“It’s not easy”: Michael Klim shares health update
Aussie swimmer Michael Klim has opened up about how his life has changed following his diagnosis with a rare autoimmune disease, including the strategy he uses to cope.
In 2020, the world champion was diagnosed with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) - a rare neurological disorder where the fatty myelin sheath protecting nerves is damaged and feeling is lost in the arms and legs.
The condition has affected Klim’s physical and mental wellbeing, with the father-of-three struggling to perform everyday tasks such as walking and playing with his kids.
But, Klim has adopted a new strategy to help him acknowledge the toll the disease has while not letting it get him down.
“My counsellor and I have come up with a strategy where I give myself an hour a day to feel sorry for myself,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I can whinge as much as I want and feel down, but after that, then there are still a lot of things I can do and be functional and still have responsibilities as a parent and a coach and as a partner, and I can still do them effectively.
“I am trying to not let it consume me completely. But it's hard.”
Klim said the effect on his body has meant he had to go through a “grieving process”, where he came to grips with the condition and the possibility he may need a wheelchair.
“And to a degree the fear is still there. I think I am a bit better, in the sense I have accepted – to a degree – that these are the cards I have been dealt,” he said.
“But I am still working through it. When we experience grief, you don't just go one day, 'I am fine, I am better now'. It affects you for much longer, and particularly because it is in my face daily.
“There was a fear because I got bad really quickly. I am now in a remission, stable phase. But there is a fear I may go again at the same rate and if I degrade that quickly again, I probably will need assistance with walking and things like that.”
Earlier this month, Klim said his mobility has been affected to the point where can no longer leave Bali and make trips to Australia, which he had done several times a year for work and treatment in the past.
“I have pulled my focus to the swim academy here in Bali and... we run a bunch of camps and clinics,” he said.
“I have sort of simplified my lifestyle just from that point of view.
“I mean I did use to do 20 return trips to Australia a year for work and whatever.”
“But for now it's just physically... physically actually impossible because (for) myself getting around is not simple.”
The 45-year-old revealed he is now facing financial stresses too, after he left his role in sales and marketing at Milk & Co, the skincare company he founded in 2008, due to his inability to travel.
“Look it has definitely put a stress on our finances and security because there is a level of investment for me,” Klim told Brett Hawke, the host of the Inside with Brett Hawke podcast, this week.
“I stepped back from my role with Milk and Co. because of the demand it had on me physically, flying back and forth and the stress as well.
“I was very hands-on doing sales and marketing. (But) unless I could give myself one hundred percent I didn't want to do it.”
To make matters worse, Klim’s battle with CIDP has been self-funded because his original health insurance policy doesn’t cover the condition.
“Unfortunately unless you have a very good insurance policy, which mine unfortunately didn't cover this disorder, everything is self-funded so it has put a fair bit of stress on everybody I think,” he said.
“I have had great support from the family but it's, yeah, it's not easy.”
After first speaking about his condition on The Project in July, including noticing numbness and other symptoms in his legs and feet in 2019, Klim told Hawke that the disorder had worsened in recent months, with the numbness in his feet now in his calf muscles and knees.
“I had a big foot drop...my foot is just really floppy and can't control my foot so I'm having to wear special braces called AFO's (ankle-foot orthoses) which keeps my toes up so I don't trip up over myself when I'm using a walking stick or crutches,” he explained.
He admitted that he fears losing all of his physical mobility, but still remains determined to fight CIDP and seek treatment from neurological experts in Australia and the US.
“I think there is definitely an element of fear in this because it's the fear of the unknown, which we're always scared of, you know,” an emotional Klim said.
“So there is 30 percent of patients (that) end up in a wheelchair and it's just to get around. So that's in the back of my mind.”
Despite his worsening condition, Klim said he is still able to regularly swim with the assistance of a pool buoy between his legs.
“The thing that gives me so much joy at the moment is I can actually still jump in the pool and have a bit of float around,” Klim said.
“I like to put the buoy in and punch out a couple of times and, and yeah, it's kind of my happy place at the moment.”
Image: @michaelklim1 (Instagram)