Prolotherapy treatment for Menieres Disease

Hello everyone! I am hoping to lean on my friends, family and community for some help. This is going to be lengthy so I apologize before hand and thank you for taking time to read about my story!

For the past 5 years I have been battling a very scary, lonely, and hard medical diagnosis called Ménière’s Disease. Menieres is an inner ear disorder that causes chronic tinnitus, aural fullness, hearing loss, pressure on the brain, and (worst of them all) vertigo/dizziness. In 2017 I was involved in a car accident where my car was hit from behind and I went forward hitting the steering wheel. My neck suffered whiplash injury. However, I didn’t know at the time what this could cause just a small time later. In 2018 I started having Tempromandibular Joint Disorder (TMJD) symptoms. And I also started getting a ringing that would come and go in my right ear. It would stay for a few days, it would be silent for a month or two and then return. In October of 2020, it came and stayed. I have had 24/7, loud, unilateral ringing in my right ear (think tv static, plus a loud pitch ring) since. I then began to develop a fullness in that ear that felt like there’s water in it or you’re on an airplane and need to pop it. But there is no popping it. The combination of these led to a hearing loss in the same ear. These are all things I could handle and still go about my daily life. It wasn’t comfortable or fun, but I managed well. And until Spring of 2021, that was the worst of my problems. Unfortunately my Menieres progressed and while at work, suddenly the world around me started spinning. I was terrified, confused.. but had no idea that that was just the first of hundreds of hours of that sensation. A “spell” can last anywhere from 1 hour to multiple days. Where my surroundings are spinning violently around me. These spells can differ and spin horizontally, like on a spin ride at the fair. Or back over forward, like I’m flipping forward on a trampoline. They can happen as frequent as multiple times a day, or I’ve gone a few weeks only having a couple. It is an extremely scary feeling. And so unpredictable, which makes it even more scary. And as you can probably imagine, comes with panic attacks, vomiting, and hot flashes/ cold flashes. Sometimes even leading my body into a state of shock. These spells are random and they don’t care where you are or what you’re doing. Unfortunately earlier this year my condition had progressed enough where I had to quit both my serving job, and my real estate agent job. It broke my heart. Ive been financially supporting myself since I was 16, and I take great pride in that. So when the ability to do that has been taken from you, it takes a part of your identity too. I have been delivering groceries the past few months on good days, for which I’m extremely thankful for! It allows me to still pay some of my bills, while I can still be close to home and stop whenever I need to. Instacart has been a blessing for me.

I quickly found out that Ménière’s disease is not a well known, or well studied disorder in the medical community. Over time, I’ve seen multiple doctors including ENT’s, physical therapists, chiropractors, dentists, and primary care physicians. They all tell me the same thing. “You’re too young to be dealing with these things”. Yet, none of them can seem to help me. They tell me to accept this as my life now and give me ways to “manage” my new life. I’ve taken thousands of Dramamine tablets, meclizine pills, changed my diet, slept in different positions etc. I started doing my own research and not letting myself accept that this is just how my life was going to be. I googled everything I could for months. Learning and reading about other people like me, other things they’ve done. I then discovered the connection between TMJD and the symptoms I was dealing with. I received orthodontic treatment to reposition my bite and help my jaw. This helped my dizziness for a while, but nothing else. And ultimately failed when my dizziness came back just a few months after getting my braces off. I was so discouraged and upset. I have since been back to that dentist, been given multiple mouth pieces and orthotics with no change. I couldn’t believe this was my life. Back to the drawing board, I just continued researching. Trying to learn as much as possible about what was going on. (If you’ve ever googled chronic dizziness, you know that there are a million things it “could” be, so the information was extensive).

Finally, a few weeks ago I stumbled across something called cervical instability and its connection to Ménière’s disease. This is when the ligaments in your neck get stretched out and damaged, so your vertebrae moves too much. In ways it’s not supposed to. And if your vertebrae moves, over time it can start pinching, restricting and damaging important nerves and arteries in your neck near the base of your skull and brain stem. And what is the main cause of cervical instability? Trauma to your neck, aka whiplash. I couldn’t believe that I finally found a connection to everything I was dealing with. All these studies I was reading were on a website of a doctor in Florida at the Hauser Neck Center. When I discovered this website, I felt like I had finally found a doctor who understood these connections and figured out that they’re all related. This was such a breakthrough after countless doctor’s appointments with people who just didn’t get it. And countless google searches trying to find this connection. This is also one of the only doctors in the US that has done extensive research on these disorders and their connections to cervical instability. I learned that this Florida doctor administered a procedure called Prolotherapy. These are injections in your cervical spine to heal the damaged ligaments in my neck. This allows the nerves and arteries that are being damaged to heal, open up and work as they are supposed to. Eventually eliminating my symptoms.

Looking more into this doctor I learned that he only accepts certain cases, meaning only certain people can receive his treatment. I thought, what’s the worst that can happen? And I sent in my information to his office. After his team read through my case and after a phone meeting with them, he accepted my case and invited me to come to Ft Myers to be a patient. I am feeling all kinds of emotions about this, but most of all hopefulness. I will be traveling to Ft Myers for initial consultations and extensive testing. Followed by a series of injections and possible cervical curve correction.

I write all this to share my story, but to ask for help also. This treatment is very expensive, and not covered by insurance. This treatment may also seem like an extreme effort, but that’s because it is. This doctor in Florida is one of the only ones that has done the research and has the experience to treat cervical instability with Prolotherapy. Many Prolotherapy doctors avoid the neck because of how close it is to vital parts of our body that controls our everyday function. People travel from all over the world to Dr. Hauser, and I feel extremely lucky to be chosen to go. I have felt like a shell of myself. Living in a body that doesn’t work for so long. Hoping every day that I wake up, this nightmare will be over. I have bad days and better days. And am so thankful to the people who have supported me through this scary time. I couldn’t have ever made it this far without my family, friends, Patric, and the kids.

I am asking for financial support to help me get my life back. This money will be used for my initial consultation and testing, all of the prolotherapy injections needed, and travel expenses for the trips down to the doctor’s office. I have attached the GoFundMe link to this post, and I will eventually also be doing some fundraisers to help me fund this treatment. I have also attached the link to Dr Hauser’s website if anyone is curious to read about it. And I am open to any questions as well. I am excited to share this journey with you all.

If you feel it in your heart to contribute, if you share this post, or even if you’ve just taken the time to read this- I thank you SO much. From the bottom of my heart. I appreciate your roll in helping me get back to the person, friend, mother, daughter, sister, girlfriend, aunt, and employee I so badly want to be again. Thank you thank you thank you