This is one on the most frequent questions that my patients in Sarasota, Florida ask me, “Will my vertigo come back?” It is the question they usually ask right after I tell them that their BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo) was successfully treated, and is now gone. Research tells us that in about 40% of cases, the condition will come back. Sometimes it can come back within a year, other times the person can go for many years before the condition returns.
The next question is usually, “Is there anything I should avoid doing so that the vertigo doesn’t return?” There is nothing that the person does that makes it come back, it just does. So in that case, I tell my Sarasota BPPV patients that they should go back to life as normal. That means sleeping flat like they normally did before all this started, and to resume all their normal every day activities. This includes bending over, for example to pick something up off the ground, or tipping their head back as they would to reach over head.
If the condition does return, the person will just need to call and come back to therapy to have treatments to put the crystals back in place again. Knowing that they have a plan of what to do if the BPPV returns, usually takes the fear away, and allows the person to go on with their lives- which is the goal after all…
My Eyes in the Time of Apparition, 1913. By August Natterer
