So it’s been about a month since I’ve written anything. What’s been going on the past month? Well, quite a bit actually (unfortunately none of which has allowed me to see a positive change in my symptoms).

I had another visit to the neurotologist (which I mentioned last time) — and I asked to have VEMP testing done. While the testing wasn’t much help (since it came back normal), I decided to ask the woman doing the testing if she knew of a good neurotologist.

She suggested one of two doctors, both of whom I haven’t seen before. They came highly recommended from her, so I’m starting to think it’s time to go and get a second opinion about what’s happening with my balance issues.

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I visited the neurotologist this week after getting my appointment changed from July to now. I was hoping that after getting the caloric testing done, we would finally have some answers about what exactly could be done to make me feel better.

So I went in with my fingers crossed, not quite knowing what to expect. I saw the same doctor as last time, and he had the results of my caloric test in hand.

I was completely shocked when he said, as he was flipping through the pages, “It looks like your results were normal.” I didn’t quite know what to say.

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I had completely never heard of caloric testing before, but I’m hoping it will reveal something about my (potentially?) damaged vestibular nerve. If you’re like me and had never heard of caloric testing, here’s Wikipedia’s definition of it:

In medicine, the caloric reflex test is a test of the vestibulo-ocular reflex. It is used by audiologists and other trained professionals to validate a diagnosis of asymmetric function in the peripheral vestibular system. Calorics are usually a subtest of the electronystagmography (ENG) test battery.

So basically, what they do is squirt warm and cold water into your ear. In a normal person, the eye will move in a particular way — but for someone with vestibular dysfunction, the eye will move less (or perhaps not at all?).

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