Working on walking: Once again, I did my... - My MSAA Community

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Working on walking

5 years ago•9 Replies

Once again, I did my homework and located a facility in the Richmond area called Lawrence Rehabilitation Specialists (gaitcenter.com). Since it is not listed among the resources on the NMSS website for this region, it took a newspaper feature to bring it to my attention. The newspaper feature was focused on the Gait Center's work with amputees, but mentioned Parkinson's and stroke victims. So I called to ask if they also work with MS patients. They do, were very responsive and made an immediate appointment (I already had a referral from my less than amazing neuro, but had been searching for real help.)

I began therapy there on Tuesday with an evaluation more thorough than that of my neurologist to assess the areas I need to work on for gait and balance. Friday, I had my first of twice a week sessions for 6 weeks. The same therapist will see me for 6 weeks; like kcmary reported, he is also a doctor of physical therapy (as well as a fellow Univ of Florida Gator). I now have an array of several exercises to do at home; these will be amended and added to as the sessions continue. None require a machine. I also have a great deal of information about why these activities and exercises will help me. For instance, yesterday the therapist had me walk backwards along a long non-slip surface keeping my head up, looking to one side or the other. Another series involved walking these same lengths going both forward and sideways stepping over light plastic bars using only my peripheral vision. Both were challenging and difficult for me, and of course I didn't do it with style. I caught my feet, tipped over a bar or two, wobbled from side to side, but I did it safely because he was right there behind me, watching. He explained that these particular exercises are designed to reprogram my brain and explained how the brain is able to create new neural pathways when challenged.

No miracles, but I am already aware of differences in my gait. My feet are less plagued by stiffness and foot drop, my walk is slightly narrower, and I am aware of how my feet are flexing when I walk, heel down first. These exercises are both simple (write the ABCs in the air with my big toe) and very difficult to do (move a paperclip from one side of the foot to the other...hmmm). But I am motivated and eager (as well as delighted at my good fortune!)

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goatgal

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Bodega19395 years ago

I am so pleased for you! Isn't neuroplasticity wonderful?!! In late 1960s to early '70s my then husband and I devised some exercises to take advantage of what we called something like resonance of the brain and it had everything to do with neuroplasticity. I was losing the capacity to walk in a straight line and trouble tripping on slight increases in elevation. That's when we decided to use the concrete strips on sidewalks next to the road as the exercise surface. It was a slow go but finally I could actually run down those strips and not fall. The change was so significant it has taken years to undo.

I am very, very happy for you!

goatgal in reply to Bodega19395 years ago

Thank you. I am a believer in the ability of the brain to forge new pathways, but I need help in knowing how to do so. Several years ago, a friend asked me to attend a watercolor class taught in a local senior center. The regular instructor was talented as an artist but sadly not as a teacher. For a short while she became ill, and another woman took her place. The replacement was not only a fine artist but also a gifted instructor. The class failed to cohere after the original teacher returned but I called her replacement to ask if she would take me on as a student. I didn't want to learn watercolors, because I knew I wasn't ready. I wanted to learn how to draw. I stayed with this teacher for close to two years and in that time my pencil drawings improved greatly because she taught me how to see, not merely look but to notice small shifts in angle, depth, surface, and so forth. Every lesson became an experience in brain growth that carried over into other areas of my life. Even now, when I sit down to draw (a branch, a rock, a shell) I become lost in the process. Time stops as I reexperience seeing. Truly, I am not very good, but I am so much better than I was.