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Transcript:

Perry: I'd like to start at the beginning, how did you first hear about the Virtual Walker?

Margarita: We went on google, trying to figure out how to improve his walking. In the internet we found it. We saw the videos there that he had on his website. And we said ok we have to try that.

Perry: So essentially what you're saying is that you were just searching for some kind of solution.

Margarita: Exactly, we were searching for a solution. Because we had to consider the alternative of buying something that is attached to your calf and sends an impulse. I think it is called walk gait or something (WalkAide). We even had a representative that showed us all the information but I wasn't convinced because that sends an impulse and helps with the drop foot but it doesn't really solve once and for all the problem. We had to figure a way that the brain corrects the problem and sends the impulse to the foot.

Perry: Do you notice that this has a lasting effect. In other words, it helps you while you wear the device but does it also help you the rest of the day or the next day.

Steve: Yes it does because I can do it now is keep a mental track where the tiles are without having to see them.

Perry: So you are seeing them in your minds eye like other people have also reported.

Steve: Exactly.

Margarita: Also when he gets the panic attacks and he is absolutely nervous and afraid to keep on walking because he get so anxious. If I'm with him, I ask him to calm down and just take grasp of himself and think of the tiles. He puts himself together and starts walking again. That's why I said it has made a great difference. There's still a long way to go like controlling the panic attacks and all those things when he isn't using them. But he can stop, put himself together, concentrate, see tiles in his brain and walk.

Perry: Before you decided to go ahead and make the purchase, were you skeptical about the promises that we made on the website?

Margarita: I didn't have any questions because I just finished reading some books about how the mind works and plasticity in the brain. The Virtual Walker stimulating through the ears and the eyes and the rhythm of your own steps - it made sense that it can help you create new correct synpatic connections. I was telling Steve, you will create new roads of brain messages that will give you a new way of walking like learning to walk as if you were a baby again.
So if the book was right and everything they were talking about plasticity was right this Virtual Walker was making sense and was going to work. I was hoping that theory and reality match. I believe that is what is happening. Steve has an alternative way to walk. One is the old one which is so imbedded in his system. When he doesn't concentrate he walks the old way. But when he concentrates he walk the new way. He still have a way to go because when he started walking with a bad gait, his muscles got short. He tried to compensate with a different gait to keep his balance. I wish we had this thing before because he wouldn't embbed this bad way of walking. Now we are undoing the damage done.

Perry: I have even read on forums that people, once they started walking with a cane, it damaged their ability to walk with out because they come to rely on it.

Margarita: Exactly. Now he is walking with a walker. I haven't told Dr. Baram about this. Lately, this week he has been walking without anything. This is a really new improvement. He has been able to walk 5 yards, 7 yards he has been able to do it without any assistance. I am very happy about that.

Perry: How does this affect your daily life?

Margarita: He was in a very bad condition where he could barely walk and was very afraid of walking. Now what has happened is that he is able to do much better walking. He is able to go down stairs and get the mail by himself. You went down stairs and waited for me. He is walking around, he opens the door in our own apartment which is something he didn't do. It's giving him mobility inside our apartment which mostly he used to be grounded and only walk to the bathroom. Now he is free and is roaming around our place.

Perry: So he is able to get up and get a glass and water.

Margarita: And find out what's wrong around the apartment that I didn't do.
Another thing that I've found with the goggles. Before the goggles he would get totally distracted in no time. I had to keep saying watch how you step, watch where you're going walk the way yo walk, keep on going and he hated me and I hated it.
But with the goggles he concentrates on what he's doing and he can do it.
How many times did you walk today?

Steve: 4 times.

Margarita: If I asked him to do it once before. It was extra ordinary to get him to do it once.

Perry: He did that on his own today?

Margarita: Yes he did it on his own. He calls it the gadget. Because he is interested it's like a game.

Perry: I guess it's like a video game.

Margarita: It's kind of like a video game. It responds to your own movements and you want to do it right.

Perry: So it actually stimulates your desire to do it properly.

Steve: Yes.

Margarita: I think so.

Perry: Did you notice an improvement right away or did it take a few sessions?

Steve: Right away.

Margarita: Right away in the first session.
The first few minutes we didn't know what was going on but after 10-15 minutes of using it. Wow, I have never seen him walk like that. And the following sessions he got even better. And created the memory of his muscles.
We will never return it because it is something he will keep on doing so he doesn't go back to the old way. He will keep on practicing until he can do it all the time. %100 of the time.

Perry: I know there have been reports of some people that it brings them to normal. Other people don't achieve that. There are some many variables.

Margarita: Yes, I would say so. I can see how it can bring some people to perfect normal walking. Maybe, when people haven't developed all the nasty ways of walking or people aren't so advanced when the muscles are weak and people are extremely tired. Maybe this has to do with it.

Perry: So I'm assuming at this point that you would highly recommend this product to people with movement disorders?

Steve: Without a question. Without a question.

Margarita: Not only parkinson's and multiple sclerosis but all. Because I saw someone who had a stroke and he also borrowed it. His walking was terrible. His arms and legs were moving all over the place. It was like he was kicking invisible things. He started to use the goggles and he was able to get the rhythm of the walk and he even started to swing his arms to get better balance. It was amazing. It was within 5 or 10 minutes that he practiced with it.

Perry: Wow, that's pretty incredible.
Do you practice every day or every other day.

Steve: I practice every other day, when I have a chance I practice every day.

Margarita: He practices at least 2-3 times a week because he has been very weak. But it is the only way he can go out and walk.

Perry: Do you actually go outside or do it in the hallway?

Margarita: We did it outside before the weather got terrible. We tried to walk where there no pebbles or broken stones where he would be afraid. We walked on a long street. We live by the water and there is an area where people walk and it is safe. He was walking back and forth and it was very nice. That's where he got to like it. Then the weather got bad so we walk in the corriders of our buildings.

Perry: If you were to say one thing to someone else who hasn't heard of the Virtual Walker, what would you tell them?

Steve: I recommend it. I recommend it. I recommend it.

Margarita: I would say it is their chance to walk like they did before the illness. That is an amazing help. Almost instant. You see the change within 15 minutes. You don't feel it. Nobody that did it noticed it. The people from outside see the difference. That is something strange because Steve didn't notice the difference. And none of the people I let try it noticed the difference until they were really getting the hang of it and were really doing great. But the people outside can see the change right away.

Perry: I really appreciate all your comments and all your time.

Margarita: I really hope that a lot of people use it and it goes into the hospitals and everything because I never saw something that helps like this.