After a life-altering car accident followed by two years of surgeries and procedures I was told by all my surgeons that I had unreasonable and unrealistic expectations regarding my long-term prognosis.

I am a Black Belt in the martial arts styles of Kung Fu, Wushu and Escrima. I began my martial arts training at the age of twelve with Bill Underwood. In my early twenties I started training with Master Wong and Sifu K. Master Wong was a Doctor of Chinese Medicine and a Master of the Qigong fighting arts. When I started my training with Master Wong he gave me Gray's Anatomy and a physics book on rotational force. Because of my training with Master Wong, I understood the importance of kinetic chain alignment, The SAID Principle, The Principle of Reversibility, Wolff's Law and Davis's Law and how those Laws and Principles determine how much core strength, balance and alignment your body maintains and regains after an injury.

One of the first things I learned in martial arts was that you're only as good as your training and if your training is lacking then so are you. When it came to the practical application of biomechanics as it relates to movement, motion and alignment along with my understanding of anatomy, my training was not lacking. I knew that if the right surgeons put my body back together I would be able to start at the weakest point in my body and create a Rehab Plan based on my understanding of anatomy and my martial arts training that would let me reach my unreasonable and unrealistic expectations.

In adult martial arts there is always a Plan. That Plan is what allows you to start as a White Belt and after six to nine years depending on the Style and thousands of hours of classes learning how to breakdown, rebuild and reconnect any movement and motion that doesn't maintain your body's alignment and core strength you become a Black Belt.

Practice does not make perfect or improve physical ability and core strength unless the quality of the quantity practiced maintains or helps regain the body's kinetic chain alignment. A body that maintains balance without maintaining alignment like you're forced to do when using traditional canes, crutches, walkers and wheelchairs will become weaker and more unstable over time.

In martial arts every exercise is done on both sides of the body starting from the weakest point. We are taught to use rotational force and kinetic chain transfer through and to the hips, core and pelvis from the ground up. Instead of isolating muscle movements, the entire body works in coordination to initiate and execute movement. There is no such thing as a weak side and a strong side in martial arts. If one side of the body is "weak" then that side is underloaded and the other side of the body is overloaded. In martial arts you keep breaking down, refining and rebuilding movement and motion until every part of the body maintains alignment and equilibrium of the spine and weight-bearing joints. Master Wong, Sifu K, Sifu Lopez, Sifu Paul, Grandmaster Ramiro Estalilla, Sifu Pete Israel all taught martial arts using anatomical terms. Every class and every seminar I ever attended with Grandmaster Estalilla started with a lecture on moving the synovial joints of the body daily. Followed by the entire class following the Grandmaster as we moved those joints before the class began. Sifu Pete never said move to the left or move to the right. He said lateral right, lateral left and what's good for the right is good for the left. Sifu Paul taught how to think about and execute movement from the Sagittal Plane.

Any new motor behavior that affects the way you walk and how your body is aligned when moving starts forming new neural motor pathways in the brain in as little as three weeks. At four months a new motor pathway good or bad will rewrite an old neural pathway making the new motor behavior good or bad automatic. In other words, you are the way you walk. If you walk looking down in front of your feet the way some old people do or the way traditional mobility devices, canes, crutches, walking sticks and walkers force you to walk to maintain balance your spine will become misaligned, your core muscles will become weak, your step and stride will become smaller and less stable, and you will become more and more bent over with time.

When I started relearning how to walk without crutches on April 1st, of 2015, after two years of surgeries and procedures my left leg was bent, twisted and an inch longer than my right. This was not a result of the car accident, but the result of the way the leg brace and the top of the crutches kept my healing body aligned, moving and positioned to maintain balance as it healed. During the three and a half months that my left leg was bent locked in a brace with my foot off the ground non weight-bearing the muscles between my hip and knee lengthened and the ones between my knee and foot shortened including my Achilles tendon. Because of the way the crutches and leg brace kept my body aligned, moving and positioned as it healed the toes of my left foot like my left hip and knee were rotated outward and my left heel was rotated inward towards the instep of my right foot. My left heel didn't touch the ground when I stood or walked or was on the stairs. I had a different length step, stride, and gait on each side of my body. Every step I took was awkward and painful.

After my surgeries and procedures, I would complain to my physician husband nightly that the crutches, leg brace, arm slings, walker and other mobility devices were bankrupting the opportunity that my surgeons had given me by failing to maintain my body's alignment and forcing my healing body to be continuously misaligned, moved and positioned in ways it was never designed for. I would tell my husband almost daily that traditional crutch feet made a poor foot substitute because they weren't proportioned or designed to move or pivot or maintain balance and upright posture from the back of the crutch foot to the front of the crutch foot like a foot. That because of the way the crutches misaligned, moved and positioned the body to maintain balance they were creating injury and secondary physical disability unrelated to the car accident with each step that I took or anyone else using crutches took.

When I briefly used traditional canes and walking sticks after I started relearning how to walk, I would complain to my husband that no one had ever developed, maintained or regained their body's alignment, or an upright, stable heel to toe walking gait that engages and strengthens the body's core muscles by continuously forcing their body to be misaligned, moved and positioned in the ways that traditional canes, crutches, walking sticks and walkers force the body to be misaligned, moved and positioned. That if a walking cane stood up straight by itself, but wouldn't let you stand up straight with your head upright, aligned and centered over your shoulders, the inside of your arms next to your side, your feet contacting the ground from heel to toe then your core muscles would stop engaging as you walk and become weaker. Your spine and the rest of your body would become more misaligned, bent and unstable with time.

 When I told my husband after I started relearning how to walk that my surgeon had told me that I would never walk upright or normally again.  He asked me what I had said to him? I told him that I said, I wasn't born walking, and I wasn't born a Black Belt. My husband said you know more about human biomechanics and how the body needs to be aligned, moved and positioned when walking and moving to maintain alignment, upright posture and strong core muscles then I do and I'm a Harvard-MIT trained physician. You understand how to break down, rebuild and map any movement or motion from its weakest point that doesn't maintain alignment and neuromuscular control. You developed a Rehab Plan for your shoulder from your martial arts training and your understanding of anatomy. That Rehab Plan allowed you to regain one hundred percent of your former range and mobility in your left arm and shoulder despite the severity of your shoulder injury and being told by your surgeon and every surgeon we consulted and your physical therapists that it was impossible. That the best you or anyone else could hope for was somewhere between forty and eighty percent of your former range and mobility in your shoulder and arm. Stop complaining about the crutches, canes, walkers and walking sticks and use your knowledge of anatomy and human biomechanics and your ability to conceptualize and map the body's movement and motion. As well as your ability to build things to build a new kind of mobility devices. Ones that maintain the body's natural alignment, upright posture and stability. That can help you and other people regain, maintain or develop alignment and an upright, stable heel to toe walking gait and strong core muscles.

The Rehab Plan that I created based on my training and understanding of Anatomy and the cane and crutch that I invented with a foot that moved, pivoted and maintained balance and upright posture like a foot, not a tip. Allowed me to regain my body's alignment, a heel to toe walking gait and the equilibrium of my spine and weight-bearing joints. Letting me reach my unreasonable and unrealistic expectations and walk upright and without a cane.

In 2020 The 3rd Foot Cane was chosen as a Portfolio Member by The West Coast Consortium For Technology And Innovation.

More than seven thousand 3rd Foot Canes have been sold World Wide. In 2021 I was included in Think and Zoom Future of Disability — Global list of Disabled Innovators.

I have been granted a total of nine Patents by the United States Patent Office, the Canadian Patent Office and the Chinese Patent Office for mobility devices that I invented. This includes seven Utility Patents and 2 Design Patents for the Cane, Crutch, Cane Foot & Crutch Foot, Walker and Wheelchair. In 2025 the USPTO granted a Utility Patent for the Wheelchair that I invented for users with spinal cord injuries who have limited or no movement in the legs. The seat and back design of the wheelchair supports the natural alignment of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. The gearing system under the wheelchair allows the hand on one side of the body to extend the leg and foot on the other side of the body outward and back in during ambulation creating movement and motion of the legs and contralateral reciprocal movement of the body for wheelchair users with SCI.

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