I'm writing from England where we've spent the last few weeks with my parents. We've had the use of a home in a LOVELY village that has a playground, pool, library and green fields for the kids to play in. All of this is walkable from where we are staying. It has been a wonderful time.
We came to England for Tom to see a vestibular specialist to explore about what happened to his ears/brain/balance in January of this year. The doctor was amazing and able to give a very clear explanation of what was happening. The short story is that he did have quite a bit of damage from a viral attack in January that killed the nerves on his right side. However the brain is so amazing and can totally compensate over time.
She drew diagrams and gave illustrations about how our bodies are designed to determine balance and achieve equiblibrium. It was so fascinating. It was also interesting that she could give the verdict after just about 10 mins of shaking his head around and looking at his eyes! She did a much greater range of tests after that to determine if all 5 branches of the vestibular nerve were actually dead.
Because our eyes are connected to the balance system this is how we can observe what is going on in the brain. That is the basis of the ability to determine what is going on. Again, it was totally fascinating to learn about how our brain works and can compensate.
So we are very grateful that he'll be able to have essentially a total recovery. The viral attack is likely from the chicken pox virus and having an attack on one side does not increase the chance for an attack in the future.
The process of the brain learning a new way to function is the reason for all his fatigue this Spring. His recovery was slower than expected but she said that does not indicate a problem. We are grateful to hear that the fatigue will taper off. It already has to a great degree but we just didn't know if it could all return suddenly.
So we are grateful for this time in England to have this sorted out!
We came to England for Tom to see a vestibular specialist to explore about what happened to his ears/brain/balance in January of this year. The doctor was amazing and able to give a very clear explanation of what was happening. The short story is that he did have quite a bit of damage from a viral attack in January that killed the nerves on his right side. However the brain is so amazing and can totally compensate over time.
She drew diagrams and gave illustrations about how our bodies are designed to determine balance and achieve equiblibrium. It was so fascinating. It was also interesting that she could give the verdict after just about 10 mins of shaking his head around and looking at his eyes! She did a much greater range of tests after that to determine if all 5 branches of the vestibular nerve were actually dead.
Because our eyes are connected to the balance system this is how we can observe what is going on in the brain. That is the basis of the ability to determine what is going on. Again, it was totally fascinating to learn about how our brain works and can compensate.
So we are very grateful that he'll be able to have essentially a total recovery. The viral attack is likely from the chicken pox virus and having an attack on one side does not increase the chance for an attack in the future.
The process of the brain learning a new way to function is the reason for all his fatigue this Spring. His recovery was slower than expected but she said that does not indicate a problem. We are grateful to hear that the fatigue will taper off. It already has to a great degree but we just didn't know if it could all return suddenly.
So we are grateful for this time in England to have this sorted out!
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