Your Spin Doctor, Vestibular Therapy with Emily Beus, DPT

Making Headway

“As long as the world is spinning, we are going to be dizzy and we are going to make mistakes.” Thanks, Mel Brooks, but today’s speaker tells us the mistake is not seeking treatment for the dizziness. In this episode, vestibular therapist Dr. Emily Beus DPT, teaches us about different causes and treatments for the spins, the lightheadedness, or the rocking boat feeling that you’ve been living with (unless of course you actually live on a boat, she can’t help you with that). Join us and learn how to get your head to stop spinning!

Covered in today’s show:

• Check in with Mariah and Eryn: What’s one thing you wish you would have known earlier in your brain injury?
• What is the vestibular system? A sensory system that provides our brain information about motion and spatial orientation. It maintains our balance, movement, and posture.
• Vestibular Rehab: a physical therapy specialty
• What to expect with vestibular rehab:
• Give a history: really important to describe your dizziness--Lightheaded? Faint? Spinning? Off balance? Rocking? Swaying? Floating? Eyes aren’t tracking right? You might have all of them!
• Your therapist will help guide the conversation to help you identify what your symptoms are; it can be hard to find the words but don’t worry they will help you
• Your symptoms guide the therapist to what the cause is and what needs to be worked on
• Peripheral nervous system issues:
• BPPV: Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo
• Positions such as rolling, bending, or looking up gives the sensation of vertigo
• You don’t need to avoid your triggers for vertigo, see a therapist!! They can fix it (and it usually doesn’t take long). Sometimes you’re fixed that day!
• Mechanical problem in your inner ear: the “crystals” are out of place
• Treatment involves laying you in a position that triggers symptoms and then moving the head around to move the “crystals” into a better spot
• You can be premedicated to help with symptoms if moving into the position is scary to you--work with your doctor and therapist to arrange this
• Central nervous system issues
• Ocular motor function: looks at how your eyes are moving. Depending on what your eyes do determines if it is a peripheral or central nervous system issue
• Nystagmus
• Balance assessment: standing still and with walking
• Damage to the cerebellum, a part of the brain that controls balance, is treatable but takes longer
• Acquired Brain Injuries (an injury that happens without a knock to the head or an trauma)
• Dizziness might be from blood pressure issues (orthostatic hypotension)
• Therapy strategies to work with the changes caused in your brain
• Treatment may be slower
• Treatment focuses on strategies on how to be safe
• Talk to your provider and get an order for physical therapy: great doctors to have on your team are neurologists, PMNR physiatrist; Ear, Nose, Throat doctor (VMG testing that assess the eye movements more in-depth)

Check out these resources!:

• www.vestibular.org (VEDA)
• Logs that are free to print for tracking symptoms, medications, foods, etc
• www.neuropt.org
• Lots of educational resources written for patients

Questions? Want to connect? Find Emily on Instagram @DrEmilyBeusPT

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