Bilateral Vestibular Hypofunction

I finally got around to reading the final reports sent from UAB from that study my kids participated in for kids with hearing loss to test their vestibular (balance) system. Here's what was determined: they both have Bilateral Vestibular Hypofunction. Gage is a little more severe as expected and Brook can compensate with some of her issues. For example, she can figure out how to balance and an unlevel floor when she can't hear or see....poor Gage however, falls completely over, can't balance at all. She knows how to use her sense of feeling to adjust her balance, Gman falls back without any chance of staying on his feet. They suggested the kids take Karate, and stated Gman might improve with swimming or tennis while Brook could benefit from Dance or Gymnastics. We actually have thought about putting them in Karate anyway, so might actually look into that! Here's the post from when they did the study last year, with pics of what all they did.

Here was the quote about B's test:

"OVERALL IMPRESSION:


 Brooklyn has bilateral vestibular hypofunction. However, she has learned to use remaining vestibular function for gaze stability. She has not learned to compensate for balance."

Gage's test result quote

"OVERALL IMPRESSION:

 The results of this study show that Gage has bilateral vestibular hypofunction which contributes to his inability to see when his head is moving quickly. It also contributes to his inability to balance when his eyes are closed or when the surface is not stable. Try some of the following exercises to help this problem.

Gaze Stability:

Work on focusing on small letters or pictures while turning your head quickly (e.g. walking, running, or swinging). Try to focus your eyes anytime your head is moving. You can even turn your head side to side while trying to read a book (for a minute or so).

Balance:

Work on standing on soft surfaces (thick couch cushion or foam mat) with the eyes closed; work on standing on one foot with eyes opened and closed (try to get up to 30 seconds); work on walking tandem (one foot in front of the other)."

Good stuff and informative from UAB! Thanks for inviting us to participate!

Vestibular Study Part 2

Wednesday we travelled down to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa for the second and final part of the Vestibular Study the kids participated in. This time they got to ride in that special chair that could spin around and they also did something with neck muscles as well in another type of test. Very interesting stuff I must add. To top it all off, I revealed that they will each earn some ca$h for their participation, I agreed to take them to Toys R Us in the near future to spend their hard earned money. I didn't tell them at first because I wanted them to participate at will and not for the money and besides they would have asked the doctor "where's my money?"

Vestibular Study

We had an opportunity to participate in a study at UAB. The Physical Therapy Dept. wants to see about the vestibular functions of children with bilateral hearing loss and see if the expensive testing gives better results vs. less expensive testing. So we had our first round of tests yesterday. I was able to provide them with two children for the study and so were several of my friends since we have more than one child with bilateral loss.

The kids had a ball. It was very interesting and kid friendly FUN! Nothing was scary, nothing hurt, and in fact the kids laughed quite a bit (so did we). Gage of course investigated all the equipment and how things worked and they were kind enough to explain all the extra details he needed (lol). Our last set of tests will be the expensive set of tests (at no cost to us) down at the University of Alabama (Nat'l Champs by the way, ahem).

So what did we find out so far? First, I'll preface by saying Gage's ENT informed us a long time ago that his ears were severely malformed inside, even his balance organ. So I did give them all of that information before attending to make sure he was a fair test subject. I told them I never even remember a time that he's ever been dizzy.

After all the tests, it's been determined that Gman does not use his vestibular system at all for balance. He uses his vision and his sense of feeling. He could still balance pretty decently as long as he had one of those, however, when we took both away (blindfold and moving floor) he had absolutely no ability to balance...he'd fall completely. Brook was able to compensate better and on the third attempt, balanced with no vision and a moving surface under her feet.

Another test I found completely interesting...when people spin around, then suddenly stop spinning, their eyes typically pulse to the side for a few seconds as if you are still spinning. This isn't something you can control, it just happens. We got to see Brook's eyes jerk back and forth via tiny camera in a pair of goggles, she thought it was funny when we went back and showed her on the screen. When Gage stopped spinning, his eyes were perfectly still. No movement! So we got confirmation, he doesn't really get dizzy. He pretty much has a non-functioning vestibular system I suppose.

We are looking forward to going to U of A in a couple of weeks. The kids got prizes for going and they too look forward to going for more testing!