Life lessons: Marie Stallbaum, RN, stays fit in anticipation of the day when there's a cure for her multiple sclerosis

Muscle & Fitness/Hers, July, 2003 by Michael Das

marie stallbaum thought she just needed to have her glasses adjusted.

It was June 1994 and she was being plagued by bouts of dizziness and fatigue, which she suspected were triggered by a misdiagnosed prescription. Four times that summer she had the glasses remade, and four times she explained away the nagging spins and distorted vision.

"I had an excuse for every symptom in the book," says Marie, 36, who was working as a neonatal intensive-care nurse at the time. "I was in my twenties and feeling like I was invincible, in the prime of my life, and nothing was going to stop me. I was putting my heart and soul into my position, and I wanted to be the best nurse I could be. Unfortunately, even being a health professional, I ignored all the signs."

Doctors delivered the official diagnosis on March 18, 1995: multiple sclerosis (MS), a progressive degenerative disease of the central nervous system. In an instant Marie felt as if her life and her identity--hard-working nurse and physically active former competitive gymnast--had been stripped away. Even worse, no cure exists. "I was devastated," Marie remembers. "I felt that I was going to lose all my functions."

After the shock subsided, however, Marie's fighting spirit came roaring back. She summoned the inner strength that had seen her through some previous tough times, and turned to one of her sanctuaries: the gym. The ensuing years have been full of difficulties both large and small, but she has persevered. Among the rewards was a win at the 2001 Las Vegas Bodybuilding, Figure and Fitness Classic. It's an achievement that makes Marie proud, but deep inside she knows the path she took to get there is more important.

"We don't have a choice in getting MS, but we do have a choice in how we live our life every day," she states. "Everybody has challenges and adversities, and it's how we respond to them that matters. Every challenge that has been brought to the forefront in my life has been a life lesson and has actually helped me better myself."

testing herself against the best

Marie's path began in Chicago, where she was born and raised with her two older brothers, Rod and Rodell. From early on, sports were an important part of their lives. All three siblings were active, a bit too active for their parents. When hauling the kids around town became too much of a burden, each child had to choose one sport to specialize in. Marie chose gymnastics. "I loved the sport. I wanted to become an Olympian," she explains.

Under the guidance of Aerial Gymnastics Club director Don McPherson, Marie thrived. "Don is my life mentor, confidant and coach," she says. Then, one week before the 1981 U.S. Gymnastic Federation Illinois State meet, she had the first of what she considers defining moments in her life. She blew out her knee doing a toe-on front-off dismount on her favorite discipline, the uneven bars. She tore both her anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments, and her knee had to be entirely reconstructed. She was 14. "I was probably in one of the best shapes of my life," she recalls. "I felt like I was on top of my game at that point, and when I begged my coach to do one more routine he said, 'No, you're done for the day.' I just wanted to get one more number in, and I ended up injuring myself on that routine."

Doctors told Marie that she'd never again be a gymnast, but she refused to quit. She wore a cast for nine weeks and was in rehabilitation for seven months. One week after her surgery, she was at the gym doing calisthenics and chins. "I look back at that year and realize how powerful the human mind is," she remarks. Determined to prove her doctors wrong, Marie eventually earned a gymnastics scholarship to the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She says of the experience: "It really motivates me when someone says I can't do something."

Marie loved competitive collegiate athletics, testing herself against the best. She represented the Badgers for two years, and then came another defining moment--she broke her right ulna bone the day before a meet against Ohio State. The break required screws and a surgical plate. Rehab followed, but this injury proved too much for Marie to safely overcome. She bowed out of gymnastics and shifted her focus to her nursing studies. "My mom is a nurse and I used to go to 'Take Your Daughter to Work Day' with her," she notes. "I never thought growing up that I was going to be a nurse, but I really enjoyed helping others."

The transition, however, was a difficult one. "I had always viewed myself as Marie the Gymnast; I never viewed myself as Marie the Nurse. I had to change that, and it was definitely a learning process." The injury became, she believes, a blessing in disguise. Nursing offered its own difficulties in the form of dense study material and long hours, challenges that Marie warmed to. Fitness, of course, still played a big role in her life. She couldn't train with the same regularity and intensity she had as a gymnast, but Marie always made a conscious effort to get in her workouts. "I'd bring my bag and do everything I could to make it to the gym," she states. "Fitness was just part of my lifestyle."