Vestibular Physiotherapy

The last couple of months have been the most concerning for me since my initial MS diagnosis in early 2015. I know that a chronic illness means that it will always be with you but the tiredness, weakness and dizziness seems more relentless than ever.

I’m so glad I start writing these blogs again. Even when dizzy, I try to fight the symptoms by creating rushes of endorphins to my brain. The Monday after I was certed off work for two weeks, I went to my nearby park. I walked to the nearest football pitch, conscious of my deteriorating balance. I took my jacket off, tied it to the goalposts and sprinted the length of the pitch as fast as I could. Low and behold, a nearby dog thought I wanted him to chase me so I had no choice but to run faster and longer than planned until the owner called him back!

I ran up and down the pitches a good few times, stopping in between to do push ups and take a breather. When I finished, I checked my phone. I wasn’t expecting to see anything but on reflection it was like I had a opened a treasure chest and the gold was shining brightly in my face.

In this case the gold came in the form of a WhatsApp message. A fellow MSer, who I briefly got to know during my time on the MS and Me blogging team, informed me that he had read my blog and could relate to my symptoms. Similarly, he had vertigo symptoms that would not subside with prescribed medication. As a result, he went to a vestibular physiotherapist and it worked for him.

I thought why not give it a go. Although I had never heard of vestibular physiotherapy before I figured what I had I got to lose!?! I rang around a couple of places and, thankfully, I managed to get an appointment for the following day.

The physio was in Dublin city centre, near Merrion Square. The bus journey in was strange as the budget was being announced that day and a lot of roads were closed off. The bus dropped me ages away from the physio but I had time to kill and enjoyed the walk along the canal and even went for a sneaky sleep under a tree in Merrion Square before going into the physio.

The therapy itself was very straightforward. A list of questions followed by a few sudden head movements. I had to wear these funny goggles which helped locate where the dizziness was coming from. Apparently it is caused by the movement of crystals in your inner ear but I won’t try to explain it any further than that. After an hour in treatment the symptoms really started to subside. I began to feel better than I had in weeks.

I went back for two more sessions after my initial session and it was agreed I had progressed so much I had no need to return. Since then, I have returned to work and was off for another week soon after thanks to the Halloween mid term break (I’m still getting used to teacher’s holidays!).

Vestibular physiotherapy has definitely become another addition to my arsenal in my fight against MS. Currently, however, I’m still not feeling like I’m at my best. Maybe I never will. The winter months are certainly challenging my immune system which seems to be getting weaker with age. I have had both flu and covid vaccines recently but I can’t seem to shake off the common cold like perhaps I once could. Not ideal when you have 3 young kids that rely on you. The future, however, is looking brighter than it was for me even if it is taking the sun that bit longer to come up.

#KBYerrr 🙂

PS: A big thank you to Declan, my fellow MSer, who inspired this blog! Thanks to you I can hold my youngest son Ted without any fear!