How are you feeling today Mellybob?
im not too good today,vision is buggered and dizzys are bad 
I need some good days,anxiety is lurking too, thanks for asking how are you?
Not amazing, but ok, thanks.
Hang in there - the better days will comeā¦
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does your vision play havoc james? whats the longest relapse youāve ever had?
Amitriptyline takes care of vision. Never a problem now even during relapses. But my bad ear is on my less good eye side. Not sure if that plays a part? Relapses can be up to 3 weeks for me. This one is turning out to be about 2 weeks I reckon before which I had a really good 3 week period better than anything in at least 6 months. Go figure.
wow this crap really is sent to try us,what a pain in the butt it really is! does your relapses prevent you from doing things? sorry for the questions im curious as im nearly four weeks into mine with no signs of lifting!
No but Iām off work at moment. Stress levels at work donāt mix well with this condition. Other than that Iām still able to bathe, do light housework, drive, use computer etc. Iām currently on a long walk. These days itās more the psychological torment than anything which gets to me most.
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can you socialise? im missing my friends and the places we go! do you find walking helps?
Yes I can socialise but drinking usually costs me so I rarely drink. I prefer to meet friends daytime now. Almost never āgo poshā now. Just cafes. Live music is out. Cinema loudness can be uncomfortable. Iām going to try live theatre next weekend.
Iād say socialising is really important. Itās distracting and calming.
Yes walking really helps! Nature is really calming too!
I am so sorry to hear you both are suffering.
Do you always get out of a relapse yourself? Do you ājustā take the time to heal again and trust on your medication?
Yes Agnes, so far the relapses fade with time and its onwards and upwards. I definitely feel better at my baseline than I did 6 months ago. My dizziness is less pronounced now than before. I genuinely believe that my ear had an upset and unfortunately ears take forever to settle down again. It is very wearing though and both the dizziness and the tinnitus can mentally bring you down and some days you are simply psychologically weaker than others and it can get to you. Also some days there are less distractions and you can wallow in it when cut off from the outside world. Hence going out to socialise or work and be amongst others is really important for your mental wellbeing (and this is assuming that you are sufficient controlled with diet/supplements and/or meds to facilitate that)
I feel for Mellybob because she believed she had conquered this having had remission for so long. I know Iād be really upset if Iād got shot of this for 2 years and it came back! I did have a similar experience because my initial 5 week bout of imbalance went away completely only to come back worse 5 months later. I thought Iād dodged a bullet. I had not.
On the other hand, you know it can go too! So believe it will go, Mellybob, and perhaps it will go for good next time!
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us! Good to hear that you can rely on you medications and your own coping strategies. You are a strong person! And you are such a tremendous help for people over here suffering and searching for questions/ hopeā¦thank you for that
Yes for Mellybob it is such a struggleā¦after doing good for so long and then a relapse. Itās just unfair. But you need to hold on to those better days, it means your brain is still able to handle these things!
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Good Morning, everyone! (whenever it might reach your part of the world) I hope this Monday brings a new day (and week) of improvement for all!
My beast grumbled a bit over the weekend, probably due to some very swift and drastic weather changesā¦as well as maybe just a little over-indulgence in the caffeine rangeā¦
, so hoping that has gone back to sleep again!
Thinking of you all!! xx
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reading all this made me cry but it also taught me that I will beat this again no matter how hard it feels right now,so today ive decided im going to do what I would normally do on a day off work and that is go shopping and run round like a blue arse fly 
im going to make myself dizzy 
abit like vrt!
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Hope you have a good day whilst fighting the beast!!!
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Oh oh, donāt worry that VRT makes you dizzy, or even gives you a migraine. I had to give up on VRT because of its effect on me. It may help many, but I could not tolerate it. Also my insurance company refused to pay for any more sessions. I have generally improved regardless, so I donāt think VRT is critical. However, its offered because the doctors want to help, and thatās very nice of them. Iām not sure I miss all those repetitive neck movements though! 
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I am waiting for an appointment for neuro physiotherapy do you think that is the same thing? If it is I will be in trouble as any repetitive action makes me sick and dizzy. I canāt do housework etc without taking rescue meds on top of Nortriptyline and I put it off because I know it will make me unwell so I really donāt want to willingly walk into another repetitive situation!
Margaret, yes, thatās probably VRT. It is part of a dizzy patientās standard treatment plan and its only ethical of them to offer it. I put my best foot forward and followed the VRT treatment plan for several months with my best intention, but in the end I concluded it was not for me. Once I got to the advanced exercises they almost invariably triggered a migraine (however this was when I was not on medication). Once I started meds I challenged the benefit of the exercises because Iād read that Amitriptyline is a vestibular suppressant so you are not training the brain in an unmedicated state and so I found it difficult to understand how you could compensate permanently whilst on medication. The training only makes sense to me when not on medication. And finally, with an unstable lesion, in my case Iām convinced I have variable pressure Hydrops in the bad ear, the brain has a hard time to compensate because the playing field keeps changing, so in my view the training might be useless. The training makes full sense when you are not on medication and the lesion is fixed, e.g. like the aftermath of a virus attack when the injury is done and over with and not variable or progressive.
If you do a search on this board I believe you will see similar views expressed about VRT.
All that said and kept in mind, if its available to you please try it and see if it helps?
Thank you James. I will give it a go but I have to say I am not looking forward to it because I deliberately turn my head right and left to cross the road in an attempt to retrain my brain but it doesnāt work and I am still dizzy afterwards. Hey ho, we can but try.