I haven’t been sleeping very well lately, and I’ve been under a great deal of stress (both work stress and just stressing about finances, the usual every day life kind of stuff). And in the past week, I’ve experienced something I’ve never experienced before — migraines.

I didn’t quite know what it was at first, just that my head hurt to the point where it felt like it was going to explode (it didn’t, in case you’re wondering). The onset of these headaches is quite sudden, and they tend to last for anywhere from an hour to a few hours.

I also often feel nauseous and off-balance (which makes me wonder if this has something to do with my busted vestibular system). I don’t know anything at all about migraines (since I never experienced them before), so I think I’ll have to read up on the potential causes.

I also wonder if it has to do with VRT — could the VRT exercises cause my brain to start compensating more and thus lead to headaches as my brain gets overloaded with too much to do?

As I said in my last post, it’s been a little while since I’ve been sticking with the vestibular rehabilitation therapy. Although I apparently showed an objective improvement, I said last time that I don’t think I really felt much better.

Well, in the past week, I have to say I may have started feeling better. Notice I said may — because I’ve felt better in the short term before, and it’s not always stuck around. I’m hoping that this time I’ll feel better for longer.

I’m wondering if there’s anyone who has had any substantive improvement from VRT, and how long it’s taken them to feel better. I’ve heard that’s it around the 4-6 week mark that improvement is often shown.

It’s not that I don’t trust the therapist, it’s just that I wonder if there’s anyone out there who can back this up with their own experience. I’m a little worried about this for two reasons: the first that it’s been so long since my initial vestibular loss, and second that I’ve got a bilateral vestibular loss. If anyone reads this and feels like posting their own experience with VRT, I’d really appreciate it!

It’s now been about 3 weeks that I’ve been sticking with the vestibular rehabilitation therapy, and I haven’t noticed much of an improvement (but I’m still hopeful that things are going to get better).

The therapist said that not having any subjective improvement (i.e. me feeling better) after only 2 or 3 weeks is normal — that I shouldn’t really feel the effects of the VRT until about the fourth week.

The good news however, is that I have improved in one area. When I first went into the therapist, she asked me to read an eye chart, and then shook my head from side to side and asked me to read it again. Between the no-head-shaking and the head-shaking, I lost three lines (I had to go three lines up to be able to still read the letters).

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After the first round of vestibular rehabilitation exercises that I got a little while ago, it was time for me to go back to the VRT clinic so they could check up on how the exercises were going. I saw a different therapist this time, who was just as friendly and helpful as my regular therapist.

I told her about some positional discomfort I have when lying down on my stomach, and she asked if we could try a few more tests with the goggles with the infrared camera. I never mind more tests, since I’m always hopeful it will provide more answers.

So we went through the head-shake tests again (where the therapist shakes your head and then asks you to look to the right and then to the left), and then I watched the videotaped results again.

Much to my surprise, the nystagmus (abnormal eye movements indicating a loss of vestibular function) was present on both sides — meaning that while my right ear is worse, my left ear’s vestibular system is likely also damaged.

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So I just came back from the vestibular rehabilitation therapist, and we went over my first exercises today. Some of them made me feel pretty dizzy and nauseous, but she says that that’s a good thing.

So I basically have 3 exercises that I have to do 3 times per day. She said we’d move on to some more challenging exercises once these become easier.

The first exercise is to stand heel-to-toe in a doorway with my eyes closed (it’s harder than it sounds, but maybe just for me). I guess this is to retrain my brain to rely more on my feet for balance than just using my vestibular system.

The second is to look at a business card from arm’s length away while shaking my head faster and faster. This one made me particularly dizzy — but again, that’s supposedly a good sign for the potential for improvement.

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