Nurturing Dignity

The view (on a clear day) from our rooftop

When you are living in the shadow of the Himal, it is difficult to find much that rivals it in beauty. There is this certain clarity that resonates in me when I can go to the rooftop of the clinic and see those enormous snow capped peaks in the distance. It’s like, just for a moment, everything else pales in comparison. That sight can jumpstart me at any point of the day or wipe things clean from my brain when I need a fresh canvas with which to reevaluate the moment. All my problems, the ailments of my patients and the realities of their situations and the challenges of my surrounds living in Nepal fall away, and I am left with simple natural beauty. It is there and available to anyone who cares to raise their head and look, no matter of their race, caste, or financial status. It is a transcendent type of beauty that can be shared by all.

The front gate of our clinic

Vajra Varahi Clinic is a platform of this caliber of beauty in the town of Chapagoan, Nepal. When people come here they not only receive health care, but also strengthen their own communities. It is not uncommon for one patient to overhear another patients inability to get to the clinic on a certain day and offer to make an appointment on the same day for which that patient needs to return in order to help them get back to the clinic for their next treatment. I am honored to be part of this clinic and this community, if only for a short time. Whenever someone here in Nepal asks where I am from, I always proudly say Chapagoan. It gives me the same feeling as when I talk about my own small town that I will be returning to after this experience. It instills a sense of solidarity in me towards this place and its people whom have taken me in as their own, taught me so much and kept me safe as I have explored what it has meant to live here and become a more experienced practitioner. As volunteers here, our fund raising provides supplies to help the clinic remain open. In this way, treatments are offered to the public at a nominal fee and access to primary health care is more widely available.

Off to one of the satellite clinics via motorbike

Treating patients at one of our satilite clinics in Godawari (picture by Tristan Stoch)

Of course, not all days are clear. Sometimes the sky is cloudy for a stretch of several days and we must rely on what we have learned in the past and our intuition to guide us. It’s during these periods that we are challenged the most and we truly get to explore how tensile our brains really are. Most days stretch the boundaries of our flexibility. It’s in these times, in between the clear skies, that we are cultivating the beauty that will arrive in us when the clouds part.

Lunchtime with the interpreters - the real stars of the show!

The experience of living in Chapagoan and treating more patients in a day than I ever imagined has been invigorating and exciting. I have had the opportunity here to explore my role as an acupuncture provider and practitioner of Chinese Medicine. Every single day, I am inspired by the hard work and dedication of the interpreters in which we work alongside. In such a short period of time, it has become difficult to imagine day to day life without them. Seeing their smiling faces each morning will be one of the things I miss the most. Their kindness and understanding has kept me going long into each afternoon. As the patients faces also become more familiar, their humor and guile remind me not to take myself so seriously. It is that connection with them and their right to health care that I recommit myself to each day.

Our neighbors at the Buddhist monastary next door (the clinic is the red building to the left of the photo)

The time here has allowed me to reconnect with my place as a member of this world community. To remember and re-experience the realities of how a majority of people on this planet live. In this way remembering the essence of my human existence, hardship, and pure joy. At the same time that I am grateful for this awareness, I am sad that it is necessary or can be so easily forgotten by myself. My hope is that I have in some small way contributed a fraction of what has been blessed to me during my life thus far. I promise my patients that I will take back the lessons they have taught me and use them to treat many more people during my lifetime. The faith that they have had in me has been the most beautiful gift of all and has enabled me to transition with more confidence onto the next chapter of my life. It will always be with me, helping to guide me on my way when my vision is obstructed, until I can once again have clarity and glimpse beauty, like the mountains, once more.

Treating a 5 year old patient. Probably one of my favorites. (photo by Tristan Stoch)

Trekking in Kathmandu

Kathmandu Pollution Mask

The first thing I did was to breathe a sigh of relief and joy that I had made it here safely to Nepal. Years of anticipation soon fell away and I was left with a feeling of gratitude, thankful to the Universe and all of the people who had helped me get to this moment in time. As soon as I stepped off of the airplane in Kathmandu, all of my 5 senses kicked into overdrive so as to gather and evaluate all the information that I possibly could from my new surroundings. The air felt warm with a slight breeze and was ripe with particulates for my fertile allergies. I could smell and taste what seemed like some kind of soot. There was a tender blue sky and I could hear the horns honking and dogs barking in the distance. Like a herd of cattle we moved into the bus to reach the airport proper and customs. After a long wait and much nervousness, I got a visa, found Brad and our bags and made it through customs with our potentially taxable supplies. Upon exiting the airport, we were warmly greeted by the president of The Acupuncture Relief Project, Andrew, and some other volunteers and we were on our way.  I left the airport feeling excited and with a sense of purpose.

Funeral Pyre

Even though we were to only stay in Kathmandu a few days before heading to the clinic, we trekked all though the city. We stayed in an area called Thamel where there are tourists and crafts but it is a little less expensive than some of the other touristy areas of the city. Our first full day in Kathmandu we had a wonderful breakfast and then walked to the Pashupatinath Temple area. It is here where Hindus can pay money to come and be cremated and their ashes spread into the sacred Bagmati river that eventually flows into the Ganges. It was this ashen smell that I detected on my arrival at the airport the day before. On one bank of the river families are preparing their loved ones to openly burn on pyres outside the temple. The family washes the feet of the body and the eldest son’s head is shaved, save one lock of hair on the back of the head. It is he who will light the cremation fire in the mouth of his father. If a woman is to be cremated, the fire is lit by her youngest son. If there are no sons, then the priest will lite the fire. The women stay home to morn. Only 30 some short years ago, some hindus still practiced Sati, the ritual burning of the live wife on the funeral pyre of her husband. This is still practiced in some parts of India and, among other reasons, was instituted so that young wives would not be tempted to poison their old husbands. On the other side of the river, there are small temples built for fertility. There are many stone cast sculptures of the yoni and long an. A hindu symbol of fertility. It was poignant to witness death and birth sharing the banks of the same river.

Next, we trekked through the city to the the Boudhanath Buddhist stupa in Bohdi. Try saying that three times fast. Gold overlay and beautiful eyes loving painted on the top of the stupa look down into the souls of us all and see the one true, compassionate, generous, and wise buddha that lies within each of us. The prayer flags hang earnestly about and whisper soft supplications into the breeze. Luckily, after this outing and a wonderful lunch, we took a taxi back to the aptly named Wonderland Trekker’s Inn where we were staying to rest and meet up for dinner later.

Buddha Stupa

Our first full day in Nepal was filled with wonder and although we didn’t have any porters carrying our bags around, the uneven pavement and alternating temperature and terrain were enough to feel sore the next day and feel as if we had actually been trekking a little through the urban jungles of Kathmandu. The cars, motorbikes, trash, wild monkeys and dogs that line the streets pose as reminders to constantly be alert and mindful of where your next step will be. Splashes of color everywhere, smiles, Buddha eyes, and sweet young children walking themselves to school in uniforms tempt your attention at every turn. So many new things all around me stirring up so many old things within me. I remind myself to be patient. It is only the beginning.

Buddha Eyes

Exodus and Redemption

As I write to you, I am gazing out over a pristine white sand beach on the Andaman sea.   Sipping a papaya lassi with my belly full of pineapple rice. But first things first, I will get to all that in due time.

Quality Control of Silk Cocoons

Yes, it has been a while since my last post. When we last talked, I was wrapping up my time in China. We left Nanjing a week from today (which is very difficult for me to grasp that it has only been 7 days) and headed to Su Zhou on our way to Shanghai. Ladies lock up your men, because Su Zhou is referred to as a “Woman’s City”. Here we were told that men do all the house work and also bring home their paychecks and give them to their wives. The wives then give them their allowance. HA! Now, you may be thinking (as I did), why would any man willing sign up for any of this?! Well, it is because apparently the women of Su Zhou are very beautiful enchantresses. O.K., maybe I’m embellishing a little. But this was pretty much how it was explained to me. Why are there all these beautiful women in Su Zhou? They flock here drawn by the four pillars of the city: silk, waterways, gardens and pearls. I have placed them in no particular order other than the order in which we experienced them. Su Zhou is also known as the “Venice of China” because of its winding and extensive waterways. It is a lovely city, and I would recommend it to anyone passing through.

"The Venice of China" - Su Zhou Canals

On to Shanghai. I spent two nights in Shanghai, in two different hotels. Moving my luggage around 4 days in a row. Now with 3 bags instead of the 2 I arrived with. Which leads me to the realization that I might be more like my mom in the compulsive shopping area than I previously would have liked to believe. Let’s just say my Christmas shopping is done. On the glorious morning of October 24th, 2011, I headed for Shanghai Pudong airport to catch a plane outta there and continue on the next leg of my journey to Thailand. With my bags in tow, I spent an hour and a half getting to the MagLev train that takes about 8 minutes to get to the airport. It travels up to 268 mph. The train uses magnetic levitation to literally fly (on a track) to the airport. Pretty sweet. Keep in mind that it just goes to the airport. I heard that although the train is super cool and innovative, the bill was quite extensive and the people of China have protested the building of another MagLev train to the other airport in Shanghai.

Anywho, now on my way to Thailand and to see Brad, the rest of the worries and travel hassles melt away. When I step off this plane I will (almost) be in paradise and I will be with my favorite person in the world. Getting through customs and baggage claim in Bangkok was a breeze. Even though we had a plan, finding each other in the airport took a bit of time and after a brief moment of panic, I looked up to see Brad walking toward me. Whew! We had a joyous reunion and left some bags in long term storage and off to check in for our flight to southern Thailand and beach paradise in our first hub of Krabi. We arrived in Krabi in the early evening and this was the only place we didn’t have confirmed reservations. Although, I had emailed the place a few times. The van dropped us off at our hotel of choice, that ended up being full. They sent us to a place around the corner. Which, after a long day(s) of traveling and with the luggage again seemed to be miles away. I promptly discovered that the new rolling bag that I had purchased in China was no longer a rolling bag and we settled on a closer place with AC and it was perfect for our short one night stay in Krabi. That evening we began fulfilling our gastronomic goals of sampling as much fresh seafood and Thai dishes as possible. We had dinner down at the pier with the rest of the locals and tourists. Dinner consisted of four dishes: spicy calamari and vegetables, a Thai style seafood salad (no mayo, thanks), a Thai beef dish and a mis-ordered dish on my part that ended up being pretty good, tofu and gravy. Which I had tried in China, but we probably would have never ordered otherwise, so Brad was able to try this new dish as well. As in the US, to make things easy, the Thai’s use a numbering system on the menu to order your dish. I had told them the wrong number.

The next morning we went back down to the pier to catch a long tail boat to Railey Beach. We were told that boats left beginning at 8am every hour or when they were full (10 people). So needless to say, we were the first ones there. Which will end up being a trend for us here in Thailand. Soon after we began waiting we were joined by a young French couple. An hour or two later, just around the time we were debating alternate transportation to Railey, the boat driver came over and offered to just take the 4 of us for an extra 50 Baht ($1.63) on the already 150 Baht each we were paying (less than 5 bucks). We accepted. The long tail boat ride is approx. 45 minutes. A beautiful 45 minutes.

As we began to approach Railey East, we saw miraculous limestone karst cliffs jutting toward the sky. I think that this is where I will leave you for now. With this gorgeous image in your mind. On a boat in the Andaman sea. We haven’t caught up entirely yet, but we will get there. After all, we are on island time now.

Long Tail Boat and Karst Cliffs

Chinese Kangaroo Babies

This week is our final week in Nanjing studying at the hospital. We will leave Friday morning for Shanghai, doing a little sight seeing along the way in Suzhou, the city of gardens. Monday morning I will fly out and meet my beau, Brad, in Bangkok, Thailand. We will be there for about 12 days and then it is onto Nepal and the volunteer work that awaits us there. It is all very exciting.

This week, I will continue in the hospital learning from the herbal internists. On Friday, we were able to observe with a pediatric doctor. The majority of patients that came in had asthma, allergic rhinitis or both. One patient we saw was a child around a year old that suffered from both conditions. The doctor gave the parents two formulas. One formula would be cooked and taken as a decoction (like tea). The herbs of the other formula would be put inside in a large tea bag and placed in a special type of vest with a pouch that the child would wear throughout the day. There are aromatic herbs in the formula and the child would smell them while wearing the vest. The principle being to stop sneezing, open the nasal passages and clear the nasal discharge.

The child would continue with treatment consistently for 3 years. The first year the child would continue with the decoction to relieve the symptoms and stop the repeated onset of the asthma and allergies. In the next 2-3 years the child would use plasters in the summer on the chest and back over the lungs and take the syrup (the Gao Zi syrup I talked about in my other post) during the winter to strengthen the constitution and prevent further onset. Well, I never said Chinese medicine would work miracles overnight (although, that is possible too).

It makes me excited to think of all of the different therapies that I will be able to utilize in treatment and that I am still learning more to add to my ‘tool box’. I am thinking that I will finally have to get serious about learning how to sew properly so that I can make some of these herbal pouch vests for my little patients. It’s like a little kangaroo pouch on the chest. I am looking forward to the week ahead and the new herbal knowledge that it will bring.

Thanks for reading. I hope you are having a wonderful autumn season full of vivid color.

The Great Wall of China

Since my last post there have been some new and interesting developments. It seems my last entry exposing the unregulated tourism industry here in China has caused my blog to be blocked. This means that even though you can read it there in the US, access to it here in China is restricted, making it problematic for me to submit new entries. So this is what it feels like to have your first amendment rights taken away. Pretty underhanded and somewhat cowardly I might add. Apparently, there is an internet “wall” in China mediating what websites can be viewed and what can be downloaded (this also includes access to social networking sites like Facebook). Now readers, we experienced this already when I arrived here in China and was not able to access the first blog I set up before leaving the US. Steadfastly, I created a new blog on a site that was available here in China and you all loyally switched over to the new site (thank you all again for doing this). Let me assure you now, we are not going to do that again. Not yet anyway. The score might be China 3 Jennifer 1, but that is about to change. (start playing Rocky theme song “Eye of the Tiger” in your mind) After several days of continually trying to access the blog and hoping it was just our shoddy and somewhat sparse Ethernet connection at the hotel, a more obvious solution came to mind. Since my email account still seems to be working, I will write the posts and email them to my source (who for their own ‘safety’ shall remain nameless) who will then cut and paste them to the blog so that I may continue to submit new entries. Consequently, this means that there won’t be any more photos included till I arrive in Thailand and can post to the blog myself. Finally, we get our chance to participate in some harmless international espionage. China 3 Jennifer 2. I have heard from a few local sources that there are programs here in China that enables one to “jump” over this internet censor wall. Due to the fact that these programs are probably all in Mandarin, that I am borrowing someone else’s computer, and that I will only be in China for another 11 days 20 hours and 4 minutes, I think the cut and paste email option is the best one for us at this juncture.

 

In other news, I began my herbal medicine rotation. This week and next week I am studying Chinese herbal prescriptions in internal medicine. Each shift so far has been with a different herbal internist. We have observed with doctors specializing in disorders of the digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurologic/psychological systems. The area of the hospital we are in is called “The Hall of Famous Doctors”. As happens fairly frequently, there was a little lost (or in this case embellished) in the translation to English. Whenever I see this sign it always makes me think of the TV show, “Celebrity Rehab”.  I guess it’s the words doctor and famous together. Apparently, I have been mildly brainwashed by television.

 

Anywho, I have had the recent pleasure to be working with a few seasoned female Chinese doctors. It seems that all of the doctors I have been learning from have been practicing for at least 40 years. I cannot help imagining the difficulty these women must have encountered pursuing their careers in a recent past that was not only a male dominated field, but a male dominated country. To simply say that they are phenomenal and inspiring to me is but the tip of the iceberg. Each doctors skills appear apparent daily as I witness their knowledge, efficacy, and capacity to not only figure out complicated patients and treatment plans almost instantaneously, but also in their patience with navigating the clinical setting here in China. Imagine going to the doctor and as you sat there in their office explaining your ailment and all of the personal details of it therein, the door remained open and the rest of the patients that were sitting a few feet away could listen in on your every word. Or while you are talking about your disease, other patients coming into the room to try and manipulate their place in line to see the doctor. It just makes me acutely aware of some of the differences in our health care systems.

 

Another large difference I have noticed is the speed and accessibility of virtually every patient that comes into the hospital to have tests done. I am speaking here more specifically of CT scans and MRI’s. I have personally been trying to get a MRI of my knees for several years in the US, but have not been able to due to my lack of health care and the inflated prices of the scans. The price of western drugs here are also astonishing.  They cost 1/100^th of what they do in the US. It brings home the reality of the profits that are being made by prescription companies in the US. This reinforces my desire to make complimentary health care more available nationwide in hopes of reducing our dependency on these medications. Another key piece to this puzzle is of course our lifestyle habits, which I am also constantly working on myself each day.

 

I am happy to be here in China and so glad that I decided to come here and have this experience and training. I may have said it before, but I will say it again here, it has really opened up my eyes to the capability of Chinese Medicine to treat all people. And to treat them well. I love that the medicine is always trying to get to the root of the problem and not always treating just the symptoms. My new favorite treatment that I have been learning about is a syrup made from decocted herbs and honey. Patients are prescribed to take a spoonful of their individualized “constitutional formula” in hot water 2x daily. They will typically do this for anywhere from one to three months in the winter. Over time the herbs help tonify the body and boost the patients immunity to conditions such as arthritis, seasonal allergies, and colds, to name just a few. It is called Gao Zi and I am looking forward to trying my hand at making some when I get back for next winter. I feel honored to be part of a medicine that is full of possibilities and where there is never a time that we say that there is nothing left that we can do. If the patient is willing, we will continue to treat.

 

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Golden Week

This week was the celebration of China’ s independence. It is called “National Day Golden Week” and all of China shares a vacation together. During this time, three days of paid holiday are given, and the surrounding weekends are re-arranged so that workers in Chinese companies always have seven continuous days of holiday. These national holidays were first started by the government in 1999 and are primarily intended to help expand the domestic tourism market and improve the national standard of living, as well as allowing people to make long-distance family visits. To say that The Golden Week is consequently a period of greatly heightened travel activity would be a gross understatement. The population of China is estimated at 1.3 billion people. Imagine, if you dare, just half of those people going on vacation at the same time. The only comparison I can roughly equate it with is the week between Christmas and New Years. The noticeable joy people have to be off of work accompanied by the frenzied mania of traveling and consumerism. Which is just the beginning.

Since most of the doctors we study with would also be taking the week off and the University would be closed, we were also obliged to partake in this vacation, of sorts, ourselves.  A trip to Huang Shan, Yellow Mountain, had already been arranged for us. We began our trip with a bus ride 5 hours SW to the area we would be visiting and met our tour guide William for lunch. As expected, the temperature had dropped up in this mountain region by probably 20 degrees and the air was crisp and clean(er) than in Nanjing. There was even some blue sky to be seen overhead. The most memorable item at lunch was chicken soup. Meaning a whole chicken, which looked barely plucked of its feathers, submerged, head/beak/feet and all into a liquid mixture to create a broth. I have never considered myself to be a squeamish eater, but something about this whole chicken made my stomach turn. I sampled the broth and it was too rich for my liking. Another new dish contained a regional specialty, bamboo shoots. They were delicious, especially with the watery wood-ear mushrooms. The sliced shoots have an asparagus like texture with a slightly sweet and earthy flavor. They were quickly a new favorite group dish.

Hong Cun Village - Cresent Moon Buffalo Belly

The first area we visited in the region was the rural town of Huang Cun. First built during the Song dynasty in 1131 A.D., the village now has a history of almost 1000 years. The ancient Hongcun villagers adopted “bionics” to design the buildings and constructed the cattle-shaped village and man-made water system. Aerially viewing the entire village one can see that it resembles a large water buffalo that is perking its head and lifting its legs. So far, the water system, streets, folk houses and even interior arrangements of the town are completely preserved as in the primitive style of the ancient village. The picture here shows the crescent shaped belly of the beast. This village was featured in the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” in some of the roof top chase scenes. It certainly does have that ancient Chinese village feel. Endless winding narrow streets and steeped in history where ever you turn. The villages main source of income is tourism and I can empathize with what it is like to live in a town filled with tourists.

Sparkle Pony Room

On our first night we stayed in a hotel near the base of the mountain in the city of Tun Xi. Our hotel room here is worth mentioning since it  was some sort of anomaly. I fondly named it Sparkle Pony (from the show Portlandia).  One entire wall was iridescent baby blue with glitter. The wall between the shower and the bedroom was actually a glass window with a pull down (or up) shade on the inside. Yes, bizarro. After briefly checking into our hotel we went out for dinner, tea tasting and shopping. Dinner was uneventful and the usual fare with more delicious bamboo shoots.

Tea Tasting

After dinner we walked down the street to sample some of the local teas from the region. During the day, as we toured around the area,  we saw large mountainsides everywhere covered with the terraced plots of tea plants. Now we were able to watch, smell, listen and taste as every tea we sampled was prepared in its own special way in order to optimally enhance and compliment its unique qualities and flavors. Oolong is probably my favorite. I had already bought some elsewhere, so I decided on some local green tea, the specialty of the region, black tea and jasmine tea. I thought about how each time I drink the tea or share it with friends I can be transported back to China and the beautiful Huang Shan region.

The next morning we fought the masses for our usual Chinese buffet breakfast and were on our way to the mountain. There was the option to either leisurely hike 3 hours up the mountain or take the cable car. The day was beautiful and clear and I chose to hike. Little did any of us know the adventure that was about to ensue. There is an opus that I could say about this next part of the trip. In the interests of saving us both time, I will do my best here to condense my thoughts and experiences. However, I will begin by telling you that the travel agency and guide failed to meet the requests of our  trip leader (Beth, whom we fondly called American Mom, because we need her to do virtually everything) seeing as we had an elderly student with us, the trip should be as easy as possible. Those of us who were hiking would meet the folks that took the cable car on the top of mountain and together we would all take the short walk over to the hotel.

Masses of People

The hike begins at 800 meters and we hike another 800 meters to reach the near summit. The entire hike is paved with steps made of local granite. For the next almost 3 hours we walked a near vertical climb with these sometimes wet, sometimes very narrow steps with what seemed like tens of thousands of other tourists.  Although, it was beautiful, there was nothing leisurely or easy about the hike. There was rarely any railing and when there was one it was usually because there was the possibility of falling off the side of the mountain. At one point, the only reason I was able to put aside my fear and continue across an especially precipitous area of the trail was for the promise of a warm shower. Even though the hike was challenging and the terrain dangerous, the most difficult part of it were the sheer masses of people that were hiking alongside us. I am at a loss to compare it to anything I have ever experienced. The only thing I can think of are the lines at Disneyland. Or waiting to get into a particularly crowded festival. But even in these situations there isn’t really that element of fear or exposure. When I finally reached the rest of the group that took the cable car, I was elated. Only to have my bubble inextricably burst when I was informed that the guide had taken us up the other side of the mountain than our American mom had requested and that there was another 2-3 hour hike ahead of us. The elderly member of our team had already had to hire two porters to carry her up to our hotel from here because the walk was so strenuous. Cold, wet, tired and determined to reach shelter, we continued with our guide (who I should mention had earlier in the trip opted to take the cable car, an omen perhaps) to the hotel. The masses of people continued as we made our way to the top. Sometimes there were so many tourists that it caused a complete area to become clogged and impassable. There were traffic cops directing people traffic at 1,600 meters! I might also add here that pushing someone out of your way in China is completely acceptable and we were able to get lots of practice on this part of the trip. Just don’t push or be pushed so hard that it sends you toppling over the side of the mountain. Which, by the way, happens each year to a couple of people.

Beautiful Huang Shan Mountain

At last, we all reached the hotel. And you have finally almost reached the end of this blog post. I hope that you feel as elated and proud as I did when I reached the hotel. The next two days we were able to hike around and see the magnificent beauty of the area, watch the sunrise and recover from our adventure up the mountain. We were up among the clouds and the mist would roll in and out at will. The rock formations reminded me of those at Seneca Rocks, WV. Large, vertical granite spikes and ribbons jutting up out of the earth. Sometimes a massive boulder would be delicately balanced on the top of a ledge or formation. It would look like just a gust of wind could blow it over and cause it to go careening into the valley below. In all actuality, the boulder had probably been there for millions of years and might be for another million. Who knows? Even though sometimes I think life or situations could send me careening off the edge, I remember that I am stronger than I think I am too. So are you.

Thanks for reading and continuously helping me to challenge myself. Until next time.

The Journey

Take Care of the Lawn and Enjoy the Charm of Nature

This week is the Chinese national holiday week. Yes, I said week not day.  This week people here in the city will travel back to the countryside or their places of origin to visit family and friends. Since a lot of the doctors we observe with will be on holiday, we will take a little vacation as well and visit the Yellow Mountain. An area 5 hours inland from Nanjing with fresh air and a rustic milieu. As we are leaving on our trip early tomorrow morning, I wanted to write a post in case the mountain isn’t computer friendly. After all, why should it be. We will be hiking and exploring the area for 4 days and 3 nights beginning Monday morning. I am so looking forward to being in my own natural environment, the mountains. Mountain mama, enough said.

Acupuncture Clinic setup with 18 beds

The last few weeks have been pretty amazing. I have had the honor of working with two Chinese physicians that, between them, have almost 100yrs of experience. It has changed my views of what is possible and treatable with Chinese medicine and its therapies. I have observed the treatment of patients from the ages of 3 months to 90 years old. Each day I am awed by the ability of this medicine to adapt to new diseases and continue to treat the ailments that created the need for it in the beginning. There is that age old question of how people thousands of years ago knew about the meridians that current science classifies as the different body  systems. One of our translators, Chen Xue, that I talked about in a previous post, suggests that it was because people back then were so much more aware of their bodies in a spiritual way and the functions therein. I believe this is true. Presently, every day we continue to be more and more inundated by distractions. It has become increasing difficult for us to feel satisfied, “in touch with”, and at peace with our own bodies. I wonder how we will encourage and pass on the need for this connection to ourselves to our patients in own practices or to our children or friends. It is then I feel consoled by my day to day human experience, and concentrate more on that ability to share it with others, than to try and be something that I am not. Not today anyway.

r. Wang - Acupuncture

Dr. Zhu - Pediatric Tuina

Today, I was able to meet an amazing artist and Chinese calligrapher. As we looked through his astonishing art work we waited in anticipation for each piece to be unveiled to us. Some were pictures and others were Chinese characters. I love both, of course. Since being in China though, I have felt myself drawn to the traditional characters. He unrolled a scroll with beautiful hand painted characters, read from right to left, that described a long journey. Each symbol told a story and looked like the flight pattern of a graceful humming bird. It was delicate, bold and ornate. At first, I thought of the obvious long journey that I was presently on. After that, I thought about all of the other journeys I have been on and then, I thought about how selfish that was. At last, I thought about everyone else and their journeys. It doesn’t matter whether you travel all over or if you are content in your own hometown. Life is really the only journey that we must embark on. We are all on some kind of journey and that is something that I must remember when treating patients or encountering people on a day to day basis. It is hard to know where people are on their own journeys and it is not my place to judge. I really wanted to bring back some special calligraphy for our clinic about community and Chinese medicine. In that instant, as I thought about all of the future people I hope to help with Chinese medicine, I thought about the reasons they would be there in the clinic and their journeys. I thought about health and how we are all on that road somewhere. I realized that health is such an integral part of all of our lives and therefor our journeys. It cannot be separated from who we are or why people will be coming to the clinic. Chinese art is all about the hidden meaning and it became abundantly clear that this painting emphasized all that I felt and wanted to communicate. It was about community and Chinese Medicine. Feel free to stop by our clinic next year and check it out.

I wish you health and happiness today and on your own journey. Do what makes you happy and it will certainly contribute to your health. Until next time. Thank you for reading.

5 year old boy with acupuncture in the Tuina clinic

Happy Birthday to my brother Ben. I am so grateful for Skype. Love you!

Life in Nanjing, China

Yummo

It seems like it is time to catch you all up on what day to day life is like here in Nanjing. The urban population here is over 5 million. So it is safe to say that I am  (temporarily) a city girl these days. I live in a hotel and each morning we have included in our rent a breakfast buffet. The only item that may be considered breakfast fare by American standards would be the hard boiled eggs. Even these are a little different. They are called tea eggs and are cooked  in a tea of medicinal herbs. They don’t taste any differently, but are the color of tea. Other options include, noodles, rice, sweet potato, green beans, cabbage, congee (rice porridge), pickled things, Chinese ham or sausage, different forms of tofu and some other bread items. One of these bread like items I equate to a “rice krispy treat”. From what I gather, it is rice that has been boiled down and then “puffed”. Whatever it is, I consider it my special breakfast treat. To drink there is a Tang-like beverage that serves as orange juice and tea.

Dr. Wang's Main Treatment Area

After I pilfer a few tea eggs to put in my room for lunch, I hop on the subway across the street with two other students to get the clinic before our shift begins at 8AM. We ride the subway for about 10min and them walk for another 10-15 min. I enjoy the walk in the morning. In the clinic, Dr. Wang sees around 30-50 patients in the 3 hours we are there. Keep in mind, that on a 4.75  hour shift at the OCOM clinic where I just graduated, I would have seen 3 patients in this same span of time. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Dr. Wang has been practicing acupuncture for over 50 years. There are many times throughout the day that he is finished inserting all the needles before I have finished writing down the first one. Truly a master. Not because he is fast, but because he can sense where an acupuncture point is located with out palpation. As Obi-Wan Kenobi would say, ” the force is strong with this one.” The clinic is set up with 16 beds in one room. It is like a hybrid group/private acupuncture clinic. It is really giving me new ideas on how I would like to set up my group treatment area.

Before you know it, it is time to head back on the subway home for lunch or to run errands. On the way home, I usually see a few brown toy poodles. Sometimes they are wearing little booties or have pink dyed ears. This seems to be the most popular breed here in Nanjing. Small because of limited space and apparently smart. No one really uses leashes here either. The dogs seem to know well enough to stay clear of traffic. Which is more than I can say for most of the people. As a side note, the Chinese consider dog meat as a delicacy. It is prepared in secret and passed down only through families. Just FYI.  I have also seen a few golden retrievers and black labs. People seem to treat their pets very well here. In the mornings or evenings, when people go out to do Qigong or Tai Chi, they will bring their birds in their cages and put them up in the trees together. I even saw a guy out with his guinea pig the other day.

Jennifer's Squared

Then it is back to the clinic for the afternoon. We usually only see one or two patients in the afternoon and then talk in detail about their cases and diagnosis. Sometimes, I answer a question correctly and feel vindicated for the last 3 years of intense study. Even if we don’t answer the question exactly, the doctor goes easy on us. Maybe because we are foreigners. Maybe because he is genuinely kind-hearted. Sometimes our translator, who is also named Jennifer, will pad our answer and add a little more to it when telling the doctor. Who knows. All I can say is that I am learning a lot and grateful to be here. By the way, our translator is amazing. She is 24 years old and speaks Medial English almost perfectly. Of course, her real name isn’t Jennifer. She just goes by that to make it easy on us. It is actually Chen Xue, with means 7th snow. She was born on the 7th day of the month and even though it was in the spring it snowed.  Sounds like a Tucker Co. spring to me.  Such a beautiful story. Families here in China are still only permitted to have one child. Jennifer told us that it is actually so expensive to have a child in China that most family can only afford to have one child. They can have another child, but then they will have to pay a tax for the second and subsequent child/ren. I don’t know how much. Except if you are an only child and you marry someone else that is also and only child. Then you are permitted to have two children with out a tax. Interesting.

Well, just an update on the pediatric tunia clinic. We were able to observe on our first shift on Monday afternoon. The office is a room that looks like a daycare with toys to play with and cartoon characters on the walls. The doctor’s name is Dr. Zhu and he looks more Japanese that Chinese. He is tall and slender with blue square rimmed glasses and longish grey hair, wearing old blue corduroys . Very…hip. First, we saw two children that were born premature. One was 6 years old and the other 7 months. They both received a similar massage treatment involving the entire body. Much to their dismay, I might add. Let me just remind you here that tradtitionally, and still here  in China, Tuina also includes chiropractic manipulation. Even though, in the US in some states, chiropractors can do what’s called “dry needling” with minimal training. As Chinese medical practitioners in the US, “manipulation” does not fall under our scope of practice. But that is obviously a discussion for another time. Anywho, Dr. Zhu was doing some leg pulling and rib popping that blew my mind on these kids. Especially the baby. The tanslator, Kathy for this shift, said that when the baby first started coming in 3 months ago he couldn’t grasp anything. Now, he is grabbing and pulling hair and everything else. Next, we saw a few children 4 and 5 years old with asthma and allergic bronchitis. The doctor let us listen to the children’s lung sounds before and after the massage. Before the massage, there were audible rhonchi. After the massage, we listened again and the rhonchi were almost gone!  These  children also received acupuncture and some cupping. Much to their dismay. We will be in the tunia clinic all day on Friday. So I will fill you in on other new and interesting cases later.

Until then, it is certainly past bedtime. Good night and thanks for reading.

Blessings.

Get thee to a nunnary

Yang Zi River Bridge

Yesterday, we went on an epic 11 hour sight seeing tour around Nanjing. The day began with a drive over the Yang Zi river bridge that spans over 6 miles. We were in two vans that pulled over and let us out onto the sidewalk. Little did we know that the vans weren’t allowed to stay there while we were taking pictures. So, when we returned they were gone. We then had to cross the four lanes of constant high speed traffic to cross to the other side where the vans would quickly pick us up and we would all quickly jump in. There are no stop lights or cross walks anywhere on the bridge. As we made it across one direction of two lanes of traffic we were left, standing side by side on the thin yellow lines with traffic flying by as we waited for some one to stop and let us pass to the other side. Let me tell you now, bridge or no bridge, pedestrians do NOT have the right of way in China. As our lives and the cars went flashing by, some kind souls stopped to let us pass and we were able to make it to the vans on the other side. If by now you are not already picturing a screen from the awesome Atari game Frogger, well then, your not really getting the idea.  It really gives a whole new meaning to the question, why did the chicken cross the road? In this case, it was because it had to get back to the van on the other side. One may wonder, as I did, why didn’t the vans just go over the bridge and then turn around and pick us up on the same side? Honestly, there is really no use in asking. Welcome to China.

Ji Ming Temple

Our next stop was to visit the Ji Ming Temple Buddhist Nunnary. On our way there, the van I was in was side swiped by a bus. A very gentle side swipe, but it definitely left a mark.  After our driver and the bus driver got out and had some words, we were on our way. As we pulled up to the temple,  we could see several layers of pagodas and strings of colorful prayer flags. The nuns wore long light gray robes and their heads were clean shaven. They exuded an air of tranquility. The feeling one might have if they weren’t carrying around an expensive  SLR camera/lens, a passport, iPhone and large amounts of cash. When we entered the temple we were given 3 large sticks of incense to burn when we reached the top to offer as thanks to all of the gods and goddesses. At one point on our  trek, we saw a room with people waiting inside. Our translator said that the sign outside the door read that the people there had come to be prayed over because of mental/emotional disorders. As I thought to myself whether or not I should stop and go in for treatment, I figured I’d best keep working my way to the top of the temple with the rest of the group. On my way, I thought about the beauty of prayer and individuals belief in its power. Truly a healing medicine. Upon reaching the top of the temple, I burned my incense and gave my own thanks and said my own prayers. Mostly the same ones I always say, for the health of my family, my Brad/Stella/Jue, my friends and for the ability to get through the rest of the sight seeing tour.

Cucumber Shrimp w/ Mayo & Sprinkles?

By this time we were all very hungry and it was time for a delicious lunch. I realize I haven’t written much about food yet here in China. And I promise to elaborate on this at a later time. The lunch was delicious and the food was copious as usual. Apparently in China, it is an insult to eat all the food. Much different from all of days of American parents encouraging their children to finish all their food because of all of the starving children in China. Well kids, there are still starving children in China. But the Chinese don’t always finish their food either. Sorry, parents. I will comment on one dish. This was the cucumber slices with shrimp and piped mayonnaise topped with sprinkles.  It was too good to pass up this photo op. It seems something was lost in translation with this dish.

After lunch and a brief food coma, we arrived at the site of Sun Yat Sen’s Mausoleum located on the Purple Mountain. He is considered to be the “father of modern China”.  Sun’s chief legacy resides in his developing a political philosophy known as the Three Principles of the People: nationalism, democracy, and the people’s livelihood. His tomb lies at the top of 392 steps, which was the number of people living in China during his time (0.392 billion).  There are 8 platforms separating each section of stairs. It is an architectural feat. When you look up at the tomb, all you can see are the stairs. Once you reach the top and look down, all you can see are the platforms. Pretty cool.

Looking down at platforms from Sun Yat Sun's Mausoleum

Our final excursion of the day was to Xuan Wu Lake. We leisurely stroll around the lake for a few hours and took in all the sights, statues, botany, and beauty of the area. There is an enormous statue of the goddess Guanyin. Guanyin is the bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by East Asian Buddhists. Her name means “observing the voices (or cries) of the world”. Some Buddhists believe that when one of their adherents departs from this world, they are placed by Guanyin in the heart of a lotus flower. The other picture of the little girl was also taken at the lake and my favorite picture of the day.

Girl on a boat among the lotus leaves

The lovely and venerable Guanyin

Thoroughly exhausted, I climbed into my bed and slept pretty great that night. I hope you all enjoyed this post and the pictures. As for the pediatric tuina I promised, our shift was changed a bit and will begin on Monday. So I will let you know how it goes.

Blessings.

Me with Guanyin in the background

Child like wonder

Today, I will begin my pediatric tuina shift in the afternoon. Tuina is a Chinese style of massage and one of the 5 pillars of Chinese medicine. The  other four being: acupuncture, herbal medicine, nutrition and qi gong. In school we had a few classes on pediatrics and even half a term of pediatric tuina that I took as an elective. Although, rarely we had little patients to practice on. Since, practically everyone I know now has kids or is pregnant, I thought this would be a useful skill to refine. Not to mention, I love children and hope to have 2.3 of them one day too. In Chinese medicine, children are more purely yang than we are adults. This is mostly due to the fact that they are still developing. Yang energy is the growth and expansion of the child. Whilst, yin is the substance that nourishes and supports the yang and the body. Another reason that has been suggested by my Chinese professors as to why children are so strong in yang energy is because they have not yet lived a life of boundaries. Throughout childhood and adolescence, we  begin to learn our societies acceptable behaviors.  A part of this is being told “No” repeatedly. In this way, the yang of the child begins to go inward a bit and connect with the yin. In a way, it becomes our anchor. Trust me, I am certainly not suggesting that we don’t disciple our children. It is just part of our theory and a reminder for us to be mindful.  Because children are so full of this yang energy and it is so close to the surface of their bodies, they can respond remarkably well to tuina and acupuncture. For example, you see this when a child has a spiking fever one day and then the next day they are out playing with their friends. They are so very resilient.

Well, I must mosey on down to breakfast. Probably some noodles, “rice crispy” like treats, tea eggs and congee. I will elaborate on these later. Thanks for reading and I hope you have an awesome day. Mwah!