January 2026 Update on My Recovering from Stroke

In the last few months, I have been extremely busy working on my book “The Yin and Yang of the Dragon and the Eagle: Tale of Two Cultures and Two Countries.” It is planned to be published soon in English and Chinese by Maestro Book Publishing, although it has been difficult and time-consuming working with Maestro Book Publishing.

I also want to give you an update on my health after I had my stroke a little more than two years ago in September 2023. Normally according to Chinese medicine, if one takes acupuncture treatment for a stroke, the treatment can be more effective if the acupuncture treatment is started within the first ten days of the stroke. If it cannot be started within the first 10 days, then the acupuncture treatment should be started within the first month of the stroke. Unfortunately, I was not aware of this information, and my acupuncture treatment did not begin until around summer 2024, more than half a year after I had my stroke in September 2023.

In early July 2025, I also had pneumonia. Although this pneumonia did not seem to affect me in a significant way, it did cause me to lose about 15 pounds during those 3-4 weeks. I am now beginning to try to gain back some of those 15 pounds, which is not so easy since I have also lost some of my appetite. Therefore, while trying to eat more to gain back some of my lost weight, besides doing the twice weekly physical therapy exercises, I also need to do more regular exercises, including with weights to build back my strength, much more walking to restore my stamina, and also more Taiji exercises to increase my overall health. Whether I will be able to do that consistently during the next few months will determine the amount and speed of my recovery.

As part of my recovery from my stroke, I plan to work out in the Fitness Factory located at Bell Works, which is very close and within walking distance of my house. Bell Works is also in the building where I do my Physical Therapy. So both places (the Fitness Factory and Bell Wellness) are within walking distance of my house. At the Fitness Factory, over the next three months, I will be working on:

(1) with weights to increase my loss of strength

(2) with much more walking and threadmills to increase my stamina.

I will be doing these exercises at the Fitness Factory or at home (since we also have a good threadmill at home).

Hopefully with Physical Therapy and these exercises, my health will improve. On the other hand, I may be just facing the consequences of old age.

Recovering from my Stroke (12-1-2025)

I had a minor stroke in September 2023. That affected my ability to walk smoothly. Sometimes I have to scrape my left foot. Then in early July this year, I had pneumonia, including getting some kidney stones. During the time I had pneumonia, it didn’t seem to affect me (at least I thought), except that for several days I lost my appetite, and during those 2-4 weeks I had lost about 15 pounds. The kidney stones had disappeared after a couple of months. Now four months later, I realized that that pneumonia has had more impact on my health. In particular, my stamina had decreased significantly. So after a 30-40 minute walk, I would need a rest before I can continue to walk, or even just standing up.

Because my health insurance will pay for acupuncture treatments for back problems, In the last two months, I have been doing acupuncture treatments. Besides treating my back problems, my acupuncture treatments have also tried to work to treat on the nerves related to my feet and walking in general. It is too early to determine whether the acupuncture treatments are helping me to improve my feet movements and walking in general.

It is clear to me that to make overall improvements in my health and overall improvements with respect to my stroke, the process of recovery is going to be a major and long process. I will have to attack it from many approaches:

(1) Besides going through physical therapy twice a week (for one hour each), I must do it every day since every exercise in my physical therapy is useful, either to use the muscles that have not been used or used sufficiently.

(2) I must do more with the weights to strengthen my muscles, especially after my loss of weight.

(3) I must do the threadmill on a regular basis to strengthen my stamina.

(4) I must do my Taiji on a regular basis since I have not done it on a regular basis for several months.

I will do these exercises on a regular basis, and see if there is any improvement. It is also possible that it is just aging, and my health will progress based on just aging. Only time will tell.

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