Assessment details

The effects from Vestibular balance are not well known, in my surgery none of the doctors had a clue what it was, speak to anyone else and they know nothing, imagine walking along a pavement in a straight line, but when you walk you can't balance and veer off to the left, your brain says your going straight, your eyes know your not, but each step forward you head right to correct the veering to the left, only you don't because your brain say its wrong.
Vertigo, sickness (sea sickness effect eyes and brain don't match) light, flashing (shop fronts going by when moving) loud noises, too many people around you can set off vertigo, your brain is saying walk this way to avoid them, your feet and eyes can't make up what to do.

So unless you have been trained in neurological problems and vestibular balance, its very rare to find anyone who knows, but this was in the rehabilitation reports, neurological reports, audiology reports (they do a majority of the balance tests)

The glazed look on the assessors face said it all, when I explained the Micro Vascular Decompression I thought she understood, but as I described the tests and what had happened we both knew she had no idea   

Thanks for the reply, poppy123456 all the information was in the neurologist/physio/audiology reports, some of it as test and responses which need someone with some medical training to understand, each report had a conclusion explaining what restrictions these results had, 100% Bilateral vestibular failure resulting in poor balance, unable to stand with eyes closed, falling backwards, narrow gait unsteady on feet, unable to walk in straight line, cannot walk without support, blah blah  blah blah, it goes on for ages. physio report is pretty much the same, while I know information from the web is not evidence, it was provided with the medical reports as every doctor we had seen knew nothing until we were referred neurologist after failed recovery.

I think we proved he case but the assessor did not agree, there was a full medical report from the DWP own disability analyst, which as I know is not regarded by PIP as they don't need to assess any conditions which the ESA require a doctor to check.

WF2k if you can relate to any of these symptoms you should get referred to Audiologist for testing there are some very specific tests which can show balance problems. As I recall (just checked) Caloric testing which SWMBO failed completely indicating no peripheral vestibular output, there or others such as Rombergs and Unterbergers which will show where the problem may be.

Thank you ilovecats for the reply, do you know if the PIP2 is filled in sequence or partially filled and then returned to fill out the time consuming parts, the reason I ask, some of the justifications comments list MSE and MSO while you continually assess someone to report their mental state (I guess) some comments relate to the physical exam which was done much later in the assessment. I was wondering if the assessor went back to fill in the justification.

On the point of systems not being live or running, me and the boss both had the same "sorry computers down" which considering how busy the DWP are I guess its not surprising.