because of the severe dizziness. After an emergency call to the doctor, and a slow attempt to get him into the car, I rushed to the physician's office, so that my husband could be examined and treated. His skin was clammy, his heart racing, and he still had severe vertigo. This seemed to also be causing nausea and vomiting. The doctor felt that my husband should be treated at the hospital, so he requested an ambulance. At the hospital, he was given fluids and examined. After many hours of indecision, it was determined to be a very bad case of food poisoning. It took several days for my husband to begin to feel better and as he began to improve he discussed the episode in detail. He was driving home from a home improvement store and he started to feel strange and slightly dizzy. His ears were ringing and he had to concentrate to keep the wheel straight in order to drive. The dizziness began to grow in intensity and by the time he got home, and tried to get out of the truck, he literally dropped to the ground. Unable to get up, he crawled into the house and ended up in the bathroom, with the room still spinning and began vomiting.

Less than six months later, I received a call at work from my daughter, that her Dad was very sick again with very similar symptoms to his prior episode. When I got home shortly after the call, I found him in a similar, but seemingly more severe condition. He couldn't stop vomiting and he was cold and clammy to the touch. When I called the doctor, he told me to call the ambulance directly and get him to the hospital. At the hospital, they stabilized his condition and put him through a battery of tests, including brain scans to determine if there was a tumor lurking that could be causing his condition. No conclusion was determined, and he was sent home after many hours of receiving antinausea medication and fluids to replace the fluid loss during the severe retching. We were advised to followup with our doctor the next day.

When we went to see the doctor, my husband was still extremely tired, had lingering vertigo, but very minor in comparison to the previous day. The doctor felt that based on the symptoms that my husband experienced and the similarity of the episodes, he diagnosed the condition as a disease called Meniere's disease. We had never heard of it, but he explained that Meniere's is a disease of the inner ear that causes severe vertigo due to fluid retention. This causes imbalance in the inner ear that results in the vertigo, ringing in the ears, and could lead to permanent hearing loss. The other symptoms like the racing heart rate and clammy skin were most likely caused by the fear and anxiety of the vertigo and the unknown cause of the condition.

Obviously, the diagnosis was a shock and although not life threatening it can be debilitating depending on the severity and frequency of the episodes. The symptoms of the condition vary from person to person, so it is difficult to predict its progression. We were advised to see an ear, nose and throat specialist to further examine the condition. The specialist confirmed the Meniere's diagnosis based upon the description of the symptoms and ruling out all other possibilities. Now we had to learn how to live with this condition.

Treating this illness during an attack to minimize its severity is important, but more critical is the attempt to prevent the attacks from happening. We were advised to monitor the salt in my husband's diet as the salt can retain fluids in the body, including the inner ear, which when it builds up, can cause a Meniere's attack to occur. We were also advised to get a baseline hearing test and to be retested each year to determine if the attacks were actually leading to hearing loss. When my husband would actually feel the symptoms, he was advised to take an anti-vertigo drug as soon as possible, to minimize the affects of the attack. This seemed to help. Also actually knowing what was causing the attacks decreased the anxiety, and he has learned to listen to his body. When an attack is coming on, which he can tell through the fullness in his ears and the constant ringing, he knows the dizziness will begin shortly and tries to get to bed as soon as he can. Using the medication will usually put him to sleep for hours. It takes approximately 4-6 days before he truly begins to feel like himself again and is plagued with fatigue for some time after that.

In his case, it seems that his attacks are triggered by stress or a drastic change in the temperature or humidity and certain high sodium foods. Knowing these factors keeps us aware and helps in preventing or limiting the severity of the attacks. He is very lucky as he only experiences the attacks about two to three times a year, while some people have them daily. There has been some minor decrease in hearing for him, but nothing drastic. Like any other condition, we have learned extensively how to treat the symptoms, so that the effects are minimal. We try and stay on top of the research and newest treatments for this condition and in the meantime are glad when days weeks and months pass without an attack.