Feb 28, 2017
Elderly women with serious illness did not persevere, turned to Western medicine, died from heart failure
The patient of this case was a 68-year-old woman. She suffered from many illnesses. She almost didn’t make it one time but was resuscitated after emergency medical treatment. Later, she came to my clinic to seek treatment. She was overweight and her face edematous. Her complexion was green, yellow, grey and without lust. She appeared dull. It was obvious from one look that she was suffering from severe heart disease. About a week ago, she had cold sweat, chest pain and her vision turned black. She couldn’t see and had difficulty breathing. At that time, she was by herself at home and called her son urgently for help. Her son called for ambulance to take her to the emergency. She stabilized after being resuscitated. She was hospitalized for observation for several days and apparently there was nothing serious. The hospital doctor advised her to undergo a balloon angioplasty but she refused.
Patient said she had been suffering from diabetes and hypertension for more than ten years and had been taking Western medicine. A few months ago, her hands and feet felt numb, her chest felt tight and heavy, her breathing was difficult, vision impaired and head felt heavy. She had suffered from angina before but did not pay much attention to it. Sometimes her right brain would feel painful and her right forehead often felt numb. She had leg edema for several years. The leg muscles lost elasticity and would form a dip when pressed. Walking required strenuous effort for her. She had difficulties lifting her legs and it felt like a heavy weight. My analysis of her condition was that due to long-term use of blood pressure lowering pills and hypoglycemic pills, her heart, liver and kidneys were damaged. Antihypertensive drugs dilated blood vessels and decreased heart rate, leading to insufficient blood following to the brain due to a weak heart. This would result in brain cells hypoxia, thus frequent dizziness. Due to atherosclerosis in the cardiovascular, vascular stenosis occurred. This led to coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction, followed by angina. To cure the disease, we should strengthen the heart, liver and kidney function and open the blocked blood vessels. At the same time, stasis in the heart would be discharged to regenerate growth of new cells. The heart would be strengthened, blood flowing to the brain would be increased and, gradually, the problem would be solved.
Leg edema completely disappeared
Three weeks after the initial dose of medication, patient still felt some swelling pain in the right brain. Her body was hot and chest still tight and heavy. Her pulse was weak and submerged. She sweated a lot at the head at night. Her leg edema had completely disappeared and regained elasticity. She felt light and swift when walking, indicating that the heart and kidney had been strengthened and blood circulation improved, removing lower extremity edema. She slept well at night, woke up to urinate occasionally but could fall back to sleep afterwards. Her rapid heart rate had dropped, and gradually returned to normal. Her vision became bright and clear. She felt very energized and clear-headed. Numbness in her hands and feet had completely disappeared. The urine samples she brought were orange brown, dark orange brown, light yellow, etc. One of the bottles consisted of brown uric acid crystals. Although the kidney stones she had before had been treated by ultrasonic waves and discharged, there was still a small amount of residual present. After being dissolved by my Chinese medicine, these residual was brought out and crystalized into calcium oxalate after saturated precipitation. After the kidney function was enhanced, her leg edema would therefore disappear more quickly.
At the fourth follow-up visit, patient told me that she could not sleep well. She often woke up and could not fall asleep again. Her head felt uncomfortable from the top right to the back. It felt like it was binging pricked by needle and it was swelling. After each medication, she sweated a lot, more during daytime than at night. Her bowel movement was normal. She felt dizzy one time and felt tightness and heaviness in her chest. Nevertheless, under normal circumstances, her mood was calmer than before the treatment. She also said that her recent appetite was good. I could see wrinkles on her face. This indicated that her heart was strengthened and blood could flow to the head faster to discharge excess facial fluid, hence, wrinkles appeared.
Due to the long-term use of diabetes drugs, patient’s urine was mostly murky light yellow, probably consisted of proteinuria. Patient said that there was a lot of bubbles when she urinated. This was very similar that of severe diabetes patients I have treated before. There was no further discharge of uric acid. Patient’s right eye vision appeared fuzzy. It seemed to be covered by a layer of white film. Her left eye was fine and could see things brighter and clearer than before. At the sixth follow-up visit, patient’s blood pressure was still high, it was about 200 over 100. At night, she could only be half asleep and was easily awakened by sound. She slept for only three to four hours a day. She told me she found out that her maid had not been cooking the medicine properly. The amount and order were off. She felt that the effect of the medicine had declined.
Right eye vision fluctuated
Patient’s right eye appeared to have a layer of cloudy white film recently and she could not see clearly. It might be diabetic eye. The blood vessels in the retina were damaged. It could also be caused by insufficient blood supply to the brain and the visual cells. Patient continued treatment with new prescriptions to strengthen blood supply to the brain. When the optic nerves received moisture from the blood, the white film gradually subsided and she started to see things clearly again. By the twelfth follow-up visit, there were some new changes in her body condition. She felt a heavy pressure in her heart and had to take deep breaths to relieve the pressure. Sometimes there would be a tug that gave her tingling pain, feeling very uncomfortable. I told her that it was a drug reaction, a phenomenon when myocardial vascular obstruction was being cleared and stasis being discharged. I told her not to worry. Moreover, her complexion had become rosy, hands warm, spirits good, mood cheerful and she was full of energy when she spoke. Her sleep conditions fluctuated though. Sometimes she could sleep longer, sometimes not. Her bowel movement was normal. One of her urine samples was light orange brown, the rest light yellow. In each sample, there was a little cholesterol precipitate. Since the diagnosis and treatment, some urine sample bottles she brought each time would swell and deform after a week of oxidation. This indicated high urine sugar. The sugar created gas after fermentation, expanding the bottle. The more sugar there was, the more bulging deformation there was.
At the sixteenth follow-up visit, patient told me that her chest ached painfully from 3am and still felt tingling pain in the morning. It was fine by the time she came to my office. I thought it might be due to the cold weather, which caused the contraction of the lungs and blood vessels, reducing blood supply to the heart and increasing workload of the heart. Also, when the medication was clearing up the blockages in the heart and blood vessels, it would produce some tingling pain in the heart and tightness in the chest. I told patient that the next time she felt her heart ache again, she should call me immediately so I could advise her on what to do. At this follow-up visit, her complexion was pale without any blood color. Her face was swollen and blood pressure was still high. Occasionally she would have abdominal pain. Her right eye vision improved for some time but soon became blurry again. Her pulse was weak and rapid although both hands remained warm.
Obvious changes were observed in the urine samples. The color of patient’s urine samples was initially mostly light yellow but it was later light orange and orange in color. This indicated the beginning of the discharge of stasis or cardiac cells that had died of vascular obstruction. This also implied that the heart condition had improved. At the twenty-second follow-up visit, her right eye might have cataract caused by diabetes. Her vision was still unclear and could not be improved. Before the medication, she often felt pain in her right eye orbit but after the medication, the pain disappeared. She could sleep for up to an hour in the afternoon but only three hours at night. If she walked too much, she would feel tired and start wheezing.
Ching Ming was a rainy season. The weather was especially humid and made you feel nauseous. I suggested patient to turn on the air-conditioner when she went to sleep. In addition to removing the moisture, it also increased the oxygen content of the air, so the heart would feel more comfortable and less oppressed. As the entire building was being renovated, it was noisy during the day and patient was not able to nap. Her feet were swollen again. However, if she could sleep well at night, there would be no swelling in her feet in the morning.
Took wrong drinks, caused diarrhea
All was improving steadily. Patient was happy. She often smiled and had good spirit. One day when she went out to eat, her clothes got all wet because of the rain. When she went into the restaurant, the temperature was very low and she caught a cold. When she returned home, she had a slight fever. She took the medicine and went to sleep. When she woke up the next morning, she was fine already. At the thirty-ninth follow-up visit, she and her sister from Canada came to the clinic together. Her sister said that patient was more cheerful. Recently patient’s right shoulder hurt and the position of the pain often changed. This indicated that when the brain stasis was being discharge, the position was changing. The pain gradually subsided later.
The weather became extremely hot and humid. Patient was not feeling discomfort in the chest and often had to take big breaths. I suggested her to stay at home, with the air-conditioner on to dehumidify. It would also be beneficial to the heart. Numbing pain on the right side of her head had reduced, although sometimes it would recur. Sleep condition and bowel movement were fairly normal. At the forty-sixth follow-up visit, she told me honestly that lately she heard a friend suggest that drinking arctium tea (牛蒡子茶) frequently was good for diabetes. So she drank it daily. However, it resulted in multiple severe diarrhea, cold sweat on the whole body and a feeling of exhaustion. At first she thought she was simply not feeling well, after I explained to her, she learned that the symptoms were the effect of the arctium tea. When I checked her pulse, it was a lot worse than usual. Her pulse was normally regular and strong, but it was very irregular, it was an intermittent pulse. It would beat several times, stop and then beat again. It appeared a few times within a minute. From this we could tell how arcadie tea led to her arrhythmia. I advised her not to drink in order to avoid greater damage to the heart. Patient learned her lesson and after I reminded her, she stopped drinking. Later on there was no more diarrhea or cold sweat and her pulse also returned to normal, regular and strong.
Later I had to go back to the United States for a holiday. Patient wanted to stop the medication while I was gone and do the right eye cataract surgery at the hospital. In my opinion, a general anesthesia would hurt the brain and cause some brain cells to die. It was especially not recommended for those with heart disease. Therefore, I suggested that she should not discontinue her medication. According to her condition, she was still not able to walk up the stairs or a ramp without panting. Later, infected by her helper, she had a flu, resulting in a weak heart and shortness of breath. Her left hand 虎口and left thigh felt pain and her feet were numb. One day she called and said that her left eye suddenly could not see anything. Her daughter took her to see an ophthalmologist. After an examination, she was told it was diabetic eye disease and suggested an injection, which would cost eight thousand dollars. She did not have the injection and came to my clinic for treatment. When I checked the right eye, which had had a surgery, she could see curves and the brightness had increased. The left eye could not see my head but only the outline of the ear. The lower half was very dark. I believed that some of the blood vessels in the left eye retina were damaged, losing its visual function. Patient continued to take the medication. At the fifty-eighth follow-up visit, her left eye could see image again, although there was a gray blind spot. This indicated that the medicine had repaired most of the damaged visual nerves in the retina. Her usual high blood pressure index dropped significantly. Numbness of the feet had also disappeared.
For a period of time, in order to speed up the recovery of the left eye vision, I suggested increasing the dosage of medicine to three times a day. However, it did not last because patient began to have vomit and upset stomach sometimes. In mid-January 2009, patient asked me how much longer the treatment would be. I told her that her condition had not yet reached a safe range and should not discontinue her medication. Nevertheless, whether to continue treatment, she could decide herself. Before the seventy-second follow-up visit, she went to the ophthalmologist for another examination. Due to her high blood pressure, she was asked to be hospitalized for observation. Her daughter called and asked for my advice. I told her that her mother’s blood pressure had always been high and need not worry.
After one more visit, patient did not return for follow-up again. Although her condition had not fully recovered, she had definitely improved a lot compared with when she first came. In my point of view, I was satisfied with the result of the treatment for her complicated case. She started her treatment on October 18, 2007 and lasted for about one year and five months until March 12, 2009. A total of 73 visits. About two years later, her youngest son came to my clinic to seek treatment for diabetes and heart disease. He told me that after his mother stopped my treatment, his elder sister and brother insisted on switching to Western medicine. She started taking blood pressure lowering medicine and hypoglycemic medicine again. Her old problems recurred and soon after, died of heart failure.
By Dr. Au Sik Kee
Feb 28, 2017
Medical record number: 071018
For enquiry, email: sikkeeau@gmail.com