Originally Posted by PCSfog2012

I'm back from my week at the Carrick Brain Center, and wanted to share my experience with a few caveats:
1) my injury is unique to me as is my potential recovery
2) i was in no way incentivized to post or prohibited from posting
3) my experience is only that -- one person's.

Overall, I was highly impressed with the amount of testing that took place on day 1; although I found it pretty exhausting. They use all of the latest equipment in testing from VNGs, Dynavision2, saccadometers, IMPACT, etc. I would say that I had more comprehensive testing done in the first day than I've had in all of my other visits combined over nearly 3 years.
They also did the most comprehensive physical examination that I've encountered.

After Day 1, I returned to the clinic 3 times per day for intensive treatment which consisted of a variety of exercises to address my particular issues with vision, balance, fog, etc. The treatments were roughly 60-70 minutes per session and always concluded with a session in the gyrostim which had a profound effect on me personally which was demonstrated by a pre and post VNG for each gyro session.

They re-tested me constantly, made minor adjustments to treatment as they would see improvements. I was there for a total of 5 days; and felt the fog lifting by day 3. Day 4, I was crashing from all of the stimulation; however I didn't have the symptoms as much as the exhaustion. They reassured me this was typical and by the last day I felt much better.

Overall, they were very professional and also very realistic in not promising any spectacular results in just one week. They essentially re-built my neurological foundation (again unique to me) and sent me home with exercises to reinforce/strengthen these connections/improvements. The exercises are to be done 2-3 times per day and take me about 10-15 minutes to complete per session.

Personally, this really did have a major impact on my condition; and I do wish that i had found them sooner despite the price; and the difficult side effects of my returning flight (laid up for 2 days).

I hope this is of some use; and I'm trying to provide some info without getting too specific since we all have different injuries and have different needs. I can tell you that they showed us objective data pre and post which demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in my gaze, tracking, and balance. This was all witnessed by my fiancé, who is a skeptical physicians turned believer.

I will keep up with these exercises as prescribed and let you know the outcome. The other interesting and very gratifying part for me is that my neuralgias, which are debilitating, were at about a 2 of 10 compared to the usual 9 of 10. I attributed this to some of the chiropractic adjustments that I received along with the overall therapy.

IMO - they've combined what medicine should be: integrated, multi-disciplinary approach that is customized to the individual. Unfortunately, insurance companies prevent that type of model since it would be a big loss hence the large cash price tag for such care.

Again, i hope this is useful information & I wish hockey mom the best down there. I hope your experience is similar to mine.

Hope you're all having a better day.