Hospital dance program encourages recovery from cancer through activity
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Grooving to the disco beat of "We Are Family," the enthusiastic group of about 16 "sisters" boogied away their health concerns during the weekly "Healthy Steps" program at Glens Falls Hospital.
Still, that was nothing compared to their award-winning performance of Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild," in which they wielded white craft-foam "guitars" with black plastic necks, or "You Send Me," which earned them an honorable mention. The class of mostly cancer survivors recently earned national fame for dance and music videos entered into a contest sponsored by the National Healthy Steps program.
Vickie Yattaw, coordinator of the Glens Falls Hospital Healthy Steps program and a nurse in Oncology Education and Support Services, chose to choreograph moves to "Born to be Wild" because it's a song she uses during her own workouts.
"Having that song sort of says something to me, so I started fooling around with some movements. It's whatever moves me," Yattaw said.
Although Yattaw hadn't seen other Healthy Steps entries, she thinks it was the fun props and the way the moves were put into a routine that clinched the win for the group.
Yattaw and co-instructor Laurie Hughes regularly put together gentle stretching movements in a free weekly class, based on the Lebed Method, that increase range of motion and simulate massage and exercise to help reduce the incidence of lymphedema, or swelling, in women after surgery or in treatment for cancer.
The class has proved beneficial for people who have other issues, too.
"It helps more than just cancer patients. Anybody who wants to get back into exercise, strengthening, balance - that doesn't want to do the whole strenuous gym workouts, it's just a fun stretching exercise program," Yattaw said.
Jean Baulsir, 78, learned about the program through the Wellness Center at the hospital. She is a 38-year breast cancer survivor and 3-year uterine cancer survivor and gains relief for her arthritis and fibromyalgia through "Healthy Steps."
"It absolutely eases up on the pain. My pain level when I came in was about an eight (on a scale of one to 10), and now I'm down to about a four," Baulsir said.
She has been taking the class for 18 months and finds that not only does she benefit from the stretching, she learns about hospital cancer program updates from Yattaw.
The Healthy Steps program was started at the hospital five years ago thanks to oncology unit nurse Pat Spencer Cizek, who learned about the national program and introduced it to Glens Falls. Cizek has since moved to a different position in the hospital and Yattaw took over a year and a half ago.
Though the class promotes exercise and wellness, friendships have been forged along the way. The women don't focus on their illness during the hour as it's a time to laugh and stretch.
"Each week after class, they get their coffee and they sit for like a half an hour. The camaraderie is one of the biggest things we like to promote in this class," Yattaw said.
Cheryl Patnode, who has later-stage breast cancer, strutted, shimmied and giggled during a recent class. Having undergone repeated surgeries to remove the lymph nodes under her arm, she now wears a compression sleeve on her left arm for her lymphedema.
She said the movements of the class, combined with the compression sleeve help the lymphatic fluid to drain. For her, the Healthy Steps class is a lifeline, especially now that she is having recurring health problems.
"It's a lifelong commitment, fighting for your health, and this class does it not only physically but mentally," Patnode said.
Posted in Lifestyles on Monday, November 9, 2009 2:00 am
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