Hi All,

Check out this great site:

http://www.meei.harvard.edu/patient/rauch.php

(preapproved by mod1)

Scroll down to the bottom and click on the links to a number of excellent short talks by Assoc Professor Stephen Rauch. I particularly liked the one on "Vestibular Compensation" and his analogy comparing compensation to learning a second language - very cool. He understands the many years involved in the chronic compensation period following a vestibular injury which I was impressed by. There's stuff there on BPPV, MAV, VRT and Meniere's too.

Best...Scott :cool:

Hi Scott

Excellent find!!

Agree---the compensation video is well done----he had to take a gulp---on the 2 years---but he got it out----very few Md's---can do that....

Tks!

:cool:

Scott:

This is great and the compensation portion makes since. Maybe thats what you are dealing with. you have not learned to deal with the LCD screen and your body reacts this way....

Feel better soon,

Howie

V interesting - wanted to change his 2 years to more though! :D But he did say "years".

Thanks scott - hope ur feeling tad better xxxx

Hi Scott,
Was just now able to sit down and look through this site! It was great to be able to sit and listen to this doctor fully, clearly explain what our daily lives consist of! (I think it should be mandatory viewing for all GPs and ENTs who send their poor, bewildered vestibular patients out the door with no help at all!) Can you add it to the archived info? I think it would be a great addition and very helpful to those who are trying to learn as much as they can about inner ear issues!

Hope you are feeling some improvement. Though I don't know your entire history/diagnosis, I got to thinking about your problems with the computer screen several days ago. I'm sure you've already discussed/looked into it, but it occurred to me that as a migraine patient, there have been certain visual inputs in the past - mostly lights of a particular sort - that can send me into a migraine aura. Could it be possible that that particular computer screen is somehow visually impacting and eliciting a migrinous response which is manifesting as a vestibular issue? Just something that crossed my mind....

Do hope you are feeling much, much better and that the stress of your upcoming deadline isn't taking too much of a toll. You have been a great encouragement to me during my time on this board, and I know so many others feel the same! Here's to a great weekend!

XOX ~ Robin

Agreed calculon! There needs to be inner ear research and quick!

CL x :D

It's rather sad, isn't it!!!! I do appreciate this doctor's clear and concise explanation of the compensation process and have already sent it to several people who just can't seem to understand that I STILL don't feel well! Well, let's hope that people 100 years from now have a lot more answers than we do now! (Or that some research will pop up and immediately address our problems!)

Great videos Scott. I especially like the last sentence in the vestibular compensation "for most people it goes away completely". I keep playing that last sentence over and over. Also interesting he brought up that two year time frame too.

I wish more doctors knew this stuff!

What I don't understand is that every bit of research (not just in these videos) talks about vertigo only. I guess I'm having a hard time because of all the other symptoms that goes along with it, the pressure, fullness, weird funky ear feeling, tinnitus. I can't be the only one who this really bothers. I wish they'd mention more about these symptoms too.

Really bummed today as I had to give up my hockey tickets as my ears just feel so awful. Not really dizzy so I guess I should be happy at that. Sometimes I think I understand why Vincent Van Gogh cut his ear off :eek: .

Hope your doing much better this week. - Gloria

Exactly, Gloria - if only there were a quick fix (like amputation! HA!) that could make us better NOW!!!! I know so little about the pressure/tinnitus aspect of the vestibular ailments, but if the symptoms you continue to struggle with are due to that vestibular injury that happened over 12 months ago, then I would have to assume that everything this doctor says in terms of learning that new "language," breakthrough symptoms, etc., would definitely apply to yours, too. Oh, if only we could take a speed course on "how to speak fluent vestibular function in 14 days" (complete with expanded vocabulary!!!) ;)

Hope you've been OK - I am about to go out and walk in the fields, as I've been trying to do every day after reading one of Adam's post about the benefit of walking on uneven surfaces. Have you been able to keep active now that it's really, really winter in your neck of the woods?

Take care and have a great Saturday!
XOx ~ Robin

Hi Scott,

How are you? Just been reading the clips in your link! must say I found trying to find the link and then down load the thing needed to run the clips almost as hard as compensating! You know like 1 step forward and then 10 back! Glad you put the link up though they were amoungst the best and certainly the 1st real time explanation. Made allot of sense to me I must say. I am doing pretty good, a bit of dizzyness here and there, think I had a small bout of BPPV but seem to be on the mend again. Also maybe a tad decomp due to being far too busy and stressed work wise, a good thing but a bit tiring and thus dizzy came back a abit. So how are you?? xx

Hey Ilia,

Great to hear from you and see you back on the HB. Sorry to hear about the decomp and BPPV but sounds like you are coming out of it again. Yeah those videos are great - really nice for a doc to take the time to make those and put them up for people to see instead of reading through it all on 15 different websites.

I'm in a decomp again actually. Started in December after being near 100%. And I think it was when I started drinking caffeinated coffee again that may have been the main part of the trigger. It came only slowly - bad patches during the day here and there - and then I went to New Zealand over Christmas and it got worse after a crazy car drive and looking at a new pc screen. On returning home it became 24/7. The good news is I didn't/haven't freaked out as I used to - zero anxiety. Think I finally "got" the message you were trying to drum into my head for so long. So one thing has been learned hopefully. At any rate I've upped the SSRI med a fraction and slowed down a bit and things seem to be getting better although this morning I woke up off my face yet again - like I'm on some acid trip.

So are you back to your best again now or is there still some dizzies hanging around? Did you manage to see the clip on "Vestibular Compensation"? Nice analogy with learning a new language that I thought was right on.

Take care....Scott xx

>>>Can you add it to the archived info?

Hi Dizzyblond - yup it's there already. It's the second one down. Hopefully lots of noobs will get to this one straight away.

Gloria - bummer about the hockey game and your ears giving you so much grief. We have someone staying with us and I want to drive a car down south and show them around but not sure that I can at the moment. Things will have to improve markedly for me this week otherwise it ain't happening. Car driving would likely flatten me. Hope the ears feel better soon.

Cheers...Scott

Hi Scott,

Geez....this stuff is crazy. I was hoping you'd be back to feeling almost100% again. It does sound like you are really dealing with it.

I was really down about not going to the Penguins game, but they ended up loosing anyway. I still love to watch Crosby, win or loose. I've had some funky things going on with my ears lately that I'm wondering if that cold I've just gotten over did something. The cold didn't seem to be effecting my ears too much this time so I was very happy about that, but as the cold was leaving my system, my ears starting doing goofy stuff. I have a bad headache and neck ache today, but I'm wondering if it is because I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. last night which is very very very unusal for me. If my 5 year old didn't come pouncing on me this morning at 7:45 a.m., I'd probably be fine right now. Oh well, I guess that is what I get for staying up too late.

I'm going to try and think of it as a tired headache and not a vestibular one today and hope it goes away as this is the worst my head has hurt in a few months. I was hoping the headaches and pressure was finally coming to an end as it didn't seem as severe as it use to be.

I'm hoping to feel better in two Sundays as Pittsburgh's going to the Superbowl! Can't get away from a Steelers party in my house with them being in the Superbowl.

Best wishes to you that you are able to take your guest for some sightseeing. Strange but usually if I feel terrible and get out, I always feel better. Hope you do too!

Gloria

Hi Scott :wave:

Sorry for delay in replying just been busy and my kids have been borrowing the PC for their own on line chats!

Also sorry that youa re in a not so great spell, but hey you are doing just teh right thing by not adding in a nasty dose of anxiety, which never helps and is just like turning up the radio really loud on any symtoms. But have faith or rather patience, your will clear up again and hey presto you will be back on track.

I am okay, not off balance or anything, I have been doing a real lot - yes working full time and the some plus the kids, plus the dog, plus everything out. So my sleep patterns have been awful, food junk and so on so a recipe of my own making for a spate of de-comp. Lol. But I know it will pass as it is already.

I am flying down to London this week to see my proff and hopefully see a VRT expert, we will see what they say. They still seem pretty convinced I can get to the 100% mark and stay there, I am some what sceptical. But I think where I am for most would be as good a place as any if not quite 100%.

Okay, tell me your news!
Ilia x