Dr. Hao Day 2

#2 here (posted by #1 because we're having technical difficulties).

I flew into Albuquerque this morning and walked into Dr. Hao’s office just as daddy was going in for his second appointment. The advances he made on Monday seemed to have slipped back and it took a little extra work to get him back to where he was yesterday. Eventually, he was able to count from 1-10 and then from 10-1 and say his full birth date. Today he received 7 needles in his head (these seem to hurt a bit), 1 in his ear (we call this the “mood” needle and makes daddy visibly relax the longer it stays in), 1 in the hand, 1 in the crook of the elbow and 1 quickly jabbed under his tongue. Dr. Hao told us that there is a nerve that runs from under the tongue to the brain that will help with speech. So we’re praying for continued improvement in that area. We ALL know that Rick Thayer is a talker. We’d love to see him be able to communicate easily again!

By this evening we decided that his two biggest wins for the day were his swallowing and more mobility in his right knee. First the swallowing, the verdict is still out on this, but mom says daddy would choke several times a day when drinking or eating. Since treatment started we have only heard him choke once (Note from #1: this was during the first day's treatment so arguably doesn't count). We’re waiting a couple more days to verify this improvement. Next, the mobility in his right knee. This evening we practiced marching. He has never been able to do high knees before so we are ecstatic to see this improvement and cannot wait to show Dr. Hao tomorrow!

Here are some of the other “wins” for the day:

• While the needles were inserted in his scalp he said he could "feel" something in his brain. We have no clue what that means, but it sounds promising!

• Dr. Hao said his hand was a little more relaxed. Mom and I agreed with that assessment as we worked with stretching and moving his hand tonight. As an added bonus we get to “beat” on daddy’s arm, shoulder and wrist to help loosen up the muscles. I think mom might like this a little to much - pay backs for all his sassiness.

• When asked if he feels the acupuncture is working he answers with a strong, “yes, sir” (this is one of his favorite phrases whether you are a ma’am or a sir).

• When asked what area he thinks is the most improved, he answers “words”.

• When asked what the second most improved area is he answers “leg”.

• A couple of the 2-4 word phrases we heard today were “I need more coffee” and “Yeah, wears you out” (statement made after mom commented on how exercising his leg can make him tired).

As we were winding down I read daddy all the comments of prayer and encouragement left by YOU on our Facebook feeds. He loved it! He is so encouraged by your prayers and supports! Keep the messages coming - they are being passed along!

Prayerful, excited and expectant for Day 3!

Dr. Hao Day 1

Preliminary observations suggest that scalp acupuncture will produce some positive results for our stroke survivor.

Our first appointment was scheduled for Monday March 20 at 9:15 AM, so of course we arrived 30 minutes early. Dr. Hao's office didn't ask for any information in advance; his plan of action is based on the preliminary interview and assessment. He spent about 30 minutes asking questions and having Daddy move to determine what parts of his brain were affected by the stroke. He concluded that the biggest obstacle would be muscle atrophy (funny that it wasn't his brain's inability to move his body parts in the first place!), that his cognition/understanding is good, and that he has a harder time with numbers than words.

To give us a baseline, he had Daddy try several times to say his birth date, and count up and down from ten and took a lot of video. Then he mapped Daddy's head to identify needling targets (i.e., the areas of the brain that control swallowing, speaking, walking, etc.), and started sticking (note: hyperlinks are to videos that are too big to upload to the blog).

Daddy had a lot of tingling, his eyes were wide open most of the time, but no pain that we could tell.

Every five minutes or so Dr. Hao would spin the needles to create some friction (scalp acupuncturists with less experience would hook the needles up to an electric current instead), and have Daddy work on a few things to see if any connections were being made. There were several positive observations:

1. He walked by lifting his knees instead of swinging his hips to get the leg around. We definitely saw a gait change, and mom said several times she hadn't seen him bend his right knee to walk since his stroke.
2. His right arm was less tight, more relaxed, and he could lift it with less effort and higher (just above the head where he usually maxes out around the nose).
3. By the time we left he'd successfully recited his birth date (month, day and year) a few times, something he wasn't able to get out before the needling. He was also able to count up and down from ten without trouble (we had to prompt him before several times and he'd skipped a few numbers).
4. About three minutes after the needles went in, Daddy started moving his mouth around like something was bugging him and pulled out a pill that was stuck in his cheek (mom had given him his meds about an hour before). It could have been a coincidence but we're wondering if he didn't get some feeling back in his face.

Each observation by itself wouldn't have been noteworthy, but seeing them together suggest we made some progress. There were a few more things in the afternoon I haven't seen or heard from him since the stroke (though it could be that I was being acutely aware!):

• Twice he used small, 2-4 word phrases to communicate. I can't remember him ever speaking more than one word at a time unprompted
• He self-corrected his mispronunciation of a word
• I quizzed him on lists of family names (name your daughters, grand kids, son-in-laws, siblings, etc.), out of 15 names he had trouble with two (I won't tell you whose names but it wasn't mine!)

The jury is still out but mom and I were happy to see ANY improvement; the day exceeded my personal expectation. If we have similar results for appointments 2-4, that will certainly be something.

Thanks for the continued positive thoughts and prayers. No. 2 has taken over and will accompany mom and dad the rest of the week, you'll likely be hearing from her next!

-#1

Road Trip!

We are taking a trip. To New Mexico. So someone can stick needles in Daddy’s head. And fix his brain.

With Santa Fe as our destination we headed out in parallel to Historic Route 66 (which Daddy pointed out several times along the way). We saw windmills for miles, ate at an Oklahoma-Discovery-famous eatery and got in a few sights in Santa Fe upon our arrival. We topped it off with wine, cheese and chocolate on the patio, a good primer to what will hopefully be a successful week.

Friends and co-workers of #2 tipped us off to scalp acupuncture after seeing some amazing results of their own. The relatively new form of treatment combines the ancient form of medicine with western knowledge of the brain. That is, new developments have created a pretty good map of the brain and what parts control different functions (e.g., speech, movement, cognitive thinking, etc.); acupuncturists use that map to target “needling,” which has proven effective for treating nervous system disorders. (Many apologies to all acupuncturists and neurologists for my overly simplistic and likely inaccurate recitation.)

Jason and Linda Hao are leading experts on scalp acupuncture, and have a clinic in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Their book Chinese Scalp Acupuncture was published as a practitioner guide, but provides some good reading for those researching the technique. According to the publication, studies have shown that scalp acupuncture yields at least some improvement for stroke survivors living with aphasia (in 93% of 109 cases) and paralysis (in 95% of 20,923 cases). While Daddy has a few things working against him (his type of speaking affliction, and lapsed time since the stroke occurred), the case studies presented engendered enough excitement, optimism and curiosity to get him in a car for twenty hours over the course of a week.

The number one hope from mom is that we see some improvement in Daddy’s swallowing. He’s at high risk for pneumonia, and has already had a few trips to the hospital stemming from his brain’s inability to tell his esophagus to put food and liquid down the right tube. Daddy’s priority is to walk better, which will inevitably lead to that new PR.

Here’s our baseline:

• He has almost no movement in the right hand, but decent command of that shoulder (he can lift his hand to about head level)
• He can walk unassisted (though almost always uses a cane), but is deliberate (i.e., slow) and often drags the right leg a bit (friends have clocked his quarter mile walk so we’ll have to get those digits to compare)
• He speaks in single words, but can usually find the one to get a point across. Challenges create themselves when we can’t ascertain what he means based on that one word. While cognition is good, he isn’t able to communicate through writing or hand gestures any easier (though sometimes it helps).

Daddy has four appointments this week; he doesn’t seem disturbed at all by the needle part and is in good spirits. I’ll report back after tomorrow’s session with pinhead photos and hopefully positive news!

-#1