My Uncle's Story

Originally published on Dr. Aihan Kuhn's Website

When I first visited my Uncle in the hospital in October of 2017 not one of his doctors thought he would make anything close to a full recovery.

In fact, the moment that I walked in the room one of his doctors was reviewing their DNR (Do not resuscitate) policy with him because they thought his end was so close!

He had gone in for a routine bypass procedure on his heart earlier in the summer. The bypass itself went quite well, but there were several complications and bad luck that followed.

The list is probably too long to list in this short article but by October his kidneys had failed, he was on dialysis three times a week, receiving nutrition strictly from a tube and had not been out of bed for 5 months.

His mental state was foggy at best. He was on a numbers of prescription pills (I find it hard to refer to them as medicines) that left him for the most part out of touch with reality, chronically dehydrated and bedridden.

I have studied Qi Gong for the last couple years and as luck would have it, spent some time around some very gifted healers practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine.

My interest in natural healing was spurned by the many health challenges my father endured following a stroke years ago that eventually took his life.

It always seemed to me that something was missing in his care, like his doctors and nurses were going through the motions in a factory and not finding the answers necessary to promote true healing.

I did not know about TCM at the time of my father's illness so I was unable to help very much, but fortunately by the time my Uncle was sick I at least knew where to look for help.

I found Dr. Kuhn online and after reviewing her website and seeing some of the techniques she shared in her videos I felt grateful to find a practitioner in the area that was the real deal.

I know many such people in California where I was coming from but I did not know anyone in this area. This was in early November. Unfortunately, at that time my Uncle's head was still very cloudy and he refused to meet with Dr Kuhn!

He is an 80 year old Irishmen from NYC and it took some time to break through his preconceived notions about natural healing.

Four more months passed by. He had been in physical, speech and occupational therapy in a rehabilitation center/nursing home the entire time but had not made much progress.

Not one doctor or nurse thought he had any chance of getting out of his wheelchair. They actually discontinued his therapy a couple times because they thought he had plateaued. Around the new year he had some huge strokes of luck to go along with all the effort he had been putting into therapy and found himself off dialysis and off the feeding tube.

Though still quite groggy he was more himself than he had been the entire time and we thought it was a good time for him to come home with myself as his caretaker for a transitional period.

It seemed like when he was in the rehab he would get at least one infection a month and end up back in the hospital where something always seemed to come up or go wrong.

One time he was rushed to the hospital because they thought he was having some kind of “episode” when he was actually just dehydrated. They put him on fluids at the hospital for a couple days and sent him back! This was his life for 10 months.

He came home March 1. Though his internal organs had shown signs of coming back to life his legs were still failing him. Though he could transfer in and out of the car he could not walk more than a couple steps on the walker with close supervision.

It was at this point that I laid it on really thick and was finally able to convince him to see Dr. Kuhn. In our first meeting he was still grumpy, standoffish and a bit close-minded. His response to Dr. Kuhn asking if he would be willing to do some Qi Gong exercise everyday to support the work she would do on him was a very dry “maybe.” We still laugh about that one.

However, on the way home from that meeting he said to me “You know, she is the first doctor that has ever mentioned me having a chance to walk again.” He had one of the moments where the clouds part and the mind opens, his hope restored in the fact that someone had faith in his potential to heal.

That was eight weeks ago. Though he is not running around the house and doing jumping jacks just yet, he is at a point where when I take him to restaurants he does not need a wheelchair at all. He gets along smoothly and safely on a walker.

His diet (which was once the diet that lands you a triple bypass) has improved significantly under Dr Kuhn’s guidance. No more bacon for breakfast and red meat all day. He is eating his vegetables and drinking his water.

We were able to get his prescription medications reduced by about 75% as well which has been one of the key points in his recovery to go along with the acupuncture, massage, exercise and dietary regimen that Dr Kuhn has put him on with great success. He is mentally clear, light-hearted and optimistic about his future.

Now the grumpy old man who would “never let someone do massage on me” is happy to tell anyone in earshot about his “Natural Chinese Doctor” and the amazing results he has experienced under her care.

I and my entire family are forever grateful to Dr Kuhn for sharing her gifts with my Uncle and giving him a new perspective and approach to life based in the power of natural healing!