The Vestibular System

 Your vestibular system controls your spatial orientation and sense of balance. It is a part of the vestibulum in the inner ear. The yellow part is the Cochlea. That is where they will implant the electrodes when Brody has his cochlear implants done next summer. Every person has a vistibulo-ocular reflux (VOR). It stabilizes the retina on an object while your moving. This is when you are looking at something, turn your head, and your eyes move to stay looking at the object. (How many of you just did that to test it!?) Since you're constantly moving your head around, the VOR is important. (And that is about the extent of my medial knowledge and research!)

 

Diagram of the Vestibular System

Some children with Usher's Type 1 often have balance issues that are affected. They may crawl and walk late due to these problems. So far Brody has been hitting milestones a few weeks late. He is rolling over from stomach to back now! He is trying to go from back to stomach, but gets too frustrated and throws a fit! We have been working with a wonderful Physical Therapist every other week. We are seeing wonderful results with her.

On Wednesday, we went to Heuser to meet with Dr. Edwards. She did a test on Brody's vestibular system. If you have ever seen an ABR, it is a lot like the test she performed. Dr. Edwards put electrodes on Brody's forehead, behind his ears, and on two muscles in his neck. Apparently it tickled when she put the ones on his neck because he laughed some big belly laughs (wish we had that on video)! The test took about a total of 10 minutes. They found that the right side checked out perfectly. The left side did not have any good waves that could give an accurate measurement. We go back in three months to have follow up test. Dr. Edwards asked if she could follow Brody as a little case study. OF COURSE! The more people watching his development is fine with me.

We have gotten some great recommendations for ophthalmologist. We have appointments with Dr. Douglas and Dr. Fishman in Louisville on Tuesday. I'm not expecting any answers at this point, but we are just meeting the doctors to see if either are a good fit for our family. We would like to find one that can follow Brody for while. We also have some other doctors and researchers we are going to meet with soon.

On a side note...Brody met Santa!