update f/ Cheryl B.

    We had emailed this to a bunch of family and friends back on Wed, February 10, 2010 9:44:07 PM.   Seeings how I am working on an update to it which I plan on posting, I figured I should just go ahead and post this as well.

"Brain has had quite a bit of fun telling others about my current medical situation. I can't blame him. It has just provided way to many opportunity's!! So after hearing about his updating his dad on everything, I asked him to write up a report for me to send to some of my friends. And yes, I wanted him to include a lot of his chuckles.


Here then is what Brian wrote:
    "As many of you know Cheryl has Vertigo and has had for a couple of weeks – ok a month. It has been a comedian’s holiday around here all the bobbing and weaving, swaying, dizzy jokes, songs, and general mayhem that has tortured my poor loving adorable spouse. Arming herself with the mild come back of “won’t you be sorry when you find out that I’m really sick” she has saintly survived.
     When the 3rd or 4th round of meds did not seem to clear things up. The threat level was elevated and off to the balance clinic we went –to see if she was unbalanced or not (the comments have flown over that one). We had her there promptly on Tuesday and we were carted off to see an Audiologist – no, just hearing one was not enough. I have to admit I was impressed, you know those questionnaires? He actually went through it line by line making her verbalize all her answers – which explains why he was an Audiologist. Looking at her migraine history, her Vertigo history –“when you do this how does your vertigo respond, now be very specific”. The tests were different yet eye opening. She stood on a foam block raised her arms like a zombie and tried to balance. Not bad but not good. Then she had to close her eyes. If he had not been there she would fallen to the right in seconds. He had her march in place like a zombie with her eyes closed – of course, to her stationary meant drifting off to the right 3 feet and rotating to right 90 plus degrees (Was I ever MORTIFIED to open my eyes and see that I had turned like that!!! I would have SWORN I hadn't left my spot at all!!! And had only twice stepped back hard due to dizzyness!!! ). “Are you beginning to see a pattern?” the Doctor asked.
     I have been told “the eyes tell all”, well they tracked her eye movement with a special mask. She had to visually track lights moving on a light bar, as long as the lights moved in a smooth pattern she did fine but random was difficult at best. Then they closed the mask so she couldn’t see out and asked a series of random questions, anytime she didn’t know or had to think of an answer her eyes would jitter to the right. With every answer he would respond with “right, ok or that’s normal”. After all of these tests were completed the computer compiled them and graphed them, “These lines are the base norms, where they converge and cross are the standard, the box around it is the normal standard. The dots are her norms, as you can see she is just south of normal.” (yes, the Dr. said the line exactly like that, leaving it open to h-o-w many comments? Brian did good, he waited till we had left the office to make any of them ;-p)
     Taking us to another room she was given an extensive hearing test - tones, words, white noise were all used in conjunction with each other. The test showed a 30% hearing loss in her right ear mostly in the high-end frequencies.
     All these tests narrow the problem to the right inner ear. The nerves are sending the wrong / incomplete information to the brain. Her right ear is telling the brain that she is listing to the right or you’re standing still and everything around you is moving. Her left ear, eyes and muscles are saying everything is fine so when she moves or turns quickly for a spit second everything agrees so the body tries to react but cant do so fast enough so it responds with dizzy.
     That makes it a neurological problem; the migraines (that is the good possibility) are probably the cause – There is a small chance that a tumor or cyst as small as a grain of sand (those are the ok possibilities) could be pushing / leaning on the inner ear, therefore they will schedule a CAT scan - I offered to wave Rascal over her head a couple of times, she even said I was helpful “ you’re a lot of help” but no. And lastly a neuro-blocker to stop the migraines before they start.
     How much was covered well that remains to be seen, as that’s in GOD’s unseen hands. Maybe we can strike a balance on the balance with Spectrum "


Keeping you updated as I said I would,
Cheryl B.

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