Happy Friday!

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Happy Friday!

No matter how bad Meniere’s makes you feel, just remember there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Instead of focusing on the negative try to find at least one thing that makes you happy. There are people with this disease that are either in remission or it’s controlled. You just have to keep trying till you find the best treatment for you. Another thing that has helped me is joining a support group. You learn that no matter how bad you feel there is always someone who has it worse. You may realize your one of the lucky ones. Plus you learn so much from others that actually have the disease. A doctor can only do so much since they don’t have Meniere’s.

Hope everyone has a great day & weekend!

Claude Debussy : Clair de Lune

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What a beautiful song to start the day with. When ever stress gets to me, which is really bad for Meniere’s patients, I listen to music. Ever since I was a little girl it has been a very calming thing for me. God gave some people an amazing gift of song. So no matter what style you like, take time to sit back an just enjoy it.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

God Is Always Around.

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God Is Always Around.

So this week has been a better with my Meniere’s. It’s so amazing how just getting rid of my oil burning car for a new Camry made all the difference. I am realizing that stress plays a more important role with how a Meniere’s patient feels. It’s not just about the food you eat or the activites that can cause attacks but the negative things in your life that stress you out. As hard as it is for a person to deal with Meniere’s, people around them need to learn to understand instead of walking away. One needs support from positive people that you can turn to for help. The biggest thing God has shown me is it is so important to have a loving church family. These last few months have been hard phsyically. Having the sinus infection then having a reaction to the steroid shots. Many times over the years I have cried by myself over this disease but now I can cry with my church family & feel a sense of comfort. It’s important to pray but when you have a group of people praying amazing things will happen.

So I suggest if you are still stuggling with vertigo attacks to really think about the things around you. Realize what the negative things are & let it or them go. Then pray that God will bring positive things in your life. He may not answer right away but don’t loose faith. Sometimes God wants us to grow a little first. But when he answers your prayers you will an amazing love that only he can give. God is with you always through the ups & downs. He won’t burden you with more he knows you can’t handle.

An Amazing Story About Prayer & Grace

Meniere’s Disease is a terrible unseen disease that million have. But I live it I remind myself that God will take care of me. Hope this story I found will touch your heart as it did mine.

God’s Grace is All We Need

Max Lucado
August 10, 2013
Taken from http://www.faithgateway.com/gods-grace-is-all-we-need/

God’s grace is not a gentle shower washing away the problem. It is a raging, roaring river whose current knocks you off your feet and carries you into the presence of God.

Heather Sample suspected trouble the moment she saw the cut on her dad’s hand. The two had sat down for a quick lunch between surgical procedures. Heather spotted the wound and asked him about it. When Kyle explained that the injury had happened during an operation, she suddenly felt sick to her stomach.

Both were doctors. Both understood the danger of treating AIDS patients in Zimbabwe. The virus could spread through contact with a patient’s blood. It destroyed the immune system. It was incurable.

And now one of them had been exposed.

Kyle Sheets was a twelve-year veteran of medical mission trips. I knew Kyle when I was a college student. He married a delightful girl named Bernita and settled down in a small Texas town to raise a family and treat the needy. Turns out, they raised a family that treats the needy. Ten children in all. Each involved in works of compassion. As founder and chairman of Physicians Aiding Physicians Abroad, Kyle spent several weeks a year working in mission hospitals in developing countries. This trip to Zimbabwe was not his first.

Exposure to the AIDS virus was.

Heather urged her father to begin the antiretroviral treatment immediately in order to prevent HIV infection. Kyle was reluctant. He knew the side effects. Each was life threatening. Still, Heather insisted, and he consented. Within hours he was violently ill.

Nausea, fever, and weakness were only the initial signs that something was terribly wrong. For ten days Kyle continued to worsen. Then he broke out in the unmistakable rash of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, which is almost always fatal. They moved up their date for returning to the States and began to wonder if Kyle would survive the forty-hour trip, which included a twelve-hour layover in South Africa and a seventeen-hour flight to Atlanta.

Kyle boarded the plane with a 104.5-degree fever. He shook with chills. By this time he was having trouble breathing and was unable to sit up. Incoherent. Eyes yellowed. Liver enlarged and painful. Both doctors recognized the symptoms of acute liver failure.

Heather felt the full weight of her father’s life on her shoulders.

Heather explained the situation to the pilots and convinced them that her dad’s best hope was the fastest flight possible to the United States. Having only a stethoscope and a vial of heart medicine, she took her seat next to his and wondered how she would pull his body into the aisle to do CPR if his heart stopped.

Several minutes into the flight, Kyle drifted off to sleep.

Heather crawled over him and made it to the bathroom in time to vomit the water she had just drunk. She slumped on the floor in a fetal position, wept, and prayed, I need help.
Heather doesn’t remember how long she prayed, but it was long enough for a concerned passenger to knock on the door. She opened it to see four men standing in the galley. One asked if she was okay. Heather assured him that she was fine and told him that she was a doctor. His face brightened as he explained that he and his three friends were physicians too. “And so are ninety-six other passengers!” he said.

The plane could have been filled with conference-bound circus jugglers. Or tattoo artists. Or professional whistlers. But no, Heather and her dad “happened” to be on a flight with one hundred physicians from Mexico.

Heather explained the situation and asked for the doctors’ help and prayers. They gave both. They alerted a colleague who was a top-rank infectious disease doctor. Together they evaluated Kyle’s condition and agreed that nothing else could be done.

They offered to watch him so Heather could rest. She did. When she awoke, Kyle was standing and talking to one of the doctors. Although still emergency room–level sick, he was much stronger. Heather began to recognize God’s hand at work. He had placed them on exactly the right plane with exactly the right people. God had met their need with grace.

He’ll meet yours as well. Perhaps your journey is difficult. You are Heather on the flight, watching a loved one struggle. Or you are Kyle Sheets, feeling the rage of disease and death in your body. Maybe you’re failing a class or a friend. You’re so overwhelmed you don’t think you can face one more day.

You are fearful and weak, but you are not alone. The words of “Amazing Grace” are yours. Although written in the 1700s, they bring hope like today’s sunrise. “’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” You have His Spirit within you. Heavenly hosts above you. Jesus Christ standing up for you. You have God’s super-powered grace to strengthen and carry you through.
Paul’s life revealed this truth. He wrote, “I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness’” (2 Corinthians 12:7–9).

A thorn in the flesh. Such vivid imagery. The sharp end of a thorn pierces the soft skin of life and lodges beneath the surface. Every step is a reminder of the thorn in the flesh.

The disease in the body.
The sadness in the heart.
The sister in the rehab center.
The dad moving out.
The D on the report card.
The craving to be one of the cool crowd.
The tears in the middle of the night.
The thorn in the flesh.

“Take it away,” you’ve pleaded. Not once, twice, or even three times. You’ve outprayed Paul. He prayed a sprint; you’ve prayed the Boston Marathon. And you’re about to hit the wall at mile nineteen. This wound oozes pain, and you see no sign of tweezers coming from heaven. But what you hear is this: “My grace is all you need.”

God’s grace wipes out everything else on the landscape. It is not puny but plentiful. Not teeny but torrential. Not mini but majestic. It meets us right now, at our point of need, and equips us with courage, wisdom, and strength. It surprises us in our worst moment with overflowing buckets of faith. His grace is not a gentle shower washing away the problem. It is a raging, roaring river whose current knocks you off your feet and carries you into the presence of God.

With the help of those one hundred doctors, my friend Kyle survived the flight to America and recovered from the reaction. Tests show no trace of HIV. He and Heather resumed their practices with renewed conviction of God’s protection. When I asked Kyle about the experience, he reflected that on three other occasions he has heard an airline attendant ask, “Is there a doctor on board?” In each instance Kyle was the only physician on the flight.

“As Heather wheeled me onto the plane, I wondered if anyone would be on board to help us.” God, he soon discovered, answered his prayer a hundred times over.

He stands ready to do the same for you.

God’s grace is not a gentle shower washing away the problem. It is a raging, roaring river whose current knocks you off your feet and carries you into the presence of God.

Stress & Meniere’s

Sorry I haven’t updated the blog in a while. Been dealing with car problems. But as of yesterday I am now a proud owner of a 2013 Toyota Camry SE. At the moment though I am driving a loaner car till my car comes in. The dealer did not have a Silver model with the specs that I wanted. They said it would be delivered to the dealership next Monday  and then will be tinted.  

Now you’re probably wondering what in the world does this have to do with Meniere’s Disease? Well, when you constantly are worrying if the engine or oil light is going to come on it will stress you out. My 2006 Mazda 6 got so bad that I was putting 4qts of oil every 1500 miles.  Every time I would turn the car key I would stress out wondering if the car would be ok.  For a Meniere’s patient stress is a bad thing. When I was really sick a few months back I remember my ENT doctor asking me if I had been really stressed out lately. They only thing that came to mind was being dizzy was causing the stress. I also started to notice all the sudden I am getting more grey hair in the last  6 months.  Now I am only 36 so a few would be common but it’s more than that on the underside of my head. I have been dealing with this oil issue for almost a year and I believe that the Mazda dealer did not do the proper repairs at the time they worked on the car. I know some car stuff because  I was a little tom girl that would rather help dad with the truck than learn how to sew. The Mazda was making me so mad that now I think back to a few times with the warning light would come on and I would get so upset that I would start to feeling dizzy.  Now that is just too dangerous when your driving alone.  So I sold the car to Carmax so it was not a total loss.  But boy, driving home from the Toyota deal was so relaxing. It’s like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.  Now if I can only figure out why the ringing in my left ear sounds different. It’s not just the constant ring but when I move a certain way the sound also goes up and down. Maybe that has something to do with the crystals in my inner ear. I did the DizzyFix exercises for week and I thought everything was better. When I go home today I will start doing them again to see if it helps. I tried using my Meniett device last night but that did not change anything.  So I just pray about it and let God guide me in the right direction.  Try a few things till I find the right cause. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed day. I promise to post pictures of the new car as soon as I get it. 

What A Great Day!

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What A Great Day!

Today for the first time in a few months I feel really good. My company had the office really cleaned over the weekend so almost all the dust is gone. I think that really helped since I am allergic to 2 types of dust. Next is getting carpet cleaned. As I may have mentioned before, my ENT Dr. says there is a link to Meniere’s Disease & allergies. Then around 2pm today, a really bad thunderstorm rolled in but instead of feeling the pressure I felt normal. Praise God for that! But just I felt great my little kitty Hattie had to go to the vet. She is sick but was given a shot & will be good as new. Well right now I think she is a little mad because she also got vaccines too. But she got plenty of treats & love. Out of our three cats she is the baby. We also have her brother & mother. Whenever I end up sitting on the bathroom floor because of the Meniere’s, they pull the door open & each of them check on me. Now Sydney, the mommy, will lick my face then lay on my leg till I get up. I truly believe God sent them to comfort me through the tough times. Just like I helped her deliver 5 kittens, now she takes care of me. She was a pregnant cat who’s owner moved & left her behind. One day she showed up behind our fence & has been here ever since. Now we have another black cat that has made our back yard his home since his owner leaves him out even when it’s 32 degrees outside. I made him a house & everything. It will be only a matter of time before Buddy comes in. Pets are one of God’s great gifts.

Well I hope you are having a great day as well.