I’m wondering how many of you have actually had full vestibular testing with calorics, balance, nyastgamus, hearing etc in a specialists setting? I realise most people with MAV have negative results for these tests.
One of the self tests my neurologist had me do was to stand with my eyes closed and walk on the spot for 60 seconds. I thought that I had remained in virtually the same place but in fact I have moved right across the room and right off to the side and was about to crash into his desk! I’ve since tried this test at home a couple of times ( mind you this is always while I have had xanax) and I always end up across the room and off to the side ( thinking that I’ve only moved slightly forward). I wonder if this is suggestive of a vesibular issue? Anyone else done this test and had a similar or normal result?
As I recall, this is called the Fukuda stepping test – but what they’re really looking for isn’t whether you blunder around the room, but whether you have a consistent tendency to rotate in one direction. That would indicate that either the vestibular system on one side was weak, or the one on the other side was too strong. But if you’re sometimes veering to the left sometimes to the right, I’m not sure it means very much, except that maybe you’re easily disoriented without vision (which might just mean you’re visually dependent, but perhaps there is nothing measurably wrong with your inner ear).
I’ve tried this test quite a few times. Once I wound up about 80 degrees to the right and pretty far from where I started, but sometimes I’m way off to the left. Other times I turn slightly to one side, but which side I’ll go towards is impossible to predict. I guess I’m consistent in being completely inconsistent.
Yes, I’ve had all those tests. I always turn to the left when I do the stepping test. My caloric function was within normal range, but right at the bottom borderline value. My balance was quite poor initially (although I would say it’s recovered a lot, although I’ve not had it formally tested since the beginning), but all the other tests (following red dots, having head shaken etc.) were normal to start with.
I have recently developed something wrong with my vestibular-occular reflex, and I also have oscillopsia (nystagmus which causes my vision to bounce up and down). My diagnosis is MAV, although I am not really sure how this all fits together.
But my consultant seems to think my symptoms all fit with migraine, so on that basis I would suggest your own movements (which are similar to mine) would also be explained by migraine?
