After a life-altering car accident 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. 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 develop a Rehab Plan based on my understanding of anatomy and my martial arts training to 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.

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 Chinese Medical doctor and a Master of the Qigong fighting arts. Because of my training with Master Wong, I understood, The SAID Principle, The Principle of Reversibility, Wolff's Law and Davis's Law and how those Laws and Principles determine how much mobility, core strength, balance and alignment your body maintains and regains after an injury. 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 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. There is no such thing as a weak side and a strong side in martial arts. We are taught that if one side of the body is "weak" then that side is underloaded and the other side of the body is overloaded. To become a Black Belt you must learn how to break down and rebuild movement and motion until it maintains the body's alignment and the 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 starts changing and 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 automatic. In other words you are the way you walk. If you walk looking down in front of your feet 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 or anyone else 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 and the inside of your arms next to your side and your feet contacting the ground from heel to toe then your core muscles would become weaker and 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 and the cane and crutch that I invented with a foot that moved, pivoted and maintained balance like a foot not a tip allowed me to regain my body's alignment and reach my unreasonable and unrealistic expectations. Allowing me to regain the ability to walk upright and without a cane.

The United States Patent Office and the Canadian and Chinese Patent Offices have granted a total of nine Patents for the mobility devices that I invented. This includes 7 Utility Patents and 2 Design Patents for the Cane, Crutch, Cane Foot & Crutch Foot, Walker and in 2025 a Wheelchair for users with spinal cord injuries who have limited or no movement in the legs.

The Wheelchair that I invented and Patented has a gearing system, and a new kind of seat that makes getting into and out of a wheelchair easier. The design of the back of the wheelchair supports the natural alignment and curvature of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. The inside of the arms stay next to the side and the top of the shoulders stay upright during ambulation. The design of the back of the wheelchair allows the arms to move forward as well as backward behind the body engaging the flexor and extensor muscles around the spine and the Latissimus dorsi muscle. With each rotation of the gearing system the handgrip on one side of the wheelchair moves the leg on the other side of the body forward and backward creating contralateral movement and improved muscular skeletal alignment and muscle engagement of the legs, spine and arms for user's with SCI.

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

In 2021 I was included in Think and Zoom Future of Disability — Global list of Disabled Innovators.


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