OPRS Appointment

Following on from my (many) appointments with the ENT, Audiologist and various other medical professionals, I was given an appointment with the ‘Older Persons and Rehabilitation Service’ 
Initially, my first thoughts were (in no particular order):

• “Older persons! Bloody cheek!”
• “Rehabilitation…hmmm…what am I rehabilitating from?”
• “That must mean things like random age related hearing loss…”
• “Older persons…I’m not old.” 

That being said, I haven’t laughed so much at a Physio appointment ever.

The lovely physio that has been assigned to my (hopeless) case was extremely patient with me and answered my machine gun fire of questions with ease, and also with the coolness of someone who both really knows their specialism and quite probably enjoys doing it.

We began with some basic balance tests…well I say basic, they were challenging for me! I had to stand with my feet hip width apart and cross my arms over my chest and close my eyes, staying upright, for ten seconds. I then had to do this with my feet together, then with my feet touching but one slightly in front of the other, then the other way round. 
It was really hard! 
Next were a few walking tests where I had to walk in a straight line and do things, like look to the left and then look to the right…but whilst staying on my projected straight line. I couldn’t do it…I sort of started walking off to the left or right or wobbling over. 
I successfully managed this activity looking up or down instead of to one side. The physio wasn’t sure why I could do this one and not the side to side version. 
I also had to do one test where I had my eyes closed and was asked to walk in a straight line…this also did not go well; I walked off to the side quite dramatically. 
Then came a ‘sobriety test’ style activity; I had to walk forwards, one foot in front of the other each time and touching each other. Going forwards was hard…going backwards was impossible…and doing it with my eyes closed resulted in me crouched down and nearly touching the floor, then falling over. 
I had to walk up steps and across things, over a little bridge, stepping over things and speeding up, slowing down. It was quite fun actually! 
We had a chat about how difficult it was to do each of the activities and then the physio gave me a long list of training exercises to be getting on with at home. ​