Meniere's and Where Did My Salt Go?

So back in April I was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease. Just freakin peachy. Well I guess I shouldn't say that I was diagnosed with it because this is the words out of the doctors mouth. "I don't want to put you in a box you don't need to be in, so because you don't have hearing loss, I'm going to say that you "might" have Meniere's." With that he recommended I go on a low sodium diet and sent me off to a Vestibular Therapist (funny how when I was going I could never remember the name of the therapy and now, not only can I remember it but I spelled it right the first time.)to learn how to walk with the vertigo, dizziness that hits me at times. Well I didn't really need to go there, because this had been going on for over a year, and I kinda figured it out as I stumbled about. Sort of. He referred me to have a CAT scan of my sinuses to make sure there wasn't anything funny going on there. He ended the appointment with a goodbye and good luck.

There wasn't a follow-up appointment with him, although when I had the CAT scan done they did say I had beautiful sinuses. Which considering all the sinus infections I get, kinda surprised me. So here I was left to go to therapy and reduce the amount of sodium I ate. 

At first my therapist thought my problems were because of my seizure meds, because if you take Dilantin at high levels for several years you run the risk of Neuropathy. She noticed that after I had seen her for a couple of weeks my balance seemed a bit better. The only thing different was I was I had cut my sodium intake by 75% and stopped drinking my pop. In the end she even admitted that I probably had Meniere's since reducing my sodium intake seemed to help. 

So now where does that leave me? Well, I guess no where. I was doing well on the diet, and even began to think I really didn't have anything wrong with me. Until this week that is, when out of no where I got laid out for a week. The vertigo, and dizziness was crazy, and brain fog, and the need to sleep were intense. A couple of times I thought my stomach was going to revolt, but I just went to bed. The constant feeling of the need to "pop" my ears drove me nuts. 

I have no idea what brought this episode upon me, but holy hannah it sucked. Walking down the hallway was interesting as I bounced off one wall only to bounce off the other wall. I have bruises that I don't remember getting. I can only assume they came from me smacking into something. During this week I vaguely remember the doctor saying that he would give me a letter stating I had Meniere's so that if I needed it I could prove that I am in fact not drunk. Must remember to get that. 

It kinda sucks that my bubble was popped on me, and I have come to the realization that I do in fact have a balance problem. There isn't a cure for it, and eventually I will loose my hearing. The fortunate thing I guess for me is that so far there is no damage to my ears and my hearing is perfect even though I have to constantly ask people to repeat what they say. Not sure how that works. There are many things for me to try, and hopefully put it in remission, but there isn't any one perfect thing. Every person with Meniere's has it to different degrees, and what works for one person will probably not work for another.


So off to re-evaluate my diet, which while I was following the low sodium part, I was not following the carb, protein, calorie part of it. For some reason even though I'm on a low sodium diet, I have swelled up, and gained weight. My left leg and ankle get much more swollen than my right, and I find walking to be difficult. It never seems to end with me. So back to the super strict diet which I hate. I like variety and eating green leafy things all the time is not called variety in my book.