If all goes well, April 6 will be the last time Alissa Graf has to sit silently for hours with wires attached to her head.
“It’s boring. It’s a relief that it’s finally done, when I go home, it’s like ‘finally,’” Alissa said.
After being involved in a car accident in 2008, Graf sustained a brain injury that had significant effects on her cognitive ability.
“She was having trouble comprehending and processing and she had pain sometimes,” said her mom, Brenda Graf. “There was just a lot of side effects to go with the brain injury.”
Last year, Alissa’s teacher suggested LENS treatment as a way to help with the side effects. At the same time, someone else suggested the same thing, which galvanized Brenda to look into the treatment.
“It was meant to be,” she said. “We had to look into it.”
Before booking the treatments, Brenda did all the research she could and phoned and emailed the doctor.
“It’s a big step,” she said. “It’s a non-invasive procedure, but you’re doing stuff to the brain. I needed all the information.”
LENS, which stands for Low Energy Neurofeedback System, uses a faint radio frequency signal to “prompt an updating or examination of brain operation,” according to neuropaths.com. It’s similar to turning your computer off and on to fix a problem. LENS has a high success rate and effects can be seen within hours or days of treatment. For Alissa, changes could be seen within a few days.
“We saw that she was more relaxed almost immediately,” Brenda said. “It’s amazing when you go there, how much you learn.”
In addition, her eyesight improved to the point where Alissa said her vision is blurrier with glasses than without.
LENS treatment also includes physiotherapy, which sometimes causes pain for her. Because she developed migraines after exercising, Brenda and
Alissa are worried their next visit may not be their last, but they won’t find out until they go in April.
Alissa’s first visit was in May of last year for testing and assessment to see if she could benefit from LENS. Her first treatment was in September.
Treatment for Alissa consists of her sitting in a room for up to three and a half hours and trying not to think, which gets boring for her.
“I was like ‘Can I breathe?’’ Alissa laughed.
Each treatment, including accommodations and travel expenses, costs about $5,000 and people in the community have come together to raise money, including a fundraiser at Johnny’s Bistro on March 8.
“We didn’t plan the fundraisers,” Brenda said. “If it wasn’t for our community and the surrounding area and our friends, we wouldn’t be as far as we are. We wouldn’t have been able to do everything without the help of our community. We’re very very grateful to live in Humboldt and have our community and surrounding area.”
