Aloha … from Bethe'It was life changing'
Patients suffering balance disorders find unique therapy at Gifford
RANDOLPH, Oct. 7, 2008 – Sandy Doten of West Berlin started feeling light-headed about a week before the Fourth of July. She didn’t really know what was wrong, but hoped it would go away.
It didn’t.
While visiting family for Independence Day, her conditioned worsened.
A friend told her about the Balance Center at Gifford in Randolph. Doten called and two days later was undergoing her first session of balance therapy with physical therapist and balance specialist Eric Medved.
Medved assessed Doten’s symptoms of both vertigo – a condition where the sufferer feels and sees the room spinning – and other vestibular disorders.
Often called one’s sixth sense, the vestibular system of the inner ear contributes to a person’s sense of balance and spatial orientation by sending signals to neural structures that control eye movements and postural muscles that keep one upright.
A variety of ailements, stress, injury, age and more can impact the vestibular system, causing dizziness or imbalance that Doten knows all too well.
“I was at the point where if I sneezed I would fall over. Brushing my teeth I was incredibly unbalanced. Just bending over to make the bed would send me reeling,” says Doten, who worked at home for three weeks and gave up driving for six while first having treatments with Medved.
An experienced physical therapist, who has undergone specialized training and become certified in vestibular rehabilitation, Medved initially addressed Doten’s primary issue, vertigo, and the room ceased to spin.
“It’s great not having the room spinning,” she says.
Since Doten’s continued with exercises that aim to strengthen – just like physical therapy for a sore muscle or joint – her tolerance to head movement and visual stimuli, and permanently correct her remaining imbalance.
Gifford Medical Center in Randolph has been offering balance therapy since Medved joined the hospital last summer as its new Rehabilitation Services Department manager.
This summer, the hospital added to its balance program by purchasing three new pieces of equipment that make up a high-tech balance management system – a NeuroCom SMART EquiTest, Balance Master and inVision.
The state-of-the-art SMART EquiTest machine looks a bit like a colorful phone booth with a moveable force plate below the feet, movable walls, a support harness to prevent the patient from loss of balance during testing, and a computer screen to provide visual feedback. The machine provides an objective assessment of balance control and postural stability, allowing Medved to identify and then treat specific balance impairments.
It can also be used to treat balance problems related to neurological conditions, such as from Parkinson’s disease or a stroke, or orthopedics, such as following knee replacement surgery or a sports injury, Medved notes.
And Gifford is the only hospital in the state with the EquiTest machine.
The Balance Master is a second piece of equipment. It’s a large, fixed plate used to measure the vertical forces exerted by a patient’s feet while performing normal activities such as walking, sitting and reaching. The inVision system quantifies a patient’s ability to stable gaze while moving the head.
Doten’s been using the new equipment, particularly the EquiTest machine, for more than a month.
“There’s been a noticeable improvement,” she says. “For anybody who has a vestibular issue this machine just brings you to a higher level of challenge. It targets your specific area of need.
“It’s absolutely fascinating. It definitely challenges the areas that I need to work on.”
Gifford primary care providers have been referring their patients to the Balance Center for more than a year now.
“After seeing Eric, patients are very happy to have treatment options that provide lasting solutions to their symptoms,” says family physician Marcus Coxon. “Furthermore, they are delighted to avoid resorting to prescription medications with their costs and side effects.”
Rochester Health Center physician Mark Jewett called the therapy “extremely helpful” for several of his internal medicine patients.
“Eric is great. He is enthusiastic, willing to see anyone with dizziness/vertigo and has had great success in treating these patients,” family physician Ken Borie adds.
Family nurse practitioner Kim Ladue recalls one patient who had particularly good results.
“One patient had a very unusual type of balance issue and no one elsewhere was able to help her, but he did. I believe it was life changing for her because her imbalance had been quite debilitating,” Ladue said.
Doten’s life has certainly changed.
She’s back to driving herself to work at a Northfield church, she’s no longer holding her head rigid to avoid movement and she’s walking a straight line.
“I always tended toward walking near furniture or walls. It’s very debilitating,” Doten says.
And she knows she has empathetic caregiver in Medved.
While her family and work have been very supportive, “I felt very alone in this. It’s embarrassing to stagger or to hold on to things.
“I greatly respect Eric and his professionalism and his commitment to seeing me through this.”
The causes of balance disorders are frequently not known, and some people consequently suffer for years untreated or are forced to rely on medications to perform life’s daily tasks.
“It is one of these diagnoses that is not well understood,” says Medved, who offers a unique treatment alternative to prescription drugs.
The majority of his patients, he says, markedly improve or adapt completely without a later reoccurrence, although the treatment can take time.
Doten is still undergoing treatment, but knows she’s on the road to good health.
“I’m back now to 100 percent activity level. There isn’t really anything now that I wouldn’t do,” Doten says. “And I really credit all the exercises that Eric has had me do.”
The Balance Center at Gifford and the complete outpatient physical therapy department moves to Gifford’s Kingwood Health Center on Route 66 near Interstate 89 in Randolph on Oct. 20. The health center, which Gifford purchased last year, is undergoing significant renovations for weatherization, aesthetics and to make appropriate space on the ground floor for the physical therapy team. The upstairs level includes private practice dentist Dr. John Westbrook and Gifford’s endocrinologist, a neurologist and the Diabetes Clinic. The hospital plans to hold a future open house at the health and rehabilitation center to share the building’s improvements with the public.