I have been dealing with what I believe is vestibular neuritis since June. I have gotten a lot better but still not 100 percent. Any success stories out there?
Hello Anne,
I had a very sever episode of vestibular neuritis just over a year ago. I was completely bedridden for 5 days and then spent weeks holding onto walls to walk around the house. At first my specialist thought it was all migraine related as I also have 'silent' migraines, so it took some time to get a diagnosis. I had a cloric test done at the hospital which confirmed that I had Vestibular Neuritis with a loss of 83% of my balance on my right side. In my case it took me months of Vestibular Therapy exercises, to help train my brain to take balance signals from the left side. I did a lot of walking through the winter months and that has seemed to help even more. I'm not completely free of the symptons as I still have days that I have trouble functioning - I refer to it as being wonky (brain fog) and that's when I know I need to get out and get more exercise and be active and to also pay attention to what I'm eating. The more you do to get out and test your balance the better it seems to be.... hope this helps.
The less than 100% is probably due to poor vestibular compensation, and vestibular rehabilitation may be needed to cover the rest.
However, you state "what I believe". Is this a self-diagnosis, or did a physician make the diagnosis?
Eleftherios S. Papathanasiou, PhD, FEAN
Clinical Neurophysiologist
Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology
Thank you for your replies! I believe it is VN as I have done a lot of reading and the symptoms and onset are exactly the same as I experienced. I did see an ENT but he didn't diagnose VN as I didn't show strong deficit in either ear but that could've been been because I took medication that morning. I was not told to take nothing so I am going to be retested soon. Also I have read that some doctors will diagnose VN as a process of elimination even without inner ear damage as some people don't have major deficits even with vestibular inflammation, is this correct?
Thanks again
VN is definitely not diagnosed in an elimination process. Its diagnosis is very clear on its own. It is characterised by severe acute rotatory vertigo in the absence of hearing loss, with no features of central nervous system involvement.
Eleftherios S. Papathanasiou, PhD, FEAN
Clinical Neurophysiologist
Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology
Hi Anne - it might be vestibular migraine. Have you seen a GP and had an MRI scan ? You need to be referred to a neurologist he will diagnose you correctly, GPs and ENTs dont know anything about this stuff. You need the right medication and then it takes months rather than weeks to get better.
I'm into my second month ... so did u take any meds while recovering . .now I'm recovering 70% but I'm confused should I keep take betahistine tablets or no ?
Thanks
Just wanted to see how things are going? Did u find out what your diagnoses was? Did u recover?? Just wanted to know- need some hope.