Imagine… What it’s like to Have Meniere’s Disease

You know it's funny. When I tell people I have Ménière’s Disease they usually respond by saying, "what's that" or "never heard of it". No one has ever asked me what it's like to have Menieres. If they did I would describe it thus.

Imagine that you have one blocked ear. Feel that sensation. Sense the fullness. Strain to hear the haziness of muted sounds. Feel what it's like not being able to hear in an ear.

Now imagine that in addition to the blocked ear, a couple of crickets have somehow crawled into your ear & are making a constant white noise. Hear it? Hear the shhhh, buzzing or hissing sounds?

Now imagine that as well as the blocked ear & the crickets, you have a head cold or you’re just a little hung over so everything is a more complicated than usual. You feel mentally and physically drained, and need more time to accomplish the simplest of tasks. Light might affect you more. You might start bumping into things and have trouble thinking. You might even feel that it's unwise to drive. You feel it? Feel the fogginess?

 

Now imagine that adding to the blocked ear, the crickets & the hangover you now find yourself on a boat out at sea, rocking up & down, left & right. You look to the horizon to get your bearings but it's moving. So you feel hazy or perhaps nauseous. The waves go up & down; left & right. Can you imagine how that feels? (see video above)

Now to make matters worse you learn that you will likely never, ever get off this rocking boat. That's right.

Now imagine that you are alone on this boat and that all of your friends, family & work colleagues are back on dry land going about their lives with normal hearing & balance; cricket & hangover free (okay, maybe not hangover free). They don't understand what you're going through. Can you feel the isolation?

Now if you are very lucky, one day, after potentially years afloat, the boat you’re on will briefly go back to dry land and dock at a port called Remission. There you will have a chance to stand on solid ground, hear blissful silence, feel unblocked ears & experience hangover-free clarity of mind. And you know what that will feel like? Pure, unadulterated heaven.

While in Remission you will radiate from the sensation that everything good on this earth has been rolled up into one awesome, life changing, musical inspiring experience. For a few weeks or months you'll rediscover your smile, every breath will invigorate you, and everything around you, including the previously banal, will glow will be unabashed glory. Can you even begin to imagine that??

A sense of peace that comes from just the simplicity of good health, one you’ve likely never even noticed before, will come over you and suddenly life will be bathed in hope & optimism for the future... until, one day, you begin to notice your hearing going and the blocked ear coming back. Within days the crickets are chirping again, and before you know it you're on that boat again, alone, heading indefinitely out to rocky seas with no knowledge of when, or if, you will return to port. Now, can you imagine it? Feel the loneliness, disappointment & uncertainty of your future? It doesn't feel great.

That's one example of what it's like to have Meniere's Disease, and that's without describing the addition of random vertigo attacks. I'll save that description for another cruise.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE EXPERIENCE OF MENIERE’S DISEASE? Please share your experience in the comment section below.