Monday 14 December 2009

Being on a strict diet during the festive season.

My low salt diet is a tricky one during this festive season.  I went to a second birthday party on Saturday and the only thing I could eat there was fruit.  Of course there was plenty of food available - chips, sausages, bread, cakes, biscuits, salads with dressings - all too high in salt.  I now have to prepare my own food to take with me to parties or eat before I go.  It is tough seeing all that yummy looking food and knowing that I can't have a single bite.  However, I can't ask people to cater just for me and I'd much rather do without any of those foods than have a vertigo attack. 

But it is annoying having to prepare my own food for every occasion.

First Words.

I caught our cat in Maya's room, where she is not allowed to go, and yelled "Out Out" at her. Now whenever Maya sees the cat she chases her yelling "Oot Oot". Poor cat.

I've been teaching Maya the names of body parts. I taught her the word eye recently by pointing to my own eye. Now Maya will poke me in the eye saying "aye aye". :-|

I'm amazed at just how much Maya can understand now. Her vocabulary is still very small, but she can definitely understand what people are saying to her.  If I say "It's dinner time Maya" she will go to her high chair. I say "milk" and she heads to the fridge. I love this new understanding between us, although we do both still get frustrated when we don't always understand each other.

Wednesday 9 December 2009

The stages of walking.


Maya has been 'walking' for a long
time now.  She cruises the furniture.
There was a short time when she walked holding on to a walker, but she kept getting frustrated whenever she bumped into something and then totally refused to use it any more.


Instead she walks holding on to someone's hands and last week my mother in law managed to get Maya
to walk holding on with only one
hand.  (Thanks Trish :)

Sunday 6 December 2009

The lasting effects of Meniere's Disease.

Due to Meniere's Disease both my hearing and balance are permanently damaged in my affected ear.  I am lucky so far to only have this disease in one ear (there is a 50% chance I will one day develop it in my other ear).  My 'good' ear has taken over my hearing now and in most normal day to day activities I am able to participate in conversations and hear sounds around me, so you wouldn't notice that I am quite deaf in my left ear.  However, in some noisy environments I will struggle to hear someone talking to me if they are facing my 'bad' ear.  For instance walking down a busy street with someone on my left makes it almost impossible for me to hear what they are saying with traffic noise steadily on my right side.

This year with my many repeated attacks my hearing has worsened in my left ear.  The attacks have also made the balance damage on my left side a lot worse.  To be upright and walk my right side must have taken over.  (It's amazing how the brain can relearn and then compensate for damage.)  However, the balance damage leaves me feeling like I am moving sometimes, when in fact I am completely still (like getting off a boat and maintaining your sea legs).  It can be very unpleasant and often I am assessing whether I am actually moving or not by scanning my surroundings.

There was a period of a couple of weeks where I felt like I was moving almost non-stop (after going through some very awful balance tests, which I do not recommend at all - unnecessary and unneeded).  I was scared that I was going to remain in motion for the rest of my life.  Some Meniere's Disease suffers (usually those with MD in both ears) remain in constant motion.  Can you imagine that?  Feeling like you are constantly swaying nearly every minute of the day, whether you are moving or not.  A couple of weeks of it was enough for me.  And I felt motion sick with the constant movement.  I am so glad it resettled again and now I am back to occasionally feeling like I am in motion.  This happened to me when I was first diagnosed too and it did eventually cease altogether.  So I am hoping if the vertigo attacks continue to stay away maybe I will once again regain control of my balance.