Total Ankle Replacement Surgery & Rehabilitation

* edited 7/22/23: due to negligence with Kaiser’s surgeon, I must wait and change my insurance at the end of the year so that I can see a top 10 surgeon at UCSF. I have learned that the failure rate of this rare surgery is significant and have been advised by multiple institutions to get an excellent surgeon. In the meantime, a portion of your donations will pay off the debt incurred from 4 doctor visits, 3 scans, 2 injections, mobility devices, and physical therapy.*

Professional dancer and teacher, Bela Watson has had a long and arduous journey through a rare cancer. She is one of now two people in the world that has survived non-Hodgkin lymphoma of the talus bone, which is located in the ankle. Just getting a proper diagnosis took 13 years and she was lucky they found it when they did because it had begun to spread throughout her entire body. She received massive doses of chemotherapy amongst other therapies and taught herself to walk again against all odds.

Twice she has been crippled from an ever-worsening talus bone and ankle joint. Each time she has gone to any and every length to recover and not only walk again, but return to the art form she claims saves her life - Dance.

Meanwhile, the talus has been dying, but the technology has finally caught up to provide her relief from what has turned into the third major episode in her ankle joint.

Doctors are creating a titanium talus through 3-D printing a mirror image of her good ankle’s talus, so they can trade out her dead bone with a long-lasting version that promises to end her pain and offer more mobility once and for all, in addition to removing the problematic area that caused the tumorous cancer altogether. Total ankle replacements are quite rare but the time has come that she can no longer wait and has begun the process to prepare for the difficult surgery and even more challenging recovery process.

Once the surgery is complete, she will be in a wheelchair for 4-6 weeks and has already prepared her students for her return to teaching, albeit from her back, with aid from her teaching assistants. Then she will be on crutches, but non-weight bearing for another 4-6 weeks. Then she will be in a walking boot for 4-6 weeks. Then, finally the rigorous rehabilitation will begin to learn to walk again after the ligaments have successfully reattached in the joint with the greatest micro-articulations and finest degree of nuance necessary for movement.

Bela is prepared for the journey, having practice with the previous issues, but needs financial assistance to afford the procedure and achieve the desired results that will keep her dancing and teaching for years to come.

She has also had to find a new place to live that offers accessibility and will need to purchase several items to get her through to the stage of rehabilitation. Previously her procedures have nearly bankrupted her twice. Her medical debt is still outstanding and now she will be receiving even more. She is humbly asking for donations to get her through the recovery process, but anything in addition will go towards paying off the actual cost of the procedure which is very expensive even with insurance.

No amount is too small and every little bit will help her rest assured she can focus on her healing so she can get back to her dance communities: Joy in Motion Dance studio (where she teaches children and adults), Saint Mary’s College of California (where she teaches undergraduate students and designs costumes for the dance and theater departments), Moraga Royale senior center (where she teaches seated dance and yoga to elders), and the East Bay dance group at large (where she dances and performs with various events).

With your donation you are not only giving to Bela, but to the hundreds of students who value her teaching methods, creativity, choreography, and focus on well-being.