How do you seperate the symptoms from the two diseases? Ive been diagnosed with menieres for years now Im pretty sure Im going to get diagnosed with silent migraines. Im already on 900 mg of neurontin and 10 mg of elavil to try to treat it. For the menieres I had rotational vertigo Im on meds for menieres and had surgerys. I have tinnitus in both ears ssn hearing loss in both ears. Ive been on a low sodium diet for years.
Now with the silent migraines Im on the meds listed above. I have the rocking feeling. Ive had a hard time standing in one spot for years due to this. I have dizziness.
Im just dont understand when my tinitus is screaming is it due to the menieres or the silent migraine? When I feel like I am falling over is it the menieres poor balance or is it the silent migraine. When Im dizzy is it due to the recent surgery I had or is it the silent migraine. Can the hearing loss be from the silent migraine?
Today I am at a loss as to what to do. I dont know which symptom is being caused by which disease. It seems alittle overwhelming to me.
There are so many kind and knowledgable people on this forum can someone please give me some advice? I would appreciate it more than you know.
Dizzy - You took the words right out of my mouth. I wish I had some widsom for you but I’m here asking the same questions. I see your kind of question posted now and then at menieres.org and there are always responses from people who say it is easy for them to tell the difference; when they have an MAV attack there vision bounces all over or when they have a Meniere’s attack their vertigo is rotational or MAV has tinnitus that hisses and Meniere’s has tinnitus that howls.* These answers tend to aggravate me because I want to ask back, “okay, but how do you know FOR SURE that that the MAV is giving you bouncy vision, how do you know it’s not the Meniere’s?”
The thing is both Meniere’s and MAV can probably cause all the symptoms you have mentioned. How to differentiate what is what? who knows? One doctor will say your poor balance is from Meniere’s, another will say it is MAV. As another and he will say “you’re just one of those people with poor balance, it has nothing to do with MAV/Meniere’s.” And look again and you will find one who says it is damage from a long ago virus. Some doctors say there is no such thing as MAV, what you are feeling is from Meniere’s; another will say just the opposite. This whole diagnosis thing is so frustrating.
I probably haven’t helped at all and I’m sorry about that. I think I’m just getting fed up with trying to get answers on what is wrong with me so I can treat it and every doctor tells me something different.
I hope for both our sakes someone comes along with a better answer than I have given. :?
- examples used are just that, examples. These aren’t actual statements someone said, I’m just thinking off the top of head as to what someone might say when asked how they tell the difference between MAV and Meniere’s.
bookworm you dont have to be sorry. I really appreciate your reply. We are just both on the same journey looking for answers.
I had always heard that if its rotational vertigo it menieres. But I guess I dont really know. My tinnitus sounds and pitch are all over the place most days.
Its really frustrating I wish I had defined symptoms for each disease it seems almost the symptoms overlap. But I really dont know that much about silent migraines.
I am going to have to learn as much as I can. Hopefully someone will come along and help us with our questions.
Take care bookworm
— Begin quote from “dizzywomen”
I had always heard that if its rotational vertigo it menieres. But I guess I dont really know. My tinnitus sounds and pitch are all over the place most days.
— End quote
. . . and I’ve always heard it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between vertigo from Meniere’s to that from MAV. :?: aaaarrrrgggghhhh!!! Frustrating, isn’t it?
This is why I don’t understand, just like you, how to tell the difference between the two. Maybe it’s all the same disease? I’ve had vertigo in which the room spins wildly around and around in a horizontal way, I’ve had it where it spins in a circle vertically, up and down. I’ve had just things in my peripheral vision jiggling up and down. I’ve had it where I can’t close my eyes without it getting worse. I’ve had it where I can’t open my eyes without it getting worse. I’ve had it where everything is tilted at a 45 degree angle, as if things got stuck in the middle of a spin. Is each one of these a different dizzy disorder?
I’d really like to hear from someone who suffers from both maladies and know for sure how they are able to tell the difference between the two. I don’t even know for sure if I have MAV or Meniere’s or something else and I can’t even find two doctors who can agree on what is wrong with me.
bookworm Hopefully someone will show up and help us both.
I was having severe bouts of rotational vertigo last fall. I ended up having a vestibular nerve section. I was told I would wake up with a severe case of vertio. What I woke up to and have been still dealing with is this all over my head dizziness feeling. Nothing rotational about it. So Ive wondered it their non rotational vertigo?? So now when Im trying to explain to the Drs whats happening I dont know wether to tell them I am having vertigo or dizzines. Well Im off to see my neurologist this morning. Hope she has some answers… This is so frustrating.
So now Im officially diagnosed with silent migraines. the dr is raising my neurontin up slowly over three weeks to 1800mg. Any one else been on this kind of dose? Im to slowly raise the dose and if I start getting side effects then I dont raise it any higher. Im tolerating the 900 mg I am on right now pretty well. I asked what Im supposed to do and the Dr said follow the migraine diet,lower stress and make sure I get enough rest. I need to find out more about the migraine diet but I cant hardly eat anything now due to having to be on the low sodium diet for menieres if I have to much salt I feel alot worse within a few days. So now I really need to figure out what the differances are between these two diseases.
Tim Hain has some interesting discussions of MAV vs. Meniere’s. Example: “When headache is not prominent, features such as bilateral hearing fluctuation (according to Harker, auditory symptoms are rarely unilateral [in MAV]), family history of migraine and perimenstrual exacerbations are used to decide whether Menieres or migraine is the more likely diagnosis.”
He also has a good discussion of some aspects on this page:
www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders … sting.html
Thank you georgekoch.
I will definately be checking out what Dr Hain has to say about it. Thanks for the link.
I have no family history of Migraine that anyone is aware of. I guess it is always possible someone could of had it a few generations ago and we just dont know.
In the many hearing tests I have had I have only shown some ssn hearing loss in my left ear for many years. Then as soon as I had the vns and went for my 8 week check up then suddenly it was showing up in both ears. Sure gets frustrating at times…