July 11, 2006

• Physician, Stab Thyself!

  Tuesdays and Thursdays are slow days at tongren hospital, so
  oliver alex soo and I took the opportunity to ask the doctor questions and
  ultimately we practiced needling, scraping and cupping on each other

  Scraping involves putting a bit of seed oil ( I don’t know
  what kind exactly yet) on the patient’s back or arm, and then using a thing
  plastic board to scrape it along the entire back. What happens is basically you
  are scraping hard enough to bruise, and the bruises appear in areas relating to
  the zang fu organs and differential diagnoses. When I was being scraped, I had
  bruised that related to heart and liver fire…meaning I had a little too much
  yang and heat, and the proper tx would be to increase my yin and cool. The
  liver fire appeared probably because I had been doing drinking the night
  before, which the doctor guessed right away…pretty impressive considering I had
  said nothing about it and she guessed merely from brusing me…or more accurately
  letting alex bruise me

  We all tied scraping each other and then it was on to
  cupping. First was dragging cupping, where you place the cup to form an
  airtight seal, then slide it down the person’s back and pull it off, making a
  nifty little suction sound. After we all got an opportunity to try that, Soo
  and I were brave enough to try the actual cupping where the cups remain on you
  for several minutes, forming bruises from breaking blood vessels underneath the
  skin… 

  We both had it done for shoulder and back pain, and let me
  tell you, it felt fantastic, although I have large circular bruises all over
  for the next couple weeks probably…Thursday we will be needling each other, so
  I better study up my acu points…now it is off to celebrate independence day by
  doing something American…eating at micky d’s

  p.s….they had taro pie…it was delicious
  

   

  July 5^th

  Wednesday is a slightly busier day at the clinic, so we got
  to see more…I am getting much better at removing needles from patients and a
  bit faster too…I guess that just s with anything else, practice makes perfect,
  or at the least competent. I even got to treat my first patient today too! Not
  with needles yet, just cupping, but still pretty exciting…I got the cups and
  found the points almost entirely by myself, and then I placed the cups on her,
  and set the timer, and ten minutes later I removed each one. The cups are
  removed by placing a finger underneath the lip of the cup and pressing downward
  to release the vacumn seal. Again, bruises are left, but they fade in 5 to 7
  days and no one seems to mind that much anyway. I also talked to a gentleman
  whose son was there for treatment of epilepsy…although not in the sense we
  think of it. He said that four years prior, his son heard someone calling out
  his name during his sleep, and woke up scared. Since that time, whenever he
  falls asleep, he will usually wake up about one hour later with his heart
  punding violently and he will suffer palpitations for 2-3 minutes. For three
  years the man took his son, a male aged approx 28 to all sorts of western
  doctors and none of them were able to do anything. Finally, the acupuncture
  clinic at tongren hospital was recommended, and when we saw the man, it was his
  son’s 3^rd acu treatment. At even only the 3^rd tx, he
  noted that while his son still suffers from the condiiotn and wakes up with his
  heart punding, now it only lasts 10 seconds. Pretty amazing, huh?

  Sandra and I decided to rent bikes and start biking around Beijing
  to get a feel for it from a locals perspective…that perspective being
  suicidally insane J taxicabs buses bikes and pedestrians all share the
  road, and lane signs and stopligts are more guidelines than actual rules. Our
  first day was a little scary but fun as we got good exercise. Bike lanes here
  are huge and run alongside the road. It is a nice feeling to be commuting
  everywhere by bike and we are saving a ton of money on taxicab rides around the
  city.

  So we biked to beihai park where we met alex and soo, and
  then we just walked around enjoying the day, warm but without being too hot or
  humid. Toward the evening, we climbed up to the white pagoda in the center of
  the park, but for whatever reason it was not open to the public. So like good
  little Americans, we figured that meant everyone but us, and hopped the fence,
  crawles under the posts and climbed around corners in super stealth ninja mode
  until we made it up to the top of the pagoda, where I got  great picture of the buddhas inlaid into the
  wall beside the pagoda, as well as an amazing view of the forbidden city!

   Then it was a bike ride back and out to karaoke for the
  night where once again, much fun was had by all.

  • 12:39 am
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