Patient with dull limbs and various symptoms after 2 strokes gradually recovered
English
This elderly patient came to my clinic to seek treatment for his wife’s stroke, which was cured quickly. However, when he had two strokes, he sought treatment from Western medicine. In the end, his conditions deteriorated, and he came to me. I blamed him for coming two and a half years later. If he had come to me for treatment immediately after he was discharged from the hospital for a stroke, he would have been cured for his sequelae within one or two months, before his blood stasis hardened and clotted, pressing on other blood vessels, cutting off blood supply to his posterior brain cells. The patient’s first visit was at the beginning of 2007 when he was 75 years old. He had a mild stroke for the first time in 2005. His body leaned to the left so he would turn to the left when he walked and was unable to walk straight. Strangely, this returned to normal at noon. In 2006, he had a second stroke. He suffered from weakness on his right side, affecting his abilities to walk and speak. He was admitted to St. Paul’s Hospital for two months. After being discharged, he could not raise his right hand up high. If it was raised higher than his head, his shoulder would become painful, and he couldn’t raise anymore. He slurred, his right leg was weak and unable to be lifted that he walked with a little limp. He was unable to run since he had a stroke and would be so embarrassed when crossing the road to catch a traffic light.
At first, his wife called and asked me for cough medicine for her husband. I didn’t know he had a stroke, so I only prescribed a common cold and cough formula. When I saw him for the first time, his complexion was rather red with a number of large purplish spots on his forearms. I immediately knew he had high blood pressure and had taken a lot of blood thinner (Western medicines such as aspirin). When there was a lack of platelets and thrombin in the blood, there would be many purplish spots on the skin due to the bursting of microfilament blood vessels. When he talked about his conditions in detail, I learned that he had two strokes. When he was describing his conditions, he kept coughing and I could hear phlegm in his trachea which could not be spat out. He had weak heart and lung functions as well as poor blood and qi circulation, so moisture accumulated in his lungs and turned into phlegm, but he was too weak to cough it up.
At the first follow-up visit, the patient’s complexion was not as red as the first visit. His right arm could be raised above his head with less pain. His right leg could walk with big steps with reduced feeling of being tugged. His cough improved during daytime, but it increased at night which affected his sleep. The urine he brought in was bright red with blood stains on the bottle walls. Based on my experience, the medicine had dissolved the stasis in his brain, which had caused the stroke, and discharged through his urine, so his right arm could raise up high with less pain. At the second follow-up visit, the conditions had improved greatly. Before, his left eyelid was uncontrollable and difficult to blink. This time, it could move a little with the vision in his left eye restoring clarity, similar to that of his right eye. He did not cough when he talked to me, indicating his cardiopulmonary function had been strengthened. When he walked, his right leg did not limp and he could even jog, but he would feel tired from doing it for too long. When he tried to stand on one leg, both his legs remained stable. He used to defecate every two or three days, but now he defecated every other day, much better condition. He could speak more fluently than last time and he could freely express himself.
Defecation improved to once a day
At the third follow-up visit, his urine samples were dark brown-red, dark red, dark orange-brown, orange-brown and orange, etc. There was yellow-white cholesterol, urate crystal sediments and blood stains at the bottom of the bottles. This indicated that the stasis from his heart and brain, and stagnated blood from his liver were being discharged. Defecation had also improved as a result, from once every other day to once a day, indicating his brain became able to send signals (bowel movement) to make his large intestine wriggle. His right arm could be raised even higher than the previous time, although it trembled a little. Raising it from behind his back also became easier than before. After the stroke, when his left eye was opened, his right eye could not be closed. However, recently he could barely close it. This indicated that the nerves in his left and right eyelids were linked by blood clots, confusing the signals. After the medicine had dissolved and removed the blood clots, the nerves of his left and right eyelids became separated, so the two eyes could operate independently.
The next piece of good news was that his night cough had mostly stopped. In other words, his cardiopulmonary function had been further strengthened, moisture could be excreted through his exhalation and urination, without accumulating into phlegm. At the sixth follow-up visit, he was in a cheerful mood and always had a big smile on his face. He spoke loudly and clearly, and his ability to express himself had improved a lot, noticeably more fluent than when he was here the first time. He said he had not coughed anymore in the previous few days. He also said when he walked, his left and right legs felt the same, just like any ordinary people. His left and right eyelids could also close separately. I advised him to practice writing with his right hand to regain control of his fingers. Up to then, he had been treated for nearly two months with only six visits, and his conditions had improved really fast. At the tenth follow-up visit, he had made good progress in various aspects, with normal sleep and defecation, stable blood pressure, and both his arms could be raised to about the same height with no shaking, which was a big improvement. When he woke up in the morning, his left eye couldn’t see clearly until noon when clarity restored.
For two weeks I hadn’t seen the patient due to his trip to China during Chinese New Year. At the eleventh follow-up visit, he was in good condition and his eyes were full of energy. He brought in as many as eleven bottles of urine sample, which were dark brown-red, blackish green, orange-brown, orange and light yellow. There was a lot of cholesterol, urate crystals, liver cell tissue, liver toxins and blood stains at the bottom of the bottles. The colours of his urine generally began to change from dark to light, which was a good sign, because the urine of healthy people that does not have much stasis and toxins would remain mostly light yellow after taken Chinese medicine. At that point of time, the only abnormal thing was with closing his right eye and opening his left eye. He had to tilt his mouth to close his right eye and open his left eye.
Left eye vision suddenly became clear
By the fourteenth follow-up visit, the vision in his left eye had further improved. Usually after getting up, his vision would remain unclear until noon. However, in the past few days, he could suddenly see clearly when he woke up in the morning, which made him very happy. However, when he looked down while walking on the street, his vision was rather blurry. Instead, when he looked up, his vision became clear. It turned out that this condition had long existed, he never told me until he mentioned at the fifteenth visit.
Although the patient could speak smoothly, there was air leakage from his mouth because his teeth fell out, and his pronunciation was not clear. I suggested him to visit his dentist to get his teeth fixed as soon as possible, which would help his pronunciation. At the seventeenth follow-up visit, I asked the patient to try to write with his right hand. Although the font size of his hand writings was regular, he still could not control it well. Compared with that at the first visit, the condition had slightly improved. Soon after, he had a bruise on his right thumb with a purplish spot, which indicated a lack of prothrombin, so he would bleed easily. It turned out that purplish spots often appear on the back of his hands and his body, but by the 22nd follow-up visit, the condition had improved a lot. Some of the urine samples he brought in the previous time were oxidized and turned into a dark brown close to black and dark orange-brown with a hint of black, containing violet-blue heavy metal toxins, white cholesterol and liver cell tissue. This time, the urine samples were purple-red, dark orange-maroon, light orange, etc, indicating a lot of stasis and toxins were constantly brought out from his liver, heart and brain.
After his dentures were fixed, the patient spoke differently from before and his pronunciation was not clear enough. It could be because he was not used to the dentures and might take a while before it returned to normal. Since I was going back to the United States to visit my relatives, the patient wanted to pause the treatment during this period. I strongly opposed to it, because in the previous few weeks, black, purple-blue toxins and necrotic cells had been continuously brought out from his liver. I was worried that pausing medication would cause unnecessary problems. After discussing with his wife, the patient agreed with me and decided to continue taking the medicine. In many cases I have treated, some patients decided themselves to stop medication after getting better, only to come back for treatment as the condition deteriorated, which was a waste of time and effort. Some people had seen Western medicine before coming to me for Chinese medicine treatment, but after some time, they switched back to Western medicine. Some who had actually recovered a lot from my treatment, when switched to Western medicine, the effect did not match, and they ended up even losing their lives. Most people who came to me for treatment were already seriously ill and could not be cured within a few weeks. Even if they appeared to have fully recovered, they still needed to be treated for a period of time to consolidate their health and strengthen their immune system to prevent the relapse of the illnesses.
At the twenty-fourth follow-up visit, the patient could raise both arms to almost the same height. His right hand could touch the top of his head without shaking. However, when raised from the back, his right hand could only reach right above his waist and not any further. When his right eye was closed, he could open his left eye more easily than before. Progress was seen in various aspects. The patient also said that he would pant after walking a few steps before, but after his heart was strengthened with the discharge of a lot of blood stasis recently, he could walk more without panting.
Areas of purplish spots on arms shrank
By the eighth month of treatment, there was still had a lot of toxins in patient’s urine. Due to contact with the air, his urine was mostly black in the upper half of the bottles and dark brownish red in the lower half. At the thirty-second follow-up visit, the urine brought in was purple red, orange and light orange brown. Although the purplish spots that frequently appeared on his arms would disappear quickly, it would reappear after a period of time. However, the area had gradually shrunk and the colour had also become lighter than before. I believed that when the colour of his urine became lighter, those purplish spots would all disappear. I estimated that his liver function indicator and platelet count should gradually return to normal. The patient had a small purplish spot on his right upper right arm, but it had disappeared by the thirty-eighth follow-up visit with a new one appearing on the back of his hand near his wrist. I believed that situation would continue for a while. The patient later told me that he had recently become years younger, because there was a lot of new black hair growing on the back of his head and forehead. But his walking seemed to have regressed a bit. He couldn’t walk for too long or he would suffer from shortness of breath.
Since I had returned to the United States, the patient called to report his conditions. He pointed out that the purplish spots on his arms had completely disappeared with no new spots appearing. I believed his liver had returned to normal. He also said his speech was clear and his pronunciation was accurate, no difference from a normal person. The colour of his urine began to become lighter, and he felt increasingly energetic and could walk more without panting. His defecation and sleep were normal. Originally, the patient was planning to go to Shanghai by train half a month later and was considering whether to bring the medicine with him. Later, he said the trip was canceled and I felt relieved, because I strongly opposed to patients with illnesses going abroad for business or travel. If they did not bring medicine, their conditions would regress most of the time due to stopping medication, and they might even suffer from acclimatization or eating the wrong food. After they returned to Hong Kong, the treatment had to be started again, wasting money and time.
By the forty-seventh follow-up visit, the toxins discharged had greatly reduced. His urine sample had not turned black after oxidation, indicating the progress of his conditions had taken a further step. His left eyelid could open more easily than before. His left eye was still smaller than his right, but it was not bad. When he closed his right eye, he could keep his left eye half-opened for a while. At the fifty-sixth follow-up visit, the patient’s heartbeat had greatly improved. Her heart was strengthened indicated by more blood being sent to his head. His heartbeat would subsequently slow down with increased blood supply to his brain cells. That was a breakthrough. No wonder he said he had no problem walking to and riding the subway recently. He only felt a little tired after climbing up the staircases up to the ground level. At the fifty-ninth follow-up visit, two small purplish spots appeared on the patient’s left arm, but they disappeared quickly. Towards the later stage of the treatment, his left eyelid began to stabilize and no longer kept blinking.
The progress continued. After the seventy-ninth follow-up visit, the patient suddenly told me he wanted to end the treatment. I told him there was still a lot of stasis in his heart, liver and brain which had not been fully discharged. The prothrombin in his blood was still too low, so purplish spots still often appeared on his skin. Further treatment would be needed for while in order to improve his liver function. However, he had made the decision and there was no way to change his mind. The patient was first diagnosed on 3 November 2007 and the treatment ended on 6 June 2009, spanning a total of one year and seven months with 79 visits.
This article was written by Dr. Sik-Kee Au
September 19, 2017
For enquiries, please email to sikkeeau@gmail.com
Medical case number: 071103