המלצות לטיפול בסחרחורת

A few months ago I had the scariest experience in my life. I was visiting Israel for what I thought was a few days and just like that, out of the blue, without any prior warning, everything around me started swirling around, everything – there was not one fixed point. It happened when I was standing up or sitting down and it felt like I was falling down. My head felt extremely fuzzy, I couldn't focus my eyes on anything and couldn't eat anything. I spent a few days in bed, sleeping 22 hours a day and surviving on a few grapes per day. The experience was very tiring and just staggering to the bathroom, holding on to furniture and walls for dear life, was exhausting. When I made it to hospital in the end they performed many tests. They took blood samples, checked my heart, looked at my eyes and ears and did a brain scan. In the end they diagnosed Vertigo and said I needed to have vestibular physiotherapy. Luckily for me, the Israel Centre for Dizziness and Balance problems headed by Oz Zur, is located in Ra'anana which is next door to Kfar Saba where I was visiting my mother. I dared the 15 minutes taxi drive to his clinic which was a challenging experience. I felt sick, needed to sit in the car with closed eyes and breathing deeply, but made it.
Oz performed a series of very detailed tests and said there was severe damage to the reflex in the inner ear which sends messages to the eyes and joints to respond to the slightest movement of the head. So three systems were involved and no wonder I was exhausted all the time if the brain got so confused about messages not being sent and not making sense to it and if the systems don't coordinate properly. No wonder it was a constant struggle also as it was happening the whole time.
A succession of what turned out to be 19 treatments started. They involved retraining the brain, balancing the two inner ears and a lot of exercises which I did at home. Oz became the pillar of support with a lot of patience and immense knowledge. There was no pain involved in the treatments, luckily, and I started seeing the benefits from the first treatment. It was a long journey and it was a fascinating journey.
Like a baby, I was taking first steps and learning to do things slowly. First I got to feel more comfortable at my Mum's tiny flat in a retirement home and managed to move around without holding on to furniture but going out to the corridor was very challenging. Then that got a bit better even though the holding on to walls lasted for a long time, then I noticed that the short taxi ride was easier and waiting outside for the taxi taking me home was less challenging. After a week of therapy I could even stand in the street rather than sit on a wall.
The fuzziness inside the head lasted a very long time and the main problem was the outside. Just standing in the street caused dizziness and fuzziness, there were a lot of noises, lights, people and cars moving, all these messages which my brain could not figure out yet. It was becoming obvious that I needed to cancel my business trip which I was supposed to go on after 10 days in Israel. How could I have meetings with anyone if my head is so fuzzy that I can't focus my eyes on someone or concentrate
on what is being said to me? How can I even take the taxi ride to the airport and then be in an airport environment with all the noises, artificial lights, movements etc, let alone get on a plane with an ear problem.
With every treatment I got better and after a while I even dared to dream of taking a bus rather than a taxi. That was a huge mission. First, walking in the street was impossible! I could not turn my head around even slightly without needing support, everything was very confusing with the movement of cars and people, the noises and the lights. Trying to cross the road was a huge thing. I would get to the road and as I couldn't turn my head without losing my balance, had to stop for a while, hold on to a railing and only then turn my head slowly by which time the drivers didn't know if I was crossing the road or not, if to slow down and stop or not. A bumpy bus ride was an experience also and very disorienting if there were a lot of people on the bus, particularly herds of noisy children at the end of the school day.
Once I conquered the bus ride I wanted to get used to shopping centre environments seeing as they were the closest I could find to an airport environment. Another huge challenge. Sitting in a coffee house I needed to find a quiet one, outside the main building and its music and neon lights and took Oz's advice of sitting facing a wall rather than the shop itself.
All along the period of time I was 'grounded' in Israel Oz was full of tips and advice about how to cope with different situations I would encounter like a shopping centre, a car ride, walking in the street etc. I felt really fortunate that I could be treated by him – a very professional expert who is passionate about the subject of dizziness and vertigo of which he is an expert.