Mobility Issues in my mother.

[Coyote]

My mother who is in her mid fifties is having mobility problems. It is an issue she will not talk to anybody in our family about, so my information is limited. During her college years when she was skiing she broke her right leg. Although occasionally complaining about it her mobility was not effected in a discernable way, aside from her refusal to run even when the occasion called for it, like being in the midst of a fast moving crowd. About a little over a year ago she started telling people about how she was going to start to fix her leg. She now exercises at a gym multiple times a week and uses a footbath that electrically shocks her legs.

However, from the point at which she began this program to now her mobility and balance has rapidly deteriorated to the point that last month she fell down a small flight of stairs and broke her foot. She now walks, even previous to the fall, at about 1/3 the rate of an average person, cannot seem to fully lift her leg, and when I am with her often has to catch herself from falling, and/or falls into walls.

What is causing this deterioration? Is it something she is doing? From what can be determined she is not taking any action in consultation with a doctor as she does not trust modern medicine. Part of it is that nobody in the family has a full picture of her health care, as it is a subject she refuses to talk about, but if things continue as they are a fall resulting in major injury is not just a likelihood but an inevitability. She uses the phrase neuropathy, but why would the deterioration in her mobility and balance happen only after she started her self recommended program?