menieresstrong

How many of you are comfortable talking about your illnesses with other people? In Finland people seem to have this weird habit of listing everything that's wrong with them, and then we have to top other people's problems. Hahaha, I have more issues than you! I know, we're a weird people. I'd rather keep my mouth shut. I only tell people about my Meniere's disease if one or more of the following conditions are met: It's somehow relevant to the situation at hand I can offer information important to the other person because of my disease It somehow affects our interaction at the moment They ask It comes up naturally in a conversation, never forced  I'm not ashamed to have Meniere's disease, nor will I ever apologize for it. I can't help that I have it. But I'm not comfortable talking about it just because. I'm not telling you about my disease to get sympathy points from you, because frankly, I don't need them. I'm also no

I have recently realized that I don't deal so well with major changes in my life. If I'm already stressed, even small changes give me major anxiety. For example, our family had three cars break down during one week in December. I did not take it too well :D My mom always tells me I have a tendency to see the worst in every situation. I'm working on that... Being negative and anxious takes everything out of me. I get exhausted in a matter of minutes, because of how consuming it is to be angry or sad about something I simply have no control over. Not being able to do anything about whatever it is that's bothering me just makes me more anxious. So what's the point? I don't want you to think of me as someone who's just plain telling you to stop feeling sad or anxious and start feeling happy. I have absolutely no credentials to do anything of the sort, and I think we all know that anyone who's saying they just stopped being negative and started being posi

I had never heard of Meniere's disease before I found out I have it, so it wasn't really realistic for me to expect others to know what was going on with me. When I started telling people I have MD, the most common replies were: "Okayyy..?" "What's that?" "Neverheard" "A what disease?" "Ooh, what a cool name!" Yep. My chronic illness does have a cool name, I do agree. It's sad how Meniere's is so little known. My friends were interested in learning about it, but since my disease is pretty well under control and it doesn't have a direct affect on anyone besides myself, they tend to forget about it. They'll ask things like: "What was the name of that condition you have, again?" "You had some ear thing, right?" "Are your ears all better now?" I don't take it personally if someone I know forgets the name of my disease or if someone remembers the name but doesn&

My hearing has deteriorated so slowly that I never even realized it was happening. I knew it was happening, but as far as I'm concerned I hear just as well as I did five years ago. But... I really don't. I mean, I really  don't. Here's a picture of my very first audiogram back in 2012 when I'd never heard of Meniere's disease compared to an audiogram from July of 2016: The truth is, even after the latest audiogram I didn't feel as hard of hearing as I am on paper. My right ear being healthy naturally has a lot to do with why I feel that way, but still. I never noticed how bad my left ear had gotten. Every now and then I would pay attention to it and take advantage of certain aspects of my hearing loss, but I never thought about it any further. You know what I mean? I'm getting a hearing aid for my left ear sometime this spring, which ought to make things a bit easier for me, since I don't do so well in crowds, classrooms, and other noisy e

I addressed this matter on my other blog a while back, but what better place to do that again than on this blog! I think everyone with Meniere's disease can agree that there isn't enough information out there and way little research is being done. So many people have Meniere's disease, and yet nobody talks about it. Why is that? Why isn't Meniere's disease considered important enough to make it more known? Our curse is that this disease is invisible. Maybe if we were all walking around with our heads bandaged up, people would take it more seriously. There is a petition online started by Judy McNamara Tripp to get Bono and U2 help us raise awareness. The petition states the following: We are requesting that you would consider one of two possible options: First, creation of a simple (filmed) statement before you sing your song, “Vertigo” during one of your concerts, mentioning the need for a cure, something along the lines of: “We need to find a cure for the

Launching a new blog is always exciting. I love blogging, and have been doing it since late 2010. If you want to check out my lifestyle/travel blog, click here . I have shared thoughts about my Meniere's disease over there, too, but decided creating a new blog dedicated to the subject made more sense, because I have a lot of thoughts and things to say. I'm excited about this blog, and looking forward to really getting it started. So, naturally, I want you guys to get to know me. My name is Iira, and I'm a 27-year-old business student from Finland. I'm on my last year of studies, and to be honest, I have no idea what I will do after graduation. I'm pretty good at winging it... eyeliner, and life. I currently work as a personal assistant and hope to move abroad at some point. I love traveling and writing. Simple things make me happy. Besides my business studies I've taken on Finnish sign language classes, and I love it! I'm also independently studying Am

Hi, everyone, and welcome to Menieresstrong! If you clicked here from my personal blog , then you probably already know what this new blog is about. If you just randomly happened to stumble upon here, let me bring you up to date! I have had Menieres's disease since 2012. I follow many Meniere's associated sites and groups online and although it makes me happy whenever I find a new site (I feel there really aren't that many!), most of the time I end up disappointed a little because of all the negativity. The thing about Meniere's is that it's never the same between two individuals. I'm currently doing really well with my own condition, but I realize there are a lot of people out there who suffer from this disease and its symptoms on a daily basis and never get a chance to breathe in between. However, I think people should hear the positive side of life with Meniere's as well. I would never judge anyone by what they're telling about their condition, a