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Grocery Store Home Exercise Program (HEP) Instructions

Equipment required:

  1. A watch
  2. A notebook or cell phone to document details of the exercise in your YRCC exercise/rehab log, referred to below as the “log”.
  3. The “Dizziness Visual Analog Scale (VAS)” found at https://www.torontoconcussion.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Dizziness-visual-analog-scale-VAS.pdf. Alternatively, you can estimate your dizziness on a scale of 0-10.
  4. A tape measure (if you use the VAS and don’t use the estimation method).

 

Information required (will be set by you and the physician’s assistant):

  1. The setting in which you will be doing the exercise (e.g., grocery store).
  2. Pick a comfortable, calm spot to which you can retreat if needed (e.g., the quiet of your car in the parking lot)
  3. How many times you aim to repeat the regimen below (e.g., repeat the regimen below 4 times)

 

Regimen:

  1. Start off by documenting your Dizziness VAS score in your in your log.
  2. Enter the start time of the exercise in your log.
  3. Walk through the setting (e.g., grocery store) you discussed with the team until your VAS score increases by 2 cm OR until you complete your mission: a) until you walk through the venue for a pre-defined length of time (the team would have told you this, e.g., 2 minutes, etc.); OR b) until you have collected/found a predefined number of items (the team would have told you this, e.g., 5-10 items, etc.)
  4. Once the VAS score increases by 2 cm, OR, you complete your mission, document this time in your log. Note any other symptoms felt from the exercise as well at this time.
  5. Retreat to “comfortable, calm spot” (e.g., parking lot, the car, etc.) and then document the time the rest period starts.
  6. Wait for symptoms to settle down back to baseline and then document this time in your log.
  7. Repeat this exercise (steps 1-6).

 

When to end the exercise:

  • Do this exercise for the number of repetitions decided upon with the phsycian’s assistant.

OR

  • If symptoms do not return to baseline between repetitions of the regimen, the mission is aborted and the drill is to be repeated the next day.