Donna

Former Patient

“I approached Sarah with a challenge. 56 years ago I had lived through a serious flu which caused permanent damage to my inner ear. After listening to a presentation from her about the high risk of falling as you get older, I asked if it was possible to improve my balance. My thinking was it certainly couldn’t hurt and possibly I could make some progress. While she made no promises, she was willing to perform an assessment and see if there was anything that could be done.

A short time later, she came over and put me through a series of activities. For example she had me stand on one leg, stand on a balance pad with my eyes closed, and move my head side to side while trying to focus on some writing. We discussed my motion sickness and how I have made accommodations in life to avoid a serious fall. Then she gave me some homework to begin the process of improving balance and lessening motion sensitivity.

In 6 short weeks, I went from high risk of falling to falling not being not a major concern. I originally could stand on the balance pad for 6 seconds, but can now do that for at least a minute. I could stand on one leg for 3 seconds    and can now do that for at least 30 seconds and getting better at it each day. One major concern was motion sickness. Even that has improved tremendously.

Frankly, I did not really expect to see much progress when I began this program. After all, I have permanent inner ear damage and have learned to live with its limitations for a very long time. But in such a short time, I have seen tremendous change. I just wish I had found Sarah years ago.”