When I was first admitted to the hospital, my bedside doctor, Dr. Wu, told me that every patient who came to the ophthalmology department of Long March Hospital to see Dr. Wei for proptosis had a story of twists and turns or despair behind it. Perhaps it was because he felt the pain and despair of every patient with proptosis that Director Wei was able to create a way out of the highly sophisticated and complex orbital gap for his patients! My 14 years of proptosis consultation is not the most tortuous and desperate (I heard that among Dr. Wei’s patients, there are also proptosis patients who have been seeking treatment for more than 20 years without success), but I still want to share my consultation experience in Dr. Wei’s website in the hope of helping subsequent patients to take less detours, and in the hope of proving how lucky proptosis patients are to receive diagnosis and treatment from Dr. Wei! I suffered from hyperthyroidism in 2001, and after treatment with iodine 131, I gradually developed proptosis in both eyes. Since I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, I started a long journey to seek medical help. After graduation, I returned to Chengdu and searched for famous doctors in the best local hospitals and ophthalmology departments, but all the answers were “conservative treatment, surgery is not recommended”. After the Internet became popular, I searched the Internet for any information about the treatment of hyperthyroidism, and after searching all the websites in China and finding nothing, I started to search other Chinese medical websites, such as those in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but also found nothing. After that, I searched for information about treatment of synostosis in Asian countries around China, such as Japan and Korea, but I had no luck either. In this context, the problem of proptosis and the strong desire to solve it forced me to learn a foreign language in order to find all possible information about proptosis treatment on the Internet at ……, but in the end, all my inquiries were always disappointing, and even if I found a little bit of information about proptosis surgery on the website of a hospital in the United States, I was too far away to consult about the details of the surgery. Even if I found some information about proptosis surgery on the website of a US hospital, it was too far away to consult the details of the surgery and I gave up. A little more than two years ago, I was given the opportunity to study in Germany on a scholarship, and I took the opportunity to ask around Germany and Europe for a treatment for proptosis. The search was uneventful, with many twists and turns, and I finally found the first doctor in more than a decade who could perform “orbital decompression” in person at the hospital of my university. However, the German surgeon abandoned his decision to perform the procedure just before he was ready to operate, explaining that he did not have much experience with this type of surgery and that he was not confident that the surgery would meet my expectations in the face of my strong expectations. In addition, I was a poor foreign student who did not have insurance for this type of surgery and had to raise money to pay the huge surgery fee, and he was worried that it would be difficult for me to bear both the physical and financial stress myself if the surgery did not work well. When I first heard his decision, I was really devastated because I had searched for so many years and traveled so far to easily find a doctor who had the skills to perform my protruding eye surgery, only to end up waiting for such a result. He also said something that I could not accept, “Your proptosis is not that serious, just live with it! But it was because I had been living with this kind of proptosis for more than ten years that I was in too much pain and couldn’t live with it anymore, so I had to seek help from a doctor to solve my pain! But after I calmed down, I understood the German doctor’s decision and that he was trying to be responsible for me. Just when I was in deep despair, I searched the internet by chance and found information about Dr. Rui Li Wei, which showed more and more clearly that he was a reliable specialist in treating orbital diseases such as hyperthyroidism. How did I come to the “trusted” conclusion? First of all, it is due to the platform provided and the experiences and heartfelt testimonials shared by Dr. Wei’s patients. Secondly, during my first online consultation with Dr. Wei, he made a small and very careful gesture that made me instantly realize how much he cared for his patients: in my first long letter to Dr. Wei, I probably indirectly mentioned I didn’t ask the doctor to encrypt our conversation, and I didn’t know this feature was available on the website, but Dr. Wei was very sensitive to my concern and took the initiative to set our conversation as encrypted information. And during the many consultations that followed, I felt Dr. Wei’s sincerity, patience, meticulousness and efficiency …… as well as the qualities described by other patients about Dr. Wei. So, before I could see him in person, I was already in a faraway country and felt the “kindness” of Dr. Wei’s heart to his patients through the Internet! (In the days when I contacted Dr. Wei, I was writing my thesis, and refreshing Dr. Wei’s website every now and then to read his replies and messages to his patients became an important spice in my hard writing, and getting to Shanghai to see Dr. Wei as soon as possible became my only motivation to finish my thesis quickly!) On February 26, 2014, I was able to get a special appointment with Dr. Wei through the appointment service, and I was so nervous that I made 4 or 5 trips to the bathroom in the hour-long queue outside the door. However, from the moment I opened the door and saw Director Wei with my own eyes to the moment I was pushed into the operating room before the surgery, I did not feel nervous again because my experience of more than ten years told me that it was too difficult to meet such a specialist in proptosis surgery, and the only thing I needed to do now was to put all my trust in Director Wei and turn my nervousness into anticipation for the surgery. Of course, my expectation for the surgery was not a blind expectation without any mental preparation. There are risks associated with any surgery, and the possible adverse consequences of “orbital decompression” surgery, such as diplopia, unsatisfactory retraction of the proptosis, or other conditions, are sometimes beyond the control of the surgeon. In addition, each patient has individual differences, and for doctors, each time they face a new patient, it is a new experience, but the more experienced the doctor is, the more cases he or she is exposed to, the more skillful he or she is in controlling the scalpel, and the more comfortable he or she is in facing new cases, so as to avoid adverse consequences to the maximum extent possible. Dr. Wei has accumulated a wealth of experience in proptosis surgery, and the results of his past patients confirm his excellent medical skills, which is the premise of my full trust in him; at the same time, Dr. Wei’s medical skills and medical ethics are also important, and he acts in a sincere and easy-going style, replying to thousands of online consultations one by one, and taking good care of poor patients and foreign patients. What is especially rare is that it is usually difficult for people other than the patient to understand and feel the psychological pressure that patients with proptosis are under, but Director Wei truly understands us. This “true understanding” of Director Wei came from a conversation I had with a family member of a patient with proptosis shortly after he was admitted to the hospital: When Director Wei came to the ward to visit a little sister who had just undergone orbital decompression surgery, her mother got up to thank her for the success of the surgery and told Director Wei about her parental concerns, “His father and I never agreed with her. Her mother got up and thanked her for the success of the surgery and told Director Wei about her worries as a parent, “Her father and I have always disagreed with her surgery, her eyes just look bigger and there is nothing wrong with them, but she is very insistent…”, and Dr. Wei’s next answer made me wipe my tears by pulling the corner of the quilt, “You don’t know her physical and mental pain, but I do, otherwise why would I want to Do this kind of surgery, but also to take the risk, do not do my own live well, but the patient suffering ah …”. Director Wei said in a slightly flirtatious and relaxed tone, but I listened in my heart but heavy, touched and relieved. The heavy thing is to think about the “physical and mental pain” that I have endured over the years that others could not understand, the touching thing is that there is finally someone who can truly understand this pain, and the comforting thing is that this person who can truly understand is not someone else, but a doctor who can save me! It is true that moderate to mild proptosis is not like orbital tumors or malignant proptosis, it is neither life threatening nor does it affect vision, so most ophthalmologists are not willing to take the risk of doing major orbital surgery for patients with moderate to mild proptosis. However, the physical and psychological pain caused by proptosis, as well as the impact on normal life and social life, are enormous but subtle, exceptionally uncomfortable but impossible to express accurately in words. If I talked too much to others, I would be considered too petulant and too concerned about my appearance, and I blamed myself for that. But then some data and information I found on the internet made me realize that the psychological stress and lack of acceptance of one’s appearance (self-perception disorder) caused by proptosis is common, beyond the control of the patient himself, and is a real and important problem to be taken seriously. One statistic says that in Germany, more than 40% of the country’s proptosis patients no longer work or socialize and stay at home, and another American study shows that the psychological stress caused by hyperthyroidism-related proptosis can be equal to that caused by HIV infection or breast cancer! Now, Dr. Wei understands this physical and mental stress and turns his understanding into compassion and love as a healer. Not only that, but his superb, masterful, magician-like skills turned this kindness and compassion into a real force that allowed his scalpel to be subtle and precise through such a small incision, in such a narrow orbital anatomical space, and with such a complex ocular nerve, vascular and muscular tissue structure! The surgery was supposed to be performed on March 4, but had to be postponed due to my cold, and I had to be discharged and readmitted in the middle of the procedure. On March 10, the day before the surgery, Dr. Wei had a preoperative talk with each patient to be operated on the next day and finalized the surgical plan. Out of full trust in Director Wei, and in order to let the doctor operate without pressure, during the final consultation, I presented my expectations for the surgery to Director Wei: As long as the surgery did not cause blindness and I could take care of myself, I could accept all the other consequences of the surgery, and I asked Director Wei to exercise his medical skills with confidence and boldness! To my surprise, Director Wei said that the patient’s words touched the doctor’s ears. This touching comment made me realize the responsibility and pressure that I have to bear as a doctor when facing surgery. Orbital surgery, in particular, is a high-risk and high-stress procedure for both doctors and patients. I think at this point, besides the surgeon’s own skills and experience, the patient’s trust in the surgeon is perhaps the best stress reliever for the surgeon! On March 11, the day of the surgery, I was scheduled to be the last of the 12 surgeries performed by Director Wei. Although I had been fasting from morning to afternoon, my long-standing expectation of surgery and my wish to be fulfilled soon made me full of energy, and I did not feel nervous at all during the whole process of being pushed into the operating room, even if I did not see Director Wei with my own eyes after entering the operating room, I was not anxious because Dr. Wu had specially reminded me the day before the surgery that since there were 11 surgeries before mine, during the preparation stage before the surgery, Director Wei director would try to rest aside and wait for my anesthesia to take effect before coming out to do the surgery. However, when I mentioned to the operating nurse that I had been fasting for a day before the anesthesia, I unexpectedly heard Director Wei’s voice, “Oh, you haven’t eaten anything, you must be a little hungry” – this must have been a deliberate sound made by Dr. Wei to reassure me that he himself was present. (Although I didn’t ask Director Wei to confirm this afterwards, but the director’s usual attentive and thoughtful style makes me willing to assume so). With Director Wei’s reassuring voice, I was put under anesthesia within two minutes of the anesthetic injection, and by the time I regained consciousness, it was two hours later. One hour after the surgery, the nurse came to the room to measure the light perception of my operated eye, and everything was normal, which meant that the visual sensory function of the eye was good and not affected by the surgery. ” and said to my old mother, who was waiting anxiously on the other side, “Mom, come and see too, the eyeball is back and recovering well”! It was a “miracle moment” for my mother, and she was so happy that she said, “Yes, yes, yes …… the convex eye has shrunk back, and the result is very good!” The day after the surgery, the pain in my eye was slightly better, and I was overwhelmed with joy to see my perfectly retracted left eye in the mirror: everything was fine except for post-operative edema, some blood in the white of my eye, a little pain, and slight double vision. The surgery was amazing! The eye looked normal from the front and from the side, especially the proptosis on the side was greatly improved, and no surgical wound was visible! This made me wonder what happened in the two hours in the operating room and I couldn’t help but marvel: Director Wei is a magical orbital magician! The proptosis that had been bothering me for more than 10 years was cured!” On the third day after surgery, the double vision was reduced and the post-operative discomfort was gradually improved; on the fifth day after surgery, the operated eye could start to rotate significantly and the edema was significantly reduced; on the sixth day after surgery, the operated eye continued to recover and could be discharged from the hospital! (When I was discharged from the hospital, I found out that the cost was 5,000 to 6,000 dollars less than expected! Needless to say, this must be another example of Director Wei’s special care for patients who come from far away and have difficult family conditions! (I really don’t know how to thank you, Director Wei!) On the tenth day after the surgery, the edema was half gone and the bruising was slowly disappearing. 20 days after the surgery, the eye no longer looked like it had undergone major surgery, and I could travel long distances by myself with my luggage. The lens is stuck to the eyeball ……! Forty days after the surgery, i.e. right now, I am looking forward to the surgery of my other eye, waiting to witness the miracle once again! At this point in my writing, I realized that even if I wrote a thousand words, I would not be able to express my gratitude to Director Wei for his kindness and admiration for his magical and miraculous medical skills. As a Buddhist practitioner, I have always held the view that “those who hold compassion must first cultivate the power of great majesty”, believing that only those who have great power will not feel powerless when giving compassion. Now it seems that Director Wei is such a kind-hearted doctor who has the “power of Maharishi”. Thank you, Director Wei, if it were not for your compassionate concern for patients with proptosis and your courage to take on the important task of overcoming proptosis, and if it were not for your excellent medical skills developed through years of continuous research and practice, I would still be living a life of suffering and living death today. But now all that has changed, and I live a life full of confidence and joy every day, so that I will never forget the care and help of you and all the doctors and nurses in the ophthalmology team of Long March Hospital led by you!