I saw my new doctor today. I was already VERY familiar with him. Some of you may know from the other board that my original doctor told me he wouldn’t give me anything because “it would just mask the symptoms” told me the reason I had Meniere’s is that I was fat (it had NOTHING to do with the trauma of having a stick shoved in my ear at 14 and had to have my incus and malleus bones replaced by him) I am also deathly allergic to sulfa drugs so MOST diuretics are possibly deadly to me so he wouldn’t even try me on non-sulfa ones. Let alone give me phenergan or let me try valium.
Anyhow. My new doctor has been my room mate’s doc for about a year now who has debilitating bilateral Meniere’s. He is AWESOME. He gave me a non-sulfa low-dose diuretic, and pretty much told me I could have all the valium and phenergan I wanted (within reason of course)
He’s going to run another test on me in late July to absolutely confirm my Meniere’s diagnosis. The ECOG test with the clicking and stuff. He’s testing both ears because I’m having possible tinnitus in my left ear too but the tinnitus in my right is so loud I’m not sure!
I also responded AWESOMELY to the steroid pack the other doc gave me (something else my other doc never even tried, wanted to go directly to a sac decompression) so we’re talking about doing the steroid injections in the ear sometime after the ECOG test.
That is great news. It makes such a difference when you know you have a specialist who is there for you to help guide you through all of this.
Lately, I’ve been thinking I should touch base again with a specialist I haven’t seen for years just to take stock again. The thing is he’ll probably offer up Flunarizine which some docs call the suicide drug. It’s got a nasty associateing with depression. Great. But it would be nice to have some sort of note from him giving me more range to move around with on valium. Aussie GPs hand it out like it’s the last supper. I wouldn’t mind grilling him about neurontin too.
Anyway, reall great that you have someone who is on your side.
Neurontin has been a wonder drug for me and my room mate. It has really helped us both. I’m on a low dose, he’s on a high dose. We both have fibro and it seems to help with that as well.
Of course as I said in my intro post I have absolutely debilitating migraines and it has helped with those as well. Sometimes if I take a Neurontin (800 mg) when I have nothing for a migraine it will help it. It at least knocks it down to “ok my head really hurts” from “please just SHOOT ME NOW” you know?
Anyhow I am just glad to have a doctor that KNOWS this stuff and works with it every day. In all fairness to my original surgeon… he DID save my hearing and my life by fixing my ear after the accident. But he’s a grumpy old man and doesn’t like anything that isn’t a challenge and just didn’t want to have to deal with a meniere’s patient. Plus he’s old and grumpy
That’s great news! It is awesome when you finally get a dr that is knowledgeable and willing to give you a proper treatment plan. I am very happy for you
Bad news… took my diuretic for the first time today without realizing it was the generic of Maxzide… which I have taken and was violently allergic to before.
Want to guess what happened?
So now I sit, afraid to eat or drink anything for fear I’ll be sick again and keeping the benadryl close at hand in case I have anymore coughing spells that lead to me barely able to breathe.
Sorry that you are suffering from the allergy to the diuretic Hopefully you can get it changed soon! I take Lasix(furosemide) and it seems to work well for me. I had problems with hydroclorothiazide and the maxide interfered with some of my other medications.
Unfortunately i’m even MORE allergic to lasix. 99% of diuretics are based on sulfa drugs. Therefor they make me sick ARG. Most people with sulfa allergies have no problems with HCTZ… Unfortunately I did.
Hopefully you can get it changed soon! I take Lasix(furosemide) and it seems to work well for me. I had problems with hydroclorothiazide and the maxide interfered with some of my other medications.