My apologies for the length. I wanted to provide as much information as possible to help you answer my question.
Me: 38-year-old female. Registered for a Open Water Diver course this spring.
Today, I am very fit. I do Crossfit 3-4/week and run 2-3x/week. I eat paleo (meat, vegetables, limited fruit, healthy fats). No highly processed food, grains, dairy, sugar, alcohol.
My concern: When I was 18, I suffered from a severe form of what I now know is labyrinthitis (or so I was told by an ENT, 10 years after the onset of the problem). I finally noticed the pattern of three days of lying in bed, the world spinning (vertigo due to severe nystagmus), puking until only bile came up, occurred right after every episode of binge drinking. I went off alcohol completely, eliminated salt from my diet, and learned to let go of stress. Even so, it took three full years for the serious attacks to disappear (OK, I was not as strict as I should have been. I went drinking with friends on rare, special occasions and paid for it afterwards). The ENT who diagnosed me retroactively at 28 or so told me that alcohol is ototoxic and I basically fried my inner ear on one side.
The time between attacks lengthened, and the severity of the vertigo decreased significantly, over the years. The tinnitus disappeared within two years or so. By the time I was 25, I would have day-long bouts of severe dizziness (but no vomiting) perhaps two or three times a year. I don't remember any severe attacks requiring me to lie on the floor in a darkened room for days on end after the age of 30 or so meaning at least eight attack-free years.
HOWEVER:
--I grew up throwing up whenever I tried to read a book while riding in a car, or whenever riding in the backseat when riding in a car going over winding, curvy roads. Mountain roads? Forget it. That's still a problem today.
--Flight landings are really hard on me. I have to do the Valsalva maneuver every ten seconds during descent, until I make myself lightheaded/dizzy. Then I'm tired and cranky after the landing.
--The two times I've been on open water in the past 20 years, I suffered BIG time from Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (Mal de Debarquement Syndrome) afterwards. I couldn't walk in a straight line for a week after I took a cruise at age 21, and after a simple hour-long kayak ride, followed by maybe an hour or two of white-water rafting on the Colorado River in Utah in May 2009, I couldn't walk, period. The ground kept rolling underneath me for a full day and a half. I couldn't even raise my head without completely losing my bearings and falling to my right side (the side where the ear damage is).
Now, I've read everything on these forums I could find about labyrinthitis and scuba diving. What I've seen can be summarized as: Everyone is different.
I certainly don't want to be 40 feet down in the water when a vertigo attack occurs because of the change in pressure. I want to check with a doctor before my open water course to see what the risks specific to me might be.
So. Do I see an ENT through my HMO, which will cost me a $30 copay ($20 extra if my primary care physician won't give me a referral without making me see her first) or do I try to find someone ostensibly more knowledgeable through DAN's physician referral network, and pay through the nose (I'm not rich!) because my insurance will never cover it?
I'm not sure my situation requires specialized knowledge but then again I'm not sure "any" ENT has a good enough understanding of the risks of scuba diving to give me a knowledgeable answer without using scare tactics to cover himself or herself.
Help!
Me: 38-year-old female. Registered for a Open Water Diver course this spring.
Today, I am very fit. I do Crossfit 3-4/week and run 2-3x/week. I eat paleo (meat, vegetables, limited fruit, healthy fats). No highly processed food, grains, dairy, sugar, alcohol.
My concern: When I was 18, I suffered from a severe form of what I now know is labyrinthitis (or so I was told by an ENT, 10 years after the onset of the problem). I finally noticed the pattern of three days of lying in bed, the world spinning (vertigo due to severe nystagmus), puking until only bile came up, occurred right after every episode of binge drinking. I went off alcohol completely, eliminated salt from my diet, and learned to let go of stress. Even so, it took three full years for the serious attacks to disappear (OK, I was not as strict as I should have been. I went drinking with friends on rare, special occasions and paid for it afterwards). The ENT who diagnosed me retroactively at 28 or so told me that alcohol is ototoxic and I basically fried my inner ear on one side.
The time between attacks lengthened, and the severity of the vertigo decreased significantly, over the years. The tinnitus disappeared within two years or so. By the time I was 25, I would have day-long bouts of severe dizziness (but no vomiting) perhaps two or three times a year. I don't remember any severe attacks requiring me to lie on the floor in a darkened room for days on end after the age of 30 or so meaning at least eight attack-free years.
HOWEVER:
--I grew up throwing up whenever I tried to read a book while riding in a car, or whenever riding in the backseat when riding in a car going over winding, curvy roads. Mountain roads? Forget it. That's still a problem today.
--Flight landings are really hard on me. I have to do the Valsalva maneuver every ten seconds during descent, until I make myself lightheaded/dizzy. Then I'm tired and cranky after the landing.
--The two times I've been on open water in the past 20 years, I suffered BIG time from Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (Mal de Debarquement Syndrome) afterwards. I couldn't walk in a straight line for a week after I took a cruise at age 21, and after a simple hour-long kayak ride, followed by maybe an hour or two of white-water rafting on the Colorado River in Utah in May 2009, I couldn't walk, period. The ground kept rolling underneath me for a full day and a half. I couldn't even raise my head without completely losing my bearings and falling to my right side (the side where the ear damage is).
Now, I've read everything on these forums I could find about labyrinthitis and scuba diving. What I've seen can be summarized as: Everyone is different.
I certainly don't want to be 40 feet down in the water when a vertigo attack occurs because of the change in pressure. I want to check with a doctor before my open water course to see what the risks specific to me might be.
So. Do I see an ENT through my HMO, which will cost me a $30 copay ($20 extra if my primary care physician won't give me a referral without making me see her first) or do I try to find someone ostensibly more knowledgeable through DAN's physician referral network, and pay through the nose (I'm not rich!) because my insurance will never cover it?
I'm not sure my situation requires specialized knowledge but then again I'm not sure "any" ENT has a good enough understanding of the risks of scuba diving to give me a knowledgeable answer without using scare tactics to cover himself or herself.
Help!
