Thursday, December 31, 2009

A Word about Knee Injuries

At left, see my left knee doing its work, back on the team.


For those who have injured a knee or had knee surgery.




There are many kinds of knee injuries. All will require therapy when the knee is sufficiently healed.


My fall smacked the left knee hard into the pavement. The joint hyper-extended violently, tearing the tissue to mush. The fall cracked the knee bone, but that was the least of my troubles. My knee said, “Okay, if that’s how you treat me, I don’t want to be your knee anymore.” It refused to bear my weight.


For a month I had to keep the knee immobile so the bone could heal. Then the therapy began. At first I could only bend my knee at a 55 degree angle. The therapist gave me a printout of about ten exercises, which I did faithfully for weeks and months. Here is what I learned.


1) Keep up the exercises until you can grab your ankle and bring your heel to your butt. Don’t stop until you have back full flexibility. (After a while I found that my Iyengar Yoga routine included the therapy.)


2) Get your gait back. A leg injury can make you limp, waddle or walk with short steps as if on ice. Don’t settle for that. Get back to the confident walk you had before your injury. Walk a lot. Get back to any and every activity you loved before your injury. For me, that August hike, six months after I fell, was the triumph that said, My knee is back on the team and I’m back among the able!


3) Regular Chiropractic adjustments speed the healing by keeping open the nerve channels to the injured area.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Swamp Walking Woman


Here's what the book looks like. And here's an excerpt:

Reluctantly, but with renewed energy, they said goodbye to the land and walked forward into the muddy swamp. For a time the only sound was the swish of the woman’s skirt against the water. Then all around began the croaking of frogs. Glug-a-glug. Glug-a-glug. Glug-a-glug. Alert, Futura looked with round eyes wherever she heard a glug. As they passed by, the frogs stopped croaking and jumped into the water. All except one, who stayed on a partially submerged lily pad and stared at them crossly. One of his legs was wound round with fishing line.

“He’s caught!” said Futura.

Swamp Walking Woman put Futura down. The girl got her footing on the muddy bottom and approached the frog, who sat at the height of her chest. The lily pad and the frog’s leg were twisted together.

“Frog, don’t be afraid. I will help you.”

She gently untwisted the line.

Freed, he splashed into the water and rose to the surface. “My name is Shout. If ever you are in trouble, call my name and I will come.”

“Good-bye, Shout,” said Futura as the frog disappeared beneath the water.

“Well done,” said Swamp Walking Woman.

“Now I have a friend,” said Futura.

“Yes.”


Responses to Swamp Walking Woman

I like [the] character Swamp Walking Woman and the generosity of the renewal that happens among the community. This reminds me of the "medicine tales" of Clarissa Pinkola Estes, as well as the mountain folk tales I grew up with. LB


[Patricia Lapidus is] truly a gifted story teller, and I’m honored to have been among the first readers of Swamp Walking Woman. HL


Patricia has written a story of gentleness and strength in an uncertain place full of fantasy and love. Her characters are eager, opening to nature as a bud opens to a full flower. –Arlene S. Bice, author of Life & Labyrinth


Publication of Swamp Walking Woman to be announced here in January.