I recently celebrated my 67th birthday on August 30. The best birthday gift was one to myself- the Egoscue exercise program which I began on June 24th. I do the exercises every day and then pay attention to what changes occur in my body.

I no longer have chronic pain. I have a higher level of energy which is sustained throughout the day. I sleep more soundly. I am stronger and experience ease of movement in normal activities, sitting, walking, climbing stairs and overall experience a greater sense of well-being.

One expected result is a greater ability to focus and concentrate on the task at hand, part of which comes from not fidgeting to get comfortable and part from paying attention to my body movements. It seems to keep me grounded and in the present moment.

Three of my adult children are also doing the exercises and no longer have chronic pain in back, ankles and hips. I feel very gratified to know how they benefit and am grateful they are no longer experiencing rather severe chronic pain.

The discipline and commitment to the program are bringing great rewards!

My chronic pain started when I was only 22. I was extremely active and had been all of my life. In school I played soccer, tennis, ran track and cross country, and was a swimmer. I continued to be athletic throughout college and beyond. I competed in marathons, road races and triathlons. Even my job was active! I had just started a cleaning service and on the side I taught aerobics at the local fitness center. So anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up with plantar fascitis at the end of 2004. I tried icing, orthotics, and the usual recommendations for it and nothing worked. It progressively got worse and by the end of 2005, I had quit all exercise except swimming and biking. I was still cleaning houses and was in a lot of pain each day. Eventually I quit my job at the beginning of 2006. I continued to do nothing but swim and bike. My foot got progressively worse instead of better and in June of 2006 I hurt my shoulder swimming. Not more than a week later, I also got tendonitis in my hip and knee. I was now in bed doing nothing and had to have a wheelchair or else go out in a lot of pain if I wanted to move.

At this point, a friend suggested I try egoscue. He had let me borrow the book (Pain Free) several months before and I had done the "feet" section, but of course by that time my hips and everything else were so screwed up without me knowing that it had no effect. But since I was lying in bed doing nothing anyway, I thought I would give it another shot. So I did the "hip" section and within hours the tendonitis in my hip was gone! I started doing the hip, knee, shoulder, and foot section all in one day. Of course that was way too time consuming and not necessarily addressing my specific posture, so I got on the website, found some awesome friends on the message board and was directed to the online therapy. I began online therapy at the beginning of August and my hip and knee pain decreased to the point that I could again move around and not lie in bed all day. I made a lot of progress from August until the end of October as I could feel isolated muscles and changes in my body. However, the pain was still pretty intense in my foot and shoulder (and a new pain in my toe).

So that's when another friend that does egoscue suggested I use his clinic visit since he wouldn't be able to go. I was extremely thankful because I had not quite had the money to invest in a clinic visit yet, and was unsure how much difference it would make from the online therapy. I went to see Carol Hahnstadt out of the Chicago clinic and she went over techniques from my old menus, gave me a new menu, and answered questions. Immediately following the clinic visit, I saw improvements that 3 months of online therapy had not shown. Within 3 weeks of the clinic visit, I was back to work part time and walking around without thinking about my pain all day. It has only been a month since my clinic visit, and my pain fades with each day. For the last few days, I've been walking through stores like an idiot just because I'm walking! I can now walk around without constantly thinking about my pain! Every single pain I had is very slight and fading by the day. I'm not yet walking and running for exercise, but I know it won't be long! Egoscue has literally saved my life because otherwise I would be a 24 year old cripple, no joke. I can think of nothing else that would have helped me. I will be doing egoscue forever and will recommend it to every single person because of what it has done for me!