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I have come to keeping a cane by my bed...

The cane helps me stability at night. I have found that at night I stumble quite a bit. The Dr. said that the stumbling was because I lost my Cerebellum. He said that it takes 5 good inputs to have good balance  A good eye, a good cerebellum, good ears, good joints and a good inner ear. When any one of those is taken away than usually the other 4 take over. Since I don't have a good cerebellum, if I take away another input (total darkness) it makes my balance be off. The Dr. recommended that I keep a night light or a Cane by my bed at night or both. I opted for both. I  have a CD player that acts like a night light and I have someone from the church that gave me a Cane. Now I use both of them if I have to get up at night for any reason.

Last night I had to get up several times and I found myself using the Cane regularly. At first I did not want to use it. (I guess it was just stubbornness). Now I actually look forward to the Cane. I guess since I only have to use it at night, it will be OK.

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