Thursday, February 26, 2009

Traditional Chinese Medicine

You know, they say you're supposed to do stupid/silly things in foreign countries, right? Well, I wouldn't say what I've done is stupid, but it might seem pretty strange back in the States. Over the past year and a half I have tried out various types of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It's cheap, plentiful, and generally effective. The two drawbacks - sometimes I don't know if I trust the doctors completely because they are used to working on Chinese people, not foreigners, and it's generally pretty slow to be effective. But let's review a few of the things I've done.

The first is not so shocking and included mostly OTC herbs and suspensions that were supposed to help me recover from some sinus problems. Some of the stuff didn't taste so great (imagine old, unsweetened root beer mixed with rusted iron and dirt), but it was helpful. I had tried this kind of treatment back in 2004 during my first visit to China. It was much more shocking at that time. Now it seems pretty common. Ha. Oh, and to accompany this, I was also asked to open my windows for about 10 minutes before I went to bed to let in fresh air. At the same time, I was to put my feet in a pot of really hot water. Then I closed the windows, put on lots of clothes (they love lots of clothing in China - it's kind of like the old joke of how flight attendants use baking soda as a cure all), and then rest up. It seemed okay.

Next up were Chinese massages. Some of these have been pretty standard fare - like what you'd get in the States. But some of them have been a bit different - walking on my back, cracking my neck, burning some herbs that smelled like a cousin to marijuana, and crazy (but oh so relaxing) Chinese foot massages. These have been nicely helpful, and I'm still going through a round of these to try to help with some back muscles that just won't loosen up.

Soon to follow was acupuncture. Now, this was generally a decent experience for me. They took the needles, stuck them in where I had some hurt muscles, twisted them around a bit, left them there for a while, heated them up, and repeated. Occasionally I would bleed a little from this (the needles were not so tiny), but it was pretty mild overall. What I saw some people enduring looked much worse (e.g., a set of them in the ear - YIKES!). These helped me for the time I was using them, but my back, in particular, has still had some problems.

So, one of the most recent treatments I've tried is called Fire Pots or Capping. It's both painful and not painful. Your body adjusts to it pretty well, so it's manageable, but every now and then the doctor will put some oil on my back, put one of these jars on after that, and then run it all up and down the muscles that follow my spine. Yowser! See the picture to get an idea of what this treatment generally looks like. Ha. (Yeah, that's me in the picture).


And, most recently, I have experienced the one treatment that I hope never happens again. You know the little needles they use to poke your finger so they can test your blood sugar and whatnot? Well, the doctor had a metal mallet that looked a bit like a meat tenderizer, and in the middle of the mallet head, there was a little needle like that on there. Well, the doctor took that object and beat me with it! He used it on 4 different spots on my back and legs, and he hit me about 40-60 times per spot. That was about 200 little punctures he made in my back. Then he took those jars I just mentioned above and put them over the holes. It's a bleeding technique that supposed to help your blood flow better and to help remove toxins from the body. IT IS PAINFUL AND THEN SOME. I would not recommend it to a friend.

But so far, that is my experience with TCM. Haha, my life in China is not SO much different from my life in America, but it's little things like this that regularly remind me that I am DEFINITELY in a foreign country that has a very foreign culture compared to what I've known. Anyone else had similar experiences?