Hey guys… my name is Stephen Dunn, I’m a physical therapist at CORE Therapy and Pilates and I’m an owner of the business with my wife Cheryl. Today I want to tell the story about what it was like to be a patient instead of being the physical therapist…
About a month ago at about midnight, I was rolling out my back and doing some work to loosen up my upper back because I’m always stiff and tight leaning forward over people with my job as a hands-on physical therapist. I was rolling on the foam roller back and forth and I dislodged the crystal in my ear that’s in charge of your balance and your vestibular system. What it did is it gave me an incredible bout of vertigo… it was like ‘boom’ and hit me like a ton of bricks… I was on my back rolling and when I went over to my hands and knees the room started spinning so much that I fell while I was on my hands and knees. I couldn’t even be on my hands and knees and after about five minutes I was able to make my way to the bed and go to sleep because laying down didn’t bother me…
Well, the next morning I woke up and had rested pretty well. I just popped up, sat up, stood up and boy it was back on, the whole room was spinning… I fell back into my bed and then it hit me that I was really having a vertigo issue. I’ve had patients complain about vertigo for 19 years of being a PT but it never happened to me and I never really quite understood what it was like until it hit me.
That Friday I had a full schedule, I was booked from 8:00 to 5:00 but I started vomiting after I did a little self technique that you can do at home to try to get the crystals back in place. I did that technique and it ended up making the vertigo a little better but I started vomiting and at that point I knew I wasn’t gonna be able to work that day. I called Allyson, the physical therapist that works with me on Monday and Wednesdays, and I asked her to come in and cover my day. It was fantastic that she was able to actually see my clients that day, but more importantly I was able to get a session with her about five o’clock that afternoon on Friday… So within 24 hours of my bout of vertigo I was actually able to get my first treatment. I saw Allyson for the cranial sacral work that she does and after an hour of the work with her I was able to get up off the table 75% improved. I was still dizzy, I was still spinning, but about 75% better…
That was Friday I went home and went to sleep immediately and slept from like 6:30 p.m. till the next day at like 11a or noon. It was just a massive amount of sleep Saturday and Sunday I felt pretty good.
Sunday afternoon I started having some more of the vestibular issues and vertigo again and I got another appointment with Allyson on Sunday night. So I had an appointment on Friday, I had an appointment on Sunday and I had another appointment on Wednesday and my last appointment on Friday… So over the course of a week I was able to see Allyson for four sessions, she was able to do craniosacral work for me and basically get me to a point so by that Friday I was completely good and I haven’t had any complaints since.
The moral of the story is 30% of PT patients who were in PT for back pain, neck pain or whatever they’re in there for, they also have vertigo. I’ve known this fact and I’ve seen this fact through my practice but when it happened to me I was very grateful to have someone to see me within 24 hours. The craniosacral work that Allyson did took me to a 75% improvement after the first time, it took me to 90% improvement after the second time and then after those next two sessions I was pretty much 100%.
Since then I’ve had zero vertigo issues I moved my neck freely. I’m not fearful of moving but in that week I was just afraid to move. If I turned or moved my neck a certain way it would come on and then the room was spinning so it was a very powerful thing when vertigo is kicking your butt…
This is my case study again as a patient and I want to give a shout out to what Allyson did to help me because it would have really interfered with my work week if I didn’t get that relief. Once the weekend would have came it would have been a hard time to find that relief so again getting treatment within 24 hours I think was super effective…
If you’re having any vertigo issues don’t delay because it can creep up on you when you least are aware of it…
Driving was the scariest part… I had to sit at a red light like this because the cars driving by set off my vertigo so I had to cover my eyes so I could just see the red light above. That’s when I knew that I shouldn’t be driving, it’s pretty crazy and pretty dangerous…
That’s my case study… if you’re having vertigo issues give us a call 512.215.4227 and set up a discovery session with Allyson… It’s a free session to basically evaluate your vertigo, evaluate your vestibular issue and see if you are a candidate for what she does to help with it.
That’s it for today I hope all as well…
Take care. bye