Dancing Away Disability Part 1

I REVERSED BOTH PARKINSON’S DISEASE AND CYSTIC FIBROSIS

THROUGH BALLROOM DANCING BY FOLLOWING RESEARCH-BASED RULES

I Hope That My Story Will Help Others Get Better Too

By Irene Marie Kuch Watson

Irene and Rick, September 2012

         If life brings us stormy weather,
      We can learn to dance in the rain
Just take my hand and dance with me,
And we’ll drive those disabilities away

          If life brings us deadly infection
 Or Parkinson’s messes up our moves
We can exercise away those afflictions
                                                                                    If we know how to dance by the rules

“This is what I believe to be true…you have to do everything you can, you have to work your hardest.
If you stay positive, you have a shot at a silver lining,” Silver Linings Playbook (movie)

A newspaper story this past July (2013) read “Dance Versus Death: Senior couple repels fatal disease with foxtrots and ballroom movement.” 1 It was a journalist’s story about my husband, Rick Hilgers, and me and of our incredible recoveries from incurable disease. (Click on the photo to see the newspaper story.)

Monterey County Weekly story about Rick and me. Photo shows me with my dance instructor Leo Sidorenko.

I have Nonclassic Cystic Fibrosis (CF), a hard-to-diagnose variant of a lethal disease that typically cuts lives much shorter than my 72 years. In addition, my husband Rick and I both have Parkinson’s disease (PD), a disorder that impairs our movements, balance and coordination and thus makes us vulnerable to mishaps that could suddenly bring an end our lives. Less than four years ago (October 2010), both Rick, who is now 78, and I had trouble just walking. He shuffled with a walker. We were both bent with disease. I had a tremor and was weak and frail from fighting 21 years of recurring lung-destroying pneumonias. A deadly drug-resistant pathogen ravaged my lungs then, triggering violent coughing and leaving me short of breath despite the continuous flow of oxygen from the tube in my nostrils. In fact the outlook for me was so grim that I bought a gravesite and made my final plans.

Now fast-forward to June of last year when that newspaper journalist found me, just as I was about to go onstage for a ballroom dance performance with my pro partner as the opening number in Pacific Grove Dance Studio’s 2013 Summer Showcase. The journalist said he had heard about my amazing recovery and that he had come to see me dance and to write a story about me. I could hear the announcer telling the attentive audience that Rick’s and my intensive training in ballroom dance over the past two years had brought us dramatic and transformational recoveries from our disabling and deadly diseases and that it had also brought joy back into our lives. I thought how fortunate I was to be there at that moment, dressed in my gorgeous Swarovski crystal covered gown and about to give a performance in ballroom dance. It felt like a miracle. The announcer was just finishing my introduction as the journalist headed out to find a seat. As I entered the ballroom the audience broke into cheering and clapping and I could see there was standing room only.  I gave them my best smile and began to dance.

This is my story of deadly disease and transformational recovery, of the exceptional self-advocacy measures I took in a decades-long race with death to find both cause and cure from my recurring life-threatening pneumonias, of my diagnosis with Nonclassic CF and my continuing life-saving care at the world-renowned Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at National Jewish Health in Denver, of my struggle with Parkinson’s disease and my volunteer work as a neuroscience research subject where I learned how to achieve my extraordinary reversals of both CF and PD through an intensive program in ballroom dance lessons that led to improvements in lung function, immune function, muscle strength, bone density, posture, fluidity of movement, and a kicking off of a leg brace I'd worn for years as I successfully competed in national ballroom dance competitions, performed in studio dance showcases and received a private training from the world champions of ballroom dance.

It is my hope that sharing this story will give you information and hope that will enable you to get better too. Though those of you with more advanced or more aggressive disease may not be able to achieve the same high level of disease reversal as I have done, you can still achieve some degree of RECOVERY from following the science-derived principles of how to exercise that I discuss in this story. CF and PD are progressive, degenerative and INCURABLE. Though the disabling effects of these diseases can be REVERSED and one can experience RECOVERY, that RECOVERY can only be sustained as long as the exercise regimen is continued. So when I say "I gotta dance," I really mean "I GOTTA DANCE FOREVER!" The good news is that dancing is, for most people, fun.

 My story is continued in the following Parts:
 Part 2, Nonclassic Cystic Fibrosis—The Terrifing Diagnosis That Saved My Life
 Part 3, Parkinson's Disease—The Nightmare of Losing Control
 Part 4, Exercise That Promotes Recovery
 Part 5, Dancing And My Amazing Reversals of Disease
 Part 6, Tips To Dance Away YOUR Disability
 Part 7, References (for all Parts)

© 2014 Irene Marie Kuch Watson