When Deena Quinn walked into her first yoga class, she didn’t know exactly what to expect. After all, as a below the knee (B/K) amputee used to working out with weights and aerobic machines at the local gym, Quinn didn’t know anything about yoga other than suspecting it would be good for her. She soon realized that besides making her stronger and more flexible, yoga helped her adjust to the loss of a limb incurred nearly 20 years before.
Amputation Process
Quinn began having problems with her left ankle when she was just 10 years old. As a self-proclaimed tomboy, the injury was simple enough—twisting and landing on her foot wrong in the fourth grade—but the injury never healed right. By the following year, Quinn started staying out of gym class because the ankle was so sore, and eventually missed several days of school.
That’s when her parents brought her to the doctor, who thought she had a cyst and suggested surgery. The planned procedure involved removing the cyst and taking some bone from Quinn’s hip to help heal the ankle. The doctor also sent a biopsy to the lab to have it checked out. A few days later, the doctor called at 9 p.m. to tell Quinn’s parents he’d scheduled an appointment for her at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital the very next morning at 9.
Bone Cancer
While Deena waited outside the doctor’s office, her parents learned about her diagnosis—osteosarcoma, the most common type of bone cancer. When she entered the doctor’s office and saw her parents sobbing uncontrollably, Quinn innocently remarked, “Gosh, you look like the doctor is going to cut my leg off or something.”
Quinn learned about her diagnosis and treatment, but her parents didn’t tell her she’d be losing part of her leg until the night before surgery.
“I was just devastated that undergoing chemotherapy would mean I’d lose my hair, since I just had my first perm,” she recalls.
Following surgery, Quinn underwent a year of chemotherapy. By her early teens, she was still having a really hard time accepting that her leg was gone and that she was different from other kids.
Physical Therapy and Recovery
“I went to physical therapy, but I resisted,” Quinn says. “I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted to do, but I couldn’t help thinking that a two-legged person couldn’t possibly know anything about losing a limb.”
To help her adjust, Quinn went to Brattleboro Retreat, a nonprofit mental health treatment center in Vermont, for grieving classes and therapy. There, she finally accepted that having depression was just part of what she was going through. As Quinn learned to accept herself, she found others accepted her as well. She went on to become a successful esthetician at Ochoa Day Spa, where years later her massage therapist and best friend Shannon Gillmarten suggested she try yoga.
Getting into Yoga
“Shannon used to talk to me about how good yoga made her feel as she worked on my tight muscles with Thai Yoga and deep-tissue massage,” Quinn says. “I knew it was something I could benefit from, but I didn’t know how I could relax and do it.”
Months later, Quinn decided to attend the Ashtanga Power Yoga class taught by Sheila Magalhaes at Heartsong Yoga Center in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Because sweating with her prosthesis on might aggravate her residual limb, she opted to do yoga without it.
“At first I felt uncomfortable,” admits Quinn, “but once I got through the initial shock of going into a room without my prosthesis, I was able to relax. During that first class, I felt frustrated, nervous, and anxious because I didn’t know what to expect.”
Adapted Yoga
Magalhaes, who had never adapted yoga to meet the needs of an amputee, soon learned that instructing Quinn to start the Sun Salutations—a series of flowing yoga poses synchronized with the breath—from a standing position like the rest of the students in class wasn’t the best way to adapt yoga to meet her needs. Even though the first class was challenging and exhausting, Quinn admits she had a blast.
“I left that first class feeling friggin’ great!” she says. “Unlike the endorphin rush I was used to from my usual cardio/weights workout, I left with such a sense of peace.”
At Magalhaes's suggestion, Quinn and Gillmarten attended two private sessions where they adapted the consistent Ashtanga flow to accommodate Quinn’s residual limb using partner assists, blocks, and even the empty part of her yoga pant leg. Instead of starting in a standing position, she practiced most of the poses seated, and Gillmarten provided assists when needed either by holding her left limb in place or partnering with her for some of the standing poses she could do. Gillmarten learned to do the entire flow as if she, too, were an amputee.
During the next class, Quinn participated fully in the complete Ashtanga flow using the modifications they’d worked out and became a regular. She and Gillmarten would set their mats near the heater and wear extra clothing so they could really work up a sweat.
Yoga Benefits
Over time, Quinn noticed many benefits to yoga, including improved strength, flexibility, and balance. She also noticed changes in her gait as she stopped overcompensating with her right side.
“Outside of class, when I’m wearing my prosthesis, my gait feels more like me,” she says. “It feels more like I’m a whole person rather than me and my prosthesis."
Quinn, who tends to become anxious, also found that yoga makes her a lot calmer.
Despite yoga’s many benefits, after a couple years Quinn stopped going to class, partly because she was frustrated with an ongoing sore on her residual limb. During the break, she noticed a big difference in how she felt.
“I definitely missed yoga and saw what a difference it made in my life,” she says. “When I didn’t go, I felt a difference in my whole being.”
Coming Back
Quinn recently attended yoga class again, even though her friend had just moved out of state to pursue further massage studies. From time to time throughout the class, Magalhaes plopped down on the mat to work with her.
“She was thrilled to be back,” Magalhaes says. “I could tell that at first she was scared, but once she recognized she could do yoga without a friend assisting her, it was very empowering.”
Quinn isn’t the only one who benefits from going to yoga; her attendance helps other students as well.
“When Deena comes to class, the whole energy vibe gets ramped up,” Magalhaes says. “People love having her in class.”
And Quinn benefits from the way people respond to her.
“To have people look at me with admiration gives me a sense of pride and makes me feel better about myself and my situation,” she says. “I’m definitely less insecure.”
Life Enhanced by Amputation
Now, at age 30, Quinn believes that becoming an amputee actually enhanced her life.
“I definitely learned a lot about myself,” she says. “It made me a better person, more accepting of my surroundings, those around me, and myself. Everyone has something that makes them who they are, and this is what made me who I am.”
For anyone considering trying yoga, Quinn has just one piece of advice.
“It sounds a bit commercial,” she admits, “but just do it! Take a big swallow and do it!”
See Related Articles
For more information on adaptive yoga for amputees, read Yoga for the Lower Extremity Amputee Part 1. Then, check out Yoga for the Lower Extremity Amputee: Part Two.
