Until recently, my entire health inventory included a few broken bones and a tonsillectomy. Last year, though, the wellness I’d taken for granted fell away, leaving me ill and depressed for much of 2006.
I was diagnosed with a condition called Meniere’s disease (MD), which is a malfunction of the inner ear chamber where your bodies’ balance center sits. While some people who have MD experience hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing of the ear), I experienced neither. My main symptom, also a hallmark of the condition, was episodic, sudden severe vertigo. Vertigo is like having the spins, the ground feels as if it’s falling away and you feel like you’re tumbling over and over. The vertigo would last for several hours causing nausea and vomiting. It took six months to find the right doctor and narrow down the diagnosis with various tests. In the meantime, I suffered through four episodes.
The cause of MD is unknown, but it has been shown to be controlled for most sufferers by reducing the fluids in the inner ear chamber with medication and diet. Diuretics are the drug treatment of choice, but are not without side effects. The dietary guidelines involve strict sodium restriction (my limit was 1,500 mg/day), and avoidance of chocolate, caffeine and alcohol. I was religious with the guidelines, but after three more episodes, I was deemed a candidate for corrective surgery, which took place at the start of 2007, a full year since the first time the world literally flipped upside down on me.
Losing my health was very depressing for me. The seemingly unpredictable nature of what was happening made me very anxious, and the initial medication, valium, made me foggy and light headed. Between the meds and the illness itself, I came to believe I would never feel like my old self again. Going without chocolate only made it worse!
Accustomed to feeling well and being in charge of the health and wellness program of a major Chicago corporation, I also put a lot of pressure on myself to be well instead of giving myself time to get well. I struggled to accept the fact that I was down for what was going to be a long count. The diagnosis period is not short, and during that time I kept trying to rally myself, to will my brain to believe I was feeling fine. I give much of the credit to getting back on track to my ENT and surgeon, Dr. John Leonetti of Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
He would say it’s too early to say for sure, but since the surgery, I have hope that I am going to return to a healthy normal life and that a day will come that I won’t give the state of my equilibrium a second thought. While I no longer take the medication, the dietary restrictions are for the long haul, but I can see the shore of wellness and I think I can swim there.
Fran Scott is an exercise physiologist
Contact: franscottfitness@hotmail.com