Wang Lin was a lively and lovely girl. When she was 5 years old, she played the usual small game with her father before going to bed.
Her father liked to grab her feet and hang them upside down, but Wang Lin suddenly shouted, "It hurts!" Because there was no difference in appearance, her parents did not regard it as a big deal and then go to bed.
Unexpectedly, the next morning, Wang Lin was unconscious in her lower body, and her whole body was in a soft state, as if she had contracted poliomyelitis. Her parents were panicked, and they urgently took Wang Lin to the Pediatrics Department of MacKay Memorial Hospital. The doctor thought Wang Lin was supposed to be infected with EB virus, but he could not provide the real cause of the disease. She was only told that "Western medicine has its limit, you should try other treatments."
Since then, the Wang family has embarked on a long medical treatment process. In addition to going to major medical centers for rehabilitation, they also tried various folk remedies. Although when she was discharged from the hospital, the doctor told her that no matter what kinds of treatments she received, do not let anyone touch the spine.
Since there was no improvement after receiving conventional treatments, her parents decided to let Wang Lin try acupuncture therapy. When the master stabbed the needle into Wang Lin's tail vertebrae, she immediately felt extremely painful. Thereafter Wang Lin’s life became more difficult, seeing their daughter lived in such pain, her parents finally stopped the idea of seeking folk remedies.
Because the tension in Wang Lin's legs became stronger and stronger, they went to Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou for assistance. At that time, the neurosurgeon suggested cutting some nerves, which might reduce the tension in the legs, but the doctors could not guarantee that the symptoms would be effectively improved after the operation and may even cause complications. Terrified by the consequence, her parents chose to deal with the disease step by step.
Wang Lin gradually coexisted peacefully with the disease. After graduating from middle school, her parents sent her and her sister to Canada to study. At this time, Wang Lin showed strong resilience and went to school on crutches without any help. After graduating from high school, she was admitted to the University of Victoria and double majored in psychology and Spanish.
While enjoying the colorful university life, the cold weather in winter made her symptoms worse. During this period, when she returned to Taiwan to visit the Taipei Veterans General Hospital Nerve Regeneration Center, the doctor saw that she was still walking on crutches, telling her that it had bad influence on her condition. Therefore, she used an electric scooter instead. Moreover, after checking MRI image, the doctor strongly suggested that she should come back to Taiwan to seek treatment immediately.
After graduating, she worked in Canada for a year. In 2009, Wang Lin decided to return to Taiwan to work and concentrate on treatment. During this period, she went to the Northern Medical Center for an MRI examination and found that there was a suspected lipoma in the spinal cord. It is recommended to follow up. Although she was accustomed to physical discomfort, she often cannot rest at night. She only slept for 4 to 5 hours on average, and often woke up by leg pains, and sometimes used more than three wet diapers at night. In addition to the continuous incontinence of urine and bowels, the constipation was so severe that she only went to the toilet once a week, which made her miserable.
Since after so many years, the doctors could not find out the cause of disease, Wang Lin decided to use technology to find the answer on her own. First, she started with the information obtained at the beginning of the disease—EB virus infection. Because the early symptoms of EB virus infection are similar to colds, through this clue, the relationship between the symptoms of spinal cord injury and colds in Spain was found. However, due to the limited information on the Internet, she decided to use her Spanish expertise and wrote to the medical center to ask for further information.
At this time, Wang Lin had moved back to Zhongli, and she also went to the regional hospital near her home to track the MRI image again. The doctor thought that the image was abnormal and might be related to "spinal cord involvement syndrome". The doctor suggested that she might as well search for information in this area, and referred her to medical center for confirmation. But when they arrived at the medical center, after watching the image, the doctor thought that Wang Lin was looking for trouble, and kicked her out of the clinic within five minutes. When they arrived at the second medical center, they were also treated maliciously. Disappointed by the response, Wang Lin can only take medicine to solve the sleep problem, and looks forward to hearing from the Spanish Medical Center soon.
Fortunately, God finally opened a window for Wang Lin. Two months later, she received a reply from Spain. The email assessed Wang Lin had the possibility of suffering from "Tethered Cord Syndrome" and maybe with mild syringomyelia. On hearing the new term syringomyelia, Wang Lin googled again and found out that Dr. Lin is an expert on this disease. She followed the silver lining to Taichung, hoping to get the confirmation. Finally, after a series of checkups, Dr. Lin diagnosed her with syringomyelia.
Therefore, the medical team immediately arranged for surgery. Fortunately, some symptoms have improved significantly after surgery. In particular, before the surgery, Wang Lin's legs stretched to her abdomen, and she could barely move. The arches of her feet were flat, and the pain was unbearable when her hands touched her knees. After the surgery, she felt that not only her abdomen became more relaxed, but also toes and calves became soft. She was able to walk on crutches by herself.
Last year, Wang Lin began to try boxing aerobics. In the beginning, she could only sit and play in the first two classes. Starting from the third class, she could stand up and play for 40 minutes without tiring.
However, Wang Lin also admitted that because the muscles have been in a static state for more than 20 years, but now the muscle growth rate is quite obvious, “you can feel that the tiny muscles are doing things that could not be done before.” Although many movements are difficult for Wang Lin to do, by going to the gym regularly, she can walk slowly and realize that her body is improving day by day.
Wang Lin's insistence on exercise also affects her family. Originally, her father only ran in the community gym. After the epidemic began, he stopped going to the community gym and found that his physical strength dropped significantly. Therefore, Wang Lin encouraged her father to join her to do weight training. “It is amazing that she is the one to take care of my health now” Wang Lin’s father smiled.
不過王琳也說，因為肌肉呈現靜止狀態已經20多年，就算之前復健，肌肉也一直是歸零的狀態，但現在肌肉成長幅度相當明顯，可以感覺到微小肌肉在做以前做不到的事情。很多對正常人來說稀鬆平常的事情，王琳則有另外一番體驗。「走路其實不是件簡單的事，」雖然現在還無法正常走路，但看著自己從原本不會走，到現在慢慢走起來，體會自己的身體正在轉變，「只要有看到成果，不管成果多少，就會激勵我更努力運動！」
去年開始王琳嘗試拳擊有氧，前面兩堂只能坐著打，第三堂開始可以站著打，連續打40分鐘也不會累，藉由重訓和拳擊有氧互相交替，平均一週上健身房2天，也會將運動成果與親友分享。「雖然平常上班也滿累的，有時候對於運動還是會有惰性，但大家都會給我正面回饋，例如多年不見的國外友人，會告訴我這幾年的轉變與之前判若兩人，都會讓我更有動力！」
其實許多正常人不一定有運動習慣，更遑論嘗試重訓，但王琳對於運動的堅持，無形中也影響家人，原本爸爸只在社區健身房跑步，疫情開始後因為減少運動量，發現體力大幅下降，王琳反過來鼓勵爸爸一起加入重訓行列，現在在健身房，也不時看到父女倆重訓的身影。術後一個月王琳重返工作崗位，幸好有主管、同事的協助與支持，才能繼續以滿滿的正能量、開懷的笑容，影響周遭的所有人，對於未來的期許，王琳說，只要能把日常動作確實做好，就是很大的目標，並希望讓更多人知道她對抗病魔的過程，「才不會再走冤枉路了。」
