Yesterday I had my first date with a new physiotherapist, but I haven’t broken up with my other physiotherapist. It turns out I’m just not a one-therapist kind of girl. From now on I’ll be seeing both of them. Never on the same day, of course.
All kidding aside, they’re actually working together to help alleviate my headaches and dizzy spells. The new physiotherapist explained to me what’s physically happening with my head. I will now recap that info for you. Please keep in mind that this info has been processed through my damaged brain and may come out slightly garbled.
You know that soft squishy stuff that surrounds your skull? Well, when you get hit in the head with a softball that stuff shifts. I think of it as memory foam. The softball pushed the memory foam to the right side of my skull and it hasn’t returned to where it belongs. So, I have a lopsided head.
Since there’s more memory foam on one side of my skull that means there’s more blood flowing through it. This is part of the reason why I get dizzy and have headaches. Too much blood on one side, not enough on the other.
My lopsided head also means that I’m holding my body off-centre. I’ve been joking that I have Bobble-head syndrome (which is something I made up, but I imagine you know what I mean) because my head feels like it’s bobbing all over the place. My head never feels like it’s sitting comfortably on my neck. Well, turns out it isn’t sitting comfortably because of the lopsided memory foam. My body doesn’t know how to account for the extra weight and overcompensates.
At this point in the explanation I began to wonder how they’d fix this. Am I destined to be lopsided forever? No, not to worry. The physiotherapists can straighten me out. Physiotherapy for Post Concussion Syndrome consists of the most painful head massage ever. The physiotherapist very gently massages my head and shifts the memory foam back into position. This alleviates pressure in my head, and allows nerves and veins to function normally. Oh yeah, it also causes mind-numbing headaches that knock me out for a solid 24 hours. Once that initial headache subsides the rest of my week is better. Yay for improvement!
SOTS wonders… are you loyal to one physiotherapist?
Bella
That sounds really complicated! I'm glad that your two therapists are working together to help you. What a great thing.
ReplyDeleteWe saw a therapist about 20 years ago in learning to deal with some dysfunctional relatives - it was incredibly helpful!
what a crazy analogy, memory foam. that sucks about the all day headache, but if it makes you better and balanced, thats a good thing!
ReplyDeletei see a chiropractor regularly, for maintenance, and i recently saw a RMT. i am thinking of cutting back on the chiro and going halfsies with the RMT, but not telling my chiro! they both said they don't agree with the others profession (wtf?!), to me they can work great together.
manda - I'm sure memory foam isn't the most accurate way to describe it, but it's all I could come up with. :)
ReplyDeleteIt would be wonderful if chiropractors and RMTs would work together. To me, it just makes sense! I think it's a great idea to see both for treatment.