@Blare - I was diagnosed w/ Meniere’s Disease & was treated for it for 6 years before I learned I had internal jugular vein compression, that like yours wasn’t initially considered severe enough to immediately warrant surgery. I had to have a catheter venogram to convince my surgeon I needed my IJV decompressed.
I bring this up because while I was going through the process of getting my IJV compression diagnosis, I learned that there had been some medical research that demonstrated Meniere’s symptoms can be caused by IJV compression & decompressing the IJV relieves the MD symptoms & restores hearing loss to at least some extent. Unfortunately, before I learned about my IJV compression, I had a surgery to try to slow the rate of my hearing loss (endolymphatic duct shunt placement) which left me w/ permanent loud tinnitus & ultimately only slowed the rate of the hearing loss. Because of that first surgery, I had no hearing restoration from my IJV decompression, however, the IJV decompression surgery did stop the progression of hearing loss (hearing has been stable for 2 years now!) & it stopped the horrid vertigo attacks I was having. I believe your MD diagnosis is additional evidence of your IJV compression regardless of how it looks on your imaging.
Would having an appointment w/ Dr. Rao be of any benefit or are he & Prof Elliot tied to closely together for you to see each doctor separately?