I hurt my hip while dancing several years ago (it sounds a whole lot more fun than it really was – I was just out of shape). Over the next several years, the pain got so bad that often I could barely walk. When I could walk, I had a significant limp. If I sat for a long time, getting up was excruciating. I had a sit-down job, so I hurt a lot.

I went to eight different medical doctors during those years. The last one was going to do surgery to repair what he thought was a tear, but he took a final precaution of injecting medication into the joint. If it helped, it meant it wasn't a tear. It helped tremendously, so I didn't have the surgery. But the pain returned after a few months, so I went to a physical therapist (for the 2nd time). There was a new guy who tried a move that no one in the center had seen, and it helped me more than anything else I had done to that point. The pain returned, but it took longer than it had in the past. And it never got as bad as it had been.

So I started a search for physical therapy sorts of exercises that I could do at home, and I found T-Tapp. Within 2 days, I already could tell that these exercises were going to help my hip. I tried doing the Total Workout, which I can now get all the way through, but it's too long for my ADD-hampered attention span. I do the 15 Minute Basic Workout Plus at least every other day and try to do it more often. If I keep it up, I have no pain. If I go too long between workouts, the pain returns.

Unfortunately, I've gained 20 pounds over the past year – I eat junk food when I'm nervous. When I weighed this much in the past (155), the pain in my hip, knees and feet was awful. While I don't feel as good as I did at 135, I have no pain in my hip or knees. I attribute that to T-Tapp. Now I just need to lose the weight while also keeping up the exercise. Once that happens, not only will I feel better, I’ll also look better, be healthier and be the size I want to be (8). I need to figure out how to stay motivated – and I hope T-Tapp offers some kind of program that gives me personal contact with someone.

I hope I can come to your annual fitness event, and I hope some day to learn to be a trainer so I can help others get the same sorts of benefits I've gotten. In fact, I have a dream of helping young women who have been abused or gotten themselves into trouble but are trying to get their lives back on track. I think being in good health is part of that – to both feel better physically and feel good emotionally. That's for another conversation.

Karen Randau