Keith White Prairie-My UWGB Retreat

The place I am working as a professor doesn't pay me very much. However, UW-Green Bay does have a beautiful campus. Circling around the campus is a 6-mile long walking, bicycling or cross-country-ski trail. I was too busy to visit them during my early career at this campus. After experiencing long illness in the last year, I realize everyday's life is God's gift and I need to find time to appreciate God's creation of nature and bauty.

This 6-mile long trail winds through a 16 acre grassland of the so-called Keith White Prairie. This prairie was established in 1972 under the guidance of Professor Keith White, who continued the site even after his retirement in 1989. Professor White's students assisted with site preparation, planting, and burning, a tradition that is continued today by faculty and students at UW-Green Bay.

Early explorers called the vast North American grasslands "prairie" after the French word for meadow. Prairies were once home to bison, elk, wolves and badgers. They extended from central Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, through part of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.

The dominant grasses at the Keith White prairie are big blue stem, switch grass, and Indian grass. They develop enormous root systems, sometimes growing as deep as 3 meters. Prairie plants are well adopted to fire, drought, and grazing.

Pictures show summer and spring view of the Keith White prairie.

Bad Mouth No More...

I heard this story from one of the inspiration seminars that I listened to a while ago. The moral of the story is to be careful on what we say to other people; because it may be the last word you would have to say to other people.

A sister of 14 years old and a brother of 12 years old were transported to Auschwitz concentration camp from Warsaw. The sister was meticulously dressed; the brother was not. The sister felt embarrassed when she saw her brother's shoes were not neatly tied.

"Can't you tie your shoe laces nicely?" she yelled at him.

At the Auschwitz concentration camp, the sister and the brother were separated. At the end of the War, the sister survived the camp; but her brother did not.

She could not imagine herself that the last words she had ever said to her brother was her yelling at him... "Can't you tie your shoe laces nicely?"

After the camp, she made a vow to herself, never bad mouth to anyone because she never knew that could become the last words she had ever to say to someone she loved.

Dr. Chen is on The Recovery Path

After more than 7-month-long illness, I finally saw my GI specialist to give me a complete thorough diagnosis through blood test, endoscopy, CAT scan, ultrasound, and colonscopy. The diagnosis results are: (1) negative on cancer; (2) moderate gastritis, and bacteria infection positive; (3) negative on auto-immune problems (4) liver and pancreatic look fine.

I have finished my antibiotic treatment and continued on proton pump inhibitor treatment. I am also managing my stress through meditation, chiropractor and acupuncture treatments.

Although the recovery process could be very long, I do expect a complete recovery of my health to be productive again for my life.

I thank everyone from NCHU colleagues, students and UWGB colleagues and students, from Taiwanese friends in the US, and from friends of Memorial Presbyterian Church in Appleton for their expression of kindness and concern during my struggling with the illness. Many thank to you all.

Acid Foods or No Acid Foods? Dr. Chen is Completely Puzzled

Back in the fall of 2009, Dr. Chen had an endoscopy with a surgeon. The diagnosis was the acid reflux with Barret esophagus, and mild gastritis. The treatment was proton pump inhibitor, anti-acids, and avoid all acidic food. Well, I have being doing exactly like that for the last seven months, and the symptoms do not go away.

On Feb 2, 2010, Dr. Chen had another endoscopy; this time was with a GI specialist. The diagnosis was the severe gastritis over the duodenum area. The specialist gave me a new medicine, Sucrafate which is a medicine to treat ulcer. This medicine requires stomach acid to form a protective layer over the stomach lining. The medicine would not work if there is no acid in the stomach.

So, at this moment, Dr. Chen needs to juggle between acid food, alkaline food, medicine that needs acids, and medicine that reduces acids. It is quite a mind-puzzling management.

I will report to you how does the new treatment go.

Dr. Chen Adds Acupuncture and Chiropractor into His Treatment of Chronicle Illness

When I was in Taiwan, I received both modern and Chinese ancient medical treatments when I was sick. Taiwanese medical insurance recognizes the values of both treatment. Things are different in the United States. The medical insurance in the US covers modern medical treatments and chiropractor service. For acupuncture which I believe its treatment effectiveness, the US medical insurance does not cover the cost for its service.

Seven months into the modern medical diagnosis and treatment and only get the control of its illness prognosis, I decide to take a proactive approach for treating my chronicle illness: add acupuncture and chiropractor for treatment. I had both treatments this week, and I do feel somewhat better after the treatment. However, even the doctors believe that the effectiveness of the treatments and to wait for at least 1-2 weeks; I will report the progress of my conditions in a few weeks.

I had my latest blood test results down few days ago. The blood sodium level has improved from 124 to 131 to 134 (the latest results) against [135-155]. Both ALT and AST (liver enzyme)have dropped to the normal range. But direct bilirubin value is still stubbornly hanging high at 0.40 against [0.00-0.3]. My doctor told me not to worry about it. I will have another blood test down in 2 months, that will be in March. I will report the results then.

I did feel somewhat better these days. I had more energy swimming which is a real gauge of my medical condition.

Friends, thank you for your prayer and concerns. I will report to you my conditions one way or another.

Coping with Chronicle Illness, Dr. Chen's Way

Coping with chronicle illness is easy. With Dr. Chen more than 7 month of illness, everyday, and every meal is a struggle. If not coping correctly, it is easy to set in some irreversible vicious cycles which would end up with self-destruction. I write this down to share with my friends; not for you, because I hope you would never have to go through the suffering I am at this moment. But if you have relatives who are suffering from chronicle illness, this note may be useful.

What are the possible vicious cycles with chronicle illness ? First, the malnutrition vicious cycle. The reason is pretty simple, because the patient has no appetite. Malnutrition can create another problems in addition to your current illness. For Dr. Chen, I am fortunate. I have a dietitian relative who happened had read my suffering story. She called and advised me to drink a complete nutritional balance drink, called Ensure (manufactured and marketed by Abbott Lab.). This drink is not cheap. It costs approximately $1.10 per bottle. But, every time I drink Ensure, I feel somewhat reassured for future recovery.

Second, the depression vicious cycle. The patient has a tendency to withdraw from the social cycles and become self-pity and bitter about life. One way to overcome that is to find a support group. My wife had helped me out to take me out to participate in church choir. I also pray earnestly. Praying forces to articulate what I can find something to be thankful in each day's struggling. I also keep myself busy in preparing my spring semester teaching, because I know that finding the meaning of everyday life keeps me on the track.

Other therapies which I find useful are doing exercise, watching funny shows in the TV. Exercises help me improve appetite at least temporally. Laughter is the best medicine. Find anything funny and laugh the gut is a good therapy.

I share this thought with you. I also need you to continue to pray for me. Anything you do is very comforting to me and I really appreciate it because I know I am not suffering alone.

New Year Greeting and Dr. Chen Needs a Miracle for 2010

Happy New Year, The Year of Ox, 2010.

Friends, I wish I have good news to tell you about my health situation. But, I don't. In fact, since December 21 2009, my health situation is spiraling downward. Before that, although my appetite was not any good to start with, but I still could eat some. Although I felt stomach distress, I never felt nausea. Since December 21, I have lost most of the appetite and I feel nausea more frequently.

I had a blood test on December 28, the initial results were alarming: My blood sodium level was only 124 against a normal range of [135-155]. In fact, this is called the hyponatremia, a medical term describing the disease of low blood sodium. Since sodium ions control the osmotic pressures for all physiological function, this low sodium level could explain the loss of appetite and nausea symptom. Doctor's immediate prescription is to order me restrict fluid intake and liberate up salt intake. I had another blood test on January 4, 2010. The blood sodium level was 131 against a normal range of [135-155]. This new reading is still low, but somewhat better than the results done on December 28. My wife and I had immediate celebration together. I bought a bouquet of flower to her to thank all the care she had given to me over the past 6 months.

Other than somewhat uplifting news of new sodium level, the liver profile was not too uplifting. My AST results was 80 against a normal range of [0-38], total bilrubin was 1.1 against a normal range of [0.3-1.0], direct bilrubin was 0.4 against a normal range of [0-0.3]. Although it is still not a liver crisis, it indicates that my liver function is already compromised.

Meanwhile, I am struggling every meal, and every day and be just glad to be alive one day at a time. I am trying to distract myself from too conscious about the health situation by swimming and playing recorder. The rest of the time, I am in pain.

Friends, I need all of your prayer; not just for me but also for my wife. This illness had caused a lot of stress on my wife, and she needs all the support you can give her.

That is all I want to update you for now. I will tell you more when more diagnosis results are back. Good bye, friends.