Long time lurker, first time poster. 
I've read a bunch of similar posts on here about vertigo and medicals, but none with quite the same set of circumstances. So I'm hoping there may be some available wisdom relevant to my particular situation.
I'm mid 40s and have had a 3rd class medical in the past, but had a few things creep up in 2016 that steered me toward BasicMed just to keep things simpler. Now I'm seriously pursuing a career change into aviation, and want to take my best shot at getting paperwork in order to allow for a first class medical (since I'd like proof that working towards ATP/121/135 isn't fruitless).
In 2016 I had a spell where I woke up with fullness and hearing loss in one ear, and eventually some positional dizziness issues where I'd get dizzy when moving my head quickly. My original ENT back then (since retired) shrugged it off and told me to just take nasonex and allegra daily to improve/prevent it. I lost my mother to a brain tumor, so nervous me pursued this more deeply with my PCP and asked for referrals to another ENT, neurologist, and a brain MRI. The results of these are summarized below, and the dizziness issue has never reoccured. Occasionally I'll have some ear fullness but it resolves without issue.
ENT: The new ENT and several since then haven't come to any definitive diagnosis, including one of the otolaryngology directors/faculty from UC Davis Health. Audiology report only showed bilateral hearing loss that was as expected for age related hearing loss. Pretty unremarkable.
MRI: Totally clear
Neurologist: Ordered VNG testing which came back negative for BPPV and pretty much normal except for "25% Reduced Vestibular Response in the right ear on caloric tests indicates impairment of the right peripheral vestibular pathway" and goes on to say that up to 20% is normal. So just a bit outside of a normal result for the VNG. They had me do some vestibular physical therapy sessions which were honestly kinda fun, but I don't think helped any more than the normal progression of time has.
This was all way back in 2016/2017 so I know the records are pretty much useless. I'm curious as to whether this is something where I'll only need to get an ENT to write a new status report stating that the long-ago dizziness issue was likely virally induced or something concrete like that? Or am I going to need to go down a rabbit hole with another VNG test, neurologists, etc.?
Lastly, I do have a consultation scheduled with a local AME (prior to filling out any FAA forms) to get his opinion on all of this as well. I'm hoping there's a way to shape this up such that he can issue directly without deferring to the FAA, but I'm not sure if that's possible.
Thanks a ton for any advice from others who have been through this, or medical professionals who know how the FAA/AMEs handle this sort of situation.
I've read a bunch of similar posts on here about vertigo and medicals, but none with quite the same set of circumstances. So I'm hoping there may be some available wisdom relevant to my particular situation.I'm mid 40s and have had a 3rd class medical in the past, but had a few things creep up in 2016 that steered me toward BasicMed just to keep things simpler. Now I'm seriously pursuing a career change into aviation, and want to take my best shot at getting paperwork in order to allow for a first class medical (since I'd like proof that working towards ATP/121/135 isn't fruitless).
In 2016 I had a spell where I woke up with fullness and hearing loss in one ear, and eventually some positional dizziness issues where I'd get dizzy when moving my head quickly. My original ENT back then (since retired) shrugged it off and told me to just take nasonex and allegra daily to improve/prevent it. I lost my mother to a brain tumor, so nervous me pursued this more deeply with my PCP and asked for referrals to another ENT, neurologist, and a brain MRI. The results of these are summarized below, and the dizziness issue has never reoccured. Occasionally I'll have some ear fullness but it resolves without issue.
ENT: The new ENT and several since then haven't come to any definitive diagnosis, including one of the otolaryngology directors/faculty from UC Davis Health. Audiology report only showed bilateral hearing loss that was as expected for age related hearing loss. Pretty unremarkable.
MRI: Totally clear
Neurologist: Ordered VNG testing which came back negative for BPPV and pretty much normal except for "25% Reduced Vestibular Response in the right ear on caloric tests indicates impairment of the right peripheral vestibular pathway" and goes on to say that up to 20% is normal. So just a bit outside of a normal result for the VNG. They had me do some vestibular physical therapy sessions which were honestly kinda fun, but I don't think helped any more than the normal progression of time has.
This was all way back in 2016/2017 so I know the records are pretty much useless. I'm curious as to whether this is something where I'll only need to get an ENT to write a new status report stating that the long-ago dizziness issue was likely virally induced or something concrete like that? Or am I going to need to go down a rabbit hole with another VNG test, neurologists, etc.?
Lastly, I do have a consultation scheduled with a local AME (prior to filling out any FAA forms) to get his opinion on all of this as well. I'm hoping there's a way to shape this up such that he can issue directly without deferring to the FAA, but I'm not sure if that's possible.
Thanks a ton for any advice from others who have been through this, or medical professionals who know how the FAA/AMEs handle this sort of situation.
