On January 15th of 2013 an SUV crashed into the driver's side door of my car. Over the next two years I would undergo three surgeries and five procedures followed by eight long post-op and recovery periods.

I was continually told that I had unreasonable and unrealistic expectations in regard to my long-term prognosis. What almost everyone including my physicians didn't understand was that I didn't believe, nor did I expect my surgeries and PT to return my broken, twisted, disabled body to the way it was before the accident. I expected my surgeries and PT to give me an opportunity. Winston Churchill said, "A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty."

The arm slings, crutches, leg brace, walker, walking canes and walking sticks that I used after my surgeries and procedures continuously misaligned and forced my healing body to be aligned, moved and positioned in ways it was never designed for causing secondary disability unrelated to my car accident.

I am a Black Belt in the martial arts styles of Kung Fu, WuShu and Escrima. At the time of the accident I was training for my second degree Black Belt in WuShu. I began my martial arts and Qigong training in my twenties with Sifu K and Master Wong and my Defendo training with Bill Underwood at the age of twelve.

The first time I met Master Wong, he handed me two books. The first book was Gray's Anatomy. Sifu K told me that I needed to learn how the body was put together and how it moves. The second book was a Physics book on rotational force. Master Wong told me that book would teach me to think of the human body as a biological movement machine made up of levers/skeletal bones and fulcrums/joints.

I started relearning how to walk without crutches on April 1st of 2015. It had been two years and three months since the accident. After each of my surgeries and procedures my movement and mobility were severely restricted for between one and a half and three and a half months and months at a time

I walked one block without crutches on April 1st and the next day I walked two. On the 14th of April of 2015, I finalized my 4-year rehab plan to regain physical ability from physical disability using my martial arts and Qigong training and started my daily working walks. I walked six painful miles that day. It took me six hours to walk those miles and I stopped and rested more then I walked. When I came home, I asked myself what I had learned that day. Then I took inventory and cried.

 I couldn't write with my right hand due to the scare tissue in my right index finger. I couldn't write with my left hand due to the ulnar nerve damage in my left arm. I had such unrelenting nerve pain from my damaged sciatic and ulnar nerves that I couldn't sit for more than five minutes or pull my arm inward towards my side without pain radiating down my arm. I had trouble turning my head due to the damage done to my spine in the accident. As well as from the secondary disability caused from the way the crutches forced my head, neck and shoulders to be aligned, positioned and moved during the three and a half months that my left leg was bent and braced, with my foot off the ground.

My surgeon made sure that my left leg was straight and the same length as my right leg when he finished surgery. The next three and a half months my left leg was bent, braced with my left foot off the ground. The crutches and leg brace continuously misaligned and forced my healing leg and damaged spine to be misaligned and positioned in ways they were never designed for. The muscles between my hip and knee lengthened and the ones between my knee and foot shortened including my Achilles tendon.

When I started relearning how to walk, my left leg was an inch longer than my right, but because my Achilles’ tendon had shortened my left heel didn't touch the ground when I stood or walked. I developed drop foot from my foot being off the ground and from the nerve damage in my leg. The front of my left foot didn't bend normally and there were places on the outside edge of my left foot that I couldn’t feel when I walked and when I was on the stairs. I had a different sized step, stride, and gait on each side of my body.

After I took inventory of my body, I created a motion map and a series of walking and standing exercises based on my decades of martial arts and Qigong training. I started the Motion Map by mapping the motion points in a body that was in postural alignment using a skeletal diagram. Then I mapped my own broken, twisted, disabled body on another skeletal diagram. Next, I overlaid my map on top of the map of the body that was in postural alignment. I did that to give myself a starting point and point of reference to work from. I began a monthly movement and motion journal to chart my progress and to help me understand how to adapt my rehab plan and the series of standing core strengthening and stretching exercises as I progressed.

My martial arts and Qigong training helped me to understand that I didn't have a weak side and a strong side. I had an underloaded injured side and an overloaded side. That my overloaded uninjured side was becoming weaker and weaker from being continuously overloaded and my underloaded injured side was stopping the two sides of my body from working together to generate balanced, stable movement and motion.

In martial arts I had been taught to build a strong stable foundation that could execute movement and motion that aligned and connected to and through the midline of my body. I understood because of my Qigong training that the two sides of my body needed to be rebuilt together from the weakest point for them to relearn how to work together to balance, load and unload the weight of my body over and on my weight bearing joints.

In martial arts, dance and most competitive sports you practice something until you think you know it, then you keep practicing it until it knows you. When what you're practicing flows out of you without thinking you've developed procedural memory that is automatic and can connect your motion and movement and put flow in your go.

Procedural memory is a form of muscle memory from which the neural pathways in our brain that make motor behavior automatic are formed. When movement is restricted, changed or altered for a continuous length of time without interruption the pathways that make motor behavior automatic are changed. To quote Dr. Davis, "Use it or lose it." In other words, practice, good or bad makes permanent.

If you walk upright with your feet contacting the ground from heel to toe and your head aligned and centered between your shoulders with the palms of your hands facing your thighs and your arms next to your sides you’ll engage and strengthen your core muscles with each step you take. Overtime you'll become stronger and upright because you're moving your body the way it was designed to move to maintain the natural curvature of your spine and the muscles that maintain the alignment of your weight bearing joints and your upright posture, balance, and stability.

If you walk bent to one side or forward or onto a cane, crutch or walking stick handle to maintain balance your head stops being aligned and centered over your body. Your spine loses its natural alignment and you have to shorten your step, stride and gait to maintain balance or you'll fall. Your hip, knee and ankle joints stop being able to work together to evenly balance, load and unload the weight of your body over and on your feet. When your feet can't contact the ground from heel to toe with your head upright and centered between your shoulders and your arms next to your sides it stops you from engaging your core muscles between your neck and waist and in between your shoulder blades that support the alignment of your spine . You become weaker and more bent over with time because of the way you're forcing your body to be aligned and moved when walking to maintain balance.

When I started learning how to walk my left leg felt like someone had taken my right shoe, put it on my left foot, tightened it up as tight as they could, then rotated my left leg and hip outward and wrapped it in electrical tape. I had such profound muscle atrophy in my body from the two years and three months of restricted mobility that If I leaned left I started to fall sideways. I learned to use my eyes to help maintain my balance when I walked the way someone who is born with a vestibular condition does. Instead of looking down at the ground when I walked which would reduce my balance and stability and keep my feet from contacting the ground from heel to toe and engaging my core muscles I kept my head up and aligned and centered between my shoulders. I set my line of sight towards the ground in the distance of the direction I was walking.

When your line of sight is focused towards the ground in the distance of the direction you’re moving with your head upright and your palms facing your thighs you're able to maintain the alignment of your spine and use your entire foot when you walk. You can take a normal size step and maintain a big enough walking stride for your feet to contact the ground from heel to toe and engage all your core muscles including the ones between your neck and waist and in between your shoulder blades that maintain the alignment of your spine and your head upright and centered over your shoulders. You can glance down towards the ground in front of your feet when walking without dropping your head down. The only time you should look down at the ground in front of your feet when walking is when you're on the stairs, in the dark, a wet or slippery surface, making a transition from one surface height to another, or stepping over or around something in your path.

When I was a kid I used to love walking forward and backward along the edge of the curb. Walking along the edge of the curb forces you to equalize your step and stride and moves your legs closer together towards the midline of your body. The edge of the curb allowed me to start using the entire outside edge of my foot including the parts I couldn’t feel from the nerve damage done in the accident to my leg.

I started with five steps on a very low curb near my house. I set my line of sight towards the ground in the distance of the direction I was moving and not down at the ground. I did that to keep my head aligned and centered over my shoulders. My shoulders aligned over my hips and to maximize my visual field to help maintain my balance, stability and engage my core muscles. Every day I added a few more steps on the edge of the curb until I was walking more steps along the edge of the curb than off. When I walked along the edge of the curb I could use my foot properly. I became more comfortable on the edge of the curb than off it. The minute I stepped off the curb I couldn't feel the outside edge of my foot and my walking was awkward and I felt less stable.

As the months and the next three years went by I slowly started to regain a more balanced step, stride, and gait even when I was off the curb. All of my core muscles grew stronger month after month. I stopped having pain in my spine and in the muscles in my left leg because my body was able to maintain alignment when I walked and move the way it was designed to move. My head became more upright and I became more stable and stronger because of the cane that I invented allowed my head to stay upright and aligned and centered over my body. The front of the cane foot supported and maintained balance for the front of my foot without extending my arm and leaning on a cane handle.

I used the cane foot together with my feet to do foot and leg exercises and to slowly and gently stretch the muscles in my left leg and foot. Helping my left foot relearn how to contact the ground from heel to toe again.I kept adapting and modifying my rehab plan and the standing and stretching exercises. After the first year I incorporated parts of the Qigong 8th Brocade into my daily rehab plan.

I understood the day I started relearning how to walk that it didn't matter how strong I once was or what I could do up until the day of the accident. The only thing that mattered was how I was going to rebuild a strong enough foundation to generate balanced movement and momentum that connected and flowed to and through the midline of my body so that I could regain the alignment of my spine and my weight bearing joints. I kept adapting my rehab plan and core strengthening exercises which allowed my broken, twisted disabled body to slowly become upright with my hip, knee, and ankle joints aligned and working together as pairs to evenly load and unload the weight of my body over my feet from heel to toe. My core muscles especially the ones between my neck and waist and in-between my shoulders that supported my spine grew stronger and stronger month after month. I was able to reverse the kyphosis that I had developed from using crutches. After the first year I redeveloped feeling along the outside edge of my foot and my toes were able to bend normally again and my walking became less awkward.

After my hamstring surgery I would complain to my physician husband almost daily that my crutches and other mobility devices were bankrupting the opportunity that my surgeons had given me by forcing my healing body to be continuously misaligned and moved in ways it was never designed for to maintain balance. I would tell my husband almost nightly how your underarms were not designed to be extended away from your body when walking. That crutch feet didn’t have the same proportions as the foot and because of that they couldn't support or maintain upright posture with the head aligned and centered over the body. That the crutches were creating injury and secondary physical disability unrelated to my car accident with each step I took by forcing my arms and head to be positioned in front of the rest of my body when I walked to maintain balance

When I briefly used traditional canes and walking sticks after I started relearning how to walk, I would complain to my husband that you can't extend your arm or arms away from your body when walking and lean forward or to one side onto a crutch handle, cane handle or walking stick handle to maintain balance without creating physical injury and disability throughout your entire body. That no one had ever developed, maintained or regained physical ability or an upright, stable walking gait by continuously forcing their body to be misaligned and moved in the ways that traditional canes, crutches and walkers force the body to be aligned and moved to maintain balance.

 When I told my husband after I started walking 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 then stop complaining about the crutches, canes, walkers and walking sticks and use your knowledge of human biomechanics to build a new kind of mobility devices. Ones that can maintain the body's alignment and stability and help you and other people regain, maintain or develop an upright, stable walking gait.

I started creating my mobility devices by visualizing how to align and move an injured or disabled body in a way that would maintain the body's stability and natural alignment.

When I wasn’t thinking about how to position my steps to engage my core muscles and create physical ability from my physical disability during my daily working walks. I was thinking about how to invent and build a new kind of cane, crutch, and other mobility devices that would support, maintain and align balance, stability, and upright posture.

After I invented the 3rd Foot Cane I would use two of the them to do standing core strengthening and stretching exercise. I did that to offload the overloaded right side of my body and reload the underloaded left side. Helping the two sides of my body to relearn how to work together again to balance, load and unload the weight of my body over and on my feet. After my daily working walks I would use my canes for fifteen minutes to walk forward and backwards. I did that to help my left foot relearn how to walk from heel to toe again and to reestablish a balanced step, stride and walking gait when walking forward, backward and when turning.

It took over three years and three thousand miles to untwist my left leg and redevelop a balanced, upright stable walking gait that aligned my movement and motion to and through the midline of my body. My left leg, hip and foot are straight and aligned as designed again. My legs are the same length. My step and stride on both sides of my body are balanced and my feet strike the ground from heel to toe engaging the core muscles with each step I take. I no longer have drop foot in my left foot because my cane helped helped gently stretch and lengthen my Achilles tendon and the muscles between my mid-foot and toes. Allowing the front of my foot and my toes to stretch and bend normally again when I walk. I have one-hundred percent of my former range and mobility in my left arm and shoulder. I don't have pain in my spine or in my shoulder. As of April 15th, of 2019 I'd walked 4,514 miles on my daily working walks.

I walk normally today and without a cane despite the prognosis I was given after my car accident because of great surgeons and the cane that I invented, used, and patented. The cane that I invented allowed me and now others like me to redevelop a normal step, stride, and upright walking gait by keeping the body aligned as designed.

I still have unreasonable and unrealistic expectations and I look forward to the day when I no longer have to live with and manage the pain from the nerve damage in my leg caused from the car accident.

The cane that I invented is now being sold Worldwide. 

In 2020 The West Coast Consortium For Technology And Innovation chose the 3rd Foot Cane to be a Portfolio Member.

Ardra Shepard included The 3rd Foot Cane to be part of her 2021 Gift Guide for People With MS.

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

In January and February of 2019, I received my first two United States Utility patents, and in April 2020 I received my first US Design patent on my cane and crutch foot. My Walker/Rollator patent was issued on November 12, 2019. My US Crutch Utility Patent was issued on June 1st of 2021. My Canadian Cane Utility Patent was issued on November 3rd, of 2020. I have more patents and others pending in the United States and abroad and additional improved mobility items being developed that keep the body upright and Aligned as Designed.