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).
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.
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.
I’ve often complained that I constantly feel like I’m falling or dropping when sitting still. It’s a terrible feeling, and it really drives me nuts. For me, the feeling comes and goes — it’s worse when I’m tired or hungry.
A case like Cheryl’s would normally be completely hopeless. But due to a specially-fitted construction hat that’s connected to her tongue (yes, you read that right, her tongue), she’s able to actually regain her sense of balance while wearing the hat.
I went to a physiotherapy clinic for an assessment with a physiotherapist that specializes in vestibular rehabilitation therapy, and I got some extremely good news. She thinks she can have my functioning almost back to normal in about 6 weeks!
The physiotherapist videotaped my eyes using some goggles (they resemble scuba goggles, and this is the third time I’ve had to wear them for this particular type of test). They’re very tight-fitting and a bit uncomfortable, and they make things very dark.
Apparently there are infrared cameras inside the goggles that record your eye movements; so after the physiotherapist shook my head back and forth with her hands, I had to look up and to the left, and then up and to the right.
Lately I’ve had a strange sensation in my right ear — it’s like it’s throbbing irregularly (kind of the like the feeling when you’re heart is beating really fast after a vigorous workout).
I’ve never had this sensation before, but it seems to show up mostly in the morning and before I go to bed. I’ve started using in-ear headphones more often lately, and I’m wondering if it has something to do with that.
My overall balance seems to have improved a bit though, right about the time the ear throbbing started. Could this be some kind of sign that something is going on in my ear? That the throbbing has somehow improved my balance?
I’m just wondering if anyone else has felt this kind of throbbing in their ear before. It’s a very unique sensation, and if you’ve had it, I’m sure you’ll know what I mean.
It’s been a beautiful weekend here, and I’ve been enjoying doing lots of things outdoors. I try to spend as much time as possible outside when the weather’s nice, and I’m kind of an outside person by nature.
Most of my time was spent at the beach this weekend, which is certainly one of my favourite places to be. Yet it actually made me notice something about my balance that has really never occurred to me before…
When lying on my stomach and with my head at a 45 degree angle, I often get ‘drop attacks’ or feelings of sudden imbalance. The same goes for when my head is tilted at a 45 degree angle the other way.
I took the long weekend off, which was nice, but today I’m having a particularly tough time with a particular sensation that I get (too often, unfortunately).
I’ve alternately heard them called “drop attacks”, “the startles”, “brain spasms” or a host of other names that I can’t really explain that well. It basically feels like the floor’s being pulled out from under you, and that you’re suddenly falling — and that you need to quickly regain your balance.
There’s occasionally the times where it manifests itself as a bit of a weird spacey feeling, which I had never gotten before the vestibular neuritis. The feeling is quite distracting, and it’s often difficult to concentrate (and it’s usually worse when I don’t get enough sleep or enough to eat).
Has anyone else experienced a similar sensation? I sometimes wonder if it’s psychological or physiological — is this my body actually experiencing something, or is my brain just suddenly freaked out about the potential dizziness it think it feels?
Well, it’s a long weekend here in Canada (a very long weekend for me, since July 1st is Canada Day, and I also took an extra day off on Monday). This usually means lots of travelling in the car, and for us dizziness sufferers, some uncomfortable times.
I thought I’d provide a quick list of things that seem to work well for me when I have to travel as far as keeping the dizziness at a minimum:
1. If at all possible, be the one driving. Strange as it may sound, I get much more dizzy when someone else is driving. I think it’s that I can’t anticipate the shifts in balance as quickly as when I have to pay attention to them.
2. Avoid caffeine and be wary of medications. Caffeine makes you jumpy and agitated, and is just going to make your dizziness worse. If you’re too tired and feel like you need caffeine to keep going, take a break instead (and a quick nap somewhere safe off the road if you can). Avoiding medications that make you drowsy is also an obvious one — being safe should be your first concern.
