I think starting to just barely understand "what's wrong with me":http://revjim.net/2004/06/03/menieres-disease/, or, at least, what might be wrong with me.
Since I've delt with allergies my entire life, it seems safe to assume that my inner ear is affected in some way by this. So I've come up with a sort of theory that also helps to explain why I've always had a poor sense of balance. It goes like this.
Everyone has a "normal" state. The average normal human body temperature is 98.6°F, for instance. However, some people just naturally run a little colder or a little hotter. While 99°F would indicate a slight fever for an average person, it might mean nothing at all for someone who tends to run a little hot.
I've begun to theorize that, due to allergies and a near constant allergic reaction in my inner ear, my sense of balance and the communication provided by my inner ear has always been a bit muted. However, I've come to rely on sight and feel to make up for what my inner ear does not provide and, other than being a little more clumsy than most, I am able to cope just fine. Based on this theory, a few more come to the surface.
On the days on which I feel intense pressure and ringing in my ears, it is possible that I am having a more severe reaction than usual. In addition, this causes my head to feel cloudy, my hearing to suffer greatly. With a severe enough reaction, the inner ear could be disturbed causing improper signals to be sent, which would lead to vertigo, light-headedness, and, in extreme cases, severe nausea and vomiting.
Now imagine the opposite. What about the days when, for whatever reason, my body experiences significantly less allergic reaction than normal. This would mean that the sense in my inner ear would approach "average" which would be way above normal for me. Imagine the effect a speed-like drug has on the body. It raises the alertness of the body, and heightens each and every sense. By unmuting my inner ear, this same effect is produced. This causes my brain to get a lot more balance information than it is used to which could lead to an over correction on its part that would echo through the body reverberating ad-nauseum, literally. In the initial stages of this, it might cause one to feel a bit rocky or unstable. It might be accompanied by tingly feelings and a heightened sense of hearing. This is precisely what I feel today.
This would also explain why, when I feel that I've located a "trigger" ceasing that trigger seems to make me feel worse.
If these theories are true, this would lead to one of two solutions.
The first solution would be to train the brain to ignore the inner ear altogether. In severe Meniere's Disease cases, surgery is performed to disconnect the inner ear from the brain. While some retraining is required, this almost always relieves the Meniere's symptoms. Of course, it also eliminates the ability to hear in the corrected ear, so it's not something I've considered at this point. However, with enough agitation of the inner ear, and various physical exercises during that time, the brain could learn to ignore those signals entirely.
The second solution is to manage my body through food, water, exercise, and chemicals in order to achieve a constant state. By being able to maintain ANY state at all, the brain can adjust to that level of communication and learn to respond accordingly. Unfortunately, since my triggers are largely unknown and potentially food based, this would mean developing a rigid schedule of meals and drugs that would attempt to keep the body pumping with precisely the same chemicals at all times. This would mean reevaluation of that schedule every couple of months to look for alteration opportunities as well as little to no deviation from that schedule in the mean time.
Of course, these are all just theories. But, I figure that if that's all the doctors can do anyway, then what's the harm in experimenting on myself a little. Neither of these "treatments" will be easy to take. I'm still not sure which, if either, I should attempt.
There is one thing I am certain of, though: when it feels as bad as it does today, almost anything is better than this. I spent 40 minutes driving in a mind-induced tunnel today, afraid to move my head in either direction lest it send me spinning and land me parked in front of the Emergency Room again.
