“there is no consistent damage to the inner ear with migraine. This is a chemical thing, with some alteration in the channels of the inner ear. There are “normal” times but other times it’s triggered off and is therefore abnormal. This notion we have of a damaged ear and the brain will compensate is incorrect. It cannot do that. If it’s damaged it’s transient and then goes back to normal and there’s no need to compensate any longer (true for vestibular neuritis but not MAV). Most migraine patients, in-between attacks, are perfectly normal. Vestibular function returns to normal.”
I read this in the posts listed under by neurologists on this site. It was written by Robert W. Baloh. I am kind of confused now after reading it and if anyone has any input that would be great. I was always told I had vestibular neuronitis and I never fully compensated (even though this doc says that that can’t be true the vestibular damage part?!) then I went to mass eye and ear in boston and they told me I probably did have something happen to my nerve but now my symptoms are from MAV. BUT I Constantly (never intermittent or episodic) am unsteady, and out of it feeling like brain fog. So I have been trying to believe that the MAV makes me have these symptoms, but what this doctor says is vestibular function returns to normal and that it’s episodic?! So Now I’m all nervous cause I feel scared like what if this isn’t what is wrong with me then!!
The operative word is “MOST” in that sentence about most migraine patients having normal vestibular function between migraine attacks - chronic “rockiness” (or wobbliness, as I used to call it) is common for a lot of us. There are other papers (like the emedicine article on MAV) that talk about how some of us with MAV may have this go on for weeks at a time. It’s not the most common form of MAV, but a lot of us have had daily symptoms. Mine have gone away with the medication I’m on. But MAV can definitely do this.