When a rare autoimmune disease attacks your body, you become a nomad searching for a miracle. Over 24 years, I visited five western medical hospitals and five traditional Korean medicine clinics, exhausting every possible treatment.
In the beginning, local clinics only prescribed steroid ointments and basic anti-inflammatory drugs. There was zero improvement. Desperate for answers, I visited Yonsei Severance Hospital, one of the top university hospitals in South Korea. Through a skin punch biopsy, I finally received a proper name for my agony: **Livedoid Vasculopathy**.
A renowned professor prescribed heavy steroids and anti-allergy medications. At this stage, my legs were covered in painful purpura (purple spots) but had not yet developed into open ulcers. After six months of medication, the spots cleared up. I thought the nightmare was over. But the following spring, the disease ambushed me again, accompanied by severe, agonizing edema (swelling).
## 1. The Desperate Choices: Leech Therapy and Premium Herbal Medicine
Traditional Korean medicine clinics suggested completely different approaches. At one clinic, I underwent **Leech Therapy**. The practitioner placed live leeches directly onto my inflamed wounds to suck out the stagnant, congested blood, hoping to restore healthy circulation. This happened about 17 to 18 years ago, costing around $150 a week ($200 USD a month), plus custom herbal medicine that cost nearly $300 per prescription.
However, this alternative therapy backfired. I developed a severe allergic reaction to the leech saliva. My entire body erupted in red, itchy hives, forcing me to take heavy antihistamines. At another specialized clinic, I followed a cycle of taking allergy medications for three months and resting for three months, a grueling process that lasted for two years.
During the brief reprieves in autumn, my ulcers would temporarily close, and I turned heavily to dietary healing. The practitioner banned all “inflammatory heat-inducing foods” and ordered me to eat a strict, traditional Korean diet: bibimbap loaded with fresh wild greens and plenty of raw perilla oil, fermented soybean paste (Doenjang), and fresh vegetables. I had to completely eliminate cola, fried foods, alcohol, coffee, and sugar.
My skin improved for about six months. But like clockwork, during the seasonal transition from spring to summer, the horrific necrosis returned. Only when November arrived would the wounds slowly begin to close again.
## 2. A Brief Reprieve via Cancer, and the Relapse of Corporate Life
For years, this brutal cycle of necrosis and temporary healing repeated itself—until cancer struck. Ironically, during my major colon cancer surgery and subsequent recovery, because I was forced to completely rest, limit all physical activity, and maintain a hyper-strict post-cancer diet, the leg necrosis noticeably slowed down. For the first time in decades, the skin on my legs looked dry and stable.
One year after my cancer treatment, believing I had recovered, I returned to society. I founded a publishing company with my child, who had just graduated from university. But the moment I pushed my body and mind back into the stress of work, my legs immediately ballooned with fluid, and the skin necrosis aggressively erupted once again.
A close friend introduced me to another famous traditional clinic. There, I endured painful acupuncture directly into my swollen calves and cupping therapy on my weak ankles. The practitioner shook his head, saying my severe lack of oxygenated blood flow was critical. I stayed with this painful treatment for two years, spending $10 per acupuncture session and $300 per herbal batch, but the necrosis refused to fade. Even in the dead of winter, my legs remained severely swollen.
My physical mobility was rapidly deteriorating. Walking for more than ten minutes was a massive chore. My ankles became so weak and unstable that one day, I lost my balance on a sloped road and fell violently, requiring three stitches around my eye. On another terrifying afternoon, I took a subway ride to the suburbs. Suddenly, all the strength drained from both of my legs. I completely lost the ability to move. Stranded on the pavement, I felt a wave of panic, wondering if I should call 119 (the Korean emergency services). I sat on the cold street for nearly three hours before I could barely crawl back into a car.
Driven by sheer desperation, I visited a highly publicized clinic claiming to possess an herbal formula officially approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety specifically for vascular disease. I paid a staggering, desperate sum of nearly $3,000 (3.6 million KRW) for a single course of medicine. It had absolutely no effect.
## 3. The Ultimate Turning Point: Low-Dose Chemotherapy (February 2025)
The publishing company had to be run, and I had to keep moving. Left with no other options, I registered at the Rheumatology department of the university hospital where I had received my cancer surgery. I underwent a complete battery of tests: comprehensive blood work, urine analysis, X-rays, and another deep tissue biopsy.
After seeing no improvement over two years of standard treatments, the medical team made a radical, heavy decision: **they would treat my vascular disease with chemotherapy (Immunosuppressive Chemo Therapy).**
I entered a brutal routine: checking into the hospital, resting for a day, receiving the chemotherapy infusion the next day, and being discharged. Two weeks later, I would repeat the exact same cycle. I endured this for a total of six grueling rounds.
The miracle finally happened during the 5th round.
The deep purple purpura began to fade away, and the relentless skin necrosis completely ground to a halt. Each hospital admission cost roughly $400 (500,000 KRW). By **February 2025**, the active disease that had tortured me for nearly a quarter of a century was finally quieted.
I survived 24 years of trial and error. Through this blog, I am going to save you from wasting decades of your life and thousands of dollars. In my upcoming posts, I will first reveal **my practical daily management and lifestyle routines (Management Advice)** that sustained my body through this chemical warfare, followed by **the exact healing Korean recipes and meal plans (Healing Diet)** that ultimately cleansed my blood vessels. Let us take this step together.