A Day of Reflection

As we spend some time today reflecting on the past year my head is full of many thoughts. The sad loss of Tom our Physio department cleaner and Ray, Dan and Stef’s grandad are two of my saddest memories. Watching the suffering of patients in hospital not being able to have visitors and the same situation in care homes is something I could never imagined would happen in our society.

I have listened to many of your stories of the challenges of parents being unwell and children home schooling and feel very lucky not to have family in either of those groups! Mike and I often wonder how home schooling would have worked out in this house and are pleased to have avoided that experience!!

The pandemic has touched each of our lives in its own way. I have learnt to live with the uncertainty, taking each day as it comes has been my survival mechanism. Focusing on the positive has kept me going and Pilates has been a huge part of that. I thank you all for being such a huge and positive part of my Lockdown life.

The patience, kindness and understanding of everyone I have worked with in the NHS has been remarkable. From our days working in A+ E, not knowing how to use the computer system so that I could record I had seen a patient to being in fracture clinic and not knowing how to put a sling on, every member of staff I approached answered my queries with a smile and a reassuring nod. I relied heavily on my clinical experience to navigate my way through these similar but different waters. Not knowing how to do the simplest of things is very unnerving, like being a student on placement again but 35 years later!!

The changes within Physiotherapy have also been daunting. Learning to communicate solely over the telephone with patients has been a real challenge. At the end of a telephone call a few weeks ago a patient thanked me for my compassion. I was pleased to hear not all communication is lost!! My Physio colleagues have been a real pleasure to be with. We have worked very closely within our small teams. Supporting each other in our decision making has always been a strength of the department. It has been needed more than ever over the past few months as we try to clinically reason why we need to see someone face to face. Face to face appointments are so few it makes for tough decision making on a daily basis. I have been delighted to trade my clinical experience for technical support ….. I have learned need to do something at least 3 times before it sticks ….I’m lucky to have such patient colleagues!

Rachel, Rachael and Moya have also been great helping me keep PilatesbyPhysiotherapy alive. Their commitment to doing the videos has kept many of you moving and their support is greatly appreciated.

Rachel Smith has worked tirelessly. She has balanced home schooling with home working with coming into the hospital to finally filming a video at 8.00 pm at night!!! Her enthusiasm and enjoyment of teaching Pilates has never faltered.

Moya has made the most of lockdown completing her APPI Matwork Level 3 Exam.Her determination to complete her certification in our virtual world is amazing

I am very grateful to Rachael Bullock for stepping up to take on the Zoom classes. Neither of us imagined we would get used to and now actually enjoy teaching on Zoom. We both wonder how we will get back in the car and drive to the studio to do live classes but no doubt we will.

Training Archie has become our focus over the past two months. He certainly is responding well to very concentrated training sessions. Mike and I have taken to going out for walks without him!! He is now up to meeting other dogs. He’s always very friendly, like us humans I’m sure he is missing not having visitors in the house. Trying to teach him not to run off to meet dogs is our aim at the moment and I’m pleased to say he seems to be learning.

On this day of reflection I hope you are all feeling hope for the easing of the lockdown measures. I feel Pilates brings strength, balance and calm into my life and I am so pleased to share this with so many of you. Seeing and chatting to so many of you on Zoom has given me a huge focus and pleasure over the past year. I thank you all for continuing your Pilates either on Demand or on Zoom. I know Pilates brings huge benefits to our lives. PilatesbyPhysiotherapy is doing its best to continue to deliver safe, effective exercise in our virtual world. Thank goodness we took those initial steps to make the videos in those early days and that I didn’t need to increase my NHS work as initially feared .That meant we could expand the website, set up Zoom and arrive where we are today.

Thank you to everyone involved in PilatesbyPhysiotherapy . I’m looking forwards to welcoming you back to the studio and hope we can continue to share our passion for Pilates in whatever way we are able .

Take care, Stay Safe

Anne