Serious Problems

[thecloser3412]

For the last 6 months my wife has suffered from constant moderate to severe headaches, congestion, and exteme nauseau.  Now she is becoming extremely off balance, dizzy, and having trouble focusing her eyes.  She has been to an allergist and has mild allergies and takes allegra which gets rid of the congestion.  but all the other symptoms persists, she has been to get several CAT scans and everthing is normal.  I am a hearing specialist and performed a hearing test on her and she has a 30 dB loss at 250 and 500 which i found to be sensorineural hearing loss.  All her other frequencies are fine.  She is going to be getting an MRI soon but if that comes up fine I don't know where to turn next.  She will definitely be seeing an ENT next.  Today she has been having constant ringing in the ears and some crackling. So if anybody has any input  i would love to hear it

[edsdev1]

Speaking of soda, does she consume a lot of caffeine?

Try D-HIST from Ortho Molecular for her environmental allergies, as an alternative to drugs.

[Nancy T]

Too much use of over-the-counter painkillers such as ibuprofen will indeed perpetuate a headache cycle (you get rebound headache), so headache specialists always want to get people OFF of them. This is standard procedure for difficult headaches.

Has the neuro prescribed any type of headache-preventative drug or an abortive drug for when a migraine starts? I am not familiar with all the types of these drugs, nor when and how they're used (I'm not a headache sufferer myself), but there are a lot of them that can be tried. Work with your neurologist to find a solution to the headaches (if the neuro is a headache specialist--if not, you should definitely try to find one). Hopefully the neuro didn't just say "stop the ibuprofen" without any alternative!

[meniere135]

Here'a another thought.  Does your wife drink diet sodas or drinks that contain aspartame?  Look up aspartame side effects - what a list!  If she does, ask her to discontinue them for 30 days and see if there is any improvement.  Hope something helps her.

[mdk84]

Does she happen to be in an environment with toxins such as formaldehyde? Trailer home, Furniture store, new carpet ...   something to think about.

[edsdev1]

See my Journal entry - I had a hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo (Meniere's diagnosis) for 3 years - all from a Type-3 food allergy (IgG not IgE).  Cured now.  Good luck & get well.  My Journal entry provides an overview and links to a web site I built with lots of information including labs which test for type-3 allergies.

[Thoatpain]

Look up Disembarkment Syndrome, see if her symptoms are similar to that.

[thecloser3412]

Had the MRI Sunday, will no results soon.  The worst part of what is going on is the debilitating head aches.  The neurologist took her off all headache medicine, he said the Ibprofuen is what is causing the headaches.  ????  She has been off the pills for 3 weeks and each day the headaches get progressively worse.  Anyway i am anticipating a clean MRI and am trying to get her into see an otolaryngologist with referral so we will see

[Nancy T]

If the MRI comes back normal, and a neuro-otologist can't find a cause for her symptoms, try a neurologist, preferably one specializing in dizziness (an oto-neurologist). Some of her symptoms could be due to migraine. Hopefully nothing more serious. Hope the MRI comes back OK. She's getting it done WITH contrast--right? That's essential for ruling out acoustic neuroma.

(BTW, you may know this, but if she IS a migraineur, that can cause small spots on the MRI. If she has any personal or family history of migraine, that makes migraine a much more likely cause of her symptoms.)

Sites to find inner-ear/dizziness specialists (ENT and neuro): Vestibular Disorders Association, American Neurotology Society, Dr. Michael Robb's site with a list of oto-neurologists in the US.

Good luck!

[RadioAstronomyObserver]

SCD is often misdiagnosed as Meniere's as well as almost all the other ear problems.  I don't know much about Meniere's but an SCD sufferer usually has hearing loss in the lower end of the scale.  I can't remember where on that scale, sorry.  but if you look up Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence you may find the frequencies.  One test you can do is to take a tuning fork and place it on a bone.  If she hears this coming "out" of one ear then she needs to see a nero-otologist (or something like that),or it could be what thecloser suggested, a otolaryngologis(?).

[meniere135]

I would skip over the ENT and make an appt. with an otolaryngologist - the ear specialist of specialists!  They will run every test in the book to find out what is going on.
It's possible she has Meniere's disease.  I do have Meniere's disease and found out that getting off of gluten (wheat, barley, rye and oats) cured it in my case.  If the appt. takes a while, she could try this diet (the gluten free diet) and see if it helps within a few days.  When I first started the diet, the ear ringing got louder for a few days (and it was loud to begin with).  For some reason, this made me feel that I was on the right track.  I made sure all my medications were gluten free too by calling my local pharmacy.   You can read up on the diet on the internet.  If you need help figuring out what to eat, just send me a note and I'll give you many ideas.  I was having Meniere's attacks for several years, and the attacks were close together.  Everyone is different though.  And within a few days, I was Meniere-free.  I haven't had an attack for 10 years since starting the diet.

Good luck!  Any questions, just ask.  I'll do my best.