Someone stop this crazy thing – I wanna get off.

It’s been 3 days since we left the ship and I’m still suffering from motion sickness. The constant bobbing seems to have abated, but I continue having the oddest sensation of falling backward – even when seated – like my head and shoulders have a gravitational attraction to the floor behind me. I also have the persistent sense that things are tilted or slanted. When I walk, the world angles sideways. When standing I feel really off-balance, like I may fall.

It’s definitely getting to me. I try to stay calm and ignore it as much as I can, but frankly it’s not easy. How the hell do you ignore the fact that the whole effing world is skewed?! My personality doesn’t help matters. My normal speed is 50 miles a minute, I bore incredibly easily and can’t sit still to save my life. My husband urges me to rest – but I just don’t do bon-bons and daytime TV! Asking me to lie around all day is equivalent to “let me drill a hole in your head and let your brains ooze out.” I am the suckiest patient ever.

I had some wine the past few nights (to relax as much as anything), and it helped quite a bit. But this morning the carousel was up-and-running and I was really nauseous (and not wanting to spend the day drunk) I ate a bowl of cereal. Immediately the spinning seemed to intensify. WTF?!

Normally when I have this level of dizziness my ear is totally jacked up – meaning my Meniere’s symptoms are terrible: deafness, pressure, tinnitus, the whole shabang. And the episodes almost always have a cause (though whether I can control them is a whole other story). In the case of sodium (aka food) it’s totally up to me, meaning I watch what I eat very carefully. But my ear is also incredibly sensitive to the weather (barometric pressure) and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about that. So, often when we get a quick change of weather (usually fair to rain) I have a spontaneous change in symptoms (fine to bad and then back again). But this is the first time I’ve had the intense dizziness or vertigo without any of the accompanying ear symptoms.

I have been really busy catching up on chores since we got back, and doing a lot of bending over/up/down, so I decided to take a breather and just sit in front of the computer for a little while. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be helping much.

I hate having no control over my own body. . It’s one thing to make the conscious choice of getting wasted or riding the tilt-a-whirl and then paying the price, but this blows. And there’s nothing I can do about it. I have Meniere’s. I can’t change it and it’s not going to go away. But at least I know I won’t always feel as lousy as today. and I love life. So my frame is tilted.. I have to cope the best I can.

7 thoughts on “Someone stop this crazy thing – I wanna get off.

  1. You’re obviously NOT Peg Bundy!

    A bon-bon can be any small sweet confection, but I’m thinking of those cheap assorted chocolates (some) people stick their finger into before sampling.

    Not that I would know.

    (Cough-cough).

  2. I have vertigo–no cause. Not Meniere’s, MS, etc. Lots of tests and meclazine did nothing for me.

    They say misery loves company. I don’t know how true that is but I wanted you to know that there are others out there who don’t understand what’s wrong. I mean serious–the world’s constantly turning and moving. Why can’t everyone else feel it too?!?!?!

    I hope we both feel better soon.

  3. had menieres 3 years now, well fed up, got signed off work, people come to see me when i’m not well then go on to tell me i seem a bit depressed!….derrrr, or you’r not you’r usual self!!!….i dont bother to explain anymore, they know im a dizzy person, they seen me with my head in a bowl pucking, unable to leave my bed.
    I’m so isolated, they ask me out, then i cant join in with the conversation because i cant hear them to well, well i used too, now i dont, i sit there with this gormlas smile stuck on my face wishing i could go home.
    Am thinking about going home perminatly, oh by the way you can mess with your diet as much as you like it wont make any diffrence.

  4. You sound like you’re at your wits end, and I have been there too. Meniere’s can make you feel completely alone . You just can’t explain to someone how terrible you feel, and you can’t understand why they don’t feel the same way, why no one else does. I get so damn tired of trying to explain myself. Why I can’t eat salt, why I have this freakish disease. The last thing you want to think about or talk about is how terrible it is. But there are people who understand what you’re going through – I do. For me, it helps, just knowing that someone – even one person, understands and has felt the same way. I get very depressed when I am dizzy; I turn into someone else. Thankfully those episodes are not forever. The longest I’ve had was 3 1/2 weeks. I do know that the low sodium diet doesn’t help everyone, but for me – it’s changed my life. Unfortunately when I am having a vertigo episode, it doesn’t seem to do anything. For me, the vertigo has more to do with a motion trigger than anything else – ship movement, dental work, that kind of thing. Also, I get bad episodes of tinnitus & sometimes dizziness with the weather. It is so frustrating not being in control of your own body. But please hang in there. You are not alone. And there’s also surgery. Have you considered that? Some people have had amazing results. Please feel free to email me anytime you need a friend. christy AT thedailydish DOT us. Thinking of you & sending well wishes.

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