Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy involves teaching my eyes to look at objects around me. I added pictures of the exercise pages to my Flickr set SCDS Experience.
Doing the exercises gives me a new awareness of how I have used the various parts of my body to compensate for not having balancing feedback from my right ear. My muscles memorized what I thought was upright. I actually tend to lean backwards a little. My eyes tend to remain unfocused so I can have a blurry horizon line at all times. Focus on one object and it bounces around as I walk. Given the key role my eyes play in telling me how I stand that bouncing means I feel like I am bouncing and seasick. Unfocused eyes were always the best bet.
Now I can “hear” which way is down with both ears I need to reteach my brain to listen to my ears and let my eyes to act like eyes not crutches for ears. Oh, and tell my muscles to relax and behave fluidly instead of rigidly based on memorization.
I got a lecture from my vestibular rehabilitation therapist on not pushing too hard. I need to used my cane still. It provides safety in case I get overly unbalanced. It also provides a fourth source of data to help retrain my brain: touch.
Today when walking in a rare February sun break I did my best to focus on single objects while walking. Definitely an advanced course task for a beginner to take on. Still, I always did like to work ahead in courses. I just have to remember to continue doing the small tedious tasks given to me.
Good luck Rebekah! I love the saying to about “Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful” I just bought a sign for my daughter and her new house with that saying on it. I didn’t know who said it now I do. Keep up that good work your doing!