Out of Pod Experience

It's difficult to figure out what's wrong with me when I can't seem to correlate any of my symptoms with known disorders, diseases, or anything. I've tried looking this up numerous times, and have never had any significant success in tracking down even a preliminary explanation to put myself in the right ballpark, except for the knowledge that the vestibular system of the inner ear is supposed to give a person abilities that most people have, and that I don't.

edit: I guess I wasn't clear enough: I have been this way since birth


When a normal person closes their eyes while standing up, their proprioception is not fully impaired and they are able to remain standing pretty easily. Supposedly, a healthy person is able to stand on one foot with their eyes closed, at least for up to ten seconds. I can barely stand on two feet with my eyes closed, and I get a lot of support from my shoes--if I put my feet together I fall quickly.

Supposedly, a normal person can feel changes in their body orientation without being pressed upon or seeing movement, through the accelerometer-like device in their inner ear. When I fall with my eyes closed, I feel nothing but weightlessness until suddenly a planet smacks the side of me. It takes me a moment after that to re-orient myself relative to gravity and figure out which way I'm facing, even if I immediately open my eyes.

When a normal person travels, they have an inner compass that gives them some perception of the direction they are facing. Without paying attention to terrain, most people have a fairly decent perception of what changes in heading they have made, as long as they make only minor turns. When I ride in a vehicle and close my eyes on a turn, it feels as though it is spinning far more rapidly than it really is, and if I do not pay very close attention to my heading, I lose track of which way I am facing almost immediately. I navigate entirely by path recognition, as I have zero ability to do so through feeling.

Anyone have any explanation for what's wrong with me?

I can't afford anyone who knows more about the subject than I do.

In the meantime, dont close your eyes while standing up or in a turning vehicle. 500m isk, plz.

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Does not compute.

10/10 Troll. Would self-medicate again.

Read this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9ni%C3%A8re%27s_disease

I apologize, for I wasn't clear. I have been this way all my life. Growing up, I took longer than most children to learn to walk and run, even though I was really quick to learn to talk, read, and become potty trained. I struggled for a long time trying to learn to ride a bike (that might be normal) and I was the slowest kid to get used to roller skates--though I did one-up my friends as I persisted and eventually was able to go out on the big floor unassisted while most of them weren't trying! But I digress...



Thanks!

I score a definite, moderately strong positive on Romberg's test. With my feet together and eyes closed I can just barely maintain balance but it becomes much more difficult and I sway strongly. Unfortunately the Wikipedia article mentions only using it to determine loss of proprioception, and I know mine is quite intact, therefore following the test, and by process of elimination, it would seem that I have a vestibular disorder. But it tells me nothing I don't already know.

The problem I keep running into with my research is that hearing and vestibular disorders focus on all sorts of designs different from mine: they are mostly occurring during life or are progressing over time; they produce symptoms I don't experience like nausea, tinnitus, pressure, pain, loss of hearing, etc.; they affect balance almost exclusively in short bursts which the patient is unprepared for. When I search balance disorders I find vague hints about it being inner-ear related with a lot of nervous system stuff. There's tons to look through, and not one thing even remotely close to my experience. It's like I've got some extremely rare disorder, or perhaps more likely that people with my deficiency live on without ever getting it diagnosed, simply because they are capable of getting along alright with it.



I don't think you understand how poor I am. I don't have a general practitioner, I've lived more years than I have seen trips to the doctor, I treat as much as possible at home and I share rent on a room with my brother, at least when we're lucky enough to make enough money combined to pay it. There's never anything left over, we eat entirely on government stipend, I'm gradually getting deeper in debt to my uncle. I rejoined the military to boost my income and they are taking their sweet time in paying me, meanwhile I am devoting my time in serving them for free. I don't own a car and I don't want one, it's far too expensive. It's hard enough for me to scrounge up bus fare when I need to go somewhere. I get rides from people and intend to pay them gas money, but rarely ever do. But enough about that.

Perhaps a more important point is that I am more skilled than most nurses and general medical personnel at their own jobs, at least in relation to my own body. I can perform basic first aid and prescribe OTC medication with significantly greater skill than most doctors--what I lack in experience I make up for with superior understanding of human anatomy and basic effects of these tools and medications. I've talked to enough doctors to know that most general practitioners aren't nearly as educated as they are made out to be, and in most cases their opinion isn't worth dirt to me despite how much they charge for it. They're wrong about the basics more than they're right about the advanced stuff. I'd trust an expert who specializes in vestibular study, but I can't even begin to afford one. I couldn't save up enough money in a year to even get in a room alone with one for fifteen minutes.

So since the condition is neither new nor getting worse and you have grown up into a (mostly) healthy adult with it, we can pretty much rule out the real nasty stuff like strokes, CNS infections or tumors. While a (moderate) spinal stenosis is still possible, my educated guess would be that the whole thing is related to you being NT (you talked about that in an earlier thread). I am not a specialist with autism spectrum disorders, yet there are several studies that suggest that the patients may also suffer from mild neurological disorders like the ones you mentioned: http://psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.neuropsych.11050105

That being said, Ssabat Thraxx is probably right in his recommendation not to close your eyes in situations where you cannot afford to stumble and fall. Or, to quote the only doctor you may really trust: "Don't blink!"

You mean because I'm not NT?

I considered nerve issues being the cause but it just seems so much more likely that it's with the organ itself, then again I don't have a lot to go on. All I can tell is that I score so far below average on pretty much every category relating to the use of the vestibular system that it's as if I don't have one. I'm fairly certain I do have one, and I'm pretty sure I have detected some minor function from it, but I have yet to confirm any, and all of my balance-related talents can pretty easily be explained as a combination of visual and tactile skills.

I guess I don't really have any idea if it's nervous or not. How would I tell?



I'm not afraid of free help and I don't need to trust it to be able to assess it for myself. I find that asking questions on these forums is about as helpful as going to see a doctor sometimes, and it's much easier and certainly much cheaper. I'd be willing to pay for a specialist if I could afford it but I'm not even going to waste my time going to see a general practitioner. I've had enough run-ins with them to the point I consider their help about as useful as the average EVE forumer who talks like they know a thing or two about it. I can get a handful of equally-valuable opinions right here, and I've got Zimmy Zeta around whose opinion I think is often significantly more valuable than a general practitioner.

nice one zimmy +1 internet for you

How the **** are we supposed to help you with your medical issue if 1: Only a few of us are doctors (I'm not), and 2: No one can diagnose you without a physical medical examination?