My wife talked me into trying VRT this summer. I called my therapy sessions modern torture sessions. To start with, it was on the 6th floor, and I elevators don’t agree with me at all. If I didn’t get held up in traffic, and I wasn’t excessively dizzy walking in, I would take the stairs, all 6 flights. If I was running behind, or just feeling tired, I would take the elevator. Did I mention that I don’t like elevators? When they stop, I still feel the motion for quite some time.
So I usually walked in dizzy, and would fall at the receptionists’ desk. After about the second visit the receptionist learned how to tell when I was in the area, and just tell me to sit down and they would let my therapist know I was there. The therapist then came out with a belt, wrap it around me and use a death grip to walk me to the back. I would usually fall once or twice just going to the back and my therapist was usually able to catch me, but not always. BTW, she is the only person that has been able to catch me.
She was constantly trying different exercises in an attempt to find something that wouldn’t stress my balance system so fast. I got a ride out on a wheel chair the first time because I am so sensitive. Every session I would walk in anywhere from what I call normal to mildly dizzy, and barely be able to walk out. I will admit it was kind of fun watching the therapists, and doctors freak out when I went down. Most of their patients are elderly, so they are used to the mindset that someone falling was a possible heart attack or stroke, or who knows what. Apparently none of them had seen a true drop attack, because my therapist got to explain my falls to everyone.
In the end, my therapist admitted that I was literally her worse case scenario and that there was nothing she could do for me. She had been in contact with several specialist, including Dr. Haines’ office, and was trying everything others had suggested once we had gone beyond everything she knew to do. Via the exercises she gave me, I have learned a couple of things that make me dizzier, and a couple of things that actually trigger my falling that I was not aware of. Basically bending over, head movement in general, fast head movements will make me fall, and I improved a relaxation technique I have been using for years to partially regain some of my balance. I’ve heard that VRT will do almost nothing for MAV, and I proved that correct. Most of the things that I found that cause my symptoms to flare I wasn’t aware of because I am a rare case and have delayed reactions to the exercises.