@twheeier10 Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You are in the emergency department (ED) at this time and all tests so far do not point to stroke as a cause of your symptoms. Did I get that right? There are many reasons that one can have dizziness, nausea, and loss of balance. Do your providers think that it is a stroke?

Good Morning Erica: You got that right. I have been in ER at UCSD since 3pm yesterday. No vacant rooms in hospital, so I spent all night in emergency. Drs are not sure it is a stroke…….they gave me a CT scan last night. Just met with Neurologist and CT scan showed thatno stroke symptoms. My feeling were that an MRI shold have been ordered 1st and that why I posted. They have now otdered an MRI with contrast plus an Echocardigram and it looks like I might get a room shortly. Thanks for any feedback. I wouls love any info on other possible causes of my symptons. I thought I has food poisioning.

For lacunar strokes of Thalmus, MRI is better at seeing small strokes but it is normal for them to scan with CT first. Sometimes CT shows nothing and MRI sees it clearly. See URL. Hope you are doing well.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5857010/

Thanks feelingthankful for your post re MRI vs CT Scan for people with Stroke symptoms. I am Truly Blessed to be getting much better after my 2 days in the hospital at UCSD Hillcrest Medical Center in San Diego where this 79 year old was diagnosed with a TIA and tests by both CT & MRI showed no stroke signs.
As a safety measure, Drs. put me on a baby aspirin, a dizziness med and Lipitor to bring down my cholesterol level. God Bless all those that may be suffering from stroke symptoms. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Ok be super careful to follow their instructions on reducing risk factors if you had a TIA because I believe a stroke can often follow if you are not (and you don’t want one of course). I see that you did not get blood pressure meds, make sure it is controlled of course. Good luck.