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"It was a gorgeous July day on Capri, stepping down the
ladder in the cliff-face, into the famous opalescent water
near the Blue Grotto. I slipped on the algae-covered rung. I
fell no more than two feet but my right arm lodged both
between the ladder and the cliff and between two rungs,
horizontal and vertical, discloating my shoulder, elbow, and
thumb, severing my bicep, ripping my subscapularis away from
my ribcage. There were several other injuries like torn
rotator cuffs as well. I was fortunate to have brilliant
surgeons at Duke sports medicine, a chunk or two of titanium
holding me together, and eight months of serious and superb
rehab under the care of Bob Bruzga, manager of the Sports
Medicine Division of the Department Physical and Occupation
Therapy at Duke. During that time, I had to move my right
arm again, to relearn balance, and how to do smaller motions
like clicking my computer mouse. I was at physical therapy
every day for two to three hours. I was as serious as an
athlete trying to get back into the game. I watched in a
mirror and made sure that even tiny movements were
symmetrical as I retrained the muscles on the right side of
my body to act as if they were not injured. Progress was
very slow. The injuries were so extensive that working on
one area could hurt another and so I had to be measured and
patient. But I beat all the odds. I could not have done this
without Bob's skillful, cautious, and encouraging expertise
and guidance.
And then the progress stopped. I hit a wall as unyielding as
the cliff-face on Capri.
That's when Bob suggested I see Radonna Patterson. I'm a
physically active person, have had a few years of dance
training, and I was frustrated that, although I had
recovered more movement than anyone could have anticipated,
I did not feel strong, agile, or whole. I felt like a
thinking and disciplined being moving a recently injured
arm. Sometimes I would talk about "powering" my arm, as if
it were a bulldozer with levers and pedals and a steering
wheel. I did not feel like a whole, working, confident
person. Bob urged me to see Radonna.
That was a big step psychologically, stepping out of the
almost daily sessions exercising in the warm therapy pool or
up in the therapy room, watching in a mirror as I did
dozens, sometimes hundreds, of repetitions of movements with
small weights. A big step that changed my life.
Radonna first did a structural bodywork session. It blew me
away. With her hands, she could feel where I was injured,
she could see what muscles I had had to develop in order to
compensate for all the tears and dislocations. Looking at
me, she could see how I was holding my body to compensate
for the injury, to protect myself from the body memory of
what had been excrutiating pain. And she could watch my eyes
and see the movements that caused me fear, that came too
close to evoking the original moments of dislocation and
severing. With firmness, kindness, gentleness, acumen, and
intelligence, she devised a program for me that both set the
bar high and proceeded in guided increments that gave me the
confidence to succeed. She read me---not just my body but my
determination and my fears. I remember how she, in our first
session, used the Gyrotonic machine to see what my range of
motion was. There was one movement that required turning a
lever in a full circle. I got half way around. She then had
me pause and do the same movement (easily!) with my left
side. After I was completely comfortable with the range of
motion, the ease of operation, the feeling of my body being
stretched and limber, she then had me do the right side
again. To my astonishment, I was able to move the same lever
in a full circle this time. It was like learning to walk. A
heady experience. I was on my way.
I have now been going to Bodyworks for almost a year. I do
gyrotonic, pilates, and, gyrokinesis classes. I'm back to
work full-time now, in a corporate-style job that requires
long hours. I make sure that my schedule accommodates, at
the least, a gyrokinesis class. The stretching movements,
the arching, the attention to each individual doing the
movements to the best of her or his ability, and the range
of motion all have me back to a place where I no longer feel
like a bulldozer but an active human being. I can stand
straight, walk, run, stretch, bend, and move my arms in ways
I never dreamed possible. And in that last sentence I wrote
"arms." I have two of them again, integrated into the rest
of my body and my being. I'm on my way to feeling whole
again. That could not have happened without the excellent
staff at Bodyworks, all of whom embody the Bodyworks
philosophy of an integrated body and mind exemplified by
Radonna Patterson.
Radonna is a magician, a teacher, a helper, a taskmaster, a
leader, and a visionary. It is a privilege to study with
her. Eighteen months after my fall on Capri, I consider
myself one very fortunate human being.
Cathy N. Davidson
Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies
Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English
Duke University
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