A Little Unbalanced

This is not me.
I was much prettier when I wore the goggles.

The VNG. Videonystagmography. (Go ahead, try saying THAT three times as quickly as you can!) It is a pre-cochlear implant surgery evaluation to determine if I may have conditions of the inner ear or central nervous system that can cause dizziness or vertigo post surgery-- a common side effect in the early days following implant surgery. The test measures involuntary movements of the eyes through infrared cameras. The cameras are in a pretty-pretty set of goggles that are worn during the test.

The test was rather harmless and didn't take as long as I had been told it would. The worst part was the "Caloric Test" where cold, then warm, air was pumped into my ears to stimulate the inner ear. It was uncomfortable and left me with an earache in my deaf ear. It didn't have much effect on my right ear. My audi said it would go away after a little while. It didn't. And it gave me a very restless sleep that night and a killer headache the next day. I didn't have any dizziness or nausea, though, which is a good sign.

I am fortunate that I haven't had any dizziness or vertigo with my hearing loss, though I had a bout with vertigo in the spring before my sudden hearing loss last August. I had to seek medical attention for it because I kept falling down. I often wonder if that wasn't a forewarning of what was to come and I just didn't realize it then.

The VNG is important, my audi said, because it confirms whether my vestibular system is working and responding, which mine seems to be doing just fine.

I will get the results from my doctor sometime next week. I expect them to be normal and hear that I have good balance -- in my vestibular system, anyway. It's not a psychological evaluation. Those results might tell a different tale... ;)