Recovery taking shape for injured ex-boxer.Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard Ten months ago today, she fell into a coma after being pummelled - at age 50 - in her first and only pro boxing match. Ten days ago, she was barking orders at a group of older men bobbing in the swimming pool at Oakway Fitness Center: "All right, guys - march it up! To the right! Get those legs going!" ... "OK, shoulder roll! Roll, roll, roll your shoulders!" ... "One, two, three ... squeeze your butt!" The latter direction was shouted as she pumped dumbbells in each arm. Only Linda Shampang, say those who know her best. Only she could go from death's doorstep to marching and barking at poolside pool·side n. The area next to or around a swimming pool. in less than a year. "She's a gutsy guts·y adj. guts·i·er, guts·i·est Slang 1. Marked by courage or daring; plucky. 2. Robust and uninhibited; lusty: "the gutsy . . . woman. I have a lot of respect for her," says Larry Stephens
Larry Stephens was a professional wrestler in the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions. , 61, of Eugene, after he climbs out of the pool. "She's one of these people that make you know, no matter what happened to you, you can improve yourself. She doesn't give up." Shampang, now 51, is a longtime instructor who used to teach several classes a day, everything from kickboxing to regular boxing to aerobics. The past few months, she has been teaching an all-male water aerobics class every Thursday morning. It's been a big adjustment for the Leaburg woman who has been plagued by short-term memory short-term memory n. Abbr. STM The phase of the memory process in which stimuli that have been recognized and registered are stored briefly. and vision problems resulting from the severe hematoma hematoma /he·ma·to·ma/ (he?mah-to´mah) a localized collection of extravasated blood, usually clotted, in an organ, space, or tissue. she suffered last June 16 in a bout against a woman 14 years younger in a boxing match in Canyonville. "Every day gets a little better," Shampang says after the class has ended. "But some days are frustrating frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: . It's hard when you were such an active, go-go person. But they said I wouldn't be here. They said I wouldn't be alive." Shampang came back to Oakway Fitness Center last fall, working for an hour each day at the front desk. But when Kris Christiansen, the club's owner, mentioned to Shampang that she needed someone to teach the Thursday water aerobics class, Shampang said, "I'll do it," Christensen recalls. "I wasn't sure if she could," Christensen says. "But she's been doing it ever since." If you didn't know what had happened to Shampang, just by looking at her you probably wouldn't notice that she suffered such a severe brain injury just 10 months ago. Still, she struggles to remember what comes next during the 45-minute class. That's why Joyce Harty, another Oakway Fitness instructor fitness instructor fit n → Fitnesstrainer(in) m(f) , is right there by her side, not only for liability reasons, but to help Shampang remember, if she needs it. As the 10 men in the pool, ranging in age from their 60s to their 80s, follow Shampang's instructions, Madonna's song "Express Yourself" streams out of a boombox. "Don't go for second best baby, put your love to the test ..." Shampang flashes that same ear-to-ear smile, giggles that same girlish girl·ish adj. Characteristic of or befitting a girl: girlish charm. girl  ish·ly adv. laughter that were her trademarks before her brain injury, as
they are now.
"Down, abs in ... down, abs out!" she hollers. "Now push the water away from you! Push, push, push!" Then it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a for some disco, as Chic's 1978 hit, "Le Freak," blares: "Aaahh, freak out freak out Substance abuse A verb, popularized in the US in the '60s–to experience nightmarish hallucinations including by LSD or a similar drug. See 'Bad trip.', Flashback. ! Le Freak, c'est chic. Freak out!" No one is freaking freak·ing adv. & adj. Slang Used as an intensive: Traffic was a freaking nightmare. [Alteration of frigging, present participle of frig.] out, but Shampang is kicking out. Kicking her legs out from side-to-side, that is. Then, dumbbells in her hands, she's jabbing like a boxer, trying to get the men in the pool to do the same thing. Last August, she was taking baby steps in a Sacred Heart Medical Center Sacred Heart Medical Center may refer to: In the United States:
"What totally amazes me is her memory right now," Christensen says. Shampang struggled early in her recovery to carry on a full conversation, but she can now, Christensen says. "People told me I was crazy to do the boxing thing," says Shampang, who works out about four times a week at the club, including practicing boxing moves, even if she'll never spar again. "But I don't regret it. You gotta go for your goals and your dreams. It's always something. Never a dull moment." CAPTION(S): Linda Shampang leads a class at Oakway Fitness Center. She is recovering from a brain injury suffered in a boxing match. "People told me I was crazy to do the boxing thing. But I don't regret it. You gotta go for your goals and your dreams. It's always something. Never a dull moment." LINDA SHAMPANG RECOVERING FROM BRAIN INJURY |
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