"Dear Dr. Zhong, I just wanted to write you a letter thanking you for your kindness, support and wisdom. My daughter-in-law is attending ACAOM where you are teaching and she kept insisting that I come to the school’s clinic for treatment of my knee pain. I was and still am very afraid of any kind of needles, but the amount of pain that I was experiencing out weighed my fear of needles. Not only was the pain in both knees resolved, but also the pain in my left shoulder and neck. I never mentioned the shoulder pain and neck pain because I just assumed they were due to the aches and pains of aging. When you first prescribed herbal granules in addition to the acupuncture, I didn’t like the taste of them because it tasted quite unusual. As I kept taking them, I began to appreciate their earthy taste and now I am an expert in taking herbs. It has been almost one year since I finished my therapy for my knee pain and I’m still pain free. My husband now says that I hop up and down the stairs and my daughter-in-law tells me to stop running down the stairs and to hold on to the rail. Before I began treatment for the knee pain, I was about to give up going up stairs because I was having great difficulty and pain lifting my legs onto each of the fifteen stairs. I also want to thank you for treating me for my most recent condition. I had my annual well-woman check-up in May of this year. My regular doctor saw several questionable spots inside my vagina and sent me to a gynecologist for diagnosis. The gynecologist couldn’t diagnose what the questionable areas were, and decided to take a biopsy of two areas (in June) and sent it to a pathologist for diagnosis. The diagnosis came back as: mild to focal moderate squamous dysplasia (VIN I-II) in a background of florid chronic inflammation. As usual, my daughter-in-law insisted that I come to see you as soon as she saw the pathologist’s report. You prescribed me herbal granules and I took them faithfully every day. My regular doctor and gynecologist were located in a city close to where we used to live and I didn’t want to keep driving so far. I found a gynecologist in town (late July) and she didn’t know what those spots were either. She sent me to a gynecological oncologist at M.D. Anderson so that he could perform a special test called a vinegar drape to determine the stage of dysplasia. It took 3 weeks to get an appoint to do the test. By the time I went to see the oncologist, I had been taking the herbal prescription faithfully every day for about two and a half months. When he examined me, he couldn’t see any suspicious areas and commented that my new gynecologist must have over exaggerated the circumstance. He performed the vinegar drape despite the fact that there were no visible areas of abnormality. No cells reacted with the vinegar, which indicated that all cells were normal. I told my new gynecologist and the oncologist that I was taking herbal medicine, but I think they didn’t hear me or pay attention. I know that it was your prescription and my determination to treat my condition as naturally as possible is what made the cells return to their normal state. You warned me that it would take a long time to treat and cure my condition, but in my book, two and a half months was very short. Thank you for your knowledge and wisdom, and offering me hope and an alternative treatment to western medicine. I dread going to see the doctor for any condition, but I always enjoy coming to see you when I need medical assistance. You are always very kind and gentle and I know that you really care about your patients. Thank you for everything." Marrianne