Hi! I read your introductory post as well as this post (about tinnitus/hearing loss) and I'm glad I did. Your experiences with tinnitus and also Meniere's have some parallels with my own. I have never been diagnosed with Meniere's, but I'm starting to wonder if it may have been playing a role in my life and we (my family) just didn't know it.
Why do I wonder? Well, I was diagnosed with hearing loss at the age of about 3 years old or so, when my family realized that if I had my back turned to them, I didn't respond to them talking to me. We didn't know where the deafness came from, but today it is generally thought to be the result of a CMV (cytomegalovirus) infection in my mother at the time she was pregnant with me. That's what we think it is, but it's not been conclusively proven.
When I read your introductory post and you were discussing your symptoms from Meniere's, it struck a chord with me, because I had an episode when I was about 10 years old, that sounded remarkably similar. Right around the same time that I got my first hearing aids, I had a couple episodes of the sensation of the world spinning around me. It made me nauseous and all I could do was go to sleep. We thought it was migraines. I suspect that around that same time is when I started having tinnitus. I've had it for as long as I can remember, and today I treat it like it's just my memories of sound. (My hearing loss progressed to the point where even the strongest hearing aid didn't help me any more, and I began learning sign language and joined the deaf community, when I was 22. Thankfully, I didn't miss the music of the 80's.)
So now, I wonder- could there be some connection between CMV infections and Meniere's? As far as I know, the way CMV works is not understood very well, even though I have heard of it being commonly used as a sort of catalyst in science lab experiments. Do you have any thoughts on this?
BTW- I hope you'll read my introductory post. I have a feeling you may have some valuable feedback, if you have the time. I'm still very new to Steemit but I like it!
Regards,
Kevin