Ooooh - don't you just hate good news / bad news reports??
There are a lot of causes of vestibular balance disorders. Excerpt from a website:
"Common conditions causing balance problems include Meniere disease, motion sickness syndrome, vestibular migraines, inner ear trauma, perilymphatic fistula, medication damage to inner ear (ototoxicity), acoustic neuromas and other brain tumors, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, vertebral basilar insufficiency, bacterial labyrinthitis, viral labyrinthitis (vestibular neuronitis), multiple sclerosis, and disequilibrium of aging."
In other words there are lots of causes of balance problems. Figuring out which is the culprit depends not only on lab tests and exams but also the patient's description of what else (if anything) is occuring: headache, visual changes, loss of sensation or numbness, hearing loss or ringing in the ears, position changes (e.g. getting up too fast, or from lying down to sitting up), etc. Sometimes knowing what triggers it helps topin down the cause: changes in position of the head or body (for example, turning over in bed), standing up, rapid head movements, walking into a dark room, elevators, airplane, boat or car travel, loud noises, coughing, blowing the nose, or straining, grocery stores, narrow or wide open spaces, exercise, foods, eating or not eating, salt, monosodium glutamate (MSG), heat, hot showers, time of day, particular seasonsm stress, alcohol, menstrual periods (if relevant), underwater diving and so on.
Hopefully the MRI will narroww the possibilities and get you on the road to recovery.
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