Pilates saved my life! Really!

Dear Pacific NW Pilates:

You have heard my story before but I credit Pilates for saving my life when I had a ruptured appendix in October of 2006.  While at our home on the Oregon coast, I began having severe abdominal pains.  A trip to the Seaside hospital resulted in an incorrect diagnosis and I was sent home with pain killers and instructions to rest.  A day later the pains were more severe and I returned to the hospital and a surgeon sent me by ambulance to St. Vincent’s where I had surgery immediately.  I had gangrene throughout my body as the organ had ruptured.  I was in the hospital for a week as the doctors were fully expecting secondary infection.  However, that did not occur and I was released.  The day after my release from the hospital I resumed physical activity by walking a mile and two weeks later I was back in the Pilates studio.  My surgeon said he had never encountered anyone in as critical condition as I was and had never seen anyone recover as quickly as I was.  He credited my physical conditioning for saving my life.  Other doctors verified that I lived 24 hours longer than most people would have given the same amount of infection in my body.  So, Pilates did help save my life and made it possible for me to regain full function very quickly.

The same results were true for my recovery from a double mastectomy for breast cancer in December 2008.  My surgeon told my family that I had amazingly strong pectoral muscles which helped make the recovery and reconstruction go smoothly.  Again, a day after surgery I was back on my exercise bike and two weeks after I returned to the Pilates studio.  I fully expect to be a champion over breast cancer through maintaining my physical conditioning.

These life experiences have confirmed for me that physical conditioning and Pilates in particular makes it possible to endure and recover quickly from serious physical injury.  And, that this applies to anyone at any age.

Kay