Wish me luck!
(UK ā China)
Wishing you all a swift return to normality,
James
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Of course GOOD LUCK James!! I hope you have a brilliant time and the beast is so in awe of it all it shuts up the entire time! 
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Wishing you safe travels and a wonderful time!
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China! That sounds like an exciting trip. I hope it all goes well for you.
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Safe travels! Have a great trip!
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Hi James,
Hope your trip goes well! I did a long haul a couple of years ago when the beast was raging and then on no meds, but the flight was fine.
All the best
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Hey guys itās going OK ish so far after a bad start: no matter how much water I drank on the plane it seems I was still dehydrated once I got through customs at Beijing. But balance was very good the whole trip.
I got the WORST tinnitus ever in the cab on the way to the hotel. Absolute killer. But died down as soon as Iād rehydrated and rested a bit. Scary nonetheless. Unfortunately then had a vertigo attack in my room that left me unbalanced for the first day but recovered my balance by following morning after a good sleep. Clearly recovery is down to less than a day for most attacks now: good!!
China is a diet nightmare so Iāve simplified the goal just to be: no coffee, as much fruit and veg as possible and try not to have too much sauce with the aim of minimising salt. During the day I make sure Iām hydrated. Drinking so much water!! After day one this has paid off: I walked the entire forbidden city and hardly thought about my condition.
Started to get a little dizzy by afternoon but think this was related to tiredness. Ate at a hot-pot diner and whilst this is a MAV diet danger zone you at least have the advantage you can choose ingredients: result none of my usual increase in tinnitus after the meal! Whoop! Food was great value too and fresh!
All in all not bad considering the long flight and jet lag! Proof you can still enjoy a holiday with the beast so long as heās/sheās behaving and you go carefully!
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ive only just seen this WOW china how amazing have a fab holiday james!
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Thanks! Itās amazing here. Full of character and clearly proudly prospering!
Great to hear that you are managing the beast on a short leash!! Take care and enjoy the rest of your trip!
Hope you take some stunning photos!
Half way through the trip and coping well. Iāve had a couple of smallish vertigo attacks and some acute dizziness that lasted a day or so after taking some pictures on my haunches. Tinnitus has largely been tolerable (except the awful escalation on arrival) and I put this down to discipline to stay well hydrated. Its very hot here now! Carrying at least two bottles of water for every excursion.
Iāve had many days on this trip when I basically felt almost normal and forgot about my condition. Sometimes low level tinnitus is the only reminder.
Going on a big trip gives you plenty of positive distraction and when miles from your hotel you have little choice but to push through and go do things. Staying in your hotel room feeling sorry for yourself is not a sensible option when spending so much money and effort to fly so far with all the experiences you would miss out on. This has a really great effect on your symptoms and your psychology because you give your brain more exercise to compensate and your mindset starts to change as you realise you are capable of much more than you realised. Iāve even been to the hotel gyms 3 times for running and some mid level weight training! Iāve negotiated 2 internal flights with no issues.
Iāve eaten very healthily and paid lip service to watching salt. Iāve not had one alcoholic drink. I donāt miss it. Iāve largely kept away from caffeine but treated myself one breakfast to some yummy americanos. Chinese food is very salty but this is compensated for by the hot weather; you tend to sweat a lot of it out. Iāve been eating a fair amount of fresh fruit too which is plentiful, sweet, fresh and deliciousl!
All in all going surprisingly well so far!
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Sounds great James, I hope you continue to have a wonderful timeāŗ
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So glad itās all going well!! Hope the photos are worth the bit of vertigo. Keep on having a great time.
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Wow, Iām very jealous! I wonder, do they use msg in the food the way they do in Chinese food here?
Iām spending most of my time in the north and eating good quality food. No sign of MSG just good quality fresh ingredients: fresh vegetables, oil, chilli, ginger, onion, garlic etc. You really can eat very cheaply at hot pot restaurants and you can choose what to āboilā so you can pack your belly with very healthy food like cabbage,lettuce and spinach as well as a reasonable cut of lamb.
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Sounds great!!
Well Iād better not jinx it (ok Iāll risk it) but dizziness and unsteadiness has all but disappeared for the last few days. When I have had it itās been very mild. This has meant Iāve been able to enjoy the trip and outings and things have been almost normal. Unfortunately fluid in the ear came back but only a little. Itās a bit like the remission I had in January. Of course Iām not sure itās going for good but itās lovely to have a few days of normality!!!
My motto these days is ālive for the dayā and let tomorrow take care of itself.!! Make the most of the good days and enjoy the rest of your time there!
James, just read this post on your China trip and thought I would get your current thoughts on flying. Iām taking a trip from Maryland to Okinawa Japan with wife and 2 college age kids to visit my oldest (he has been based there for 3 years with First Special Forces Group).
I know for many on this forum it is more about the migraine related issues with flying and triggers it adds. I have read lots of prior posts on this and will use valium psuedofed diet and water as well as eye shades pillow etc to minimize this possible issue
What I am concerned with is the affect of pressure change at takeoff and landing and constant high noise level you get on a plane. Assuming (as I do) that my issue is likely tied to issues with pressure in inner ear I wonder if this might cause me to have another attack and ruin the trip.
Any thoughts of additional preventative measures? I am going to try using āearplanesā ear plugs which are supposed to help reduce (maybe slow) the affect of pressure change in the ear. Iām also thinking of getting one of the new over ear "noise cancelling headphones and wondering if these might help reduce any affect of the constant jet noise levels and maybe even help with pressure change in some way. The Sony ones even talk about āAtmospheric Pressure Optimizationā. Not sure if any of these will help or hurt.
As a related aside, this article (and others it references) talk about using underpressure in a pressure chamber to help meniereās patients suffering from acute attacks.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/998206/
Any thoughts?
Dave
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Hey Dave!
If they have clinical evidence to back that up, then great. However, it doesnāt seem intuitive that pressure can modify a fluid imbalance potentially involving concentrations of proteins? Perhaps it increases osmosis?
My main advice would be drink lots of water and take some āsudafedā or equivalent with you to keep your tubes clear - taking them 30 minutes before landing to keep things uncongested.
Presume itās intra-US and short-haul so you wont be lying down? Lying flat is a bad idea imho.
My worst issue after a 12 hour flight was tinnitus, but that calmed down once we got to the hotel and I drank some water.
Iām sure you will be fine ā¦ and ready for the next one when this one goes well
Bon voyage!
James
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