In October of 1996 I was teaching and noticed that I got dizzy when I turned quickly after closing the classroom door. I thought, "Wow," what's going on. I had been on Gentamycin nasal irrigations since the prior May.

Well, this unstableness continued and in February of 1997, I was shopping at a local mall with my husband and son and his fiancée' when I noticed I couldn't walk through the mall and look at the windows without getting dizzy. I asked my Ear Nose and Throat doctor if the Gentamycin in the nasal irrigations might be causing this. He asked the vestibular doctor and both concurred that this wasn't possible for such a minute amount of Gentamycin only used as an irrigation to cause this dizziness. This is only a couple of the dizzy episodes but the most memorable.

Then since the serious antibiotic resistant sinus infection was not getting better with the irrigations and oral antibiotics, it was decided that I needed IV's of Gentamycin. I was afraid since I knew something was causing this current imbalance but I was desperate to get better so I did consent to have these IV's. It was 12 days into the IV's that I got a rash and immediately stopped the Gentamycin since I was afraid of it in the first place.

A week later, I did have an ototoxic reaction to the Gentamycin! This was very severe and sudden. I couldn't walk or even stand having my eyes open. Larry, my husband, took me to the ER and I collapsed in the parking lot unable to walk into the ER. The ER doctor said it was just labyrinthitis and would go away in a few weeks but I was sure it was the ototoxic reaction to the Gentamycin. The next month I had the ENG, Rotational Chair and Posturography testing done which all showed almost 100% loss of the inner ear balance function. Soon afterwards I was in Physical Therapy learning to walk and just get around again. Of course, I couldn't drive and was very sick.

Now I still had the antibiotic resistant sinus infection but I don't have much of my inner ear balance system left. Over the years, some of the inner ear balance function has come back but both ears are still abnormal and I still have major problems with balance and my vision with the bouncing vision when I walk and jerking vision and difficulty focusing. I feel I have adjusted very well considering the damage that was done. But I have the sick heavy head feeling and darkness makes it worse as my eyes are not able to compensate as much for the inner ear loss of balance.

I became too ill to work in January of 1997 after collapsing twice in a couple of weeks, too weak to get up and am now on SSD. I had just finished my master degree in Math Education while teaching full time at a school for juvenile delinquent boys a few months earlier. I had hoped that I would start feeling better after I finished this degree and when I wasn't working so hard full time while going to school nights. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. It was only a few months later that the infection was so bad that I was on IV's of Fortaz and had to take a leave of absence. I did start back working part time in November of 1996 but by January of 1997 it was evident that the vestibular loss and the serious sinus infection on top of the multiple other health problems made it impossible to work. What a disappointment when I had only months before finished my master degree while my two sons were in college working on their bachelor degrees. We all three graduated in the spring of 1996. But in my case, this was only a short time before my working days were over.

My ENT moved to the Cleveland Clinic where he encountered a second patient who, also, developed inner ear damage on just the irrigations of Gentamycin. It was then that he was convinced that these irrigations could damage a small percentage of very susceptible people. In May of this year (2000) my former ENT did do a talk on the possible damage of Gentamycin irrigations at a convention in FL using my case and the case of his other patient as examples of those damaged by the irrigations. Hopefully this will make other ENT's more aware of the possible damage of the irrigations and stop them before more damage is done or worse yet, putting them on IV's of Gentamycin as I was put on which did devastate my inner ear vestibular system.

I still hope I can get back to work at least part time but the sinusitis, which is still a problem, and other health problems make it impossible. But there is always hope and I am still undergoing testing and trying to get better.

Norma Jean