I went to Physical Therapy today for my vestibular system. (Short Summary –> car wreck -> concussion -> post concussion syndrome -> get very sick when I drive too long especially at night). So most of the tests I passed pretty easily. My central eye focus is at 10cm when it should be at 3, so we can work on that. But man, she tested my balance and fuck that.
Most of the balance tests I passed. Except that I’m terrible at balancing on one leg. I’m not a yoga person, okay? But then she had me stand on this squishy wedge and close my eyes and stand there for 30 seconds. Yeah, no. I have terrible balance. This thing is squishing all over the place, I can’t do this. Like every time I tried I had to grab the bars. This is not a skill I need as an engineer, can we just ignore this? I don’t give a shit about my balance.
So then the part we do give a shit about. Lets get your heart rate up to trigger your symptoms of nausea and vertigo to see where we’re at. Let me rephrase that for those in the back: Get on the exercise bike and we’ll just keep increasing the intensity until you feel like you’re gonna puke. Got that? Go.
Yall, I didn’t know I was gonna get all sweaty and out of breath first thing this morning before work. Awesome. We went until I was like “yeah I’m good.” But then problem was we only got to a twinge of a headache. No nausea. Which I kinda didn’t think would happen considering I bike to the grocery store without getting nausea. But yeah, no dice. So that means heart rate isn’t a good variable to hang our hat on “about to barf.” Which means my practices just have to go till I feel ill. Like last time. I had been promised we wouldn’t have to get to the ill feeling part. But without a good gauge of when im about to feel ill, well, you gotta go all the way.
I’m gonna be honest, I’m not 100% sold on committing to doing this again. I’m seeing her again next week, but I just don’t feel like they can really help me with driving at night. If we can’t duplicate my symptoms in the office, then how can we help them?
Why can’t I just wear anti-nausea patches all the time?