Mia

September 15, 2016

Dear Dr. Vuong, My Angel MD,

I go everywhere and sing your praises.  You have saved my life, and I mean that literally.  I came to you with an average of 5 doctor’s appointments per week after a near death experience on the 405 freeway.  A garbage truck lost control and hit my husband Michael (also an MD and the driver) and me at 80 mph.  We spun around, crossed 3 lanes, slammed into the concrete median going 50 mph, bounced back across 4 lanes, with 5 air bags opening and came to a full stop.  I was in the passenger seat where most of the impact was sustained, taken out of the car on a stretcher, I could not move my neck and had full body pain.  Luckily, Michael left the car with only some bruises and broken glasses.

After 3 years of chronic pain and highly trained Beverly Hills doctors — orthopedists, physiatrists, a neurologist, chiropractors, acupuncturists, endless x-rays, MRI’s and lots of crying — I found you.

I had a broken rib and I lost memory from a concussion — these healed over time.  But what did not — was a torn labram (needed a new hip), a torn meniscus with pain in both knees, chronic migraine headaches, chronic neck, thoracic, and lower back pain (“advanced disk and neck disease”).  With foot pain, hand pain, shoulder pain and pain on my right side, also chronic, I had what some might call full body pain — nerves, muscles, tendons and ligaments that were traumatized. Having tried conventional painkillers and shots with very little relief, I was suicidal.  I believed my life would never be the same, I couldn’t work, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t travel. I couldn’t take stairs, I would have to lie down on the grass and have my husband pull my hip out.  I couldn’t sit, I had trouble driving any distance and I was in bed, most of the time — the only place I felt comfortable.

I can say with conviction that these chronic symptoms are gone.  After your extraordinary care I can now walk 4 miles a day, I can sit in most chairs, I drive anywhere, I am not afraid to be alive.  I have hope, I laugh, I am back at work 50 hours a week.  I have my life back.  I have my dreams back.

You are truly a gift from heaven.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart — you are a doctor like no other, someone who does not look away at unsolvable problems.  I have not replaced my hip, my knee or resorted to strong painkillers, instead I have sent my whole family to you for your precious help:  my 85 year old mother who was in a wheelchair is now running around, my 85 year old father with painful arthritis is now almost pain-free…their living in Maine has not been an impediment, they will be coming back next year to reduce any lingering issues that we didn’t get last year.  And my sister, Amy who flew here from Shanghai with a frozen shoulder and my nephew with Osgood-Schlatter disease — relieved of pain as well.  We come from far and wide to a doctor who cares, who never gives up, who does not run from our pain, but rather seeks it out and succeeds in healing it using every possible method she has in her virtual black bag: osteopathy, acupuncture, manipulation, neural prolotherapy, deep prolotherapy, platelet rich plasma therapy — our pain has nothing to do, but be relieved.

Thank you for caring for me and my whole family with such dedication, determination, kindness and throughout it all, a standard of excellence and personal empathy and care that is beyond what I have ever experienced from a medical doctor in my life.

With deep gratitude and affection,