What a joy to teach a rural, twice weekly chair yoga class. Many of the vibrant African American, American Indian and White women in the class are long time friends; the yoga room in the community gym is the very classroom where many of them attended grade school together. Despite their chronic health challenges, they participate in the morning, hour long session with enthusiasm and dedication. Just about weekly we add a new student, prodded to come by light-hearted threats from current yogis. My ladies report less joint pain, improved balance, lower blood pressure and better mood. 'Our' yoga is interactive and infused with comments and laughter. Class begins promptly. One retired teacher in the group will call the class to order for me, when she claps her hands for attention, she gets results! (and under the breath giggling comments- "uh-oh, we'll get a time out if we don't
behave"). Chair class has 20 minutes of seated poses and breath work, 15 minutes (or so) of standing poses for balance and strengthening then more seated poses, breath work and 10 minutes of resting pose. We all look forward to the guided meditation; eyes shut, muscles relaxed. "What should we do if YOU fall asleep?", one student asked after I introduced a moment of silence at the end of the session. "Just leave, I'll wake up eventually". Clapping and laughing for that answer. Recently the mood moved to urgent concern when a student suddenly sat down heavily into her chair during the standing sequence. Hands to her face, color drained from her face and she sweated profusely. "I don't feel good", she whispered. I placed the back of another chair in front of her onto which she leaned over, head resting on folded arms. She was able to say she had eaten breakfast and taken her meds. She maintained consciousness, her pulse was rapid but regular and she was able to answer questions appropriately. I called 911. Being in a volunteer EMS area, I wanted to activate contact asap, even if I needed to cancel at some point. I asked another student to get, Greg, the fitness trainer from the room next door. All remaining students flew into action. Wet cloth, fan, candy and guessed diagnostic comments all appeared. "It's orthostatic hypotension!!, I had that once at the Burlington Coat Factory". Greg stood by to help me lower her to the floor if needed. " 911, what is your emergency". I gave the scenario.
"What is your address". Uh, Uh. Hmmm, "Anyone know the address?". Found out that saying, "across from the post office" and giving nearby cross streets while several students hollered irately near my phone, "Everybody knows where this dang place is!!" does not satisfy 911 dispatch. While fumbling with 911, color began to return to my lady's face and the sweating stopped. "I can see now, I am feeling better". A few moments later she told us her physician had changed the dose of her blood pressure med the day before. She took a drink of water and stood up, "I feel much better". After another 15 minutes, she really was back to normal.
Afterwards, Greg and I spent time planning for the next event of this nature. He checked the AED- automatic external defibrillator. Dead. Adult and pediatric pads long expired. We have no first aid kit. No glucose gel, no bandaids. We do have a BP cuff- I did not know that. His CPR and AED certification is current- mine, oops. At the following chair yoga class my student shared her physician lowered her BP med and she was feeling better. She was glad we all took care of her. We were glad she was OK AND we had incentive to improve preparation for medical emergencies. We put the address in a prominent place. We got the AED updated. I will update my cert. During an upcoming class, my students will have an inservice on AED use, next time it could be me or Greg that needs help. You never know.
behave"). Chair class has 20 minutes of seated poses and breath work, 15 minutes (or so) of standing poses for balance and strengthening then more seated poses, breath work and 10 minutes of resting pose. We all look forward to the guided meditation; eyes shut, muscles relaxed. "What should we do if YOU fall asleep?", one student asked after I introduced a moment of silence at the end of the session. "Just leave, I'll wake up eventually". Clapping and laughing for that answer. Recently the mood moved to urgent concern when a student suddenly sat down heavily into her chair during the standing sequence. Hands to her face, color drained from her face and she sweated profusely. "I don't feel good", she whispered. I placed the back of another chair in front of her onto which she leaned over, head resting on folded arms. She was able to say she had eaten breakfast and taken her meds. She maintained consciousness, her pulse was rapid but regular and she was able to answer questions appropriately. I called 911. Being in a volunteer EMS area, I wanted to activate contact asap, even if I needed to cancel at some point. I asked another student to get, Greg, the fitness trainer from the room next door. All remaining students flew into action. Wet cloth, fan, candy and guessed diagnostic comments all appeared. "It's orthostatic hypotension!!, I had that once at the Burlington Coat Factory". Greg stood by to help me lower her to the floor if needed. " 911, what is your emergency". I gave the scenario.
"What is your address". Uh, Uh. Hmmm, "Anyone know the address?". Found out that saying, "across from the post office" and giving nearby cross streets while several students hollered irately near my phone, "Everybody knows where this dang place is!!" does not satisfy 911 dispatch. While fumbling with 911, color began to return to my lady's face and the sweating stopped. "I can see now, I am feeling better". A few moments later she told us her physician had changed the dose of her blood pressure med the day before. She took a drink of water and stood up, "I feel much better". After another 15 minutes, she really was back to normal.
Afterwards, Greg and I spent time planning for the next event of this nature. He checked the AED- automatic external defibrillator. Dead. Adult and pediatric pads long expired. We have no first aid kit. No glucose gel, no bandaids. We do have a BP cuff- I did not know that. His CPR and AED certification is current- mine, oops. At the following chair yoga class my student shared her physician lowered her BP med and she was feeling better. She was glad we all took care of her. We were glad she was OK AND we had incentive to improve preparation for medical emergencies. We put the address in a prominent place. We got the AED updated. I will update my cert. During an upcoming class, my students will have an inservice on AED use, next time it could be me or Greg that needs help. You never know.
