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March 13, 2008

Knee replacement gives dance instructor relief from old injury

Knee replacement gives dance instructor relief

By ROBIN CAUDELL

PLATTSBURGH -- At 17, Deborah Guibord-Stay loved gymnastics.

As a Plattsburgh High School student, she trained with Coach Bud Beyer at Plattsburgh State. One day after executing 25 back walkovers, she did one and landed wrong. She screamed for Beyer. She was freaked out to see her little kneecap jutting off to the side.

"I moved it just enough and popped it back in," said Guibord-Stay, director of the Guibord's North Country School of Ballet and artistic director of the North Country Ballet Ensemble.

When Beyer came to her side, he looked at her knee and said, "Hmmm. What did you do, Miss Debra?'" she recalled. "In those days, there were no options for surgery. They put me in a cast for six weeks."

DANCE MAJOR

It was not the most opportune time. A senior, she was competing in a Junior Miss Pageant. For the talent competition, she had planned to do gymnastics. Because of her cast, she sang "Tammy." She didn't win.

"Life goes on. I left for school."

Guibord-Stay majored in dance at Stephen's College in Columbia, Mo. There, she participated on the gymnastics team as well as danced six days a week. She went on to earn advanced dance degrees from Goddard College and Wesleyan University. After performing and teaching dance in different places, she returned home.

In 1973, she founded Guibord Dance & Gymnastics School in Plattsburgh. Throughout her 20s and 30s, she had no problems with her left knee. That changed in her 40s.

"It began to hurt, and it was basically not doing what it was supposed to do. It was starting to not function correctly. The most important thing I want to say is because of my dance training, I got out of doing therapy for years and years. I kept the quads so strong all these years.

"I know that's why I didn't have to do this surgery before."

CONSTANT PAIN

As her knee deteriorated, Guibord-Stay could no longer actively dance.

"I tried to demonstrate as much as I could. I knew in the last 10 years knee surgeries were making rapid advances."

In 1999, she had orthoscopic surgery for a meniscus tear in her left leg.

"I was teaching Kinder Ballet, and I squatted down and I heard it go eeewwwhwwh. I'm sure it was because the leg was getting pretty whacky."

After the surgery, she bounced right back.

But the last several years, her gait was off. She was in constant pain. Dr. C. Philip Volk, a Plattsburgh orthopedic surgeon and sports-medicine specialist, told her she had quite a gimp.

"I went to him a couple of years ago. I hesitated. It got to the point I had to do something. I couldn't bear weight on my left leg. I was demonstrating everything on my right leg, which got very strong."

POOL BALLET

Guibord-Stay finally dealt "with this" on Dec. 19, 2007, when she had a full knee replacement. Now, she's rehabbing. Though she's not back to teaching everything, she is teaching all of her ballet classes. She finds her physical-therapy exercises very similar to her dance exercises.

"It makes sense to me."

The knee, she said, is "coming back slowly, much slower than I would like."

By June, she expects to have full range of motion.

"My major rehabbing now is in the pool three or four times a week. I give myself a ballet barre in the pool. It may seem odd.

"I did that with the meniscus tear. I got more stretch. I could do things again I had lost in those two years."

DON'T BE AFRAID

Guibord-Stay looks to the future with a new knee and a new appointment to the Eastern Committee of the Cecchetti USA, an international classical-ballet organization.

If she had to do it over, she would have had the knee replacement earlier.

"In hindsight, I was living in an extreme amount of pain and not acknowledging that. I don't have that pain now."

She encourages people not to be afraid and to call her.

"I run into people who say, I'm so scared of it,'" Guibord-Stay said. "It's OK. It is really OK. Get the doctor you feel really comfortable with, that you have a rapport with."

rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

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