Hi kelly! I am wondering the same thing! Have had many ear infections over the years and slight tinitus and am now having bad 'dizzy' spells. Have been given some pills by the doc and they seem to be helping. I now have to take these for approx 1 month and then go back - if they haven't worked I then have to go to ent at the hospital. The reason meniers has come to mind with me is that my grandad is also a sufferer and I have been trying to find out if it is hereditary? Please let me know how you got on at the hospital! Would be very interested.....

Hi! I completely sympathize with you. I have suffered with the same symptoms and I am also waiting to go to the ent. I don't have the ear infections you have, but I have major vertigo spells. They get so bad that I can't hear or see clearly. When you go to the Dr., insist that he checks you out for md. I have done some research and there are specific tests he can run to determine this. According to my research, some of the symptoms of md are vertigo (intense), vomiting & nausea with vertigo spells, pressure around the ears, and in some cases, tmj. My regular Dr. Said not to take this lightly and to get checked out completely if you have these symptoms. If undetected, it can cause hearing loss and possibly deafness. I know how dibilitating this can be and frsutrating as well. My family tries to understand but I don' think they realize just how bad it can get. I know how you feel and hope you find out soon so you can get things back in control.

Tell your doctor that you would like to try vestibular therapy -- see end. Also remember to always take your meclyzine -- sometimes I have to take five pills or more a day so I don't have an episode.

I will tell you that stress, lack of sleep and caffeine/tobacco/alcohol can make the symptoms worse. You need to know your triggers to an episode and try to avoid them.

Sounds to me like you have meniere's. I had my first episode last january while waiting to pick up my children from daycare. My head starting feeling very strange and everything appeared to be amplified. Somehow I was able to drive home safely, was dizzy -- don't ever do this -- and by the time I got home, I was able to unlock the door and get to the bathroom to throw for quite a while. Then I passed out. My oldest daughter had gotten her sister's ready for school the next day and had called a friend to pick them up. I didn't know what the heck was going on!
Then I had another episode that friday night. I decided to go to the emergency room at ohio state on saturday, they did a cat scan and spinal tap to check for meningitis. Everything there was good.
I got on the internet and put in my symptoms and bam -- there it was meniere's disease and I knew that I had it. I made an appointment for my doctor, she told me to keep taking my meclyzine and phengran that I got from the hospital.

After about three months or so of continuously feeling like crap, she referred me to an ent. He did not tell me right away that I had meniere's -- even though I already knew -- doctor's have to wait for a few months to see if any other symptoms may arise because there are other diseases that mimic the ones of meniere's. I had an mri to check for a tumor -- none. Finally, he said yes you have meniere's. I had my hearing checked and am losing my hearing in the left ear.

I typically feel bad for a while before I have an episode, maybe a week and sometimes I just want to not take my meclyzine so I can have my episode and get back to feeling like myself. And I have found if I don't have an episode that when I do it will be a bad one, especially if I have not been myself for a while.

I don't get earaches, just tinnitus very bad and when an episode is about to happen everything is very loud and sounds as though right in my ear.

I will tell you to talk to your doctor about vestibular therapy; I am not able to do it because the place that does it here, where I live, does not accept my insurance and I can not afford it. They say it is good. I checked it out on the net and it is a type of physical therapy that makes you dizzy to over-compensate (i guess) for your loss of balance at times. I will put this on the first line in case you don't want to read all of this.

I have meniere's disease and although it does sound suspiciously like mm (easier way to say) I would ask for a referral if you haven't already got one,i use a fantastic support group site which is full of information and others are always good with their advice no problem to big or small can be answered normally I would write out a page of advice but hey i'm dizzy today ,it's not the nicest of things to suffer but it isn't terminal it's not the end of the world and their are many many sufferers I take serc(betahistine) and stemetil also cutting down sodium and working out your triggers is a good idea but get it checked out before you worry too much about something you may or may not have,check out the website if you like it might be a great help
just type in meniere's org and you should find it

For the last 3 months I have had many attacks of vertigo, dizziness, fullness/pressure in the ears, ringing, profuse sweating, vomiting the whole ball of wax.

I have been seeing an ENT and he has done several test. MRI (clean), hearing test ( says it is great), ENG balance test (said it was normal) and now I am on the low salt diet as well as Topamax for my migraines.

I have always had migraines as long as I can remember, it runs in the family. I have never had vertigo until last march though.

I am not a Doctor, but the idea is to figure out what is triggering the symptoms, correct?

My ENT is leaning towards Migraine Associated Vertigo, yet has not asked nor given me the chance to tell him what I think is triggering this.

I am a carpenter by trade and every attack has been while doing work related movement, ie; bending over, working with hands overhead, twisting and turning, heavy lifting things of that nature. This has never brought on a migraine but it is now causing my vertigo and seams to be taking less and less to bring it on.

My question to all of you is, does anybody have either of these disease's and what are your triggers?

Thanks

I was diagnosed with Meniere's and I completely understand people when they complain about it, especially the vertigos. I did not have any vertigo for almost two years now. I watched my sodium and alcohol intake very carefully for a year (low sodium and no alcohol). Also try to reduce sources of stress. There are some suggestions I read and listed here for others regarding the low sodium diet. I hope they help you too. Here is the info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_sodium_di et

Regards,
U.