My history of trauma begins at the tender young age of four, when I was showing off for the boy scouts gathered at my family’s home.  Walking along the top of the couch, I slipped, fell, and split my head open just above the eye, where I had hit the edge of the coffee table.  I continued this rough-and-tumble lifestyle by riding bikes, jumping on our trampoline, and generally doing any sport I could.  At 13 years of age, my lower leg was fractured in a head-on collision, literally.  I was walking around the edge of an inner-tube “track” after falling off during my turn.  The driver of the snowmobile, unaware that I was walking around in the dark, opened the throttle wide for his son, who was the next rider.  When the inner-tube slid off the track, his son’s head connected directly with my tibia, just below the knee.  (His son had a concussion.)  The first physician to read the X-ray misinterpreted the fracture to be a sprain and instructed me to walk on the leg.  I remained with the rest of the church youth group in the mountain cabin on Granby Lake above Colorado Springs.  This experience was likely my introduction to the field of study that would later be the subject of my bachelor’s degree, Music Therapy.  In order to get to the bathroom I sang “Ticket to Ride” by The Carpenters.  The pain was more intense than anything I have recalled before or since that time.  When the weekend of sheer misery was finally over, I returned home to crutches that my family had in the garage.  These wonderful devices allowed me to move with significantly less pain. 

Two weeks later, after resting in bed with my leg on a pillow, my mother took me to the doctor in Colorado Springs because the pain continued to be intense whenever my leg left the pillow.  We did not have insurance at the time and, since I had already seen a physician on the mountain who diagnosed a sprain, an earlier appointment had not seemed necessary.  The next physician, however, diagnosed my intense leg pain as thrombophlebitis, or blood clots in the leg.  He instructed my mother to take me to the hospital, where he planned to admit me.  By the time he met us at the hospital later that evening, the swelling in my leg had reduced so dramatically that he felt I was out of danger.  The physician put a cast on my leg and sent me back home on crutches.  Once the leg was fitted with the cast the pain was virtually gone, other than riding in the car and over bumps.  Like most active children, I was bored out of my gourd.  My mother was rather upset when she found me bouncing on our trampoline outside with my cast and crutches.  

As an adult, I learned that the original injury was actually a fracture, and fractures of the bone do not like vibration. A common way to locate hidden fractures is by using a tuning fork to apply vibration on a bone.  If the pain is intense in any area, it is considered a fracture.   

While in my church youth group league, I was able to play basketball, volleyball, and softball through junior and senior high school.  I recall having knee pain but feeling that I needed to play through the pain for the sake of victory for my team.  (I was typically the tallest on my basketball team, standing 5’9-3/4” and playing center.)  Most years, I spent a few weeks on crutches and had medical diagnostic procedures, including one in which a large needle injected dye into my knee to create greater contrast for the image.  No cause or cure was ever obvious, so typically rest, ice, and my friend Ibuprofen resolved the symptoms until the next round. 

By the time I reached 30 years old, I had been involved in five car accidents, all of which I walked away from, though all required care for back and neck pain.  In spite of the trauma, I continued hiking and learned to ride a bike during these years.  At one point, I was riding my bike 20 miles a day.  

While traveling through valleys of trauma I worked with several physical therapists. As a result of this interaction, I decided to pursue my master’s and doctoral degrees as a physical therapist.  One month after finishing my master’s degree, I was in my 3^rd car accident and was required to be off work for three months.  I found a physical therapist close to my home and was introduced to a new concept of osteopathy that helped reduce pain.  I was stunned when my pain was immediately gone after 30 minutes of this revolutionary treatment.  He began by addressing the front of my back, looking for tenderness in my belly. Since my abdomen was horribly bruised from the car accident, I thought my confusion was understandable.  Today, I consider this experience a gift. The therapist, Bob, put my bruised body into a strange pretzel-like position and, before long, the pain was gone, even when he pushed on this bruised area.  I learned from this experience that the pain was not from the bruise, but something much deeper in the body that was communicating its displeasure when poked, and then its improved disposition when placed in the strange combination of movements.  When I stood up after Bob’s treatment was completed, I was shocked at the immediate relief in my pain, as well as the restored range of motion – I could now bend backward compared with 30 minutes earlier, when I could not even stand up straight without climbing my hands up my thighs.   I thought Bob was the candy man.   

After two more car accidents, and moving out of the area without finding another Bob, I ended up with so much back and leg pain that I had back surgery.  I was thrilled when the right leg pain and back pain were both completely gone when I awoke from the surgery.   I followed the surgeon’s recommendations, but became very discouraged when all of the pain returned within one month.  I worked with anyone I thought might be able to help me, including chiropractors, massage therapists, and physical therapists.  I used medications, heat, and ice, in addition to trying most forms of exercise.  Each effort was without benefit.  I eventually considered the ways of Bob, the physical therapist who introduced the pretzel moves that seemed to give the best benefit.  I started to correlate movements I made with increased or decreased pain, and learned more about the technique to improve alignment of the skeleton that was now causing nerve pain.  After using these movement combinations with specialized stretching for prolonged periods I was shocked at how well I could control, and even prevent, the back pain. 

I began to pay more attention to specific behaviors or activities that I did or did not perform. It became clear that the physics approach was more beneficial and longer-lasting than any medication.  I determined that I was a physics failure, rather than a chemical crisis.  The benefits were remarkable when I paid attention to how I moved — keeping my nose over my toes, shoulders over my hips, and (especially) holding my pelvic floor muscles tight when transitioning from one posture to another.  Another amazing benefit of holding tight my inner core and pelvic floor muscles was increasing the amount of time between bathroom visits.  When the pelvic floor muscles are well-exercised, I can sleep through the night and stay in bed up to 12 hours without a single bathroom urge.  However, when I get lazy and stop using the pelvic floor, I start waking up during the night.    

The knee pain eventually caught up with me and I saw an orthopedic surgeon who said my knee pain was because I was overweight.  In hindsight, I should have asked the surgeon how my other knee did not hurt.  I often find that, in the medical field, we blame many problems on obesity and age.  As scientists, if those variables are really the cause, we should expect to see that in every case …but we do not.  In other words, every fat person should hurt and no skinny people should have that type of pain.  All old people should hurt more each day as they age, and no young people should have those symptoms.  In reality, I am amazed at how many older folks suddenly look, act, and move like a younger version of themselves once the cause of their symptoms is treated. 

The orthopedic surgeon did not feel surgery would help, but did recommend that I start taking supplements to help with the knee pain.  I took Glucosamine Chondroitin with Sam-E for 3 months.  However, after those 3 months, I noted no change in the symptoms and felt frustrated that I was paying this money, taking these pills, and seeing no improvement.  Since I was merely producing expensive urine, I stopped taking the pills.  Not surprisingly, I noted no change in knee pain when I stopped taking the pills. 

Shortly after completing the knee supplement experiment, I was honored by selection to study four weeks in Germany with the world-renowned swelling disorder specialists, Ethyl and Michael Földi.  While working in their clinic, I began to recognize early warning signs of swelling in my own legs.  I saw very tiny red dots and spider veins, or teleangiectasias, on my legs, indicating that vein damage from the blood clots over 30 years ago was catching up to me.  Once I returned home from that studying opportunity, I started wearing compression stockings on my lower legs from my toes to my knees.  As a result, my knee pain went away.  Each day, I ask myself, “Do you feel like putting on these compression socks?”, and I always answer in the negative.  Then I ask, “Do you feel like having knee pain today?”  By catching the warning signs of swelling problems, I was able to begin wearing compression socks early, and thereby prevent the swelling problem from worsening. 

As long as I wear my compression socks daily (and get new ones when the elastic gives out), I do not have knee pain.  I also continue to focus on firing my pelvic floor/inner core while transitioning from one position to the next.  This habit helps maintain improved skeletal alignment, thus preventing back and neck pain. 

I hope to use my experiences for the benefit of others.  It is now my pleasure to share these techniques with patients interested in learning how to use physics to control their own symptoms.