Vestibular Therapy

Yes the exercises are torture but my life since this happening, just short of  2 years is torture. The only relief I find is being in water or bed.

I do the exercises on the beach which helps. Keep the sunshinning Maria !

I have not had therapy yet.  I have been ill for over 2 years.  I will be having a specialist appointment in September.  I will ask about this when I go - if they don't say anything.  What is it that you do for the therapy??  Take care.

 

I don't do my vertigo therapy exercises every day, but I do them if I wake up and am feeling wonky.  My therapist had given me what I would think is a the normal list - walk and look up and down diagionally, side to side, up and down, standing and swaying sided to side as well as balancing on one leg with eyes closed.  I have taken some of those exercises and do them on my Strider (a cross between an eliptical and a cross country skiing-it's very easy on the knees).  I work out for 30 min and don't hold on.  I normally have to grab the handles 20-30 times during the workout, but haven't fallen off.  It really gives my balance a workout. If it's nice out I will go for a bike ride - 15 kms or so.  That helps as well.

Physical therapy saved my life and my sanity. 

I did head nods and shakes (my therapist called them no no no yes yes yes exercises). I did them sitting and progressed to doing them while walking. I also was strapped into a balance booth with sensors that moved. I  had to learn how to steady myself to keep a birthday cake within a box on a computer screen. I had to practice standing in a corner with my eyes closed and then open and then closed,  etc. There were others, but these were the most helpful. Getting hearing aids also made a big difference for me. You can find my story on the pulsative tinnitus and cholesteotoma link. 

I do the gaze stabalization (looking at things and moving my head), and also balance and walking exercises.  I have a schedule where I do the exercises 5 times a day (3-5 exercises each time).  I have seen improvement, but sometimes when I get a new exercise, it seems like my dizziness and bouncing get worse for a while.  My therapist said I should recover from my exercises  in10-15 minutes, and if the exerises make me dizzier, I need to slow them down or do less repetitions.