April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. This disease really captured the world’s attention in 1998 when well-known actor Michael J. Fox announced that he in fact had been diagnosed with it seven years early at the young age of 29. People were shocked that someone so young could be affected by this disorder of the central nervous system that affects movement and causes tremors. Since then, he’s become a strong advocate, looking for ways to not only manage the disease, but treat, and eventually one day find a cure. Wayne Fuhlbrugge of Webster City may not be a well-known actor, but having been diagnosed with the same disease on Sept. 14, 2019, he’s on the same mission as Fox to find a way to live life to the fullest and do everything he can to not let Parkinson’s take over.
Fuhlbrugge was just one month shy of celebrating his 73rd birthday when he got the official diagnosis, but he admits there were little things he had been noticing before that.
“I was just experiencing things that I attributed to getting older,” he said.
Those things included falling and noticing that it was getting more and more difficult to get up off the floor or out of his chair. Then came a serious fall. He split open the back of the head and suffered brain bleeds on both sides of his head. He was life flighted to Mercy One Des Moines where they stapled the split shut. He spent 10 days there, followed by several more weeks of therapy at Mary Greeley in Ames.
“I just remember asking them, ‘What’s wrong with my husband,’” recalled his wife, Ann.
“I lost the ability to write, swallow, walk, I had no sense of balance, I couldn’t shower by myself…and I had no cognitive thinking ability,” explained her husband.
The diagnosis – Parkinson’s Disease. Fuhlbrugge had to learn to do all the things the average person takes for granted all over again. “When I first got the diagnosis I was actually offended by the doctor that told me this. I thought he was putting me down, but then I realized it’s not a dark cloud over my head. People don’t have to know (that I have Parkinson’s) unless I want them to know,” said Fuhlbrugge.
When he finally left the hospital in the middle of October 2019, he left using a walker, a devise he now had to have with him everywhere he went, even if it was just to the kitchen for a snack.
According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, the disease affects between 500,000 and one million people in the U.S. alone, but it impacts them all in different ways. Not everyone will experience all of the same symptoms, nor will they experience their symptoms in the same order or same intensity as the next person. It takes 20+ years for some people to experience the symptoms while the disease progresses more quickly in others. Fuhlbrugge was determined to do all he could to be in the first group of people, so when his daughters did a little research and discovered the benefits of Rock Steady Boxing for Parkinson’s patients, they encouraged their dad to give it a try. It’s a rather unique approach and isn’t offered at an abundance of locations. When they found a studio only 18 miles away in Eagle Grove that did, Fuhlbrugge joined the class.
“I called up Lisa (Russell) at Slay studio right away. I was her third student in the class,” Fuhlbrugge said very proudly.
Russell is a trained and certified instructor for Rock Steady Boxing which offers specific physical training regimens to help Parkinson’s patients build stamina and core strength. They also do boxing training, “With dummy bags, not real people,” Fuhlbrugge joked. “The best part, they do it all to music.”
“Lisa is the most magnificent instructor ever. She has so much passion for me and the other students …she makes the class really a lot of fun. The hour flies by,” he said. “When the class is done, yes, I’m tired, but I feel exhilarated because we’ve had this boost and Lisa knows how to do it.”
Not only did Fuhlbrugge notice a big mental boost, but he noticed physical improvement as well.
“Wayne came to me with a huge drive to fight Parkinson’s’ Disease,” said Russell. “His drive was shared by his amazing wife, Ann. I cannot imagine what people could accomplish if we all had a ‘fighters’ mindset regardless of obstacles or the cards we’ve been dealt in life…within a month of starting the Rock Steady Program, Wayne was a totally different person – from personality to posture and everything in between.”
Fuhlbrugge no longer needs his walker, or even his cane, to help him get around. He credits much of that success to Russell and Rock Steady, and of course, the love support, and encouragement of his wife.
“He even walks taller, and his balance is so much better,” continued Russell. “I see a confidence transformation in him as well as an urgency to push himself harder each week…I think he has surprised himself athletically and in regards to the fact that he does have power over his disease.”
Ann has also benefitted from the class – not the workout themselves, but it’s given her the opportunity to meet the wife of another Parkinson’s patient. In fact, Ann said Russell was just gearing up to start a meeting for people with Parkinson’s and their loved ones to get together and talk. Unfortunately, that came to a halt before it ever even began because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also put a halt to the Rock Steady Boxing classes, much to the dismay of Fuhlbrugge.
“The more activity I have the better it is for me…so now I’m having to do the exercises at home,” he said.
Despite the fact that his wife is now doing the exercises with him at home, and Russell is sending Facebook videos for them to follow from the Parkinson’s Foundation, he said it’s not the same.
“The music is generic…and it’s just not as much fun
as having Lisa there,” he said. “We all can’t wait to get back in the groove of classes at Slay again.”
“God placed Wayne in my life to teach me about the human spirit, the power of the mind/body connection, and the power of a group focused on a common goal,” said Russell. “My goal at Rock Steady Boxing Wright County is to give people with Parkinson’s some of their power back. Our mantra is ‘No retreat, baby – no surrender’ from the song “No Surrender” by Bruce Springsteen. “We chose this because it fits the mindset to not let the bad things that happen to you destroy who you are. Wayne is a fighter and a true example of the power of the human spirit. I may be his trainer, but he’s been mine too.”
Before Parkinson’s Disease, Wayne and Ann enjoyed traveling around the world.
“We were doing what we had dreamed about…Lisa is giving me the ability to do that again,” said Fuhlbrugge. “Having Parkinson’s isn’t as severe as what some other people have (been diagnosed with)…I’m blessed to have a very supportive family and friends around me…and I’ve accepted I have to do this. I’m the only one that can change it, so it’s up to me.”
