It
was August of 2010 when my husband and I and three other couples set
sail on a
weeklong cruise out of Long Beach for the Mexican Riviera.
I had been on several cruises before, one of
which was even longer and required international travel, and although
I'd had a
long history of getting motion sick in the car and on boats, I'd never
had
trouble on the large cruise ships before. This
sailing was no different. The weather was
nice, the seas cooperative. I had no motion sickness and
no migraine headaches while on board. We
had a delightful trip with our friends and many memories and photos to
last a
lifetime.
Getting
off the ship however was another matter. Walking to the car, I did not
have my
"land legs." I shrugged it off
and got through the day unpacking and making a trip to Costco with my
husband. Over the next several days, the
sensation of being on the boat continued but I didn't panic,I'm a
Registered
Nurse, and just felt it was somehow related to my inner ear and it
would go
away on its own. I continued my daily
routines and worked my part time schedule in the allergy office and
tried to
push through the feeling of rocking, swaying and bobbing. Then suddenly
I had
more migraines than usual, ear pressure, brain fog, fatigue, and
nausea.
Admittedly, it was time to see the doctor. It had now been three weeks.
The
family physician gave me the once over. She couldn't find anything
major wrong
with me. That was a relief. Also
believing it was related to my inner
ear, she referred me to the ear specialist. I
didn't rush right over to see him since again, I just felt this would
go away on its own. I made an
appointment for two weeks out believing I would end up cancelling it
when my
condition improved. By sheer
coincidence, the day before my appointment with the specialist, there
was an
article in the LA Times
Travel Section on Mal de Debarquement Syndrome. It
was like someone had sent up a flare! That
day, I probably received a dozen phone
calls or e-mails from friends asking if I'd seen it. I took it with me
to the
specialist the next day but really, it was unnecessary because I was
one of the
lucky ones who made an appointment with a physician who was already
familiar
with the condition. The good news and
the bad news was that yes, I surely had it and no, there was no cure. I waited another two weeks and went back for
VNG testing and then had a follow-up consultation with a neurologist to
confirm
the diagnosis.
I
was offered a variety of treatment options but for many reasons opted
to ride
out the wave mostly on my own. I have
other medical conditions which complicated the issue. The
ENT had not had good results with
vestibular therapy with other patients and it sometimes made it worse
and I did
not want to risk that since I was still somewhat functional. I had tried many of the medications before
for my other condition and knew that I was very sensitive to them so
avoided
taking most of them. I did get a
prescription for xanax to have on hand because I had a new symptom of
anxiety
that I had never really had before this. It
was an internal vibration that would start up and get worse until I
wanted to jump out of my body.
The
affect on my life may not be as great as it has been for others. Because of my other heath conditions, I had
already reduced my work schedule to part time, and I had already
learned to pace
my lifestyle to accommodate my household chores and my social life. This helped me tremendously in terms of
coping with the devastating effects of this syndrome. But still, while
it
lasted, it greatly affected my work, my home life and my social life.
For
instance, during the holidays last year, I couldn't do any shopping and
we
either declined party invitations or ended up leaving parties early due
to
noise. Doesn't sound like a big thing but after a bit, you do start to
feel
isolated and the depression sets in.
For
me, it turns out, the depression may have been what saved me. During
this same
time period, my mother was quite ill, I ended up going for counseling
and then
I was put on a low dose of zoloft for depression. This
medication usually takes about 2 weeks
to kick in for depression. However,
within 3-5 days of starting it, my MdDS symptoms started to improve.
From
there, I went right into remission.
I
can't say for sure whether it was coincidence or not but personally, I
am
leaning toward the notion that the zoloft sent me into remission. Every person is different. We
all have different chemical make ups and
shortages. I believe I run a tad low on serotonin and perhaps that
little boost
up did the trick. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Darilyn Rice
June,
2011
