Hi tynribs

It sounds like your GP is wanting you to do the epley as means to desensitize your symptoms, in other words to make your brain ignore the false signals that are being sent to it by the vestibular part of your inner ear.

When initially performed in the clinic the epley is designed to facilitate the drainage of crystals out of the affected semi-circular canal (or so the theory goes). Often times the Epley maneuver is very effective and patients have a complete relief of vertigo but occasionally there are some residual symptoms.

When you do have the residual symptoms treatment usually shifts from that of removing "crystals" to desensitization. Initially these desensitization exercises will cause your symptoms to increase but the more you do them the more your symptoms will fade as your brain compensates to the repetitive stimuli. So for now go ahead and try doing the Epley once a day as instructed and you should hopefully start to see an improvement in your symptoms in a few days (you'll have to push through the initial period of increased symptoms which obviously can be very frustrating).

My treatment of choice after administering the Epley to the patient would be Brandt-Daroff exercises which would be performed 10 times for 3 times a day (probably for 2 weeks and then done once a day in the morning if the symptoms have resolved for maintenance). Try this interactive link to see what the exercise entails. In your case you would lay down to your left side first because that is your positive side.

So if you don't seem to be improving with the self Epley ask him if he thinks Brandt-Daroff exercises would be appropriate. If he doesn't know what those are you should probably find a specialist who does. Unfortunately I live in the States and have no idea where you'd find one in England. Over here a large number of physios are trained to treat BPPV. I'm not sure if that's the case in England. Perhaps some physios from England on this forum could assist you with that.

BTW the Caloric test is a means to test your vestibular system in regards to its responsiveness and symmetry of response between the ears.

Hope that helps. Good Luck!