IS YOUR WORLD SPINNING?

By DR VICKI BISMILLA

Like hundreds of people around the world and many Desi News readers, I experience the discomfort of vertigo.

I say it is a discomfort because I respect that millions of other people are struggling with serious illnesses and this is not. As a discomfort it is neither an illness nor is it serious. It makes one dizzy, often dangerously, and it does interfere with balance. People experiencing vertigo often cannot bend their heads, enjoy activities like yoga, read for more than a few minutes at a time and many experience nausea.

My first episode occurred out of the blue one morning three years ago when I woke up and found that the room was spinning. I could not lift my head off my pillow. My husband got me to a doctor and the spinning occurred again as he was diagnosing by lifting my head off his examining table and laying it back down.

I screamed, “Doctor, you are spinning!”

After that there was no more spinning, just pressure in the head, light-headedness and nausea. I was prescribed medication, but it did not help so I was taken off them. The symptoms continued so an MRI was prescribed and it came back clear. A really abrasive head and neck specialist was recommended by a relative. He was rude and dismissive. The symptoms continued for a year and then exactly a year after the first spinning experience I had another. This time my daughter took me to Toronto General Hospital Emergency and I was treated by an excellent doctor who performed a brain scan and referred me to an esteemed head and neck specialist in the hospital. This team was thorough, put me at ease, examined the MRI and brain scan and did not find any serious medical abnormality. The specialist treating me was respectful and taught me head, eye and neck exercises that I used for months afterward.

Fast forward two years after that and a friend sent me a YouTube video of a lecture on vertigo and dizziness by a team in the US. The video detailed symptoms and the range of treatments available for vertigo, dizziness and concussion. The speakers discussed issues in the ear that may cause vertigo. For the very first time I heard the term “vestibular therapist”. None of the medical professionals I had been seeing for three years had ever mentioned a vestibular therapist. So I looked up vestibular therapists in Toronto, read reviews, and selected one group that has two offices in Toronto and one in Burlington. The reviews were consistently outstanding so I booked an appointment. These therapists are not medical doctors, they are Registered Vestibular Physiotherapists with several degrees and post-graduate certificates in the field of vestibular health and they belong to the Ontario Physiotherapy Association and the Vestibular Disorders Association. They are registered with the College of Physiotherapists of Ontario.

The first session with a vestibular therapist was very thorough. She went through all the symptoms from the very first spinning episode to the present day head-pressure, light-headedness, nausea, imbalance, eye exhaustion, everything. She used an inner ear model to explain the workings of the semicircular canals and the vestibular nerve. She placed special goggles on my eyes that hooked on to her laptop and followed my eye movements. She had me lie in various positions and diagnosed head, neck and eye movements. She had me walk the length of a hallway and watched my balance with my head, neck and eyes in various positions. She was extremely thorough and her work put me at ease and gave me confidence. Although I am nervous about allowing anyone to work on my neck, her gentle and careful work on my neck and head was definitely beneficial. She taught me eye and balance exercises which she prescribed I do four times a day. I attended four in-person sessions and felt that my vertigo was much relieved. I now continue the exercises at home.

Of course different people will respond to treatment in different ways, but I have chosen to write about this because in all the years of medical treatments no doctor had mentioned vestibular therapists.

It was a new concept, an unknown field. And even now when I mention it to friends they have not heard about this branch of physical therapy. I believe that the medical profession needs to work more closely with other allied health professionals, who may not be doctors but certainly have a place in a well-rounded healthcare system.