And I've had balance issues from the scleroderma in my neck. Lots of
surprising things can affect your balance.

Purrs for your mom, too. I know how close you are! One thing my mom
always jokes about is that she's not on a ton of medication like many
of her friends are. She tends to keep to herbal supplements if
possible, especially after the hormone cocktail for menopause that
doctors back in the day swore by.

Yes, she had been to an ENT.  The new doctor ordered a test that
others probably should have a long time ago, but didn't. Her tests
from yesterday was an ENG.  I had to look it up to find out what it
is, but now I see why she said it was grueling.

http://www.stjohnsmercy.org/healthinfo/test/neuro/TP015.asp

I'm glad your problem was solved so quickly! :)

On Tue 22 Aug 2006 09:49:24a,  wrote in rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
(news:1156254563.965657.100930@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com):

They took away her license? Well, I'm glad she got a correct
diagnosis, and is doing better now!  

On Tue 22 Aug 2006 10:19:40a, Kreisleriana wrote in
rec.pets.cats.anecdotes (news:9j4me2t0tlkmp47mjo0m3vbvtlnhpcnegk@
4ax.com):

Thank you all of you. I know she'll be better treated with the
(finally) right diagnosis. I guess we'll know by next week. *fingers
crossed*.  

She's still making the felted cat beds, too!  Every time she meets
someone who has cats (her new physical therapist is the latest) she
decides she has to make another bed.  LOL  She's such a good un-owned
slave.

Twenty years or so ago, I had an inner ear infection which, although
it didn't last long, left me with a tendency towards vertigo anytime I
turned my head too quickly.  After a couple of months of this, I had a
routine visit scheduled with my general practitioner, and mentioned
this problem to him.  He immediately called a colleague who
specialized in Ear/Nose/Throat issues, and described the problem to
him.  That doctor told me a self-treatment to try, which cleared the
vertigo up within about a week.

The technique involved deliberately triggering the vertigo by sitting
on the edge of a bed, and lying down on my left side, sitting up,
lying down on my right side, sitting up, etc., for about 10 minutes at
a time.  The explanation that the ENT specialist gave me was that
balance is sensed by small chambers in the inner ears, with fine hairs
(cilia) surrounding small crystals.  As you change position, the
crystals shift about and press on the cilia; nerves at the base of the
cilia then report this information to the brain.  Ear infections can
cause some of these chambers to change shape, so the brain gets
confused by the fact that not all of the chambers are reporting the
same information.  The much lying down and sitting up again presents
the brain with so much data that it basically discards how it had been
interpreting the sensations, and recalibrates your sense of balance.

The reason for doing this while sitting on a bed is so that, if you do
lose your balance and fall over, you will land on a padded surface and
won't hurt yourself.  Don't try repeatedly leaning forward, or you may
suddenly end up face down on the floor.