Oh Gosh! 4 months is a long time. I don't know how your nerves stood it. How did you manage the balance and dizziness until then. Constantly loosing balance and almost falling or walking in to walls. Dizziness isn't as bad just take spells of almost passing out. You must be a very strong person I would have a nervous break down if I had to wait that long. Just want to deal with it and go on with life however it may be.
Well, for one thing, my balance issues were relatively minor compared to what you are describing. They never got any worse than feeling like I was walking on a boat. I had no dizziness, no vertigo, no passing out, rarely walked into walls.
The other thing is that getting health care from the VA is like socialized medicine in Canada and the UK. Things go very slowly. One just gets used to it.
Keep in mind that I didn't know I had an AN for those 4 months. My symptoms (major loss of hearing in one ear, slight tinnitus, imbalance) were a little alarming, but not very annoying that I couldn't just keep on going while waiting to be evaluated.
The diagnosis was a bit of a shock at first, but the AN was small (3mm x 4mm x 9mm) and my ENT gave me some information that started me on the road to understanding and I spent the rest of the day on the internet, learning all I could, and finding this site.
I guess I'm the kind of person that has the ability to keep emotions reasonably in check during adversity. I don't think I'm any stronger than anybody else, it's more of an attitude thing.
You'll know soon enough if you've got an AN and then you'll learn how to deal with it. You'll get plenty of support here and plenty of good information from people in the same boat.
