Recovery time line to date
February 18 2009: fractured left patella in a fall
February 19 2009: emergency surgery for repair of patella. Two titanium pins and a figure 8 wire installed for repair. Sent home with a full leg splint immobilizing leg into full extension
March 4 2009: Splint removed and full leg Bledsoe brace applied with full leg extension.
March 5 2009: Returned to teaching private lessons and to directing training course with leg brace/full extension.
April 1 2009: 30 degrees flexion allowed in Beldsoe brace
April 15 2009: 60 degrees flexion allowed in Beldsoe brace; began Physical Therapy
April 30 2009: Bledsoe brace removed
June 3 2009: gave presentation to Group Health Optimal Healing Group on the Alexander Technique.
May 8 2009; resumed Gyrotonic system exercise with expert care and supervision
July 18 2009: was able to travel to NYC for much needed Alexander lessons with John Nicholls
August 12 2009: released from care by surgeon
Since release from care by my surgeon, recovery has been a incrementally slow, non-linear, and often deeply discouraging process. If not for my Alexander skills and tremendous support from friends, family, and care professionals, I would have given up all hope. Physical Therapy continues, and will most likely continue for many months.
Alexander skills gave me the means to accommodate living with a leg in full or nearly full extension for a many weeks, and to move, despite crushing pain, without hurting myself further. A determination to both learn from this experience, and to deepen my teaching skills in the midst of a very challenging recovery, has increased my confidence in Alexander principles as a means of surviving injury, pain and all the dismay and potential depression that recovery involves. Being able to think with my entire self, to use the tools of intention and attention, has been key in this long process. The Alexander Technique does not in any way promise cure or even solution to injury, but does provide the skills to respond to current conditions with conscious choice. Although I may not be recovering with the speed that I would prefer, I know that I can make moment by moment decisions for the best use of myself, given that pain, limited mobility and ongoing frustration describe my current state of being. As previously stated, I have learned, reluctantly and with great resistance, that the pause, not the push, is essential to progress.