I failed to mention that docs almost always start people out on a low-salt diet, sometimes forbidding caffeine as well. That does work for a few people--and it's certainly good to avoid the typical US diet that has about twice the amount of salt you actually need--but I've only heard of one person who really, really benefitted from the low-salt diet. Worse, if you then go out into the "normal" world and have a meal, you're screwed. It's better to try to avoid too much salt, stick to a moderate diet. I also forgot to mention Gentamcin, which is a newer things lots of docs have tried. Works for some, doesn't at all for others. We usually try some of everything, as we're truly desperate.
I was fortunate in that I needed to work as my youngest was in college, which even at that time cost more than a moderate house. I had a job that I could do anytime, much of it either at home or at the office, and that made it possible for me to work whenever I was able to be upright. I had been working an average of about 60 hours a week, often more, managing a small publishing company and selling most of the advertising for two national magazines we published. However, the job also included travel to wonderful wilderness fishing destinations in Alaska and northern BC, which meant air travel, small planes, lodges, boating on wilderness rivers--places where it's just not convenient to suddenly have V&V. I've had it in many interesting places; the one thing I tried to remember was to always warn those around me so that they wouldn't be alarmed if I suddenly fell ill. However, once during a trip to a wilderness river in Alaska, a friend who had asked to go with us insisted that we all return to the lodge when I started into a crisis. I tried to say no, both because the jolting and bouncing over rapids would make me be sick even longer and because I didn't want to cut the day's fishing short for everyone else--but he insisted. When we arrived back at the lodge, he insisted that I must be dragged up a very long flight of rickety stairs to reach the actual lodge. It would have been better if they had continued to fish the rest of the day, leaving me alone in my misery to get through the worst two or three hours. After that, I was more careful about warning people. I also led groups of volunteers doing fish surveys in the wild little river on Oregon's north coast, and I was always very careful to warn everyone. Actually, I only started to have a crisis once, and I was able to overcome it by sitting on a boulder, eyes clamped shut, concentrating on listening to all the bird song around me. I'm sure that stress often plays a role in having a crisis, and that's why I never had a full-blown V&V attack out on the river. I once spent a miserable night in a lodge in northern BC because I hadn't been able to avoid staring at all the scenery as we jetted back downstream after fishing all day. The next morning, our last day, I was far too sick to eat, but I got suited up in waders and rain gear and stumbled down to the jet boat. I spent much of that day lying on the widest seat in the boat, puking daintily into a trashbag, but, to my credit, when my guide caught a fish, I got to my feet and managed to net the steelhead. My husband was fishing across the river and hooked one of the biggest steelhead I've ever seen landed; we were all very cocky as we head back upriver...only to learn that the lodge owner and the FF (famous fisherman) he was guiding had video of the FF landing a 34# steelie, a real feat.
There were a few years where I wasn't able to drive the winding dirt tracks in the watershed of the river where I still volunteer: all those tight corners were just too much for me, but I eventually got over that. I spent four years knowing what I needed but unable to get an Rx for adequate amount of hormones; once I did, the crises stopped within a couple of weeks and I had far less recruitment and lack of discrimination. The same thing happened last May: after a year of near total deafness and daily V&V, my hearing went back to the level where it had been over a year earlier, and no more crisis. As soon as I was stabilized, I went to a good VRT specialist for a refresher course on VRT. I've done well since, but slacked off when we had a forest fire that came within a mile of our house in the old-growth forest. It immediately became apparent that I had to get back to doing exercises, as a week of being evacuated, worried that we'd not have a home to go back to, meant that I was really wobbly. Here, just taking care of our acreage is a constant job, as well as not only the usual household things but doing all the repairs necessary helps keep me from spending too much time sitting on my butt. <g>

December 1011: Here's the link to the Meniere's Group: MenieresDG@groups.io