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Leo Napier of Flint refuses to lose a match. He has survived three strokes, several bouts with cancer, incontinence and becoming legally blind, all the while continuing his passion of wrestling. In the ring, Leo is known as “Father Time”, so he likes to think of himself as ageless. His health may have wavered over the years, but his attitude certainly has not.
Leo has been fascinated with wrestling since childhood when he began watching professional wrestling matches on television. However, it would not be until decades later that he would consistently become involved with the sport and even win his division.
In 2018, Leo’s biggest opponent became prostate cancer and then incontinence, a consequence of his surgery. He was referred to Lisa Priestap, a McLaren Flint physical therapist, who specializes in men’s and women’s pelvic floor health issues.
“When I first started seeing Lisa, I was wearing Depends and using pads on my bed and leaking through everything,” shares Leo. “When we initially met, she explained what therapy would involve, and I admit, I thought she was crazy. She explained how my anatomy is supposed to work and then she taught me how to do Kegel exercises to strengthen my pelvic floor muscles. The next step was to begin working out with weights and exercise equipment. I began seeing progress, one morning I woke up completely dry, and I started believing in the process.”
Lisa has specialized training and several years of experience helping men and women with pelvic health issues such as bowel or bladder leakage, pelvic pain, constipation, and pregnancy-related pain.
“Lisa has been encouraging and I know she is passionate about helping her patients,” said Leo. “What really has made an impression on me is that she is thinking about the moves I do in the ring and is incorporating them into my physical therapy workouts.”
Leo plans on returning to the ring in late February or early March and has invited Lisa and his oncologist to join him when he does. He wants to share his message of overcoming cancer and incontinence by publicly recognizing the clinicians who helped him get back to the sport he loves.
For questions regarding pelvic floor health issues, call McLaren's Flint Therapy Services location at (810) 342-2356.