Laser update on patient zero: my mom

It's been 4 months since my mom's heart surgery and 3 months since using the GVL from Erchonia on her. I thought that it would be a good time to update you on how she is doing. If you want the whole story on what happened to her that started this road, you can read that HERE. As a quick recap, my mom had an emergency heart surgery after being intubated for almost a week. During the surgery she had a stroke, and when they tried to extubate her she had a seizure. It was scary and prompted me to throw myself into researching any and all alternative options for healing for neural plasticity, tissue repair and surgical recovery and that's how I landed on low level laser therapy and Erchonia.

At the time I first wrote about this, I was maybe a few weeks in on treating her at home and results were already really positive. Our big motivation for her though was to get her well enough to join us on our trip to Cancun at the end of July. Since her surgery took place May 1st, this gave us exactly 2 months for her to be recovered enough to join us. For reference, I looked up typical recovery time for mitral valve repair and it was 4-8 weeks depending on health, age, and if all went well (no complications). Since there was a complication of stroke, I looked that up too and typical recovery from stroke was 3-6 months, and longer with age. I also will note that I don't know what the medical definition of recovery is... does that mean back to yourself 100% or does that mean not at your best but at least somewhat functional? Does it mean able to be at home with a walker? Does it mean symptom free? Drug free? I don't know. My mom is pretty healthy and active for her age prior to this happening, but at the same time she is in her 70s. My understanding of the doctors at the time was that the seizure happened due to the stroke and they alluded to the seizure as a sign that the stroke was not minor. I think logically since she had 2 major events happen (assuming the seizure was due to the stroke), that if you added both those recovery times we are looking at 4-8 months excluding age factor. So essentially we were trying to get her recovered to the point of travel in half of the quickest estimated time.

Well, as I mentioned, when I got the laser, I would go to her house on the daily and used it on her for at least 15 minutes with specific protocols for 3-4 weeks, and then every other day for another 3-4 weeks. I mentioned the changes in that first few days which was already so amazing. Well in the following weeks she said that she felt her "wires were all crossed" in that she felt her taste was off and she started to get tinnitus (ringing in the ears) on her left. I started to add protocols to address those in addition and after 3 times of lasering her mouth, her taste normalized. Her tinnitus didn't change much but I just kept it in. After that she started to mention that she felt a lot of muscle loss and her hands were shaky which were limiting her ability to text on her phone. I then started to change protocols for muscle and balance. I would laser her while she was writing and I would laser her for balance while she was marching in place. When I wasn't lasering her, she would have her normal PT and OT. 6 weeks in, she had a neurology follow up and my dad said that she had passed her neurological tests and was taken off 2 medications and even said the neurologist casually said "you probably didn't have that big of a stroke." WOW. And so you can imagine what happened next...

Fun in the sun 2.5 months after heart surgery with complications and 2 months of consistent laser

I did take the laser with me to Cancun and I used it on her maybe 3 times while there, and she did need assistance, time, and rest while there, but vacation mode achieved! I am so grateful of the vast improvement in a short amount of time! After that trip, August was a gradual return to their social normalcy, with meals out with friends, window shopping, and hosting mah jong games. My dad, who never left her side throughout the hospital stay in ICU, the transfer of hospitals, the post acute facility, and at home, finally felt safe and secure enough to return to play golf in the mornings to increase his activity and social life.

Celebrating my dad's birthday in August, a few weeks after the trip to Cancun. Honestly I was pleasantly surprised that it was with their friends... Naive me thought it was only for family!

The only down side to their return to social activities is that they have less time for me to come and laser them! Before when we went from daily to every other day it was because "We have to go to doctor's appointments.." and now it's "we can't do laser today.. we have lunch with this group of friends and then dinner with that group of friends." *Eye roll. Of course she has more work to go, and she was able to start coming into the office once a week to resume adjustments plus laser to help her balance and stability.

She still has balance issues, tinnitus, shaky arms from weakness, but also at the end of August, she mentioned a new issue she was noticing - Hair loss. The pattern of loss was at the apex of her head and she said each shower she would have hundreds of hairs come out. It was really concerning to her because we are a family of THICK hair and especially for women, it's a huge source of insecurity. I did some research into causes and checked out side effects from her medication to help her. I found out that the pattern of crowned hair loss was due to hormones. And hormones are heavily influenced by stress and nutrient loss. I also found that of the 5 medications that she is on now (which is a far leap from the over a dozen she started with post surgery), one of them has a list a common side effects that include dizziness and loss of balance, hand tremors, and tinnitus, and hair loss. All of which are residual symptoms she is experiencing that haven't responded to laser. I got her a high grade multi to add with the probiotics and collagen that I had previously recommended her to help with the nutritional depletion she was experiencing in hopes that plus continued laser would help her better cope with the side effects of her medication.

This month, although she is still in need of healing, I haven't given her ANY ongoing treatment. Because they went to Taiwan for the whole of the month! They did pack the supplements I recommended as well, so I hope that the nutritional supplements will help on their trip. I'm itching for them to come back so I can resume care! I think when they come back I'll check how her neurology is with dexterity and go back to daily laser and maybe bi weekly adjustments to balance her nervous system for a while. My personal goal for full recovery is to be medication free, no shakes, no tinnitus, and more strength and balance... and hair regrowth! Is it possible? I don't know, but it's good to have a goal.

Although this isn't the end of her story, I think the use of laser really fast tracked her healing. Even now, I think my parents, who have witnessed first hand, still wonder if the speed of her recovery was placebo or not. My official, professional opinion is- who cares if it is or isn't placebo? Ultimately, she recovered faster than expected to where the ICU doctors were warning us about potential permanent confusion and speech problems from the stroke and 6 weeks later the neurologist casually commenting that her stroke probably "wasn't that bad." I think that doesn't happen without some positive influence, placebo or not. Of course, research, findings, and patient feedback since have all pointed to laser is actually science and consistently blows placebo out of the water. I don't mind healthy skepticism, especially when even with that skepticism they have to acknowledge that results happened regardless. And really, this has restored 2 lives. When this happened, my mom and my dad's lives halted. Maxing out visiting hours daily at hospital and stressing/worrying to where could not eat or sleep took its toll on my dad too. And when I say he never left her side, literally he would be with her watching all of her rehab, make her practice her exercises, cook healing foods for her, and kept one eye on her to where anytime she moved he would ask where she was going and if she needed help. He is a super social guy and to see him return to play golf without feeling guilt or worry over her well being for an hour and taking her out with him to see friends again is HUGE for both of them.

In the end, I am reminded of what Dr. Dan Murphy said regarding laser. He has been using it in his practice for over 20 years and refers to his practice as a brain clinic. He says "even if you don't use laser for your patients, you should buy one and laser your brain and those of your loved ones daily" to counter the typical degradation that occurs from our modern lifestyle. I've seen it with my mom, and now I laser my loved ones regularly, and patients who choose to add laser to their treatments see faster results. Whether you think it's placebo or not, if it gets results, why not try it out?