50plus June 2011 The Eagle • theeagle.com
Getting through bouts of vertigo Several days da ago, ag I was dia diagnosed with vertigo. rtig I’ve rtigo. been miserab miser le for weeks! My doctor says sa that a physical ther therapist ma be able to help may me. What causes vertigo rtig and rtigo what is the expected recovery er ery time? That is a great question and more people suffer suf from vertigo than you might think. Vertigo is a type of dizziness that makes the suf er feel suffer that their surroundings are spinning LeOn BraDwaY Dw DwaY herapy phySical therap or moving. So even when sitting still, the person may feel like they are moving, or that the room is moving around them. The person may also experience nausea, vomiting, sweating, and abnormal eye movements. Rarely, vertigo can be a symptom of a more serious neurological problem such as a stroke, brain hemorrhage or multiple sclerosis. If the vertigo is accompanied by double vision, difficulty dif speaking, a change in alertness, arm or leg weakness, or an inability to walk; the person should go to the Emergency Room immediately. Vertigo is usually the result of a dysfunction in the
nerves and the structures of the balance mechanism in the inner ear, ear called the vestibular system. This system senses movement and changes in a person’s head position. Thus, when there are problems with this system, sitting up, lying down, or moving your head may make the vertigo worse. Now let’s discuss what causes this dysfunction and how each is typically treated. The five causes of vertigo, include: benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), vestibular migraine, Meniere’s disease, vestibular neuritis, and cervicogenic vertigo. BPPV causes brief periods of vertigo (typically lasting less than one minute) which occur with change in position such as rolling, lying down, and getting out of bed. It is the most common cause of vertigo. BPPV is typically treated with canalith repositioning, a simple procedure in which the health care provider (e.g. physical therapist) maneuvers the position of your head depending on which ear canal is invo in lved. This procedure is usually very effecti effective fective after one or two treatments. The second most
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The stress of hospital stays can impair the memory in anyone Ever go to your physician, hear him rattle off of a lot of infor inf mation and instructions, and forget some of what was said by the time you get home? This problem is so common, a lot of patients take notes or bring somebody else along to help in the remembering. Well, this kind of problem is magnified during hospital stays. Especially for seniors, hospitalization may cause temporary confusion and memory loss. This causes misremembering of discharge instructions. A fact well-known in medical circles is that almost 20 percent of hospital patients are rehospitalized within 30 days of discharge, due in large part to high rates of failure to comply with discharge instructions. The cost to Medicare of such preventable rehospitalization has been
estimated at $17.4 billion in a 2004 study. One study showed that only 57 percent of patients understood their discharge instructions. Another study followed up with patients a few days after returning home and found that 86 percent Dr. BiLL KLeMM who were the memory meDic prescribed new medication could not remember the name or dosage of the drug and only 11 percent remembered anything about possible ad rse effects adve ef . I just had hip replacement surgery and realized after I got home that I had forgotten a few details about such things as using the device to put on socks and some of the physical therapy exercises.
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It doesn’t take a “Memory Medic” to figure out what caused my problem. First, surgery is stressful. The surgery itself, and the anesthetic, are adrenal stressors that release cortisol, which in turn can temporarily impair memory. The anesthetic and pain killers also make one dopey. There is the problem that I didn’t eat well. I lost 10 pounds in four days. It was not that the food was so bad, I just didn’t have ha any appetite. Finally, there was lack of sleep. Each night, seemingly about every hour, hour some nurse would come in to take a temperature, or blood pressure, or blood sample, gi an injection or pill, give or change a urine bag, or something. Why can’t they
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