Joyce Hall

Yes, it happened “in a flash”!! Suddenly my feet flew out behind me and I slammed to the floor in a decidedly ungraceful belly flop. Profoundly wishing I had not decided to wax the floor that day it took a moment to recover from the shock of my rapid descent. I began to catch my breath as I tried to assess the situation. With immense relief I sensed that my hips, back, left arm and shoulder seemed to be functioning. BUT there were, definitely, problems with the right arm and shoulder. In the fall they had been rammed into the corner of the room and the door jamb.

I lay there and thought to myself, “Well, you better get yourself up and get to New York Presbyterian. It will be a long slog but you WILL get through this!!” (Having had a fantastic result with Dr. Andrew Weiland at HSS on a wrist fracture 15 years ago I knew that was the place to find the right doctor for the best result.) It was Labor Day and all my neighbors were away so I was on my own. I was very lucky to be able to walk down the two flights of my brownstone stairs and get to the corner to hail a cab. Once I got myself to NYP, I was ushered quickly into the emergency room and taken care of by kind and knowledgeable staff, nurses and doctors.

I lay there wondering how this could be fixed. I am a busy singing teacher at a College here in NYC and play the piano four or five hours daily as I accompany my students. Obviously this was not a good situation and a functioning right arm would be a necessity if I were going to be able to resume my teaching and my life. Again and again I was rolled to the x-ray room, multiple doctors . came to see what they could do to help me. Both my shoulder and elbow were broken with multiple fractures. There was discussion of a shoulder and/or elbow replacement. When Dr. DiFelice appeared and introduced himself, I, in my now totally exhausted state, looked up at him and called him "Dr. Happy"!! (My younger years were spent as an opera singer and, of course, “felice” means “happy” in Italian.) Dr. DiFelice decided to treat the injury conservatively, operated, put pins in the shoulder, stabilized the elbow and into a cast I went. Little did I know at that point how expertly and kindly Dr. DiFelice would bring me back to my happy and fully functioning self!!

It was not fast but Dr. DiFelice kept telling me to "hang in there". After a couple of months I came out of the cast and began to work with my occupational therapist, Lindsay Fieroh. Little by little the shoulder and the elbow started to move a bit. Then, wonder of wonders, I began to be able to play the piano once again!! With all my OWN patched up bones I saw more and more functions return. In April I finished physical therapy---able to do ALL my daily activities and thrilled that I am again BACK IN THE GAME!! By the way, I am 80 years old!!

Dr. DiFelice, YOU ARE AWESOME!!