Thursday, December 8, 2011

Pink Ballerina's dizziness update

After eight visits to five doctors (Pediatrician, Cardiologist, ENT/Otolaryngologist, Ophthalmologist, and Neurologist), several rounds of testing (blood, urine, sinus x-rays, EKG, echo-cardiogram, hearing, vision, VNG, and MRI), we still do not know the cause of Pink Ballerina's dizziness, headaches, and ringing in her ears.

The good news is that really bad causes have been eliminated. (I've decided not to speculate on what those really bad causes could have been.)

There are three theories (so far) for the cause of her dizziness:
  1. Dehydration. We have been keeping her hydrated and it seems to have helped. Or it may be co-incidental.
  2. Migraine-associated vertigo (MAV), which is vertigo associated with a migraine, either as a symptom of migraine or as a related but neurological disorder. Pink Ballerina has a history of migraines.
  3. We don’t (or won’t) know the cause, but with a “tincture of time” it will go away. Our Pediatrician, Cardiologist, Ophthalmologist, and ENT all related stories of several patients who had similar symptoms of dizziness; and although no specific cause was found (and thus no specific treatment prescribed) they all seemed to get better after a few months.
We do know that Pink Ballerina’s hearing has declined since last year, and her vision has declined since last year.
She has gotten glasses and is now getting used to them. Our Ophthalmologist suggested that her vision decline may explain the some of the dizziness and headaches, but certainly not the ringing in her ears.

Pink Ballerina wore hearing aids last fall, and has a miserable experience with them. She said they were very uncomfortable, made some sounds too soft and others too loud, made her ears like they were plugged, and also, the receiver part of the hearing aids broke frequently. She gave her hearing aids another trial last week. She hates them just as much, if not more, than last year. (Getting Pink Ballerina to wear her hearing aids is a battle that will have to wait.)

The Doctors do agree the best all of us can do is:
  1. continue the supports in school she already had in place for her hearing loss (preferential seating, making sure Pink Ballerina has your attention, etc.),
  2. be patient as she adjusts to her glasses and re-programmed hearing aids,
  3. continue to allow her to hydrate frequently,
  4. keep a journal of her dizziness attacks (how often, how long, what triggers them, what makes them worse, what makes them better), and
  5. ease her back into physical activity as her dizziness allows.
We had a follow-up the the Neurologist yesterday. Ballerina's MRI was normal. Yeah! Since the dizziness spells seem to be getting less severe, and/or Pink Ballerina seems to be learning to live with them, we are continuing with the stay hydrated and "tincture of time" treatments.

The Neurologist wants to schedule an EEG to rule out seizure disorders. Yikes! Wait, I'm not going to speculate on really bad causes.

Stay tuned,
The Mominator

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