Does this sound like Vestibular Neuritis?

Thats pretty much all bases covered. The MRI's showed there was some C3-5 damage to my spine, wear and tear and old ski accident, and something that they decided was "archtiectural" and not significant. Happy Days, likely not MS. So that was the end of that. Relief in some respects but no further forward.

Now back to square one. My only thoughts now are thyroid issues. I am sub clinically hypothyroid in the UK, in the US I would be having treatment ! 

Still feel crap but walking helps and some days worse than others, I see no end to this just now though but at least I'm the healthiest unhealthy person I know!

So, I shall pay for a full thyroid blood sweep, about £100 and take it to my GP if it shows anything. It has all been self diagnosis so far, my GP said anxiety....

I had an appointment to see the top "dizzy" expert in Ohio.  He works for OSU, but that appt wasn't until February.  However, my neurologist sent an email to see if they can put me in earlier.  It worked.  They had a cancellation and I saw him today.  Dr. John Oas.

It was the craziest appt of my life.  If you've ever watch Judge Judy, that's how he handles things.  Not someone I would want to hang out with, but he gets down to the facts very quickly; interogates you about what kind of dizziness you are having.

Things got really crazy when he started examining my body.  Some things were expected.  Walking up and down the hall, looking at his finger.  But at some point he grabbed my head and started yanking my neck around.  Seeing how far he could push it to one side or another.  I have an arthritic neck, so is was very uncomfortable.  He made me try to use my neck to push his position back to see how strong it was.  He did a lot of other things with the neck, like telling me to slowly raise it from over 30 seconds.

Then he got out his toys.  Tuning fork, Q-tip, massager, a little piece of cloth with a pattern on it, etc.  He frayed the end of the Q-tip and tickled the outside of each ear.  It was more ticklish on the right side.  He stuck the massager on various points of my ears, which produced veritgo the same way the caloric tests do.  I cried out it was so disorienting.  However, I think it showed I had a deficit on the left side.  

Here's what he said happened.  A virus attacked my nerves in the left ear after I became sick.  Most likely a herpes virus that sits in there all the time.  He said this has caused me to walk around everywhere with my head tilted (most people would not notice it; I certainly didn't detect it).  Here's the diagnoses he listed in the paperwork:

-dizziness

-hypoactive labyrinth, unilateral, left

-neck pain

-somatic dysfunction

-imbalance

-poor posture

-recurrenlt vestibulopathy, left 

He said that I have become obsessed over my overall medical condition, and he said most of his patients do when they have a vestibular change.  He said my neck strength is bad.  I asked about what would cause ear sensations.  He said it's because I started paying more attention to my ears.  I kind've understand that, but I swear back in July it sometimes felt they were going to explode.  I asked him about the ringing in my ears; he said I would have it the rest of my life (he's very honest about thing).  I disagreed somewhat with that too, because I don't hear it as often as I did before, but I guess it's all about how much your monitor it. 

His treatment?  He's perscribing me an antiviral medicine: valACYclovir 500 mg twice a day.  This should cut down on the recurrences.   He's sending my to vestibular rehab, where they will make my neck stronger, correct the head tilt I have, and get me used to my dizziness.  I had already taken a few sessions with another person, but these new people are more hardcore.   I am also taking a 2-hour diagnostic test in a couple of weeks.  It will include a caloric test and some type of spinning.

I asked him what the best possible outcome can be for me.  He said you'll be dizzy the reset of your life, but you will be able to deal with it.  I thought that was a little too negative, because I had already had so much progress, but like I said he's honest.  I have also read journals documenting people's recoveries, and I know a lot of people fully recover, but maybe that's because they become in control of it.  I asked him what's the best thing I can do after walking out the door today.  He said to make yourself dizzy.  I had already been doing that by going into stores.  He said to turn it up a notch, and just bear in mind that it's not going to kill you to be dizzy.  The lizard part of the brain will want you to leave the store, but you have to overcome the fear.

Okay, that's my update.  This is the first diagnosis I have received and the first clear plan of attack, so I feel like I'm more in control now.  I'll still come by and update from time to time.  He did not mention the word Vestibular Neuritis, so I assume I don't have it, though the cause seems to be very similar.