Team Rocky Mountain Meets TI

By GAEA SHAW and TEAM ROCKY MOUNTAIN

This article is collaboration among members of Team Rocky Mountain (TRM); transplant athletes from Colorado, Montana and Wyoming who attended a TI Workshop in Denver in November 2005. Ranging in age from 16 to 65, each participant was already a winner at the U.S. Transplant Games, Olympic-style competitions for people with life-saving transplants. All faced death and were given the ultimate gift of life, a transplant. Deciding to live their new lives to the fullest includes being active as athletes. They will compete this summer as part of Team Rocky Mountain, at the U.S. Transplant Games in Louisville, Kentucky.

I knew I was not alone in my interest in TI. While at the World Transplant Games last summer in Canada, I watched an incredible race. Two great swimmers in the 50-59 men’s category swam stroke for stroke throughout a 400-meter Freestyle. At the last moment, one pulled ahead to win by a split second. It was very exciting. The winner, kidney recipient Matthew Criscuolo, told me that the chief reason he won that race was his TI training – he’d attended two Weekend Workshops – because his rival, also a kidney recipient, was an incredible swimmer, a longtime Master’s competitor, swim coach and life guard. Matthew said he loved TI and the improvement he felt. I was hooked! I came back from the World Games, and checked interest among my TRM teammates to take TI together, and Terry Laughlin was good enough to offer us reduced group tuition.

Six of us attended TI together and several have agreed to contribute to this report on our experiences. All of us were thrilled to be in the class together, and everyone made enormous progress, which gives us all unprecedented optimism: I remember watching Eric in his pre-workshop videotaping. His swim was so noisy and he was stirring up so much water, you could hear him down the block! At the end, he was smooth as silk and his stroke count went way down. It was like that for all of us.

What could be better for a group of organ transplant recipients than swimming full out at a competition, honoring their donors and showing the world what is possible after transplantation? What could be better? Doing it the TI way!!!


Deb Keeney, kidney and pancreas transplant recipient:

I was an avid runner, swimmer, and cyclist before I became severely ill with diabetes. I had to go on dialysis and became blind in one eye. I had no energy to work out.

In 2000, I received a new kidney, and later had a pancreas transplant. The new pancreas meant I no longer had diabetes. Between numerous eye surgeries and no longer having diabetes, my sight returned. My two transplants have allowed me the freedom to travel to several Caribbean islands, climb the Dunn River falls in Jamaica, swim with stingrays in the Cayman's, and race-walk my first marathon in Bermuda. I have also been to St. Lucia for snorkeling and cycling. I have learned not to take a single moment for granted and to dive into whatever life has to offer while I am able.

As you can see, one of my great loves is for the water, especially the sea. TI has given me a new outlook on swimming and becoming "one" with the water, swimming effortlessly, fluidly, and with the sense of working with the water rather than struggling against it. Swimming this way has given me a powerful sense of personal renewal and the motivation to "dive back into life." As an exercise physiologist, I find the mechanics of TI particularly fascinating and would love to learn more so I can share it with others. Because of my new life, I experienced the joy of being present for the birth of all three of my grandchildren. I hope to introduce them to the TI style of swimming before they are “contaminated” by traditional swimming instruction.


Eric Rhoades, 16-year-old liver recipient:

I starting getting fatigue and stomach aches when I was six years old. Three years later I was diagnosed with PSC (Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis). I received my new liver when I was 10, at the beginning of 5th grade. At 16, I don't remember much about life before transplant, except that I was tired a lot and couldn't wait to get my new liver. I started swimming about six months after my transplant because one of my medications, Prednisone, was making me quite chunky. Kids were making fun of me at school and my parents thought it would help for me to exercise and stay active.

My parents signed me up for a local swim team. Even though it was the first time I swam competitively, I did pretty well. Then in 2004 I competed at the U.S. Transplant Games and won three gold medals. One in the 25m freestyle, one in shot put and one in the 50m dash.

I learned a lot from TI and really enjoyed the experience and the instructors. I improved my efficiency by almost 30 percent from 19 to 14 strokes for 25-meters.


Gaea Shaw is a heart transplant recipient:

At age 53, with no previous symptoms but certain genetic risks from my family tree, I suddenly fell ill with congestive heart failure. The doctors told me that my condition, cardiomyopathy, had no known cure and that I would need a transplant within 10 years. I was frightened to the bone. I never knew anyone with a transplant, and the thought was terrifying.

It took four years to receive a transplant, and I’ve now had my new heart for over eight years. Before my transplant I was only a dip and splash swimmer. Afterwards I learned how to swim (still the human way!) and became a competitor at the U.S. and World Transplant Games. I have won many gold and silver medals in the 50, 100 and 400 freestyle.

When I had the opportunity to take a TI workshop, I grabbed it. It was awesome! The instructors were fantastic and everyone made significant improvement. It was beautiful to watch and be a part of. I’ve become a drilling fiend, and am amazed at how easy swimming can actually be. I’m glad I have a few more months to work on my TI skills before my next competition, but I can’t wait to see how I do with them.

Gaea has been to seven transplant competitions, including World Games in Japan, France, and Canada. She has written a book about her heart transplant journey and meeting her donor’s family. The book is called Dying to Live: From Heart Transplant to Abundant Life. Visit her website at http://www.GaeaShaw.com.


Jeff Leone, kidney receipient:

Only three months after I began dialysis I was days away from a transplant when my brother, who had passed every test to be my living donor, failed the final test – an arteriogram. I was extremely frustrated and couldn’t understand why hope was raised, just to be shattered at the last minute. Thankfully I wasn’t transplanted at that time because six weeks later I started getting gastro-intestinal bleeding, caused by an undiscovered tumor the size of a tennis ball on my small intestine. Had I been transplanted, this tumor would have metastasized in an immune-suppressed environment and according to my oncologist could have cost me my life in as little as six months!

While I did not understand why I was faced with such extreme challenges at the time, it is clear to me now that how we face these challenges is what defines us. Thanks to the transplant I eventually received, I was able to finish my Masters of Education and realize my dream of a career serving others. My daughter no longer thinks that her father being sick is a normal part of life, and my wife no longer has an unreasonable load to carry for our family and me.

I had always been a strong swimmer in the ocean and was hooked on surfing and diving from a young age, but never swam competitively. I also have a long history of cycling for fitness. At age 40, approximately 10 weeks before the 2002 Games and two years after my transplant, I took up competitive swimming just to try something different.

I now wonder what took me so long, as swimming has become my favorite sport for both fitness and competition. I read Swimming Made Easy and viewed the Four Strokes Made Easy DVD, intending to learn the other three strokes. I incorporated some of what I read and saw about freestyle into my human-swimmer stroke. It was helpful, but my initial underwater video at the workshop revealed many further opportunities to improve. Experiencing first-hand instruction was invaluable. The alternating classroom and pool sessions were the perfect combination and all the instructors were excellent.

TI has been perfectly aligned with my evolving personal philosophy, that in order to improve my life I need to be balanced, relaxed, and let go of old habits that don’t work. Knowing that TI can help me learn every stroke correctly from the beginning has ensured that it is only a matter of time before I expand my enjoyment of fitness and competitive swimming through IM’s, medley relays, etc.

Jeff Leone lives in Aurora, Colorado with his wife and daughter. He received a kidney transplant in December 1999 after three-and-a-half years of dialysis. He teaches high school science for the Denver Public Schools. Jeff will compete in the 2006 U.S. Transplant Games in Louisville, KY and the 2007 World Games in Bangkok, Thailand. His events will include the 50m freestyle, the 400m freestyle, the cycling time trial and road race, as well as swimming and running relay events; He is planning a donor awareness bicycle ride across America with his brothers for the summer of 2008.


Leeann O’Malley-Schott, of Englewood, Colorado, is a kidney recipient:

I’ve loved the water all of my life. I never swam competitively but was a regular fitness swimmer. At age twenty I was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus, an inflammatory disease that attacked my kidney. I managed quite well for 13 years, but in March of 1994, due to various complications, I spent three months in the hospital. When I was released from the hospital, I literally had to learn to walk again.

My kidney function declined to the point that I needed regular dialysis treatments to sustain life. Eventually I went back to the pool, but swimming just one length left me gasping for air. I continued outpatient dialysis treatments until October 31, 1998, when I received the call that a donor kidney was available in Florida. My family and I experienced a myriad of emotions over the next 24 hours. It was a bittersweet; while one family was celebrating the hope of renewed life, another family was in the throes of grief over the loss of a life.

My surgery took place the next day. Just 48 hours later I felt like a new woman! I could think more clearly. I had color in my cheeks. Even food tasted better! Since that miraculous day I have not looked back. I was able to swim again, have had the privilege of competing as a swimmer in three U.S. transplant games, and am looking forward to the 2006 games in Louisville, KY. I am even more excited now that I have participated in TI! If I won medals swimming like a human, I can only imagine what I'll be able to do as a TI "fish"!

So many things impressed me about the TI workshop! First, I was really impressed with the coaching staff and ratio of one coach to five swimmers. With two or more of our four coaches in the water most of the time, we all learned the right positions and timing. The progression of the drills is so logical and seamless. What really confirmed for me how foolproof TI is was seeing how every swimmer at the workshop improved markedly.

The ZipperSwitch has been invaluable in teaching me to breathe bilaterally. I love getting out of the water feeling like I have really accomplished something – and no more neck and shoulder stiffness! I love TI and next I’ll learn what TI can do for my breaststroke!


To learn more about the U.S. Transplant Games go to http://www.kidney.org.
To learn more about Organ Donation, go to http://www.donatelife.net/
To read a sample chapter from Gaea Shaw’s book, go to http://www.GaeaShaw.com.

To read an article from the Stanford Daily on a talk by Gaea Shaw, click here.

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