My Miracle Worker

Prior to surgery I asked my Orthopedist, Dr. John Munyak (the Brooklyn Nets Orthopedist), for his best Physical Therapist recommendations. He gave me a handful of options and one of them was Elena Vaynshtok at Prime Fitness Physical Therapy P.C.. I was told, “she’s Russian and a former competitive gymnast. She’s tough. She’s going to work you.” I thought to myself, “perfect – sign me up!” I was looking to restore my body, not go for a Swedish massage. All I needed was for her to accept my insurance.

After we initially spoke on the phone, I must admit I was a little nervous. Not necessarily because of her accent, but primarily because while she had treated patients with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS) in the past, I would be her first patient that actually went through with the surgery and had their first rib removed. Naturally I was hoping for a therapist who had been there done that. However, I remembered what Dr. Munyak told me, “Elena is the best.” That being said, I just trusted him and went with it.

I particularly remember one of my first visits eleven weeks ago. I was laying on the patient table and Elena said, “your posture is already really good.” When I stood up she quickly changed her tune and said, “actually I take that back!”

Eleven weeks later, not only is my operated arm more flexible than my non-operated arm, other little aches and pains have improved significantly.

On a side note, what is also pretty cool is that someone found me on instagram because of my #thoracicoutletsyndrome and #tos tags. After they messaged me, I discovered that this person had been suffering from TOS for nearly five years. She told me that she became “scared,” “freaked out,” and psyched herself out of getting the surgery because she read too many “horror stories.”  At the end of the day they are just that, stories. Stories in her mind about worries that may never happen all to prevent her from changing her life in just a few hours. That’s alright. I was scared to. But after a while you need to do something about it.

She knew of nobody else that had this issue. So, after a brief conversation she was so reassured by my positive experience that she actually took action and went ahead and contacted Dr. Lum to schedule her appointment. Amazing – so simple! All she needed was a stranger to give her a different story.

Once you pass the surgery, you’re onto the fun part.

I can’t help but be so happy I trusted Dr. Munyak and my gut instincts. I thought I was just going to follow my surgeon’s physical therapy protocol for TOS. What I didn’t realize was that I would actually be receiving an extreme makeover. Elena’s care, attention to detail, and generous approach to her time with me has been above and beyond anything I ever expected. With some solid comic relief, she helped me set goals to not only heal from surgery, but also fully physically realign myself with great attention to detail.

Speaking of details, some of my favorite classes in college were figure drawing and figure painting. I had such an interest in how the body works that I also took a few pre-med anatomy classes to help me learn it. I actually had to strongly convince my BFA Advisor to bend some rules and get me in since only pre-med students were allowed take pre-med classes. It’s amazing to think that I learned so much even though I received an esteemed “C+” in the class and “D” in the lab. Suffice to say, I would bring my sketchbook to class since I was the only art student enrolled. I thought I was so witty that drawing the bones and muscles would help me remember how Osteoblasts worked. It was clearly the wrong approach.

To this day, half of the books on my shelf are Anatomy related. If I could do college again, I would definitely entertain something that has to do with healing.

And so now that we are approaching the tail end my physical therapy treatments, I not only feel like new, but I feel like I’ve received an incredible education. After a ton of scar tissue breakup, nerve flossing, postural corrections, exercises, stretches, and laughs, we finally broke the 5lb threshold that my surgeon set nearly three months ago. I’m also getting used to the Pilates reformer, which I was not expecting to do at this stage.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, it was difficult for me to realize I was starting from square one. Once we got started, and my ego took a back seat, I was incredibly excited for the process. I was eager to raze the structure and lay a fresh and new foundation. While the progress has been exciting I still have to remember not to get ahead of myself. I think this is a very important lesson for me. Clearly there is still a lot more work to do and I look forward to keep laying that foundation G-d willing.

Even more challenging though is the fact that in addition to three visits a week; I still have to go during my infusion weeks. While not the worst thing in the world, exercising with chemo side effects is not fun. When you realize that you have no choice, the pain is manageable – sort of like climbing a 20 ft. rope with a trapeze bar and cables wrapped around your body with no harness knowing that letting go is not an option.

Thank you so much Elena for working your magic!