Part 3 of C**** V****

Now on to the rest of the story....

Now that I had a referral to an ENT, I had to still wait patiently to get in to be seen by them. They were booked several weeks out. 

several weeks later....It was finally time for me to go be seen and find out why I had lost part of my hearing and what that crazy noise in my one ear was and why it felt stuffy at times. 

On my first visit, the Otolaryngologist did his assessment and offered a steroid to me to see if that would help out with my ear issues. I opted for the ear injections since the oral form can raise your blood sugar higher. I took one that day and then was rescheduled to come back to do another round. 

I also saw the Audiologist that day and it was determined that I had low frequency hearing loss in that ear. 

The Doctor was skeptical to give me a diagnosis that day because I had one main symptom that I had not experienced yet. Or at least we didn't think I had but technically I had but not in the typical way that most with the disease that he was thinking that I had, do. 

That one symptom which makes up the four symptoms that I had for the disease had only happened once so far before my visit with him but at that time I wasn't sure what it was that had happened to me.

Before I went to that first visit, one evening as I was trying to get back in the swing of things and starting to feel halfway better, I was walking across my bedroom floor and all of a sudden it was like I didn't have full control over my balance. I started swaying to the side when I was trying to walk straight. I didn't really feel like I was completely dizzy at that moment but I knew something wasn't right. I knew my head felt a little fuzzy but I was able to talk and was thinking clearly and not confused but was having trouble walking straight so that is when I went to lie down for a bit. 

I went ahead and took some dizziness medicine that was prescribed to me during my illness. So, it sort of knocked me out for a bit and when I woke up I did feel better and was able to at least walk straight. I was just a little groggy and still felt a little fuzzy headed. So, I made a note that I would definitely let the Doctor know that this happened when I went to my visit with him.

I did tell the Doctor this issue along with the other three issues I was having with the hearing loss, Tinnitus (ringing and noise in the ear), and ear stuffiness. But, he said without the one main symptom of Vertigo that he was reluctant to say it was Meniere's Disease. So my initial thought was, well good....I wouldn't want it to be that anyway and especially after I got home and was reading up on it. I had high hopes that day that the steroid injections would do the trick and I would be on my way to recovery soon. 

But.....the steroid injection did nothing for me, other than a brief few hours of my ear opening up and hearing somewhat better than it had been, it went back to how it was before the injection. So it was very short lived. 

It would be two weeks before I went back for another injection and about three weeks before I would see the first Doctor that I had seen again.

On my return trip I didn't see the original Doctor due to him not being there so I didn't really talk much about my symptoms with the second Doctor but did let him know that day what all was going on with me. So, he didn't want to overstep the first Doctor's pre diagnosis for me so he sent me on the way. 

He was very kind though and I knew that we would hopefully get this mystery with my ear figured out eventually so not really figuring anything out that day didn't bother me. I was just hoping that maybe another round of steroid would do the trick. BTW....it was after that, that I realized that this Doctor played NFL Football for several different teams along with playing College Football at Liberty in Lynchburg Virginia. So I kind of met a famous person. haha. Not the first one that I've met though. 

I wish that I could say that the second injection helped, but it did not, not even for one second. So feeling a little defeated I was still wanting to know what was going on. And boy did I finally find out what a true Vertigo attack feels like. Because I suffered a couple or so before returning back to meet with the first Doctor. 

Before going to my appointment that day, I was going to tell him when he entered the room, that I think I do have Meniere's Disease but before I could really get it out of my mouth, he said to me, after I told him that I had suffered some Vertigo spells, that I had Meniere's Disease. They also rechecked my hearing that day and it had improved some. 

I haven't had it rechecked since that day but I feel like it fluctuates all of the time. I definitely have hearing loss still in that ear though. And of course have suffered all of the other symptoms as well on a continuous basis.  

I will end this blog and will be writing more though, because I wanted to talk about Vertigo attacks some more and also how I am doing today with it. 

I first got diagnosed at the beginning of 2021 and it is now nearing the beginning of 2024. So I will soon be nearing my 3 year Anniversary and it's hard to believe it has been that long already. 

Another disease that I have been diagnosed with was two years prior which I will also talk about in a later blog. I don't talk about that one as much because I feel like it didn't have as much impact on my life as Meniere's has but in actuality it has but the difference is that I've been able to deal with it a lot better than the latter one. 

If you've enjoyed reading my blog, continue to stay tuned for more. 

I will talk more about how I am doing at the present moment.