Photo by Adam Nieścioruk on Unsplash

Stroke (right side)

Witness : Zuo Decheng

Symptom : Stroke (right side)

        On the morning of 12th March this year, I went to work as usual. As soon as I sat at my desk and turned on my computer, I found myself suddenly unable to lift my hand. I wanted to call out to someone for help but was unable to speak; nor could I move my legs. I then experienced a spell of dizziness. Oh hell! What should I do? At that moment, my wife happened to arrive at the office. She noticed that something was not right with me and called the ambulance straight away. I was hastily admitted to the ER department at the Cathay General Hospital. Following a series of check-ups, I was diagnosed with a cerebral embolism. Fortunately, since I visited the hospital within three hours of the onset of the symptoms, I was able to get an injection to dissolve the blood clots. However, further examinations revealed that I had unfortunately had several minor strokes. If these strokes were not addressed, my brain would basically be a ticking time bomb. Therefore, I followed the doctor’s advice and underwent a cranial stent placement procedure. I stayed in the hospital for a total of 21 days.

        I was discharged from the hospital on 1st April. However, the parts of my brain that controlled my right hand, right leg and language functions were damaged. Consequently, I found that I had lost some degree of dexterity in my hands and legs. I developed a stutter and my thinking skills and memory capacity deteriorated. Even my eyesight seemed to suffer. I was unable to pronounce words that I recognized. My cranial neurologist suggested that if I received physical therapy, I would see a gradual recovery. I worked as a sales and marketing agent at Fubon Life Insurance. I was also a member of the Extreme Summit Round Table, the Million Dollar Round Table, and the Agency Quality Club. Receiving such medical advice at that moment was extremely frustrating for me. 

        I am hugely grateful to Dr. Wen. On the second day following my being discharged from the hospital, he told me that I needed to seize the “golden period” for treatment and that treatment in the first three months would be crucial, its effectiveness being greater than any treatment in the following three years. So it was that, on 10th April, having received attentive treatment from Dr. Wen for one week, I found I was able to make larger movements with my hands and legs. Originally, I had been unable to read out any of the characters on the plaques hanging in Dr. Wen’s clinic room. A week later, I could read them out slowly, one by one. My parallax had gone away. More incredibly, upon my telling him that I was unable to make tongue rolling sounds, Dr. Wen immediately inserted needles and asked me to make the sounds again. To my complete surprise, I was able to do so. It was so amazing!

        The treatment continued for one month, after which I found that my basic motor movements had made an 80%~90% recovery. I started going back to the office. My colleagues and clients could not believe that I had experienced a series of minor strokes and had been discharged from the hospital just one month before. A colleague of mine told me that her older brother had suffered from strokes just as I had. He had needed to undergo a year of physical therapy before he recovered to the same level as I had. I had not received physical therapy, but instead had relied entirely on Dr. Wen’s magical needles. The improvement I made was unbelievably fast. 

As expected, following three months of treatment, everything returned to normal for me. I am currently still visiting the clinic twice a week as part of my health maintenance regime. I can work and visit my clients normally. All credit goes to the great Dr. Wen and his supreme medical skills.

Dr. Wen is not just my doctor. He cares about me as would an old friend or even a family member. Every time he receives a new patient, he will inquire about the patient’s condition in great detail and provide the patient with a comprehensive treatment plan and suggestions. The questions that I heard most often at the clinic were “Are you getting any better?” and “Is there any other discomfort?” I feel incredibly lucky to have met a doctor who is so caring, ethically sound and skillful.