The Journey Begins -Daniel Pancy

Maintaining balance in my life with bilateral Meniere’s Disease, is like trying to balance my checkbook. -DPancy

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Maintaining balance in my life is is like trying to balance my checkbook. I can’t. For the last eighteen years my ability to walk across the room has become a major challenge.

Between drop attacks (Otolithic Crises of Tumarkin) and losing my balance, my body has been abused by door jams, chairs, counter tops, and other assorted objects. Falling into the dog crate left me with this battle scar. The most scary fall was when I was just standing there and fell, dropped, smashed into a glass table top. Luckily it was safety glass which shattered into a million pieces.

One summer into winter, shortly after being diagnosed, I broke my wrist four times. Yes the same wrist. Of course it wasn’t  a small cast. It’s a shoulder to thumb cast, for a broken wrist. That resulted in nerve damage in my hand requiring surgery.

Balance is difficult. It is exhausting. It is frustrating. All the furniture in my home is strategically place to provide me with a place to save myself from disaster. Even my bathroom has grab bars and so do the railings on the steps outside. My walker has been my companion for many years. I had to retire one, and the one now I’m using will also have the same fate shortly. Balance is what others take for granted. Balance is an everyday goal for myself. 

From shoulder surgery to elbow surgery to countless bruises; all in the name of Balance. It is difficult, but I get myself off the floor, I might crack a joke about it, but I don’t give up on myself or my life goal of balancing. -DPancy