The following
story is a day in the life of Brad. This is written in hopes that the friends and family of
Meniere’s patients may
get a better understanding as to the challenges and constant misunderstandings that we endure.
A day in my life, hmmm. I'll make it
brief. I only have meniere's in one ear so getting up for work is the first priority of the day.
If I'm laying on my good ear I may not hear the alarm so more often than not I end up starting
the day off late.
The first
thing that crosses my mind when I wake is how dizzy am I gonna be today? I raise up slowly,it
seems to help keep me from vomiting. Like clockwork I start spinning but I know I have to go to
work so there's no point in feeling sorry for myself. The diuretic has to be taken immediately.
The sooner it gets in my system the sooner I stop spinning fast and it gets eased to a slow turn.
As you know,
that doesn't always work though. Sometimes I have to take the clonazepam (Klonopin) which makes
me feel like sleeping the rest of the day and my work suffers for it. The drive to work is
always pleasant because I can look at far off things and that always seems to help the
dizziness. Nothing helps the roaring in my ear though. NOTHING! It drives me crazy. I have
panic attacks sometimes it gets to me so bad. It makes my head feel like its expanding and
contracting
When I get to
work the fun begins. I have to make sure to keep everyone to my right side so I can hear them.
I have to sit in certain places at lunch just to hear and if I get there too late and those
seats are already taken then I spend the whole time going "huh, what's that you said" Then I
have to hear the smartass deaf comments. People think I'm an jerk or snob because I don't
hear them and they consider that as ignoring them.
The one thing
I have found out is that nobody cares or even believes the problems I have.
I can see it in their eyes when I tell them. My personality and drive is the only thing I
have going for me. I have gotten so good at having meniere's that most people can't tell anything is wrong with me, but deep
down inside I'm suffering bad. I just gotta keep going. What choice do I have? I have a family
to support and they depend on me.
I am an
industrial mechanic so my job requires me to lay on the ground a lot and look up a lot and
whoo when I do! The whole world spins! What I spent all day trying to get rid of comes right
back and it may be hours before it subsides. By the end of the day Im exhausted from the stress
and the dizzy spells. I go to the gym and work out, it seems to help my stress. I cant do any
of the exercises that require laying down or ill have to pay for it with allot of spinning. If
I squeeze hard enough on some of the excercises it pops open my ear and for a little while the
pressure is relieved but only for a little while.
When I get home, my wife has supper ready for me. She is good about not using salt on my food
because she knows it makes me dizzier. I hate food without salt! All my meals are bland.
Sometimes I can't take it and I add salt anyway. I know I'll suffer for it but hey what's new.
Of course as night falls there may or may not be the matter of taking care of business with the
wife. All I'm gonna say on that matter is that it's hard to do it when your spinning. Then of
course there's the matter of laying down at the end of the day and trying to go to sleep.
After spending the whole day trying to adjust to being upright I now have the miserable task of
trying to adjust to laying down without vomiting. I try to fall asleep in an upright position
but when I fall asleep sometimes I wake right back up with a big gasp of air dreaming that I'm
on the merry- go- round. My wife asks what is wrong and I just say nothing I'm fine, simply
because if I spent my whole life explaining my problems to people they would get sick of hearing
it and I don't blame them.Since my wife is around me more than anyone she would definitely get
sick of it. She is the last person in the world I want to sound like a whiner to. So, when all
else fails on the sleep I have to go to the clonazepam and wait for it to kick in. All so I can
get up the next day and do it all over again.
I live for good hours and sometimes good days.I hate what I have but I also know that there are
people out there with much worse problems than me. I was 22 yrs old when my meniere's kicked in.
The first year was devastating. I still remember the first three months of lying on the couch
unable to function and vomiting from all of the spinning. The whole time wondering, "Man, when
is this ear infection gonna clear up?" Didn't have a clue what had really happened. Thanks for
listening and careing. Like I said earlier nobody else seems to. It does help to have someone
to listen to. Someone that truly understands. You are more than welcome to put this on your web
site if you think it may help someone. Keep up the good work. I will definitely be coming back.
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