Can I Have That Hour Back?

Warning: venting ahead.

When I was still optimistic.

I wish I could erase Ménière’s Disease from my medical records. It’s feeling as if I could have some serious problem, but nobody will even look or consider any possibilities because it is easier to just say it’s Ménière’s Disease issues. 

And sorry, doctors, but you do NOT understand it like you think you do. I’m in a couple Ménière’s support groups and we all feel this way. It’s such a strange thing that varies for each patient. You can’t lump us all together and just assume we are the same and that any little head issue is Ménière’s. I bet Jeff and I are different. Tara and I are different. But we all suffer from the same thing in our unique ways. 

So I go to doctors and they immediately see Ménière’s on my resume and that’s that. I can’t get through to them that what I have been experiencing for a month is NOT Ménière’s disease. It’s not a little headache. I’m not overdoing it on caffeine and salt. Want me to stop drinking coffee? Okay. I’ve never even had a single sip of it in my entire life, so consider that done. 

I can handle vertigo. I deal with it nearly every day. I can’t handle debilitating pain that nearly makes me cry at work, keeps me from being able to carry my own child, makes me cringe to put on shoes, prohibits me from being an independent adult that can drive to the store to get deodorant on my own. 

It’s NOT a headache!

It’s NOT a migraine!

It’s not just symptoms of a disease I have mastered dealing with for the last 15 years. 

It’s like talking to a wall sometimes. 

So after a meeting with a new primary care person I have made zero progress. I am off of one of the prescriptions which I am perfectly fine with. It didn’t seem to be helping anyway, and I don’t like to take medications unless I really need to. 

All this being said, I am still in pain. Urgent Care and the Emergency Room have done all they can. Next week I have an appointment with another new person. Maybe I’ll leave feeling better about things. I hope. 

I don’t want there to be something wrong, but I also want help and to be able to live my normal life again. So if that means a referral to a neurologist, that’s what I want. I just want them to look beyond. I want them to get out of this Ménière’s Disease blockade and actually listen to me. This intense pain every day for a month is NOT natural and clearly isn’t just going away. 

Let’s all cross our fingers for next week’s appointment, shall we?!

Ugh, I'm so mad and already hurting ... I'm putting on those new running shoes and turning on the treadmill. If medical folks won't help with the pain then I guess I just suffer through it.