What caused your AN ?

[lmurray69]

 I got hit by a car at 7yrs old broke my jaw.. I have always had bad ear infections .in both ears. then i flew over to germany and my ear poped , and i had holes in the ears. then many,many many yrs later, I had ear surgery to repair the ear drumb on both ears.. Here i am today/Deaf...in left ear and wear a aide in rt,,, and thats my story and I am sticking to it..

oh, have to say i am sorry capt DEb    I called you capt DEE.. any way you and pearl are the best..

[Obita]

Sandy:

I was on an IV drip 12 hours on, 12 hours off for the week I was in the hospital.  My understanding was that the drip was what was called a very heavy dose of steroids. Then I was sent home with oral steroids.  I don't remember how long I took them.  I don't think it was more than a month.  I had that mega steroid puffy look and gained 30 lbs. The extra weight came right off after the steroids were out of my system.  The necrosis of the joints (Avascular Necrosis) didn't start until about 3 or 4 years later. 

You might want to ask your Dr. about low dose steroid use vs heavy dose.  I would imagine low dose would not cause necrosis of the joints but it worth asking about.  Unfortunately, steroids are one of those nasty drugs that work so well on so many things but can have side effects. 

I was upset at first when I found out I had Avascular Necrosis from the steroids.  Then I realized it was a small price to pay for the amazing recovery I had.  The woman in the next room from me at the hospital had Guillian Barre too.  She was paralyzed from the waist up and was on a breathing machine.  The good with the bad so to say.

Kathy

I am intrested in how long you took the steroids and how much taken to develop the hip problems. I have had heavy doses of steroids 6 times in less than two years for my autoimmune inner ear disease. Now I am on them at low dosage forever. Also how long after taking them did you develop the hip problem?

Sandy

[Windsong]

I found it interesting that in yesterday's news up here in the great white north, there was an article on aspartame. It reiterated what i found some years ago in searches including some congress reports.. that is to say, summarized the chemical composition and breakdown of aspartame in the body and the role played by methyl alcohol and formaldehyde ( two of the chemicals from the breakdown of aspartame in the body...there are others..) and also the finding that aspartame given to mice ended up with them having brain tumours.

I recall that diet drinks left in a place where the temperature was above a certain point also increased the nastier chemical components in the can. I can't pass on the sites of scientific reports i found some years ago, unfortunately, as i didn't keep them.

Maybe in our lifetime an asnwer for the cause(s) will be found.

Windsong

[Brendalu]

This is very interesting.  I have always been an accident waiting to happen!  In 1970, a stake truck ran me off the road and I did a nose dive in a ditch in a 1969 Camaro, the following winter I was involved in a seven car pileup with the same car and I was the fourth car.  I got hit on all four side and then hit in the rear.  In 1997 I was hit head on by a drunk driver and in 2000 I was rear ended by a drunk driver at a red light.  All caussed head injuries.  My brain is scrambled.  In 1997, the MRI showed a silver behind my right ear.  My AN was on the right side and 3.5 in 2005.  Hmmmmmmmmm.
BrendaO

[Sue]

Geez louize, Brendalu!!  You've had more than your share of problems. Hope the last half of your life is uneventful. 

Sue in Vancouver

[jen]

Saw this one and HAD to jump in - i say mine was maybe not caused but atleast brought on by STRESS...my symptoms started when i went deaf in my right ear while talking (or crying, whatever LOL) on the phone with a friend of mine one night...i also thought i had anxiety or something cuz i was getting really bad dizzy spells, especially when in a grocery store or somewhere like that...
6 months before that i had split with my fiance (of 9 years)...had spent all my time since then taking over the mortgage (which dad had to co-sign), cancelling the wedding arrangements, switching all bills into my name, and praying that my job was stable enough to maintain all of this...its a long list of stuff i had to take care of...and being a 28 year old who had spent the last 6 years living with someone else, it was the scariest thing i had ever done.  i have never in my life experienced such stress and i am so sure that it was the stress that gave my tumor the ticket to grow...fine maybe it was always there...but it was stress, i'm sure of it.
best part = i'm happier with a brain tumor than i was with my ex.  LOL.
 

[Joef]

the last few years have been stressful for me to ... just lots of work... I wonder if stress releases extra hormones or the extra blood pressure does something??!!

[ppearl214]

I know there was past dicussions here in the past about possible estrogen levels, although doesn't explain for the men here?

As for me, heck... regardless... I was lucky getting this thing... it brought all of you into my life! 

Phyl

[jan pentecost]

Since my diagnosis...I have questioned where this came from....and have heard as many answeres as their are people here.......
I have had three concussions in my lifetime, went to about a dozens concerts betrween 1969 and 1983 and lived most of my life with high anxiety...up until about 7 years ago........I have been told this is a very slow growing tumor....that mine could have been growing from about 7 to 15 years.....which then eliminates many supposed causes of AN.....
It's one of those mystery's I hope is uncovered in my lifetime....just out of curiosity.....

Thanks,

jan

[Brendalu]

Sue and Bruce,

A cat...probably.  Last half of my life.  I really hate to think if it that way...but I guess it is.  I was talking to my eighty year old aunt the other day and here we were making making plans for ten years from now!  Nothing like planning ahead!  Stress and head injuries...I have to agreed.  I do agree with Phyl though..with the AN I wouldn't have found out about all the special people here.
BrendaO

[Pablo]

My wife snoring on my AN ear while sleeping  on the other side for so many years (which is most of the time) 

[ANdroid]

I suppose that there is nothing definitive yet about causes but I have listened to way to much LOUD music over the years and until recently loved headphones cranking souind right into my head. At work I would often spend several  hours a day with radio headphones  that fit tightly around the back of my head and clipped over my ears. These were, of course, turned way up loud. I would not be surprised to find out some day that this disregard for the health of my hearing had contributed to my AN.

[goinbatty]

Someone mentioned this thread so I had to check it out.  Very interesting.  As for myself, I was injured as a child ending up with sutures in the forehead.  Lots of loud music and multiple concerts while in college and since.  Many NASCAR races over the years although the last few I used earplugs.  New onset grand mal seizures at 21 (I'm 46 now).  The second occurred at 23 and from the soreness afterward, I suppose my head bounced off the bathroom tile floor.  I have used artificial sweeteners since age 13-14.  And of course with soda comes loads of caffeine.  I starting noticing the tinnitis within the past couple of years and although this may have nothing to do with it, the premenopausal hormone mess has been going on for about that long.  I have a cell phone but rarely use it.  Have had a desk job for years now which of course means almost constant exposure to a computer.  Over the years, I've rarely listened to music via headphones.  For my children's generation in particular, the use of headphones/earbuds is a chief concern for hearing loss in general.  I feel certain the stats for that will rise sharply in years to come. 

[Rc Moser]

When I was a kid at the swimming hole in a mud fight I got hit in my left ear. Two days later after serere ear pain the doctor pulled out a dead tad pole.   Maybe that had something to do with it

[TP]

All my head issues have been on the AN side of my head. In high school had a bad ear infection and injured my ear drum. Had a lump in the back of my head on the AN side and for years asked my Dr's what they thought it was and they blew it off saying that was the shape of my head. On my AN side when I was a young child got a tic embedded behind my ear and when removed left a bad scar and eventually appeared to turn into a mole, had that removed in my early 20's. During my early 20's had foot surgery and was on heavy duty steriod shots for about 2 years to help with the healing process. Talked on a cell phone using my AN side ear for years now I try to to limit my conversations on my cell phone to a few minutes and use a speaker phone for the majority of my phone conversations. Working on a computer for over 25 years and a big consumer of diet drinks and sugar free sweetners. Bottom line, I think I had my AN way longer than 5-10 years like my Dr suggested. Looking back there were just too many situations that were associated with balance and foggy head problems over the years!