Thursday, April 16, 2015

Diagnosis Day...

A random picture of two flowers that
I snapped on our walk today.
Today was diagnosis day.  Kind of.

I went to see the ENT and he said he had narrowed what was going on with my head down to two things:  it could be Meniere's Disease or it could just be the migraines.

Since the neurologist said a) yes you have migraines (which we all knew) but b) "that's not what this is" (this being the vertigo and other new symptoms) the conclusion that that leave us with is that this is Meniere's.

Which isn't all that shocking since after one week on the low sodium I felt better than I've felt... well just about ever... and when I slipped up and went over that magic 2000 mgs of salt I woke up with a pounding head, the feeling that someone was trying to put a screw driver through my ear drum and a return of the vertigo that had been gone for almost two weeks.

So next time I ask "Would it really be that bad if I just had one (or four) piece of bacon?" the answer is "Yes.  Yes it would be that bad.  Worse even.  Don't you remember?  How can you forget something like that after two weeks?!?!?!"

But it's way, way better than some of the other possibilities that were being tossed out there at the first appointment, so I can't help but feel relieved.

The doctor said he was very, very happy with the results of the low sodium diet and that unless anything changes and the hearing loss becomes more drastic they'll see me again next year to recheck my hearing then.

Now if we could just not have any other diet limitations placed on my cooking for our family that would be really, really fantastic.  Between no gluten, no dairy and low sodium I'm definitely learning a new level of creativity and resourcefulness in the kitchen that I couldn't have imagined when I first began to learn how to cook after Paul and I got married.

3 comments:

  1. I knew someone long ago with Meniere's disease, and like you said - a high salt day and he would be sick for a couple of days. But, like you said, so much better than some other nasty possibilities that were being considered. How long do you think you've had Meniere's?

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    1. I'm not really sure, mostly because I feel so much better than I've felt in so long. I would say that intensity wise it's definitely gotten worse in the last three months. But before that I really have no idea. I know I first went to the doctor complaining that something was wrong with my ear a couple of years ago (and she basically said nothing was wrong and sent me on my way).

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  2. I'm so glad the low-salt diet seems to be helping! We are keeping you all in our prayers. :-)

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