A seven year (almost) update on recovery from Labyrinthitis and Vestibular Neuritis.

It’s been almost seven years since I had to learn how to balance again.

In my mind, I’ve made a full and happy recovery. However, there are still times when I’m reminded how much my body prefers flat, even surfaces to play on.

Today I did something that stressed out my balance system. In a way it hasn’t been stressed for a long, long time.

I did some gardening. On a hill. With a 12 degree slope.

To give you some idea how steep this hill is, in the 350 metres it takes to walk from the bottom of my street to my house, there’s a 37 metre change in elevation. That’s something like walking up a twelve story building. It’s kind of steep.

Because the hill is so steep, my feet were never on a flat surface while I was in the garden. They were always at different heights and angles. In addition to this, I was regularly bending over to dig up and remove weeds. My whole balance system was trying to cope with multiple inputs at the same time. Inputs that were unexpected and unfamiliar. That were new and unknown.

Each time I bent over or turned around, my brain tried to work out how to get back to its comfort zone. How to deal with a whole lot of information it didn’t know how to process.

It was fascinating to me to feel so uncomfortable, while at the same time knowing that the best way to overcome the discomfort was to persevere. My body kept telling me to flee back to an even surface. My ego kept telling me to put up with the discomfort. To learn to get used to the imbalance.

It’s something good that came from losing my balance. I know now that I can train my body how to balance again. I know that I can overcome.

And, I can garden.

Now if I can just find some way to overcome the weeds ….