My husband, Ralph, and I are on an amazing adventure together. We’d like to share our life with you. We are determined to enjoy our life despite my health issues.
I have Ménière’s Disease, migraines, asthma, Fibromyalgia, Lichen Sclerosis and osteoarthritis. My goal is to help others see they too can lead a wonderful life.
My shoulder has been in pain for months now. At first I thought I slept wrong. Then I thought my husband caused it by sleeping on top of it.
Now I am not sure what is causing the pain. It was almost gone, when a fibromyalgia flare hit when Vegas temperatures dropped twenty degrees overnight, it returned with a vengeance. I have been massaging (not really a kneading as much as a tapping of where it hurts) shoulder and it seems to be helping.
I hope to get this under control so that today’s weather change doesn’t leave me in pain. If I am I will muddle through as usual.
It is Monday when I am writing this. It looks like Vegas weather is about to take a drastic 20 degree dip with rain this week.
I prefer gradual weather changes. These quick changes are hard on the body when you suffer from chronic illnesses.
Still rainy days and Monday’s are nice days to stay in. Good days to add more words to my story or paint or be a couch potato. Since this is November, I better add words to my WIP. (Work in Progress)
For some reason my left ear is more muted than my right ear today, which is weird, since my Ménière’s ear is my right ear and that is the ear with the hearing loss.
It shouldn’t surprise me, I have long thought I was going bilateral. I have had tinnitus in both ears since almost the beginning, but the right usually drowns out the left.
In the last few days that has changed. The left ear is louder than the right ear. I have been tipping over when I am standing still. That is an odd sensation.
I used to tip to the other side, but usually when I was moving, now it’s switched sides and I no longer need to be in motion.
I wonder if I were to have a hearing test at this moment if it would show the changes that I feel?
I miss Sunday drives. You know getting into the car and driving without a destination in mind?
Stopping somewhere for lunch. Usually it was surprisingly good in that little hick town diner tucked in the middle of nowhere.
Can you tell I am from Ohio where you can usually find gems in small out of the way places.
Here in Las Vegas if you went back-roading, you might want to pack a picnic lunch just in case you can’t find any place to stop. Of course that’s getting more and more unlikely with all the new construction popping up all over the place. But you do find gems like The Clown Motel when you backroad.
Still you have to love driving to hop in the car and do this. My husband doesn’t like to do all the driving and most days I cannot help. Still I miss it.
I want to go to Death Valley and stop at the Winery, but Ralph nixed the idea. Maybe I should get some friends together and plan to go after the holidays. We need to go when it’s cool.
Let’s try to spread good vibes to others. It’s been hard for me lately as my natural grumpiness gets out when I am in a depression. I am willing to try. Are you?
Try smiling at everyone. See if your smile can change others moods. I know I have trouble staying grumpy when Ralph smiles.
Give it a try. If nothing else it might change your mood. I know it helps me when I smile, even when my heart isn’t in it at first.
Vertigo is the sensation of spinning. Either you feel like your spinning or you perceive that the room is spinning.
I have had both. Before cutting out wheat and dairy, I felt like I was spinning constantly, but the room wasn’t moving. If I closed my eyes while standing, I would move in a circle. Fortunately, the gastroenterologist had me tested for food allergies and made me aware that I was allergic to wheat and cows milk.
I have Ménière’s Disease so I have the room spinning kind of vertigo too. I have three different types of these. Not exactly different, but they differ in severity and recovery time.
The most frequent kind are mini spins. A term coined by my fellow suffers from across the pond. These are usually extremely brief only one to two rotations at most. There is no recovery time. Just a mild inconvenience if you don’t let it panic you.
The second kind I get are more recent. These are longer in duration than the mini spins and more violent. They make me stop whatever I am doing, until it passes. Then they keep repeating frequently throughout the day. No recovery time is needed. Some deep breathing and relaxation exercises are helpful so that I don’t let the anxiety send me into my third kind of vertigo.
Finally, a full blown vertigo attack is the worst. Mine lasts for hours, sometimes up to eight hours. The room spins around and around quite violently. All I can do while this goes on is hold on tight to my bed and stare at a fixed point. I get nauseous, though I don’t vomit. I cannot close my eyes without wanting to throw up. Once the vertigo passes, my balance is off. I experience disequilibrium as nothing seems to be steady. It takes a few days to recover from these episodes.
My balance on a good day isn’t like normal people. My feet seem to tangle up. I use my cane about 70% of the time lately. It gives me more confidence.
Though I don’t think it would help during a vertigo attack anymore than it helped me during a drop attack. I had my cane, because I had experienced two drop attacks in the previous weeks. I had just left the safety of my car and was behind a truck next to ours when I felt as if someone shoved me. I hit the truck followed by my cane. Fortunately, the truck wasn’t damaged.
I have been fortunate that my full blown vertigo attacks happened upon awakening. Yes, in my twenty odd years of Ménière’s they always happen when I wake up or maybe they wake me…
I am one of the lucky ones with Ménière’s, I only have minimal hearing loss in my right ear and none in my left ear. I still have trouble hearing.
I have tinnitus which interferes with my ability to hear. Add in background noise, people not looking directly at me or me not looking at you and what is being said often gets lost in translation.
What can you do to make sure I can hear? Look directly at me and make sure I am looking at you. Speak into my left ear. Don’t yell. It may hurt my ears instead of helping.
Sometimes it might be smarter to wait to have a conversation until we aren’t in a crowd. If I smile and nod inappropriately, it’s because I cannot hear you.
That’s why I prefer to sit in the middle. It helps me be part of conversations. Still, I won’t hear what’s being said at the ends of the table if we are with a large group. And if multiple conversations are happening I will retreat into my head, so I won’t know what is going on around me at all. You may have to tap me to get my attention.
