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Woman finds life is for living, even with Parkinson's Dale Moss JoAnn Clark stood on her right leg and lifted her left. A dozen students followed along, circling Clark in the therapy pool at the YMCA of Southern Indiana in Jeffersonville. All of us fight something, whether it's advancing age, weight or something else. Jim Kingstrom has scars from a series of recent surgeries. "This is the best I've ever felt, even before the surgery," he said, toweling off later. Neither Kingstrom nor others necessarily know of Clark's own battle. How could they, seeing her bend and hop and twist session after session, month after month? Kingstrom was stunned to learn that his Tai Chi teacher, who lives in Jeffersonville, has Parkinson's disease. "You'd never, ever dream," he said. "Watching her in action -- no. It's wonderful." When Clark, 66, was diagnosed three years ago, the prediction was that she would need a nursing home by this time next year. Instead, she teaches Y water fitness each weekday. She climbs bleachers to watch a grandson play ball. She shuns painkillers. Her intent is not to inspire so much as to persevere. "I'm devoting myself to staying ahead of" the disease, she said. "I say, 'If I stop, it will catch me.' " Clark assumes she inherited the incurable Parkinson's disease. Her father died of it 23 years ago, and an older sister was afflicted with it before she died of cancer. With Parkinson's, brain cells die or are damaged. Less of a chemical called dopamine is produced, adversely affecting muscles and movement. At first, Clark denied her plight and tried hard to ignore the symptoms. She suspected she had Parkinson's before she was finally diagnosed. She allowed herself to feel and act gloomy. "I'm the best woe-is-me person you've ever met," she said. A year or so later, the Y's aquatic center opened. And a Parkinson's specialist in Louisville, Dr. Irene Litvan, tinkered with Clark's frame of mind as much as treated her tremors. Never a swimmer, Clark worried she would look silly. Nikki Eskridge, the Y's aquatic director, concurs that Clark was unsteady. She could not stand on one leg and could not easily walk in the water. "She would get in the pool and hold on," Eskridge said. Clark returned, however, determined to do better. "I knew it was my only hope," she said. "I just had to do it." She made friends and gained confidence. Clark now spends eight to nine hours a week in the pool. "I used to do six" days a week, she said. "I cut back to five." She was there so often, she started to fill in when an instructor couldn't make it. That led to a more formal arrangement and, ultimately, to Clark's recent teaching certification. She customizes workouts that her students claim work wonders. "I can walk further, sleep better," said Kingstrom, of Jeffersonville. "My flexibility is uncanny." Friends Markishia Byas and Katie VerPloeg, of Clarksville, attended their first class with Clark the morning I visited. "It gave me a good burn, my hips and calves," Byas said. "I don't feel bad when I fall over," VerPloeg said. "When I fall, they laugh and tell me of when they've fallen over." Clark now helps many of the people who first helped her. "She is able to see people struggling," Eskridge said. "She connects with them." John Clark said his mother seems better now, certainly no worse, than when she was diagnosed. He is amazed at how she outpaces the disease. "As far as shopping, walking around, there's no comparison," he said. Litvan, Clark's doctor, calls her a "perfect model" of someone who makes the most of her misfortune. "She is a good representative of how one can battle well a disease and move forward." Litvan said that Clark is undoubtedly better off now.Clark's tremors are few and relatively mild, and she does what she wants. Besides being with her kids and grandkids, that includes studying topics from art appreciation to Latin. She reads all she can about Parkinson's. She attends seminars on it, and she volunteers to participate in medical trials. Staying active, she stays hopeful -- for others who could be afflicted as well as for herself. "I'm going to fight it until the bitter end," she said. "I've seen how you die with this stuff, and I don't want that to happen to me." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn