Anybody knows the % of the people who really gets better with treatments?
What do you consider treatments?
Surgery, prescription meds, natural supplements?
prescription meds and natural supplements.
This is a question for a doc who has treated VM for years. So that he can speak to this statistically. At-least the hearsay reports are all positive and overtime with medicines people do get better. It is hard to say whether the meds do just symptom management or do cure the underlying condition.
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So, first think positively when you interpret polls like this:
https://www.mvertigo.org/t/poll-are-you-getting-better/14506
From personal experience it gets better, but takes AGES!
Also consider the number of active users of this site. A lot of people leave after about 2-4 years and rarely come back - this suggests they’ve got much better.
There are a few unlucky ones that’s for sure … but again, very hard to determine what % they make up … but suspect they are the unfortunate minority.
My neurotologist said that 90% of people make a full recovery with time. The 10% that don’t usually have bilateral issues
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I had a question about that… what would bilateral issues mean/consist of?
I’m just hoping I’m not the odd one in that 10% for life’s sake which is why I’m asking to understand more.
My take on this is: if it’s bilateral it’s more likely to be something to do with an overall bio-chemical imbalance or genetic, things that may be harder to resolve. Unilateral may suggest it’s to do with an injury or local infection (eg otitis media) and that may have a better prognosis. The injury heals/infection comes under control and the pressure regulation of the ear eventually returns to more normal levels as the underlying processes are healthy.
NB However, it’s actually not completely trivial to determine if it’s unilateral or not. There seems to be a bio-chemical process which is helping to govern the pressure in both ears. If you injure or get infection only in one ear you might upset this bilateral process in the sense that the body may over compensate. I went through a phase of my condition where my symptoms were bilateral (though oddly different in each ear). I injured only one ear but I suspect this may upset global management of both ears.
I had this concern as well and asked about it
The answer was that a lot of bilateral issues are self induced due to surgical intervention (another condition requires removal of the vestibular nerve)
Also, the chances of you have bilateral issues naturally are very very slim and in almost 100% of the cases happens in people over 60. My neuro said if I actually had bilateral issues I would know because I would be hospitalized
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@turnitaround
That’s an interesting theory!
I know I’ve had tinnitus in my right ear only a handful of times but everything is always felt in my left ear predominantly. It’s why I also sleep on only my right side and back, because if I sleep on my left I’ll wake up with inner ear fullness and very slight dizziness.
I’ve definitely noticed a change in symptoms over the course of 8 months I’ve had this. I feel like my tension headaches are subsiding too.
Guessing that would be unilateral issue then, no?
I’m still baffled as to how the marijuana sensitivity (Ate an Edible which was high dosage. Before this condition, I already had one of these VM feelings if I smoked 3 puffs or so, like the sinking feeling, but only during the high and certainly never had the tension migraines from smoking) for me would be the catalyst that fully set this off.
Before this condition, I had vertigo in the last leg of my flight back from west coast to east coast in March 2017. The plane was descending and my right ear popped, but left didn’t and it created vertigo, then popped 2-3 seconds later. Freaked me out cause I thought we were crashing.
Also, reading the cleaning your ears out, before this condition I used to actually carefully put Q tips into my ear canal and clean them out. One of those times (I think 2007 or so) I collapsed my left ear drum which took a month to recover back to normal.
Makes me wonder:neutral_face:
@BHMaloney
Thank you for that information. That gives me more hope knowing that! On par, I do feel I’m making progress towards getting better with just the vitamin B2. And good grief, hospitalization. Those poor people.
Vertigo is always a red flag indicating most probably an inner ear upset.
This could have injured your inner ear by transferring force via your middle ear bones. However it is a VERY long time ago - I assume you’ve taken many flights in the time 2007 to 2017? My surgeon told me, however, that Secondary Hydrops can take up to 10 years from time of initial trauma to become symptomatic, and the 2017 flight might then have been the straw that broke the back.
In any case these two events represent trauma to the ear you cannot ignore.
Have you told your specialist about these events? Did they comment?
In any case there is probably not a lot you can do other than ride it out whilst optimising medication etc. Secondary Hydrops is thought to burn out over time. So far, so good for me …
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I hadn’t taken any flights from 2009-2015. I took one in 2008 for the military but was absolutely fine. When I had my last job from 2015-2017 I took maybe 4-5 flights, but some were several flights due to east coast to west coast and back.
I do know in 2011 is when I started smoking marijuana every so often (5-6x a year) and that is when I’d start to get the sinking feeling if I consumed/inhaled too much (very light weight, took only 2 small puffs and I was very good, anymore than 2 small puffs and I’d get the sinking, throat feeling as if it was closing, eyes feeling like they’re bulging, throat feeling like it was swelling and I believe ears hurting). ((Side note, I can’t believe I forgot about those times))
I never mentioned this to my neurologist because I just recently remembered it when I saw the cleaning the ear thread.
My neurologist feels very hands off conservative approach, that, and he’s very hard to get a hold of. My last visit he wanted to get me on a prescription med but I told him I wanted to hold off for a bit longer, so he said I’ll see you again in 3 months.
It’s very good you’re doing better!! It was only a matter of conservative time, but it’s happening 
Did you see an ENT about your ear drum? Perhaps go see them again, once, just to talk about your symptoms. That sounds like a lot of trauma to me. I had a lot less - my ear drums are ‘perfect specimens’ according to my surgeon (and yes, they do look surprisingly immaculate on video 
)
In any case, this would just be to set your mind at rest that you are doing the right thing.
Focus on finding a regime that makes you feel better and drink LOTS of herbal tea and water to keep the fluids turning over.
I didn’t see an ENT about my ear drum. I just waited and it adjusted back to normal. The ENT I had been seeing said everything looked okay. He was the one who referred me to neurotologist. It’s funny how ENTs only know basic things when you’d think they’d know a lot more being the ear, nose and throat doctor.
How’d you get video of your ears? Haha
Yeah, I’m noticing changes as I’ve noted before. I can actually sleep at night now without fear of closing my eyes and feeling like I’m in a huge open space and will float away.
Never really was a tea person, although I drink water (no soda ever) like it’s my only job. Sticking to the migraine diet that I was given and the Vitamin B2. It’s getting better over time, but very slowly.
Like I said before, I’m glad you’re feeling better. It’s a miracle time like you said is what’s needed. Glad you’re the admin too and still around. It’s great! We keep our intellectual informer!
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