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Thursday, June 23, 2005

Karate's Healing Powers

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
    Ever been stuck in traffic and glanced in your rear-view mirror only to see a vehicle barreling down on you?
    "Is that guy ever going to stop?" you wonder as your grasp tightens on the steering wheel.
    Well, that's what happened to Moriarty-area resident Katy Grantham when an 18-wheeler bore down on her Ford Ranger pickup truck on Interstate 40 near the Louisiana exit in June 1998.
    Only the semi never stopped.
    "It rear-ended me," said Grantham, now 60. "My neck, lower back and my head were hurt. I had some brain damage, lost my short-term memory.
    "I was in a lot of pain. I couldn't function. I got sicker and sicker from all the stress and pain. Then, I developed fibromyalgia. I got so sick I had to retire."
    Grantham said fibromyalgia is an "infection that attacks the nervous system. It's brought on through stress."
    After multiple operations on her back and neck, Grantham was at her wit's end.
    "I told Griff (her husband) that I needed to either die or I've got to get better," she said.
    That's when, about two years ago, Grantham learned of the local Herrera Karate Club.
    "I did know a little about karate and that kind of thing," said Grantham, who still uses a cane on occasion. "I knew that you have to work your mind and body together."
    It was nothing less than a miracle, she said.
    "I fought back with karate and exercise, and I like to work in my yard," Grantham said. "It took awhile, but they say now I do the kata (forms) horse-stance well. You do everything with your hands with that. I still need to work on my kicks. But I'm getting a lot better."
    After a year under the direct tutelage of "Professor" Harry Herrera, she's coached by Moriarty's Rachel Griego, a hairstylist by trade and a black belt at Herrera's dojo.
    "I adore her," said Grantham, a blue belt. "She's demanding, but she's a good instructor. She understands that for me to learn, I have to do it over and over. And she does, makes me do it over and over and over."
    Grantham won the gold medal in the women's 45-and-over kata division in the kenpo/Chinese-styles category at the New Mexico Games on June 11 in Albuquerque.
    "And I'm going to the big tournament in Hawaii in October," she said. "I'm so excited. I have a lot more stamina now. I'm more agile than I was. I still have limitations. But with repetition, a lot of repetition, I get it."
    Herrera practices what he preaches. Karate lessened the impact of the death of his wife, Rita, in April 2004.
    "It was hard on me," he said. "Karate, with the school, has helped. They've (his assistants and students) become a surrogate family for me."
    Harold Smith can be reached by phone at 823-7104 or by e-mail at hsmith@mvtelegraph.com.