Her first symptoms occurred in March 1996 during a family vacation with her sister, Jenna, and their parents. From where they lived in New Hampshire, the family had to travel by plane for several hours to reach their destination. "That plane ride was miserable for her," Jill's mother, Deedy, remembers. "She was sick, dizzy, nauseous, and her ears hurt."

Deedy and her husband, Jerry, took Jill to many doctors in Boston, trying to find out what was causing her dizziness, nausea, tinnitus, hearing loss, fatigue, and severe headaches. Unfortunately, Jill was misdiagnosed for two years because of her headaches and a family history of migraines. As Jill entered her teenage years, her symptoms continued to progress. "Brushing my teeth in the morning, I would be so queasy. I had to take showers sitting down, so I wouldn't fall. Even the simplest things, I couldn't do. It was awful," she declares. Her

parents sometimes had to help her walk up the stairs to her bedroom because she felt so dizzy, nauseous, and weak.

In 1998, the Joaquims took Jill to see Dr. Fred Arrigg, Jr., an otologist Deedy knew from his work at the hospital where she was an operating room anesthesia technician. Dr. Arrigg diagnosed Jill with bilateral Ménière's Disease, and she immediately went on a low-sodium, low-caffeine diet. She also was prescribed a few different medical treatments, including diuretics. "I started keeping a diary," Deedy states, "because she was sick for so many years. The medications either didn't help or made her worse. The low-sodium diet was the only thing that helped her at all, and that was barely functioning."

Jill's father continues, "And when they say 'low-sodium diet,' what they really mean is no sodium, which is very difficult. She couldn't eat in the school cafeteria. She couldn't go to birthday parties—she couldn't eat the food." The rest of the family was affected, too. "We basically had to arrange the household around her Ménière's. The disease limited a lot of what we could do as a family—going to restaurants, family vacations, and holidays," explains Deedy.

Attending school was a daily struggle. "Jill didn't want to get behind in her classes, so she would drag herself out of bed to go to class, feeling sick, and then come back from class and go right back to bed," Deedy relates. Adds Jerry, "We had to get what amounted to a medical pass from Jill's school that said she could come to school only when she felt well enough to get there." 

Jill's determination impressed her sister, Jenna. "It's such a debilitating disease—I gave her a lot of credit for still wanting to go to school when she was ill," Jenna recalls. Yet the Joaquims agonized about their daughter's future. Deedy remembers, "It was difficult to see her laying on the couch every day, knowing she couldn't be out doing normal teenage activities. We were always worrying…would she graduate on time? Would she ever have a normal life?" 

With a tutor's help, Jill did graduate on time, and began pursuing a college degree in travel and tourism. It was still a struggle to make it to her classes, and her no-sodium diet posed additional problems because of the limited offerings of the university's meal plan. "We had to send her extra money every month so she could buy food from the store to supplement her diet," recalls Deedy."

Deedy read about the Meniett Low-Pressure Pulse Generator in a national vestibular newsletter in late 2001. "Dr. Arrigg hadn't heard of this new Ménière's treatment, and I could tell he was a little skeptical. But a week later," Deedy exclaims, "he came to me and said he had just returned from an otology conference, where he sat next to a Swedish physician who knew about the Meniett. He told me this might be something we can look into for Jill." 

Both Jill and her parents felt they had nothing to lose and were eager to try the new treatment. "Jill had to leave soon for a college internship in Florida, and we wanted to get her a device before she left," Deedy states. So Dr. Arrigg placed ventilation tubes in her ears a few weeks later, right after Christmas. Her father remembers, "My wife and I sat around the kitchen table and watched her use it for the first time. Maybe a day or two went by and I asked her how she felt. She said, 'Perfect. I feel perfect!' It can't happen that fast, but it did." A week or two later, Jill left for her internship program on January 9th, and noticed a significant difference in how she felt during

the plane trip to Orlando, Florida. "I used to have a lot of pain in my ears when I would fly. This time, nothing happened. It was wonderful," Jill exclaims.

Back home, Jill's parents were anxious to hear about her continued progress with the treatment. Jerry relates, "We called her every day to find out how she's doing. Every day she'd say, 'Perfect. I feel perfect.' Finally one day she said, 'Dad, will you stop asking me? I feel perfect!'"

At 19, Jill finally is able to enjoy the typical teenage activities she had missed for so many years. "I can go to movies, go out at night with my friends—I would never have been able to do that before," she declares. "The loud noise and crowds would have made me really sick." She also decided to try eating a few high-sodium foods, and found she could do that, too. "I kind of eased into it, to see how things would go," she explains."Now I eat pretty much anything I want." 

A few months later, Deedy and Jerry went to visit Jill in Orlando for six days. They had only seen Jill on the device for a few days before she had to leave for her internship. Though they could tell then that she was improved, they were unprepared for how dramatically different their daughter would be. "What we saw," as Deedy describes it, "was mind-blowing. I could physically see the difference in her. She went from being a very sick young girl to a normal teenager. We got to see six days of her healthy—something we hadn't seen since she was 12."

Deedy and Jerry also couldn't believe what they saw their daughter eating. So used to Jill following a no-sodium diet, Deedy relates, "We would cringe looking at her plate and say, 'Oh my gosh, are you really going to eat that?' And she'd say, 'It's ok, Mom, just watch!'" These days, the Joaquim family is on top of the world. In late April 2002, Jill's parents and her sister visited her in Orlando. They spent several days together having fun as a family, the way they used to do before Jill had Ménière's Disease. Her sister, Jenna, says, "I used to ask Jill to go out and do things with me, but she always said she wasn't feeling well. When I visited her in Florida, I was amazed—she worked all day and still felt well enough to go out with me at night."

Remarks Jill, "I always felt like Ménière's Disease wasn't that common and there wouldn't ever be anything to help me. Now," she says happily, "I can have a normal teenage life and hang out with my friends. I can work every day and have fun, too." 

"I just feel lucky I saw the article about the Meniett," Deedy declares, "and lucky Jill's doctor was willing to try something new. Her quality of life has gone from poor to excellent—Jill is back to the way she was before she got sick. I have my healthy daughter back." The Patient Testimonial you have just read is from a real patient with Menieres' disease. They have related their actual experiences with the disease and the Meniett device. This patients' story may or may not be representative of the total population using the Meniett device as results vary from patient to patient. Most Menieres' patients receive varying degrees of relief from their symptoms; however, there are some patients who have reported receiving no relief. Please see your health care provider to determine if the Meniett device is right for you.

Meniett and local pressure treatment is only to be used after doctor's prescription. If you wish to order a Meniett and have a doctor's prescription, click here.

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