In January of 2013 a SUV crashed into the driver's side door of my car. Over the next two years I would undergo multiple surgeries and procedures followed by eight long post-op and recovery periods before relearning how to walk.

I was told by all my surgeons that I had unreasonable and unrealistic expectations regarding my long-term prognosis. What almost everyone including my physicians, surgeons and physical therapists didn't understand was that I didn't believe, nor did I expect my surgeries, procedures, and PT to return my broken, twisted, disabled body to the way it was before the accident. I expected my surgeries and procedures to give me the opportunity to rebuild my body's alignment.

I am a Black Belt in the martial arts styles of Kung Fu, Wushu and Escrima. In 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 and thousands of hours of classes learning how to break down and rebuild any movement or motion that doesn't maintain your body's alignment you become a Black Belt.

 Inside the Dojo there is no such thing as a weak side and a strong side and every exercise is done on both sides of your body. 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.  What mattered was how I was going to start at the weakest point in my body and develop a Rehab Plan that used Woff's Law, Davis's Law, my martial arts training and the cane that I invented to rebuild my body's alignment.

I was continuously told by my physical therapists that I had a weak side and a strong side. I understood because of my understanding of anatomy and biomechanics and my martial arts training that I didn't have a weak side and a strong side. I had an underloaded injured side and an overloaded side. 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. The hip, knee and ankle joints are designed to work together in pairs to balance, load and unload the weight of the body evenly over and on the joints to maintain alignment. The two sides of my body needed to be rehabbed and rebuilt together to offload my uninjured side and reload my injured side.

You can eat the best food and have the best healthcare, but If you walk with your head down looking towards your feet. Or you walk with the top of the inside of your arm or arms extended away from your sides the way traditional canes, crutches, walking sticks and walkers force your arms and spine to be positioned to maintain balance, your head will stop being aligned and centered over your body. Your spine will lose alignment and your core muscles that maintain your body's alignment, upright posture and stability will become weaker.

When you walk with your head up and your line of sight towards the ground ahead of you the way you drive a car or ride a bike the top of your spine will maintain its natural alignment. Your arms will be able to swing forward and backward stabilizing your body and helping your feet contact the ground from heel to toe engaging your core muscles as you walk. You will become more upright and stronger with time because you're moving your body the way it was designed to be aligned, moved and positioned to maintain alignment and strong core muscles.

Try walking across the room with your head down and your line of sight towards your feet. Feel how the core muscles around the top of your spine, shoulder blades and chest that keep your head and shoulders upright stop engaging. Notice how your visual field and walking stride become smaller. That your arms stop swinging forward and backward and how your weight is now distributed more on the front of your hips, knees, ankles and feet reducing your balance and your body's alignment making you less stable.

Then keep your head up with your line of sight towards the ground ahead of you on the other side of the room the way your drive a car or ride a bike. Notice that your body is more stable and that you can feel the core muscles around the top of your spine and shouder blades engaging. That your weight is more evenly distribute over your hips, knees and ankle joints and that your feet can contact the ground from heel to toe. When you walk with your head up your walking stride is bigger and your arms can swing forward and backward helping stabilize your body as you walk. You reduce your risk of falling because your visual field is bigger giving you have enough time to stop or step around anything that you might otherwise trip over causing you to fall.

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 neural pathways that make motor behavior automatic are changed. To quote Dr. Davis, an orthopedic surgeon, "Use it or lose it." In other words, practice, good or bad makes permanent. You are the way you walk!

When my surgeon finished my leg surgery he made sure that my left leg was straight, aligned and the same length as my right leg. For the next three and a half months I used Mobi Leg crutches. My left leg was bent, locked in a brace with my foot off the ground non weight bearing. The top of the Mobi Leg crutches with the saddle top forced the top of my arms away from my sides, my shoulders and the top of my spine upward and forward in front of the rest of my body. Because of the way the crutches and leg brace forced my leg to be aligned, moved and positioned 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 without crutches on April 1st, of 2015, my left leg was bent, twisted and an inch longer than my right. My Achilles’ tendon had shortened from being off the ground for three and a half months and because of that my left heel didn't touch the ground when I stood or walked. I had a different length step, stride, and gait on each side of my body. Every step I took was painful and awkward. My head along with the top of my spine and shoulders were rotated forward. This was not a result of the car accident, but the result of the way the crutches and leg brace kept my healing body aligned, moved and positioned to maintain balance.

I developed drop foot from the nerve damage in my leg from the car accident and from my foot being off the ground non weight-bearing for three and a half months. 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.

After my surgeries and procedures, I would complain to my physician husband that the crutches, leg brace, arm slings and other mobility devices were bankrupting the opportunity that my surgeons had given me . That they were forcing my healing body to be continuously misaligned, moved and positioned in ways it was never designed for. I would tell my husband almost nightly that traditional crutch feet made a poor foot substitute. That they weren't designed to maintain the body's alignment and upright posture like a foot. That the crutches were creating injury and secondary physical disability because of the way they forced the body to be aligned and moved 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 straight by itself, but wouldn't let you stand up straight by yourself with your head upright and your arms next to your sides 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 and unstable with time.

 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 you know more about human biomechanics and how the body needs to be aligned and moved then I do and I'm a physician. Stop complaining about the crutches, canes, walkers and walking sticks and use your knowledge of anatomy and human biomechanics and 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 when walking, turning, and stepping backward. That can help you and other people regain, maintain or develop an upright, stable walking gait.

The 3rd Foot Cane that I designed, built and Patented and the daily Rehab Plan that I created from my martial arts training allowed me to regain my body's alignment and a heel to toe walking gait. Letting me reach my unreasonable and unrealistic expectations and walk upright without a cane.

The West Coast Consortium For Technology And Innovation chose The 3rd Foot Cane as a 2020 Portfolio Member. 

In 2021 I was included in Think and Zoom Future of Disability — Global list of Disabled Innovators for the mobility devices that I invented and Patented.

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 seven Utility Patents and two design Patents for the cane, crutch, cane foot, crutch foot, walker and wheelchair. All of the mobility devices that I invented and Patented are based on the principles of Woff's Law and Davis's Law.