From: The Daily News, November 28, 2008 - By ALYSSA HARVEY

Linda Pillow, director of Graves-Gilbert Clinic’s physical therapy department, helped Reba Bush lean back and tilt her head to the right. “Look for that dot,” she said, referring to one of several red and blue dots posted on the walls, floor and ceiling of the examining room. “Now sit up and look at that dot.” Bush was undergoing a testing procedure to see how she was doing after a few weeks of vestibular therapy and the Epley maneuver - exercises and head postures to help move calcium carbonate crystals from the posterior semicircular canal in the ear - to help relieve vertigo.

“I’ve had it for several years,” the Franklin woman said of her ongoing dizziness as she sat on the examining table. “I asked my doctor, ‘Am I going to have to live with this?’ He said, ‘I guess you will.’ ”

But patients don’t have to live with the dizziness, Pillow said. About 80 percent to 90 percent of patients who do vestibular therapy get better without medicine or surgery. If the patient experiences vertigo again sometime after treatment - and about 50 percent will, Pillow said - they can be treated again.

“Dizziness is not a part of aging. (Vestibular therapy) gives them their independence back,” she said. “We usually do one to three treatments once a week. We will send them home with a prevention exercise program to keep them from coming back. We give them general exercises for balance, and that can help prevent falls.”

People can experience vertigo at any age, though it happens more often to older people. Sometimes it can be very debilitating, Pillow said. “They can’t get out. They can’t drive,” she said. “They can’t grocery shop. Sometimes they use a walker.”

On Tuesday, Bush was going through her fourth and final therapy session. Before starting, she talked about the years she spent dealing with vertigo and nausea. “At times I’d get it while driving, or I’d get it while I was doing things around the house. It would come and go,” she said. “You’d feel good one day and then the next morning you were worse. Mornings were the worse for me. By night, I’d feel better.”

Her illness got so bad that Bush decided it was easier not to go anywhere. “When I had those dizzy spells, I’d just stay at home,” she said. Then she found out about vestibular therapy. After four therapy sessions, sleeping a couple of nights with her head inclined and wearing a special collar to keep the calcium carbonate particles from moving, Bush feels much better. Now she can drive again and she no longer has to take medication for vertigo. “I haven’t had nausea in two weeks,” she said.

Bush’s right side gave her more trouble than her left side from the beginning. While doing therapy Tuesday, she found that she felt no dizziness on her left side and very little on her right. “I’m amazed! I can’t believe I had (vertigo) all this time,” she said. “(Therapy) has helped so much.”

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