Hi everyone,
I have just gone through 3 hours of torture during my vestibular function test and now I am a complete mess! This is day 3 after the test and I am still struggling badly with nausea and of course the dizziness has sky-rocketed. My results were as expected … completely normal, no sign of Menieres. Just wondering whether anyone else has experienced a reaction like mine to VFT’s?? Just a word of advise to MAV sufferers… think long and hard before signing up for this testing…it has knocked me for six.
Kylie
Totally agree with you I did those tests three times I would never do them again ! hell literally.
A good specialist can usually say whats wrong without these or like me you have them and they dont tell you anything anyway.
Hope you feel better soon
Hi Kylie,
The same thing happened to me years ago. I’m assuming you had the caloric test done yeah? The reason it can wreck a migraineur for a while is because induced dizziness triggers a migraine attack (it’s in the literature) and so by being subjected to extreme vertigo induced by the water, you’re basically having the mother of all migraine attacks right now.
I took a ton of valium and rode it all out. It took a while but things returned to baseline eventually.
Hope it goes soon!
S
Apparently bad reactions to vestibular testing but normal results are very typical of MAV sufferers. I think Dr Rauch says that in his interview for this forum. From what I have read this kind of reaction is quite common amongst other sufferers on here x
Oh god I’m having the rotating chair test in a few weeks - wish me luck all! X
You’re right Jem – a bad reaction is typical for a migraineur and probably a diagnostic test for it in a strange unexpected way. I was so trashed by the caloric. It was horrific … extreme anxiety for hours and hours afterwards. I remember sitting in the car park of the hospital afterwards crying for about an hour. I couldn’t get my shit together until a friend came and made me laugh if you can believe it. The situation was so absurd I went from tears of misery to complete laughter! :shock:
Yes me too! I nearly burst into tears during the test. My voice went all shaky as I tried to hold it together whilst the room was spinning round and round and I was trying to count up in threes like the tester had told me to do. Afterwards he announced that my test results were perfect, ie perfectly normal so it wasn’t inner ear and suggested it could be my feet making me dizzy!! I really felt despair when he said that. I felt like saying ‘you have never been dizzy have you!’ To think it could be my feet when everything was coming from my head just made me so frustrated. My ears felt full and uncomfortable for a few days after and the whole thing was not pleasant at all although I would do it all again in a heartbeat if it helped me get some answers or a cure!! x
— Begin quote from “Jem”
.. suggested it could be my feet making me dizzy!!
— End quote
That’s a new one! Hilarious now when you look back at it. :lol:
I know! At the time I was so despondent I just felt like running out of there in tears but now looking back it is actually comical. Talk about clutching at straws!
What an idiot! how you feeling Jem? Im still at rock bottom with this shit Ive had enough now never had such a prolonged relapsed ever just hoping its pregnancy causing it x
Pthht!!!
your FEET!!! :lol: What an IDIOT omg I just about spit my tea reading that! Thanks, Jem for the the good laugh, and not at your expense but at the tech’s. Oh brother!!! How can someone perform these tests on people and not have the slightest clue?
I’m not sure if this is the same test I had - a VNG?? I think it was called - with the mask over your face and the light you have to follow, and the laying down & sitting up & air & water in your ears & stuff??? Oh yes I remember counting backward, forward, by 5’s and what not.
I wanted to hide under a rock for a month.
No…I wanted to BE a rock for a month!!!
Feel better soon,
Kathleen
Yes it was the VNG Kathleen, all that looking at red dots and water in the ears. It was over 3 years ago now so thankfully I am further along and can look back on it as almost comical but at the time it was just another door slamming in my face. I really wanted them to find something wrong so I could prove I was ill and not just imagining it all!
Donna hi. When’s the baby due? Sorry you are still in a relapse, I am sure things will improve for you after the birth and you can get straight back on the meds then…also I did reply to your other post about topamax.
I think the nori may be helping a bit, I have been slightly less dizzy round the house. Going anywhere is still yuk though. So far I have called in at the supermarket and been on a few walks and I can tell I am still really dizzy doing stuff so I am not pushing it too much. It’s like this latest attack if that’s what it is has totally scrambled my vestibular system again. I am hoping it won’t take 3 years to improve like the first time. I have my appt with Dr Silver next week. Thinking of you and hoping the birth happens soon so you can get back on the meds and better again x
I have been diagnosed with probable MAV. I have had a couple of rounds of vestibular testing, including two turns in the rotation chair and two different caloric tests (one with air, the other water). While I certainly didn’t enjoy them, I would never describe them as “hell,” in my personal case.
I know everyone is different, but wanted to offer-up another opinion in case someone is reading this thread and is terrified of the tests. Although all my tests came back normal, I am glad I did them since they (supposedly) helped rule-out various vestibular problems. (I do understand, however, that the tests may not be too accurate.)
I was quite fine afterwards and immediately returned to my normal baseline rocking/shaking sensation. The only problem I can recall Is that I found the air caloric test very loud. Prior to the test my ear ringing was low that day. But, immediately after the test I noticed a drastic increase in the ringing. It took about three days to settle back down, as I recall.
If you haven’t had the tests, do not automatically assume the worst. Not everybody reacts poorly, although I have great sympathy for those who do.
I have not had those specific tests but i did try vestibular exercises for 3 days last week - i am still not back to my normal dizziness 
and a few days after the 3 days i was hideously dizzy (i read you have to get worse to get better, thats why i carried on for 3 days but then read on here that these exercises rarely help MAV anyway so i stopped!)
I think migraine does not like change or too much odd movement Hope you feel a bit better soon x
Hi guys, yep it was that caloric test where hot and cold water were blown into my ear that made me hideously dizzy. I had to count back from 300 in 3’s which sounds easy but I found it near impossible while the room was spinning violently! The audiologist must have thought I had learning issues. I nearly broke down too Jem and Scott but managed to hold it together until I got home… OMG it is a god awful test! As for the “feet scenario” that is one of the most ignorant comments I have ever heard!!
I am suffering the whole “shebang” today with migraine, dizziness and nausea. It sounds like it is pretty common reaction which is reassuring I guess. At least I know that it will subside in the next few weeks. I was starting to wonder whether it was just my condition getting worse. Oh well …more valium for me. Thanks for your responses everyone… it really cheers me up to hear from you!
Kylie
Hi Dee
I religiously did vestibular exercises three times a day for 6 months and it unfortunately did not help with my MAV symptoms . It did however give me incredible balance but made no impact on my dizziness or the floor moving sensation I experience at night.
Wow, sorry so many of you had bad responses to the ENGs. Guess I was lucky–I had spinning during the testing but I was OK afterwards. Spinning during the testing is pretty much the norm, but I had no idea that this test tends to have bad aftereffects for migraineurs. Bummer. Because the ENG is a very basic and essential test when trying to get to the bottom of why someone is dizzy.
As to the “feet making you dizzy comment”: I have no idea what the tester actually said, but I wonder if they were referring to the fact that the balance system includes 3 components–inner ear, vision, and proprioception, which includes position sensors in your body notably including your feet. Input from all three systems combines in your brain to keep you balanced. Doctors look for any abnormalities in one or more of the 3 inputs (ears, eyes, proprioceptors). So if the technician thought your eyes and ears were normal, maybe that’s where the “feet” comment came in? I have no idea what they meant–just a speculation.
Nancy