Leslie Bahler performs for the first time since she was hospitalized this summer, while Kenmore Mercy personnel look on. “Monthlong hospitalization” and “positive experience” are rarely found in the same sentence. But violist Leslie Bahler describes her stay at Kenmore Mercy that way.

Bahler has been a professional musician for her entire life. She moved to Williamsville in 2001 with her husband, Peter, also a professional musician. She plays with the Buffalo Philharmonic occasionally, with Ars Nova, the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, and many others and also has an active teaching career.

But earlier this summer, something started to go wrong.

“I had a week’s worth of clues,” she recalled. She had trouble controlling her bow when playing. She had no balance in her yoga class, and when she fell, she had trouble getting up. Finally, she realized it was all happening on one side of her body and sought medical help.

She went to Millard Fillmore Gates Circle, and it turned out she sought medical help just in time. She began to lose her ability to write and couldn’t hold a book or magazine. Her problems were the result of a small, congenital tumor in her brain that began to bleed. Doctors decided against risky surgery, on the theory that the blood would simply be reabsorbed. Bahler began the monthlong process of recovery at Kenmore Mercy.

She went through a great deal of therapy to regain strength and function. She credits the supportive environment with her recovery.

“Every person there was treating the whole patient,” she said. “I never was so well cared for. When I was at my lowest ebb, they all came in and listened to me, even the other patients.”

She recalls that the rehab unit became a community, where everyone celebrated each other’s small steps on the road to recovery. She also feels that her background as a musician and teacher helped her recover.

“Musicians are always learning. I knew that they were telling me as a teacher. I was willing to do the work,” Bahler said.

As a way to give back and to help put a face on the work at Kenmore Mercy, Bahler recently performed a free concert at the hospital. She is looking forward to getting back to playing professionally and has been discharged from physical therapy.

“For them, I’m normalized. For me, I need higher function,” she said. She continues to work with free weights to build strength in her shoulder and is also back to her classes at Rising Sun Yoga. She will resume teaching and performing in September and feels that her experiences will help her be a better teacher.

“I had to relearn my instrument, so I completely remember what every beginning student is going through,” she said.

She remains in touch with a few of the people she met at Kenmore Mercy, both therapists and patients.

“You don’t do this work alone. It was a great big team that helped,” she said.