In order to deal with the symptoms caused by the inner ear damage, I found I had to add supplements that target the stress response to what I was already taking to control the glutamate and GABA imbalance. Things seem to be going really well since adding the new supplements.
After starting the vitamin C and getting that supplement at the right dose, I figured I’d be well on my way to my brain recompensating for the inner ear damage. However, I was still having issues due to the stress response caused by the damage. Since the cysteine supplement was working to keep glutamate and GABA in balance, I thought I could actually feel the balance shifting between the two. The stress would cause glutamate to rise, so then GABA would have to rise to bring it back down. At some point again glutamate would have to rise to counter the rise in GABA. My body had become a see-saw! I realized I would have to do something to target the stress response itself. I decided to do some searching online to see if there was something I could take to control it. I did some reading, and it sounded like ashwagandha and rhodiola rosea would be two great options. After finding out about those, I decided to go to the store to see what I could find.
Fortunately, I was able to find one of the supplements locally. I found a 125 mg Sensoril ashwagandha supplement at one of the local drug stores. For the first few days of taking it, I did feel a little strange. I chalked it up to my body adjusting to the supplement because later it seemed like things had evened out. I was feeling better but would still get really fatigued and sleepy during the day. After reading suggestions to take ashwagandha and rhodiola together, I decided to get a rhodiola supplement. I wasn’t able to find one locally. I found a 500 mg supplement online. Like the ashwagandha, it required a few days of adjustment. While the combination hasn’t kept the sleepiness at bay, I’ve found that I don’t get nearly as fatigued. I’ve also found that I’m much more able to tolerate head movements. I was even able to read an e-book for a few hours by using a tablet on a Pillow Pad in my lap. I haven’t been able to hold my head downward like that for any length of time in about a year. It felt really good to read normally. I still find myself holding things straight out in front of me to read them, but I’m hoping I can continue to use normal head movements and positions more and more. Scrolling still bothers me, but it’s much more tolerable now than it was before I started taking the supplements. I also hope that over time I’ll be able to tolerate scrolling more and more so that doing a normal amount of scrolling from time to time won’t bother me much, if at all.
While I feel I’ve gotten a lot closer to normalcy concerning visual motion and head movements, I can’t help but feel disappointed that I can still get really sleepy during the day. I feel like Dorothy in the poppy field.
Even though there are things to do, I find it hard to fight the sleepiness and the urge to take a nap. Sometimes I’ll close my eyes thinking that I’m just resting them, but I inevitably end up dozing off. I’m not sure if I want to keep looking for a supplement to help with this issue because I’m already taking plenty. I may just have to find another way of dealing with it, like getting up to stretch, walking around, or finding some other way to take a break for a few minutes. Sometimes it hits fast and hard enough where I can’t stop to think about doing any of those things. While it can hit while watching TV or during the preacher’s sermons at church, it seems to be the worst when I’m working at the computer. In fact, in the period of time between the episode of vestibular neuritis and when I started being hit with inner ear type symptoms in May 2018, I would get really sleepy during the day and only at work. I had no idea what was causing it and thought the office environment had something to do with it. However, it persisted even after we moved to another building. I now believe that it’s connected to the inner ear damage, and it might be my body’s way of telling me that it’s being pushed too hard.
Another disappointment is the fact that I had to put all these pieces together myself. The doctors just have not been any help. The ENT doctor I saw in 2018 didn’t do thorough testing and to this day denies any inner ear problem exists. The neurologist had me try antidepressants that helped somewhat, but I always felt that she didn’t truly know what was going on. I’m not sure how much the ENT doctor’s incomplete evaluation may have contributed since inner ear problems had not truly been ruled out, but even when the oVEMP test was finally done and revealed the inner ear damage, it seemed like she was guessing at which medications to try, and another round of therapy really didn’t help. If the ENT doctor had acknowledged that there was an inner ear problem and had tried treatment options himself, I can’t say if he would have gotten any better results. I feel to this point I’ve had to work very hard to figure out my health issues and how to handle them on my own, so I guess it should be no surprise that this time would be any different. I’m just very thankful that I was able to figure out something, although it took quite a bit of trial and error. I would have to admit, though, that it would be a very nice change for a doctor to be able to figure out what’s going on with me and prescribe the proper treatment without me having to do tons of research and experimenting on my own.
I’m so thankful to have found the ashwagandha and rhodiola supplements to deal with the stress response caused by the inner ear damage. Those along with the l-cysteine and vitamin C supplements have really helped me to be able to work back in normal head movements. I’m hoping that over time scrolling will become easier as well. Hopefully I’m well on my way to my brain recompensating for the inner ear damage.
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