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Kathleen describes Parkinson’s disease as a “fire within.” It’s an un-itchable itch. Her organs vibrate, her foot cramps, or her leg goes restless at the most inconvenient times. Kathleen emphasizes that everyone’s experience with the symptoms and progression of the disease is different. At one point she couldn’t brush her teeth, get dressed in the morning, or write. Her diagnosis required her to quit her job teaching preschool. 

She had more questions than answers then – what was she supposed to do? Who was she supposed to talk to? What happens now? Is it genetic? Will my children have it? Kathleen says she was in a dark place. The person in the mirror didn’t feel like her anymore.

“I thought that was going to break my soul,” she said. 

As we sit across from each other, though, five years after her diagnosis, Kathleen is brimming with excitement. She speaks passionately about her involvement with local and national Parkinson’s organizations, and now, New Heart. 

The first step out of that dark hole came from Kathleen’s reluctant attendance to the Parkinson’s Foundation Moving Day event. The national event aims to raise awareness of Parkinson’s, fundraise for treatment and research, and create a community of people affected by Parkinson’s. 

“It didn’t feel sad. The energy was just so happy and cheerful and powerful. It just gave me so much inner courage that I never really had.” 

That event, Kathleen says, helped her reframe her diagnosis. From there she began volunteering with the Parkinson’s Foundation, which is a national nonprofit. Then she discovered the Parkinson’s Connection of Central New Mexico, where she now serves as the Vice President. Though she was serving in two organizations, providing resources for people newly diagnosed, organizing support groups, and managing her own condition, something was still missing. 

That missing piece? A gym where Kathleen could feel supported and understood.

Kathleen has always been an active person, but Parkinson’s changed her fitness needs and her fitness goals. However, she knew that exercise can help slow down the progression of the disease, and she remembers asking her husband shortly after the diagnosis why there wasn’t an exercise program for people with Parkinson’s.

When her doctor showed her New Heart’s pamphlet, Kathleen says she nearly stopped breathing out of excitement. 

“I’ve been nagging the universe and complaining and begging and pleading for someone somewhere to have an exercise program for people with PD.”

Kathleen has now been coming to New Heart’s Parkinson’s exercise class for almost two months. The class features high-intensity interval training, which research has shown can slow the progression of the disease. Participants can also expect a warm-up, strength training, coordination and balance work, and a cool down. New Heart instructors prioritize safety and offer a variety of modifications to accommodate people with any range of restrictions.

Kathleen says she looks forward to coming into class every day because it’s a gym where she’s surrounded by people who understand her condition and don’t judge her condition. It’s a gym where the instructors understand the science behind her goals. 

“I’ll drive to the moon for this because it’s a necessity. It’s the air that I breathe. It’s something that I need to keep me going, so I can stay ahead of this stinking thing, because I don’t want it to catch me.”

 

 

Written by Renata Schmidt