A Dance Pose With A Positive Thought

My friend Steven Behr, Sr. in Washington State says I must be patient with the Arthritis of my knee. He said since I have had this condition for a long time, I must think of it as a marathon and take one step at a time. My movements should be slow and smooth. He said I should work every other day in a dance pose with my husband around the kitchen, living room, dining room etc., some safe areas to work on balance and dance frame and also I would be doing something that I love. Start slowly, he said maybe a minute at a time, assess and then add another thirty seconds etc. again. I should dictate the pain tolerance while doing this to keep me active. He said “you know this very well, we must keep moving.” When my mom’s back trouble started, she did no exercises, and she rested and sat a lot. Times have changed since those days of the late 1977’s. Now, they want us to do exercises, some painful at first and that is to strengthen what is aching us. Since I am a ballroom dance lover, maybe I will try this suggestion, because then I would be feeling like I was once again dancing. Ballroom dancing has been a part of my life in a serious mode since 1977.That is a long time, it will be thirty-five years in November 2016 and that is almost fifty percent of my life. I did dance when I was a twelve year old at Miss Ella L.Banks Dance Studio located above a movie theater where we went weekly to the movies and it cost about twelve cents to get in and then it went up to twenty-five cents and that was a large sum of money to spend for leisure in 1945. Ella taught the class herself and it was centered on about ten little girls and maybe one or two little boys who were dragged there by their moms to learn the basics of ballroom dance. The fee was two dollars for one half an hour and ten had to be paid for in advance before you got accepted. After the ten lessons, you were expected to know a few steps in the Foxtrot and Waltz and then you would be prepared for going to a dance in your coming years of junior high school. I got a taste of it then and I liked it.When I was about nineteen, I took a set of 50 lessons at a dance studio on North Charles Street and they cost five hundred dollars and that was a lot of dollars to lay out. I had the money, I worked and earned a nice amount weekly, so I indulged in 50 lessons, but the teachers knew not much more than the students in those days. I only took about thirty-five of them and lost the fifteen other ones, because they were boring and the teachers then were only interested for you to sign up for another set. In 1977, the cost per lesson was $18.75 and that was if you bought ten at once. Then we really learned from competent teachers and my lust for ballroom dancing was intrigued and satisfied. The rest is my dancing history and the love I have for this sport and now not being able to dance until the aching knee is helped by physical therapy, ultrasound treatments, home exercise, dancing in a pose around the room, or the last resort of knee replacement operation. I do not want to participate in an operation, if I can get away without it. I am probably fooling myself, but I am trying real hard to do these other things. I am diligently doing my homework of home exercises and maybe, it will be sufficient at least for now. Several folks have told me to go ahead for knee surgery, others say try anything else but that and my mind says do it and get over it. I will not listen to my mind yet, I will try the anything else things until I either get better with the physical therapy or the pain increases. I wrote an article a few months ago that said “to worry or not to worry, that is the question.” It is easier to write an article than to practice what I preach. Right now, I am trying the physical therapy to strengthen it and will be serious about going for four weeks, twice a week and then I will see what happens. Any of my readers who have had knee replacement surgery and if you want to tell me about its results and how you made out, can do so at elitajerrydancing@outlook.com I would appreciate your views and input and what happened to you; if you did well, fair, not good, not do it over again if you had the choice and if everything went so good, if you were a dancer, you would be flying, floating and feel good around the dance floor or your other hobbies and regular duties. I am not one for operations, hospitals and or lots of pain. My dad never came out of an operation in 1964, my nephew-in-law never did in 1997 and my girlfriend way back in 1950. I know times have changed, but still, there are some complications and I do not want to be in that statistic. Right now, I will dismiss the pain out of my mind today of this aching knee and think of what Steven said. I will finish the marathon one step at a time and I will practice a dance pose with my husband and whirl slowly around the room, pretending I am ballroom dancing and my knees are feeling great and so am I. That picture as they say is worth a thousand words, so I will dream of that thousand word picture and pretend the lady dancing has two great knees and that also she is so happy to be doing her beloved dancing as the thirty-five year anniversary rolls around in November 2016. Dr. Kamala Foster, a friend of mine told me to think positive thoughts. Let me see if positive over negative will help these knees and if so, they will become positive knees and I will become so happy, I will finish the marathon one step at a time and my dance posing will be real, not just posing. I will be not choosing to worry or not, I will be choosing which dance I want to dance very soon. elita sohmer clayman Fairfax Station