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When I was eleven I was thrown from a horse. I ripped my spleen, cracked a rib, and chipped a vertebrae. I was hospitalized for ten days and thankfully, they didn't have to do surgery. Five years later my left knee gave out for the first time. I was jumping rope and I heard a loud pop. There was an intense pain in my knee and it wouldn't support my weight.
I went to a western doctor first. He took x-rays and proclaimed, "You have healthy sixteen- year-old knees. I wish I had knees as healthy!"
"Why won't my left one hold my weight?" I queried.
He didn't have an answer but suggested exploratory knee surgery as a possible solution to the collapsing left knee. We left, and I was lucky enough to have a mom who took me to a very advanced chiropractor. It took us three weeks to get in to see him, and all the while, I was on crutches. He stood me in front a mirror and showed me how my left arch had fallen. How that, in turn, allowed my knee to fall in, towards my mid-line putting stress on the hinge joint of the knee, which in turn dropped my left hip. The crazy thing, is that I could SEE what he was saying!
He did a few tests before hanging my leg off the table and yanking on it. I felt another pop, then warmth flooded down my leg. It was sore, but I was able to put weight on it. I remember carrying my crutches out of his office.
In my mind I was healed. I didn't realize how much the impact of that horse accident was going to have on me through the years. By the time I was twenty-nine, I had been a massage therapist for three years and my knee was giving out all the time. I had moved states away from the chiropractor who had first helped me. I was keeping myself together with medical massage, acupuncture, and chiropractor treatments every week.
Eventually, I discovered Rolfing. I went through two ten series to start. I learned new ways of standing, of walking. Through time, it created movement options for me, and new relationships within myself. I'm happy to say, my knee has been stable for eight years now. I knew then that I had to learn how to help other people in the way that I had been helped. I graduated from the Ida Rolf Institute in 2013. In addition to taking continuing education every year, I continue a mentorship with Bill Morrow, a Rolfer with twenty-three years of experience.
