How did the rehab go?

In Short – It All Started with My Environment. The first step was changing my surroundings. I wanted to go home—to the familiar environment where I felt safe. Luckily, I lived across from the Augustinum in Hamburg, one of the most beautiful senior living communities. Their facility includes a comprehensive physiotherapy center in the lower-ground level. They also had a swimming pool, where I could begin my movement exercises. It was a start.

It quickly became clear that my gait and lost sense of balance needed to be retrained or even rebuilt from scratch. Walking wasn’t an option at that point. Because of the left-sided ataxia, I couldn’t fully control my left leg, which resulted in a wide, waddling gait—like a penguin. That had to go—and fast.

Integrating neuro-athletic exercises helped me take another step forward. My balance wasn’t improving drastically, but it also wasn’t getting worse. And the more I worked on it, the better my body adapted to the lack of stability.

Then, in October 2024, another breakthrough: a radiofrequency therapy helped me make noticeable progress. Indiba—a name that already sounds promising—brought visible results after just the first session. I had been struggling again with pain in my left side. It was a kind of nerve pain, as if someone were tugging at that entire side of my body, all the way up to my head. I’d come to recognize this sensation as something that flares up under mental stress or changes in the weather. Cold and damp conditions are particularly harsh on my ataxia.

After the very first session—with an electromagnetic current at a frequency of 448 kHz—the pain disappeared completely.

During the second session, I felt something shift in the area of my forehead. It strengthened my belief that this therapy was the right path for me. The third session improved my mobility noticeably.

Alongside all this, foot reflexology has always been part of my healing process. Due to the lack of balance, my left foot would often cramp up so severely that visible deformities developed—one even resulting in a bunion. This makes walking extremely painful at times. Medically supervised reflexology treatment provides significant relief, each time easing the spasms in my foot. But more than that—it relaxes my entire body and mind.