It was hard for her to breathe, she communicated with a notebook and swimming saved her: “The more I swam, the better I felt”

Anila Rindlisbacher was diagnosed with Primary Immunodeficiency (PID) at the age of 46

At the age of 36, Anila Rindlisbacher began to feel short of breath. She had trouble breathing and after several medical consultations, she received home hospitalization for half a year without knowing what was affecting her so much. The anguish and uncertainty had begun and she did not know how to continue with her life.

The bronchospasms and laryngospasms she suffered from prevented her from speaking or eating; she could only consume liquid food, which caused her to lose weight rapidly in a few months. After three years, she received her diagnosis: Primary Immunodeficiency (PID), a series of disorders that weaken the immune system, and allow infections and other health problems to develop more easily.

Overwhelmed, she left the company she had founded 13 years earlier, but turned fully to writing and reading. It wasn’t until he turned 46 that he accidentally discovered his true passion and what would change that life: swimming. “Two months after starting to swim in the pool, I was able to make my first open water journey in Entre Ríos, on the Uruguay River. There I knew that I could do it and that the more I swam, the better I felt ”, he tells today, at 52, to Infobae.

Anila Rindlisbacher crossing Concordia – Yerua Port 22 KM

“My current reality exceeds all my dreams. When I was lying on the bed, in Rosario, I did not imagine that my life would become that of an athlete. Despite the fact that I was born and raised on the coast of the Uruguay River, I never thought of swimming in those waters, which for me are blessed, because swimming there saved my life, ”she assures and gives hope.

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The history

Anila Rindlisbacher was born in Monte Caseros, a city located in the southeast of the province of Corrientes. At the age of 18, she moved to Rosario to study a degree in Marketing.

“Until I was 36 years old I led a normal life, without any type of symptoms of anything. At work, she was very active between the office, planes and meetings with important companies. From one moment to the next I start to feel breathing problems, and I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I had never had asthma, nothing… and in a month, literally, I couldn’t go to work anymore, I had a bed. I was like that for six years. I lived in Rosario then and I spent my time visiting allergists, pulmonologists, because at first it seemed like very strong asthma. I came to the German Hospital in Buenos Aires, looking for answers, because physically I was fine, but I couldn’t communicate, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t feed myself because my entire respiratory tract was full of thrush and sores,” she recalls.

One day her respiratory tract had an overreaction defending itself against something and it broke out in sores. “I got to weigh 45 kilos when I could no longer speak because I had those sores. He communicated to me by writing a little notebook. That’s how I began to write down everything that happened to me and every time I saw a doctor I went with that little notebook… In Buenos Aires I ran into Dr. Liliana Bezrodnik, an immunologist who treats rare cases. She sent me to do some very specific clinical tests and there they identified what she was: Primary immunodeficiencies (IDP) —or also called primary immune disorders—. They gave me the diagnosis over the phone, but I felt relief because the answer I was looking for was there”.

Anila enjoys each achievement on the Paraná River (@anilarindlisbacher)

She spent another three years with treatments to improve her quality of life, because having difficulty breathing, she could not do more than lie down and that caused her waist problems, chronic low back pain. To correct that, she contacted the traumatologist who advised her to swim as an alternative.

While I started that path, I continued the clinical treatment with medication. “Little by little they took me off the medication. Today I take it occasionally when I have some symptoms. Let’s say I have it on the nightstand, just in case, ”she says happily.

It may interest you: He is from Quilmes, he was encouraged to swim among the ice of Ushuaia without a neoprene and today he is a benchmark in that practice

competition with itself

Last November, he swam 21 kilometers in open water. Four years ago, she had started in a club pool as therapy for her illness. But she was encouraged to take the first 2 kilometer strokes, followed by 4 kilometers and when she realized it, she was already training for the longest journey he had made to date.

Getting to that point took months of intense training: six days a week and sometimes double shifts. Despite the great effort that she makes of it, she does not compete with other swimmers but against herself and “to join points on the map,” she explains.

“I have nothing to lose because I am not going to compete with anyone on every trip. I just want to improve myself, that’s why I don’t care about the time it takes to do the distance, it only matters to complete the objectives. And that is what I ask my coach and we work based on that. He had never practiced sports, let alone competed for something, so this is quite an achievement, ”he says and laughs.

Anila Rindlisbacher wants to repeat the Concordia-Puerto Yerua crossing, 22 km over the Uruguay River and improve my time compared to last year; unite Paso de la Patria with Corrientes Capital, 35 KM above the Paraná River

“I started swimming almost by chance, because the traumatologist told me to do yoga, Pilates or swimming. And I chose to swim…”, she reviews. Since the beginning of this year, she has already joined Villa Urquiza-Paraná swimming, in the Paraná River; Concordia- Puerto Yeruá on the Uruguay River.

For this reason, he considers that the great plus is knowing that with what he does he encourages other people: “I know that I give hope to many people who have the same disease and also to those who are going through a lot of other conditions. I would like them to see sport as a healing activity, ”he wishes.

On each journey, he carries the flag of Iniciativa Alas, the NGO he represents and which is an alliance of associations between countries to guarantee the right to health for people with primary immunodeficiencies.

“For this year I have three goals: repeat Concordia-Puerto Yerua, 22 km over the Uruguay River and improve my time compared to last year; join Paso de la Patria with Corrientes Capital, 35 KM over the Paraná River; and put together a team with some friends and cross the Río de la Plata, which for now is just a wish, but I am very persevering and I have my coach, Pablo Testa, from Nadando Argentina, and I think it may be possible” , ends.

Keep reading:

She swam in the middle of the ice, in the Malvinas Islands and in a volcano: Celia, the 66-year-old woman who challenges her own limitsShe is from Quilmes, she was encouraged to swim among the ice of Ushuaia without neoprene and today she is a benchmark in that practice

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