October Whine

[ToThePointe]

I didn't see one started yet and needed to whine to others that understand how bad this is.

 

I completely ruptured my achilles tendon. I own a small ballet studio, teach 90% of the classes, run 95% of the Nutcracker rehearsals, it is my only livelihood, I can't afford substitutes, and I can't walk.

 

I have students that are going to help me out in the lower levels by being demonstrators, so I think I can get through this on that level. It’s not going to be easy though.

 

What really bothers me is that grand and petit allegros seem to be out of the question, forever. I love to jump. Almost nothing else makes me happier than when I am flying through the air whether big or small.

 

My heart is crushed right now.

[MJ]

I'm sure you will do great!

 

Perhaps some parents could volunteer to be assistants? I'm sure many have had some dance training and can demonstrate.

 

Wishing you good luck!

[Redbookish]

Oh gosh, TothePointe! That is tough in so many ways. I hope that after the first shock of the injury you are able to find a way through (in my not so humble opinion I think that injuries have almost as much emotional impact as physical).

 

But for the upper level classes, can yo turn it into a learning experience for them? We get so used to seeing the teacher demonstrate, but I sometimes wonder about whether ballet students should also know how to perform an enchainement just from the teachers verbal instructions, rather than by watching the teacher dance it. Could you say to your advanced students that you're going to use this injury to help them earn that skill?

 

I knw f eminent & venerable teachers who do not demonstrate, except perhaps sitting on a chair and using their hands, or feet but in a sitting position.

 

Good luck & good healing!

 

And while we're on the whining couch, can I ask the universe just how long will this pesky plantar fasciitis last? I can't walk for more than half an hour before my heel gets quite painful. Haven't been to ballet class for 4 weeks now & can't catch the last of the good weather for fell walking in the Lake District either. Grrr

[diane]

oh, oh, tothepointe, I am so sorry!

 

Did the doctors tell you that you would never be able to jump again??

 

Well, I am sure you will do fine with your teaching, though what a time to have this happen! (with all your rehearsals, etc)

 

Having someone to demonstrate for the younger classes is great.

For the older or at least more advanced students, I truly believe that it is not always in the best interest of them to have the teacher demonstrate everything full-out!

(of course, it does help if the students get to see some good dancers now and then; if not in class, then at a performance, etc)

 

And, it is true, the students will be learning important skills by not having someone to "copy".

 

 

- By the way, how did this happen?

 

-d-

[Guest Ruth Z]

Hello ToThe Pointe: I am so very sorry to hear of your injury. This is indeed very bad news. We spend our lives doing the hard hard work necessary to feel that rush of joy and freedom when we dance. To have that taken away seems just cruel and unfair.

 

Teaching and dancing are two different things. Teaching most likely will take care of itself - you're on the right track by using demonstrators and enlisting the help of parents and others to keep things running smoothly in your studio and for your upcoming Nutcracker.

 

But the dancing ... that's another issue entirely. In your post the way you describe your injury sounds pretty final. If you truly must limit your jumping, that's going to take some time to get used to.

 

I'm sending you my very best wishes and hope you can find a way to feel better about your situation. There is an organization that helps dancers transition to other things after catastophic injury. I believe it's called "Transitions" but I'll have to check on that. Perhaps others on the board have more information about this?

 

Take good care,

Ruth Z

[Redbookish]

I damaged my Achilles about 15 years ago, doing that quadriceps stretch where you pull your toe/ankle up to your buttock, keeping your knee aligned. I felt something pop.

 

My physiotherapist said she thought I'd never be able to point my foot again. I'm neither a ballet teacher nor a dancer for my living, but dancing is an important part of my life -- I was quite upset about that prognosis.

 

However, I did the exercises and so on, and I have to be careful to warm up really well, and I can't tie my walking boots too tight around my ankle or they irritate the Achilles, but after about 5 years I was back pretty much to normal.

[Laschwen]

I am sorry to hear about the ghastly injuries going on around here.

 

 

I didn't know a ruptured Achilles meant no jumping forever. Was it ruptured all the way through so the gastroc balled up behind the knee, or just part way like they showed Misty May's X-Ray on Dancing with the Stars?

 

Does it make a difference?

 

I worked in the Athletic Training room in college and there was a Pole Vaulter in there every day for a good 6 months doing his Physical Therapy after having the former type of rupture. Nobody ever said anything about him being finished with his sport. I graduated before finding out if he went back to the Track team practices the next ear or not though.

 

Either way, keep up with your therapy and hope for the best. Dancers often come back better than non dancers after nasty injuries and amaze their doctors.

 

Redbookish: The Fascitis lasts forever if you ask me. My own doctor said his lasted 22 months, but then he didn't take extreme measures to fight it. I broke down and got the night splints. It is worth the out of pocket expense. Mine got me back to class and up in the morning without that awful first steps pain in short order. I do have to keep wearing them most of the time, and they are OH So Sexy for my husband, but they keep my feet more functional when I do wear them. Most people can stop wearing them I hear, but as I am told I have particularly tight fascia, I don't seem to be among them. Mine sort of comes and goes.

[koshka]

<Sigh--a relatively small whine> I did something to my calf muscle on Friday. It's happened before--it feels like a bad cramp or spasm initially, but is (per description from a dancing md classmate) a small muscle tear. It usually keeps me out for a week.

 

Looking at the bright side, this type of injury is very interesting because I can actually pinpoint the place in my calf and i can feel the troubled area shrink a bit each day.

[ToThePointe]

Thank you all.

 

I wish I could say I was doing something grand, but all I did was hop. It snapped clean in two.

 

At least when all is said and done, I'll be mobile again. I realize I've taken for granted just being able to stand on two legs. When I'm teaching, I think better when I'm moving around. It is frustrating and near impossible for me to stay confined to my stool. I'm going to have to be more careful next week when teaching because after a long day yesterday, my ankle hurt this morning. The doctor didn't say that I wouldn't be able to jump again, but I know my body. After five or six years of chronic tendonitis off and on, this was my body saying enough.

 

My advanced students (and their parents) are a God send. The lower level classes ran smoothly thanks to their help. Teaching the advanced students is not a problem. They know my thought process and hand guesters well enough to know what I want. They are also not afraid to speak up when they don't understand. They will also speak up and tell me to sit my butt back down on my stool and be good.

 

Again, thank you all for listening. It is nice to have a understanding ear.

 

Redbookish, IMHO fascitis is one of the nastier things to deal with. It seems like it will never go away.

 

You know your getting older as a dancer when instead of getting ice out of the freezer, you just crawl in.

[olddude]

...

I wish I could say I was doing something grand, but all I did was hop. It snapped clean in two....

Any chance you have been taking the antibiotics Cipro or Levaquin? There have been threads on Nutrition/Health and I think Cross Talk --- [runs off to search] --- one is called "Drug, Others Increase Risks Of Ruptured Tendons, Fda Agency Says, In the news" first posted July 10. Note that there was some problem with posting before a medical moderator posted, so read all the way down - dufay's post is #8, at the bottom.

 

Anecdotally, I've had very good results with massage for a chronic heel problem similar to plantar fasciitis. What I thought and accepted philosophically for a year or more to be an intrinsic limit of my aged body turned out to be quite curable.

[ToThePointe]

Any chance you have been taking the antibiotics Cipro or Levaquin?

 

I've heard of that, but no I wasn't.

 

When I was a dancer, I suffered relatively very few injuries. Even as a teacher, there weren't that many. I really didn't start having problems until I started my own school. The first school I had, I taught an average five hours a day, six days a week, for three years. It was just too much. As a dancer, you warm up and keep going until class is over. As a teacher, everything you show is pretty much done on cold muscles. One class isn't a problem, but three or four back to back doesn't work.

 

The school I have now, I've spent a year and a half doing it on my own. I now have the blessing of having another teacher, but it took awhile to obtain one. So once again, my body got overtaxed.

 

I have been accused of having "Mighty Mouse" syndrome. I'm small, but I believe I can do big things, and insist on doing things myself. I hate asking for help. This injury is humbling me to say the least.

[Tiffany]

I'm so sorry to hear this tothepointe. I'm sure you don't want it but it will be a good chance for you to slow down.

 

I hate asking for help as well but it can be a blessing for others to give you help. I know I enjoy helping other people out so remember that feeling when you have to ask someone for help. It makes me sometimes feel like I did not try hard enough or that I am being lazy when I ask for help (I am thinking of work situations), but this is really not the case, so don't feel guilty asking for help, you truly need help, & I'm sure your students & parents will be glad to help out, just as you would/have helped them out in the past.

[Laschwen]

Has anyone here made themselves so sore (but not necessarily injured) from non dance activity that they considered missing dance class?

Right now I can barely lift my right arm to type. Doing a port de bras is out of the question right now. My pecs and biceps are sore from lifting armloads of clothes.

I was doing my own summer/fall clothes switch-outs in my closets and moving my nieces clothes into a different and larger closet where hopefully she won't have to have heaps of clean clothes stuffed and piled on the closet floor.

I have actually spent the last 3 days switching her room with my sewing/dance practice room. In my house I have one room you have to pass through to get to another. I had put my "project" room into the one you don't see passing by when we had my niece moving in. I thought she was an organized girl.

Big mistake.

She just likes all her hangers to be the same and pink.

She was going home to Texas for a visit this week so I decided it was time for a change.

At least if I see my mess in the front room, it is my fault and I can do something about it. Actually I don't really mind seeing a fluff of tulle laying around. I just don't want to see dirty clothes on the floor.

Also, the girl had a serious space issue in there, so I went out and got some bed risers so she could use the under bed boxes she bought that didn't fit before. The closet in there is bigger (I had my out of season stuff in there)and there is a built in desk she can use for a dressing table too.

I just went nuts organizing and hanging up clothes, switching up hangers, sorting seasonal stuff all over the house. Moving the twin bed and my sewing table gave me a little upper thigh soreness the second day of the project. No big deal. I am used to legs hurting.

This arm stuff is unpleasant.

I should make that niece give me a massage when she gets back today. The room could still use some work but the closet is a work of art for the moment. I should take a picture but I can't raise my arms.

I never had a kid of my own, but yes, I know it won't last. I have had long term visits with the other niece before.

You wouldn't believe some of the crap I found under the bed this time...There was a lost TV remote, one flip flop, a Rx bottle, some nice jewelry, a quarter.

There should have been more money. I take tips when I play maid. No missing house key though. That one is still a mystery.

I did have some wine last night when my head was starting to explode at the sheer volume of clothes and shoes she had stuffed in that little room; so many still with tags on that I confiscated a few and I am going to see if she can tell what is missing before I give them back.

If the girl can find her tap shoes in the yet un mined areas on one small closet, we now have a spot in her former room to do so on a piece of MDF I have hidden under a rug. We can roll it back and practice in hopes of being allowed to join a class that has already begun for the year and is otherwise closed.

I still want a barre in there. It just needs to be a 6 foot portable one when I really could use 8 feet.

[Marjolein]

I missed a whole week of classes due to the flue/throat infection. And that throat infection also messed up my Mamma Mia audition. On the other hand, the auditioner, without looking at my resume, assumed I was a dancer. Just by looking at me!! But because of that infection I didn't even get to the dance callback. I have only half as much voice as usual.

[MJ]

I'm on medication, and one of the side effects is bruising. Used a hand held massager on my tight hamstring, I now have a bumper sticker (12 inches x 3 inches!) long bruise on my leg.