Over the Next Hill Fitness
Welcome! We all know, as we age, it’s harder to put ourselves first and get in enough fitness, flexibility, and nutrition. Maybe you’re new to formatted exercise, maybe we need to push to the next level or set some goals. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to run a 5K, a marathon, or even an ULTRA marathon. This podcast is designed to get you moving and headed towards those goals. You’ll have opportunities for general coaching during each episode or you may contact me for personal coaching afterward. Are you ready to get over this next hill in life? Let’s get started.
Over the Next Hill Fitness
S3 Ep 11 From Alzheimer's to Marathon Runner: A Journey of Resilience with Irene Pasternack
What happens when a devastating diagnosis becomes the catalyst for a complete life transformation?
Meet Irene Pasternak, whose journey from an early Alzheimer's diagnosis to becoming a marathon runner reveals the extraordinary possibilities that emerge when we refuse to accept limitation. At 65, Irene received news that would stop most people in their tracks: test results showing an 86% chance of full dementia within three years. Instead of retreating, she embarked on a running journey that would transform both her brain health and her entire approach to living.
Irene shares how she discovered "tourist running" – an approach that combines exploration with exercise as she runs as far as possible in new directions before taking public transport home. This creative method helped her progress from barely managing a mile to completing half marathons in less than a year. Most remarkably, her brain scans now show amyloid plaque levels dropping from 76 to below 12 – under the clinical significance threshold – suggesting her treatment and lifestyle changes have dramatically altered her prognosis.
Beyond running, Irene reveals her work as a Feldenkrais practitioner helping people overcome movement limitations, and how she leads summer backpacking trips with llamas for people with Parkinson's disease. Her approach to movement as playful exploration rather than rigid exercise offers valuable insights for runners of any age. The conversation weaves through topics of neuroplasticity, resilience, and finding purpose after diagnosis – including how she now treasures time with her young granddaughter, creating memories she once feared would be impossible.
Whether you're a runner seeking fresh perspective, someone facing health challenges, or simply in need of inspiration, Irene's story reminds us that sometimes our greatest adventures begin precisely when we think our stories are ending. Subscribe now and share this episode with someone who might need to hear that their diagnosis doesn't have to be their destiny.
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Hello and welcome back to Over the Next Hill Fitness Podcast. I'm Carla Coffey, your coach and host for today's program. This podcast is brought to you by Coffey Crew Coaching. If you need a running or fitness coach, please look me up. I might be right for you, I might not. We never know until we get to know each other a little bit. I do offer a new client program. It's two weeks for only $27. So it's really highly discounted, but it gives you an opportunity to get to know me, me to get to know you and see if we're a good match. It's also brought to you by HydraPatch. There are some links in the show notes for the HydraP Patch. It's offering a buy one, get one free session. So if you're interested in that, send me an email, carla at coffeecrewcoachingcom, and I'll send you that special link. So it's only going to be good for a couple months, so we are probably looking at two months worth. So if you're interested, please send me an email and I'll send you that special link. Otherwise you can get the regular discount. That link is in the show notes as well. Please continue to follow, rate and share the program.
Speaker 1:Put some five stars down on any kind of review. It doesn't matter what you say. Say you like ham sandwiches? It doesn't matter what you say. Say you like ham sandwiches? It doesn't matter. They're really just looking for the five stars to help me climb the ladder. But you know, if you have something nice to say, take that too. It doesn't matter. You can follow me on Facebook, instagram, coffee Crew Coaching is what you're looking for, and I will look forward to seeing your posts and texts there. Today we're talking to Irene Pasternak. Fun story. Great, outstanding lady has some interesting things to say about llamas and hiking. So hopefully you guys will enjoy the story and then we'll see you at the end. Have a great day. Welcome to the show, irene. It's great to have you here. Thank you for inviting me. Oh, my pleasure.
Speaker 2:So let's start today's journey with your running experience and how you got started and where you went diagnosed with early Alzheimer's and I enrolled in a clinical trial for a new medication, started on that medication in, I think, august and, like anybody with anything new that's going on, you go to Dr Google and I learned more about the medication called Donanumab and the research showed that it was most effective with people with younger onset and I was 65. And so that's younger for Alzheimer's and people who are more fit and I'm an ice skater, but that isn't something that gets my heart rate up continuously, whatever. And I got well. And then I got really depressed. I mean, there's there's nothing like a diagnosis, like three years till you'll be on in full on dementia to shake up your world, and did some counseling and realized, okay, what resources do I have internally that I can use? And one is well, you know I could, I could, I could get more fit if the medication is going to be more effective if I'm more fit. And so I started running in January 2024. And when I started I could run about a mile and I just gradually, slowly, I set one goal for myself, which is I am going to do this injury free. I am going to go slow enough and steady enough that I don't hurt myself.
Speaker 2:And so I started gradually increasing my mileage and I think in March I did a 5k and then I just fell in love with it, with running. And I went on a family vacation with my extended family in May and to France, and I don't know, for me, traveling with a big group of people gets a little claustrophobic, and so, and since I was running and it was a flat area, I thought I'll go exploring. And I discovered what I now call tourist running, where run as far as I can in whatever direction, and then take public transportation home. Um, so that I, I and I just ran all over and really enjoyed that and increased my distance significantly, because tourist running, you're stopping to take pictures, you're going where am I? It changed my approach instead of running with a watch to running somewhere new.
Speaker 2:And then I came home from that and had gotten my mileage up, so I signed up for a half marathon, did a half marathon and then it took me a little while to recover from that and anyway, so it's been just this journey of finding a new identity as a runner and loving it over the last year and then last summer I got great news from the study I'm in. The study measures the level of amyloid plaque in your brain, which is an indicator of Alzheimer's, and I went from a level of 76, which is the 86% chance of being full-on dementia in three years, to below 12, which is below clinically significant. So the medication worked for me, cleared the plaque, I'm not having the mental challenges I was two years ago, and so I'm feeling like running really transformed my life. Along with this medication. It gave me myself back in a very literal sense myself back.
Speaker 1:Congratulations. That's great numbers.
Speaker 2:And um, and of course I had this image right. I said I was going to go injury free for a year and on January 1st I did my first run with a running club. Usually I run by myself and I'm very mindful of my body and what's happening. And I got all excited about running faster with people and anyway, and I hurt myself and I'm just now back after healing that injury. So I've set another goal over the rest of this year injury free. I got to keep my goals going further into the future. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's hard sometimes running with a group, especially if it's a route you don't know and you're just trying to keep up and yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and, and I was feeling so good. You know that that high of of going well, I did do a run yesterday and I don't usually run. I've been very careful to give myself the rest days in between and to listen to my body, that on days that it doesn't feel good, go slower or don't go or just go like. Listening is more important than the goals. Um and uh, I overrode it and um, and I also hadn't realized how many miles I'd racked up in the year and I hadn't bought new running shoes. And so that was the other lesson. By new running shoes at three or 400 miles, don't was the other lesson. Buy new running shoes at three or 400 miles, don't say it's fine.
Speaker 1:But you live and learn. But that's so incredible that you didn't even start running until you're 65.
Speaker 2:And now you've done half marathons and five days. Yeah, that's fantastic. And tourist running, which I really love. Tourist. Running is the real pleasure and I've decided any race I do is going to have to be someplace I haven't been before, just so that there's a newness to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so are you going to join some of the crazy clubs like the ones that do a half marathon in every state and things like that?
Speaker 2:I doubt it. I doubt it. I have too much else going on in my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So what is your next running goal? Do you have?
Speaker 2:I'd like to do a marathon. I had signed up for one in April this year and probably would have made it without if I hadn't gotten hurt. But I got hurt. So I was thinking about that when I was on my run this morning and I think the right timing for me will be next spring In the summer. And I think the right timing for me will be next spring In the summer. I lead backpacking trips with llamas. I take people with Parkinson's and then older people and families out into the backcountry and the llamas carry their gear. I do the cooking and the cleaning and the guiding and the keeping it safe for us, and so I don't get a lot of running in in the summer because I am um hiking five days a week and I need I need my rest days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure yeah, but that hiking is is good as running. That's just a um it keeps.
Speaker 2:It definitely keeps me fit, but it's it's. It's different than than running, and different enough that I feel like I have to hike to get in shape for hiking and run to get in shape for running.
Speaker 1:Sure, I feel like I have to hike to get in shape for hiking and run to get in shape for running. Sure, but the cross training is great, so good for you. Now, where do you live that you're doing?
Speaker 2:llama backpacking, I live in Seattle, washington.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, and they do that there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we take groups out into the Olympic mountains and to the Cascades. So some of our hikes are on the Pacific Crest Trail, some are on smaller trails near that and then up in the Olympics.
Speaker 1:So now do you camp for that, or are there cottages?
Speaker 2:No, it's camping. It's like backpacking, except that you don't have to carry your own pack. The llamas carry it.
Speaker 1:Nice, yeah, I could get behind that. Somebody else carry my pack.
Speaker 2:It changes the experience. It's like doing five day trips in a row, except you're way out in the back country instead of close to a trailhead, so you get to see things that you wouldn't see otherwise. And the experience of being with a group of people and that kind of intensity is, I find that, pure joy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Now how did you get involved with doing that? And the Parkinson's how did that all tie in?
Speaker 2:So when I was in my 40s I switched careers and I went back to school to become a Feldenkrais practitioner. Feldenkrais is a kind of movement, education, paradigm shift, discipline that I discovered when I had herniated a disc in a bicycling accident. Um, and it was what I used to rehabilitate myself from the herniated disc problem and um, it's a a four-year training. Um, and go back a little further. My mom had parkinson's and I was her primary caregiver and the two of us ran a support group. My mom had Parkinson's and I was her primary caregiver and the two of us ran a support group for people with Parkinson's and she passed away in 1999. But Parkinson's is on my radar just because of my experience being her caregiver. And there was a woman in one of my Feldenkrais trainings who had Parkinson's and I saw what the Feldenkrais was doing for her and her ability to continue functioning despite the disease progression. When I started my practice I started working with people with Parkinson's and kind of a way of giving back something I wish I could have given back to my mom but didn't know about it when she was alive, something I wish I could have given back to my mom but didn't know about it when she was alive and then. So I'm on a Parkinson's mailing list and I got mailing about a program called Pass to Pass which takes people with Parkinson's on the Pacific Crest Trail on six day hikes and they use llamas to carry the gear and they need support hikers because you take one person with Parkinson's, one person, as a support hiker to to help if there's fine motor challenges of or whatever's needed. And so I volunteered to be a support hiker, cause I thought it would be fun.
Speaker 2:I backpacked a lot when I was in my twenties and then didn't while I was raising my family, um and uh, uh. And so I just volunteered as a support hiker, had a wonderful time, had such a good time. I came back a week later and called them up and said do you need any more support hikers later in the summer? And they did and I volunteered again as a support hiker. Then they asked me to be a guide the next summer. So the next summer I led two trips for them.
Speaker 2:Noodling around on Facebook and an older women backpacking group, I saw an advertisement for we need a backup llama guide for a company and I called Jeff Fisker at Washington Llamas and we hit it off. I started working for them doing a couple trips and now this summer I've got nine trips scheduled, so it's going to be a busy summer. Wow, there's something about partly all the llama stuff happened at about the time that I was beginning to notice some cognitive challenges and beginning to feel like, wait a minute, this is my life. My life is more than two thirds over, or you know, what do I want? And so it's been this shift toward. How do I live in the fullest in the moment? One of my joys is that I have a two-year-old granddaughter and she loves the llama trips and I love getting to take her on trips.
Speaker 1:Oh, you get to take her.
Speaker 2:We do a friends and family trip, and then Jeff lets me use the llamas to take my family out on hikes.
Speaker 1:So now, what's the difference between you being the guide and you being um a volunteer? How is that different?
Speaker 2:So different organizations. Pass to Pass is a nonprofit and specifically for the focus of taking people with Parkinson's out on um backcountry adventures, um and so, in that I'm a volunteer guide, uh, and to be a guide in either one, you have to have first aid training, you have to have the wilderness experience in order to keep it safe for the group, the knowledge of how to run a group. Washington Llamas is a for-profit organization and I'm an employee.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, yeah, All right. And how does that fit in with the I can't Feldenkrais? Yes, thank you. Okay, say the word paradise.
Speaker 2:Paradise. Say the word Feldenkrais.
Speaker 1:Feldenkrais, oh, it has the same kind of rhythm as that.
Speaker 2:To say it, thank you, I just shut my practice down for the summer and take the summer off.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, and so with the Feldenkrais, do you see people outside of the Lama trips for that?
Speaker 2:Yes, I have an office here in Bellevue, washington, and my husband is also a Feldenkrais practitioner, and so we have an office with two practice rooms and a group room for teaching classes and we teach classes there and work with people one-on-one. So we often get people who come in because something hurts and they've tried PT and it hasn't worked for them and they're frustrated and they want their life back. And about a third of our clients come in and their shoulder feels better, their elbow or their foot, whatever it is neck feels better and they're happy. And then about two thirds of people go well, you know, yeah, my shoulder feels better and now I've always wanted to take on pickleball but I was afraid of hurting my shoulder. Or they play pickleball and it's like, well, you fixed my thumb which was bugging me, and now can you help me with my knee and then that ankle.
Speaker 2:And people who do something they're passionate about and they want to keep getting better at it. Feldenkrais is an incredibly useful tool for building your ability to hear what your coach says, if you have a coach and actually do it. In ice skating, we have a joke that the answer to everything is bend your knees, because if you try to do anything with stiff legs. It doesn't work and the, but actually being able to bend your knees at the right time and know how to do it Feldenkrais is what helps people get there.
Speaker 1:So so is it a form of mobility work or just PT?
Speaker 2:It isn't a form of PT. We're all working on the same bodies and have some of the same goals between all the different disciplines. We're really focused on how the brain learns and neuroplasticity and how to engage. You can do so that when you're out there running or ice skating or bicycling or playing pickleball, you become your own coach, your own trainer, because you have the self-awareness.
Speaker 2:The man who created it, moshe Feldenkrais, had a very interesting background. He grew up in Ukraine, born in 1904. Ukraine was not a good place to be, born Jewish and experienced many pogroms when he was just a kid, as Israel's formation against the Arabs, the British, became a judo expert, then a mechanical engineer, physicist, and some of the story is he injured his knees playing soccer and he tried to put what he knew of judo and physics into how can I walk with missing some ligaments in my knee? And it worked. And then he was director of electronics at the Israeli army. Other people he worked with were like you fixed your knee, can you help me with my shoulder?
Speaker 2:He started exploring, experimenting and he worked primarily with a lot of people who were Holocaust survivors, just as he built his own discipline and his goal was restoring people to their human dignity, and so it's that self teaching people, the self-reliance to know that they have control. We have control over our own bodies. So it's not I think of PT as often very much strengthening and flexibility, and we see ourselves more as teaching coordination. How do you use your whole body as a team so that you're not fighting against yourself? And so it's a very different discipline.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure journey with it was herniated disc to leading backpacking trips, to the resilience that I find from it is wonderful and, I joke, the reason I became a practitioner. I was a client for eight years because I kept like I want to ride the SDP, the Seattle to Portland, the 200 mile bicycle race, and my knees and my ankles hurt and I worked with my practitioner to learn how to bicycle more efficiently. And then I did it. And then I wanted to learn how to roller skate but I couldn't bend over enough to time my skate because of the herniated disc. Anyway, I learned oh, bodies are supposed to fold at the hips, not at the waist.
Speaker 2:I was a nerd growing up. I didn't really use my body as a kid very much a kid very much. But I did a weekend training and it was an introduction to becoming a Feldenkrais practitioner and there were a lot of practitioners in their 60s and 70s who had these live and agile bodies and I so wanted one because in my 40s I did not have that kind of relationship with myself and it's nice to help other people. But I mostly like it for the impact it has on myself, Because when I give a session I get a session. It's a fun discipline. It's much more energizing than what I was doing before as a technical writer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say yeah. And how does that fit in? Or does it fit in with the Parkinson people? Does that help?
Speaker 2:them. I have a contract with Northwest Parkinson's Foundation and I teach a few classes a week for them. I started during the pandemic doing that and it's kept going. So I teach a Feldenkrais class, which is the movement, a lot about balance and how do you, as Parkinson's nibbles away at people's ability to move, learning how to use their body better? There's room for everybody, there's room to improve how we move and it helps people function better. And then I also teach two different kinds of dance classes for them. I'm a Nia instructor and an Ageless Grace instructor, and so those are both seated. I teach seated exercise classes.
Speaker 1:Oh fun. Yeah, I wondered you had mentioned about teaching dance classes. That was going to be one of my questions.
Speaker 2:So it's seated dance so it's seated dance. Uh, for, for the northwest parkinson's foundation I found, um, about half of my students can't do a standing dance class. It's too much, uh, too much, too fast for their balance. But there's lots we can do seated, and so it's sometimes I try to teach both, but that's just a little too hard to try to teach both at the same time. Sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like patting your head and rubbing your tummy. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And, and and and. The dance I teach Nia is is very sensory based, and I need to be able to be sensing what's in my body in order to give the cues to the people who I'm working with, and so if I'm doing the same thing, it's easier than if I'm doing something different, easier than if I'm doing something different.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah, yeah, I in the past, long ago past, like 40 years ago, past I taught step aerobics and I faced the group, so I had to tell them the opposite.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes. Well, teaching online is very much that and it's gotten to me, so I now reverse it. I was never very good at left and right and now I'm horrible at it because of the reversing. So I usually, when I'm teaching in this room, it's like use your bookcase arm.
Speaker 1:That arm. Yeah, so you get where I was going with that. That's really hard. It is. It really is hard to move your right hand and say move your left hand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and now I probably have finally learned my left and right, because I don't teach that anymore. So I know what you're saying with that being hard for you. Now, how has the taking a few months off from running to heal my foot? I managed to hide all my running gear and I hid my running vest where I keep my cell phone with. What if I hold it so like I was looking at it? What if I hold it upside down? What if I hold it this way? What if I hold it that way? How does that change how I run?
Speaker 2:And I was just playing with that for a quarter mile or less and checking in with how springy I feel on each step and checking in with that sore spot on my foot and how does it feel when I do something different. So it's experimenting like that is how it changes my running. And there's a woman named Jay Grunke, who would be a great person for you to interview, who runs a company called the Balanced Runner and she offers running camps using the Feldenkrais method and running video analysis. She always puts out wonderful videos after each major running competition in the olympics and analyzing everybody's form and anyway she's. I've learned a lot from her yeah, very cool yeah, but it's.
Speaker 2:it's that ability to play when I'm out there, not just put my headphones on and listen to a book. That's when I can get myself in trouble.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, definitely, I know I'm always watching for potholes, but even though I have a book on you really still have to pay attention.
Speaker 2:It's the paying attention to my body of like do I feel springy or not? Does my foot hurt? I have, I have the, the usual various aches and pains that that people, you know, we, we all accumulate from our history of injuries or whatever. And um, I kind of check in with each one and then I vary a few things. And the way our brains work is if there are more than two choices, if there's like three or four or five ways to do it and your body can sense that it feels different, your brain will choose the best one.
Speaker 2:But if your brain doesn't realize you have a choice because you're doing it the same way you've always done it, then you're going to do it the same way you've always done it and that can lead to repetitive use injuries. So it's the creativity to add variation in and to the anatomy knowledge to know what are some anatomical places that if I introduce variation I'm likely to get better results from it. So that's what I'm doing when I'm running. And then, of course, having a husband as a live-in practitioner is very handy so that if I have a question, sometimes it's hard to observe oneself and I come home and say, hey, can we do some explorations around X and we'll play with it.
Speaker 2:That's great it's changing the paradigm to. I'm stuck with this too. I can do something about it and that, um, you know, I think that's an attitude in life that I got through the, the, the feldenkrais work, and it helped with the. I'm feeling like my mind is is not working right. Um, and then looking around and what are my options for getting help and being able to get into a clinical study and get thank God, got into one that had no placebo and it was a dosing study of does it work better if it's twice a month or once a month for the infusions for it?
Speaker 1:And yeah, so now you're not on that medicine and you're still great.
Speaker 2:Now my brain, my body, because is now trained to, if plaque builds up, to dissolve it or to break it up.
Speaker 1:So how did they test you for that? Or did you feel like something was wrong and then you got tested? What was that?
Speaker 2:like I was finding myself doing strange things, like going to pay for something and handing the clerk my car keys, or going in the morning to get an apple out of the clerk my car keys, or going in the morning to get an apple out of the fridge when I'd been grocery shopping the day before and finding who put the apples in the freezer and so like weird stuff and a little bit of trouble finding nouns and all my friends who are my age and older it's like, oh yeah, this is just aging.
Speaker 2:And it's like, oh, this just doesn't feel quite right. And so they were looking for people for this study, for people who were not diagnosed, and it was only through the study that I got the diagnosis. So in the study they did blood tests and MRIs, but the PET scan is the definitive one for measuring amyloid plaque level. And then part of the study they were correlating blood proteins with amyloid plaque level because they're trying to develop the blood tests, because that's a lot less expensive for screening than the PET scan. But the PET scan is better than the autopsy, which before that was the only way to find out if people had amyloid plaque Right.
Speaker 1:Wow, I mean, you've come a long way from all that.
Speaker 2:The last couple of years have been a change from life shrinking to happier, because I'm doing what's more important to me. I reorganized my schedule so I could spend a whole day a week with my granddaughter, and one of the things I was saddest about with the diagnosis of, she's not going to know me as me. I have that memory of my own grandmother with Alzheimer's and then my mother with dementia and my kids and a lot of sadness there and it's like, okay, how can I build the time I do have and doing a photo journey with her and making up a box of books of like my favorites that I want to hand to her when she's 10, and and and and reading, and and being with her is just one of the joys of of of of my life right now, and so it's it's living more intentionally and running it. Running has been a big part of it.
Speaker 1:And now you may not have. You can push that off for a long time now, Maybe.
Speaker 2:The research. The drug is new enough that some of the studies say it just slows things down by nine months or so, and some of that it's like a permanent change in your body. And there's still research that goes. Is amyloid plaque really the only thing that's causing the dementia? Is it just a symptom of something else that's going on? And if this just gets rid of the plaque and it doesn't get to the root cause, there's a lot of unknowns in the Alzheimer's research. I'm hoping to get into another follow-on study so that I can continue to get measured, because the PET scans are really expensive and hard to. What I found is that the primary care physicians are not caught up to the current research, and even when I was having challenges, I was still pretty functional in a lot of ways, and so there was no don't worry about it, wait till it gets worse. And that's just the wrong response Now that there are drugs that the earlier you get on them, the more effective they are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's really sad that that's their attitude. Oh, just wait until it gets worse.
Speaker 2:No, Well it's. It's it's when, when you don't have a tool, that's really all you can do, but when there are tools that can help. Um and like with Parkinson's research, one of the most fascinating things in the research is that every day a week you exercise multiplies the quality of your life by the same amount. It's like exercising once is good, exercising seven times is a lot better. And those are things you can do when you have it.
Speaker 1:So does the Feldenkrais help other types of maladies like multisclerosis or those who have had a stroke and have limited use? Does that help that type of thing?
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and one of my first clients who had a stroke she was young when she had her stroke in her late 50s and spent a year learning how to walk again came into me a couple of years later and she was back, working back, functional, but awkward Um, and I worked with her on her balance and, uh, she was able to go ice skating with her grandson again which she was really excited about and ride a bicycle. But she said the thing that really made her realize how much better she was was when she went into her stroke support group. Wearing high heels was all anybody wanted to ask about. Is what do you mean? You can wear high heels again, so it can be very helpful. We've worked with one little girl who had a stroke in utero and an anoxic event that took out the part of the brain that controls movement and she came in at nine months old, not able to roll over, reach a hand up or whatever, and she's now mainstreamed in, got to calculate the years, middle school. But the earlier we get to somebody, the more effective we can be. So when we work with little kids who have had an anoxic event, we do a lot with special needs kids the sooner we get to them, the less damage that happens.
Speaker 2:Um, we've worked with people with heart conditions um, and prevented surgery on one little boy. He'd had open heart surgery twice for um congenital heart challenges. He came to us at four and he was turning blue, was scheduled for his next surgery. We worked with him to get his ribs to expand and contract properly, because after heart surgery when you've been cut and sewed back together you tend to be protective of your chest and not being able to get that full volume. Anyway, he went into the doctor and the doctor for his next appointment is like something's changed and so that was. That was one one real success story. It's also fun working. One of my clients now is in her church choir and helping her to. She came in because of foot problems but now we work on how to get her voice to be even more expressive, because vocal cords are just another set of muscles. They can be worked on the same way as anything else with it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's very rewarding, I bet.
Speaker 2:It is very fun work. It's fun work. I bet it is very fun work. It's fun work. Sometimes it's frustrating to be in a discipline that isn't well-known and isn't covered by insurance, because then it's like, how do I find ways to get it to people that I can make a living from and they can afford? And so that's what I love it when places like Northwest Parkinson's Foundation hire me so that I can do group classes and the people who need it don't have to. It's not a risk to try something new, it's just a free option that they can do.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's great. And then anybody who's watching this has Parkinson's. Nwpforg is where you can find information about my classes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and those listening as well, feel free, and we'll put that in the show notes too, so that people can get the direct link to you that way. So you've got now a marathon next spring. Did you just defer the one that you were unable to do for April? I?
Speaker 2:think I'll run a 10K. I can change my time in this one, my distance yeah, and that's local. That's local. It's about half an hour away in a city called Everett.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I've heard of Everett, and so then, what else? After the 10K, before the marathon? Anything besides all your backpacking?
Speaker 2:That'll be my summer hiking season, and so anything I can do to maintain during the summer is good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and how long is your season of hiking? From what month to what month?
Speaker 2:My first trip is in May. My last trip is in September.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, and you do five a week.
Speaker 2:You said I'm doing nine trips, so it's about three a month during the summer. Some of them are two day, some are four day, some are five days, one six day.
Speaker 1:And even if it rains, it doesn't matter, you guys are still hiking.
Speaker 2:Oh, of course. Yeah, uh, fires are the biggest thing that interferes. Sometimes we have to reroute depending on fire season, which has gotten worse. I took my. One of the trips with my granddaughter was really fun because she really likes mushrooms. She's just fascinated by mushrooms and she's not allowed to touch them because there's some poisonous ones. But she pokes them with a stick and so she just walked around poking every little mushroom and it rained about an inch one night and we had all the gear piled up on the high spot and the big tarp and we're all just all the grownups are trying not to whine and she's just poking mushrooms and having so much fun that the rest of us had to behave and have a good time.
Speaker 1:That sounds like a blast. I would love to do that. I would actually just like to go with her and watch her poke mushrooms. I think is really what.
Speaker 2:I'd want to announced. Her parents know which ones are safe. So we ate a lot of mushrooms on that trip too, so that was fun.
Speaker 1:Oh really, wow, yeah, that's, that's no. I know in our area I live in Wisconsin and I'm originally from Michigan and in Michigan and Wisconsin, morels are a big deal Do they have those there? Yes, yeah, Okay, so that's probably. I don't know if you eat those raw. I don't know that I've ever had them, but I know they're pretty good.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I never. When there's somebody who's very confident in their knowing which mushrooms are good, I'll eat them, but that's not something I've wanted to learn about, so I haven't. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you could just lick them and then see if they're poisonous. No, the poisons are worse than that, though. Did you get high? Or did you have an enjoyable mushroom Right, or did you die or die? Yes, yeah, as my husband says, everything is edible. Just not all things are survivable. So take that as a note for your mushrooms. Yeah, is there anything else that you'd like the audience to know about? Um, you your running your practice, um, which we'll put the show notes?
Speaker 2:um, in the show notes, the website for your practice as well if you're interested in a llama trip and you have parkinson's uh past to pastorg? Um, if you're interested in a llama trip, uh w a llamascom and love to have you join me on a trip. We have a good time out there. Um, and my business name is move beyond limits. Um, so move beyond limitscom. If you're interested in learning how you can become your own guide and get yourself out of trouble with whatever you're doing, yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, well, that sounds great. So hopefully everyone will check your site out and again we'll put that in the show notes and thank you so much for your wisdom and the story. It was so fun to meet you and talk to you today. Yeah, nice, nice talking with you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 1:My pleasure. Have a good day, bye, bye.
Speaker 2:Thank you Goodbye.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, thanks for listening to the episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Please continue to follow, share and rate the program. If you're needing that coach, reach out to me. There's a button in the show notes that you can contact me directly. Share it with a friend. If you think their story needs to be on the podcast, I'd love to hear from them. So thanks again and have a great day.
