I pastored three churches before my 1994 disabling head and neck injury which compromised my memory, left-side strength and dexterity, balance, speech, word finding, eye tracking, double vision, proprioception/knowing/feeling where the floor is beneath my feet, and how things move around me when I move my head (vestibular). The worst of my injury is a layer of chronic head pain that blankets my days and nights.
I feel fortunate that I came into my disability with a foundation of faith. When my rehab doc put me on a regimen of “one hour up for every one hour down” I put my contemplative life to work. When words were unreliable for me, I painted my prayers, and in the paintings discovered answers, always moving me toward healing. What I call “Brushes of the Spirit” was at work leading me toward a healing unimagined by me and my doctors. Painting became a mode of personal expression as well as play. For seventeen years now I have a home business, Adventures in Healing, which I manage at a disability-pace, and write, speak, and paint about the Art of Healing.
When I was fitted with BalanceWear three years ago I was amazed and thrilled that such a simple thing to put on could make such a difference in my tremors, gait, and balance. Although it was recommended that I wear the BalanceWear an hour a day for rehab, I soon discovered that I wanted to wear it full time because it drastically improves my mobility and comprehension.
Because the BalanceWear vest decreases my tremors, I can now write at my laptop and have just completed a manuscript about my miracle healing journey with a Shaman, The Story of We: A Spiritual Odyssey of Healing. Because the BalanceWear improves my wobbly walking, I steadily increased my walking with the help of a pedometer and program to move from sedentary to active walking. I began with 5 minutes every other day and slowly increased. I surprised everyone, including me, when I was able to walk the 5K, “Run to Feed the Hungry.” Now I walk daily, completing enough days of 7000 steps so that I can earn my quarterly $25 from the pedometer program. My goal each quarter is automatically increased by a computer so I don’t need to figure it out.
Each step of the way, my body is becoming stronger, to better resemble the strong me on the inside. Thank you, BalanceWear!
Donna
Bringing More Balance Into An Active Lifestyle
MTI provides innovative, non-invasive wearable postural control and balance stabilizing products that may help individuals with mobility and balance issues.
The company's patented BalanceWear® series of Truncal Orthosis vests and patented Balance-Based Torso-Weighting Methodology (BBTW®) was developed to provide help to patients balance and mobility disorders by stabilizing the trunk.
Many older individuals and those persons with neurological conditions may have a loss of postural control and compromised balance as a symptom of a medical condition. BalanceWear may be helpful for such conditions.
NOTE: BalanceWear is not a medical treatment or cure for any disease.