Chinese Medicine

for those of you who don't know, i herneated a disc in my lower back a few years ago and still have problems with it from time to time.... something has seriuosly aggrivated it and i have been in about as much pain as when it first happened....usually the pain doesn't last as long as it has this time and i thought it would go away, but it hasn't so i decided to rely on the ancient art of traditional chinese medicine... i did accupuncture when i first hurt my back in colorado in 2002.... it was such a plesant, peaceful, relaxing experience and if anything, it certainly calmed me down enough to not think about the pain... at the clinic in colorado everything was quiet, sterile, serene... i was in a private room that was dimly lit with relaxing chinese music in the background. i assuming i was even lying on clean sheets.... now, why i thought it'd be the same in china i'm not sure, because it was quite the opposite experience... pleasant, but not entirely peaceful....
my contact teacher lu haibo took me as he was having neck pain and was going to be treated as well.... so he tells me knows a good doctor at an army hospital and will be happy to take me along and have the doctor take a look.. so, we arrive at the hospital, that i as i mentioned is an army hospital, so all the docotors and nurses are in army uniforms and shiny black shoes.... as we enter the clinic i have a rare moment where am i completely aware of being in china... because i've been here so long and have become accustomed to most things, i rarely think to myself, "i'm in china"... well the army uniforms and loud construction thrust me into this state of mind where i was completely aware of being in china and of all things that were different from home... the army uniforms were of course different, i've never been treated by a man who is neatly pressed and ready for battle... but the hospital itself was so different.
i believe the hospital was built during the culutrual revolution, in the early 50's, and they have just now decided to or found the money to rennovate... so instead of moving the offices during rennovations, the doctors stay where they are amongst the noise and smell of paint of chemicals.... the clinic was noisy and dusty, and smelled of fresh paint and dust... the rooms were dirty and old and so were the sheets.... the doctor was incredibly nice and comforting, but at the moment i sat down to talk with him i realized i was living in a third world country.... he couldn't find a bed for the first part of the treatment, which is a massage, so he had to do it while i was sitting in chair, which wasn't exactly comfortable, but man was it the best massage ever!!! my neck has never felt so lose and free.... i didn't even have to say much about my problem... i told him i had hurt a disc in my lower back and couldn't really move... he touches a point on my neck and i try desperately to hold back screaming in pain... and he says, "i know exactly what's wrong"... so he massages my neck and then says he'll do needles in my lower back.
after the massage he put a heating pad on my neck for about 20 minutes before i went for the needles... he leads me into a room with four beds, two occupied by men with their bare butts pierced with needles and burning herbs at the end of the needles... the room smelled wonderful.. they put a small bit of chinese herbs on the end of the needles and burn them.. this heats the needle which stays warm while in the body and smells good.. not sure if that has any effect, but it was certainly better than the caustic paint fumes. after seeing the bare butts, i realize that i too will have to bare my ass for him to put the needles in the proper place... i'm a little uncomfortable with this not only because there are strange men already in the room, but because lu haibo is there and will see my butt..... i got over it pretty quickly cuz i just wanted the pain to go away, but for a brief second i wanted to run away and pretend i was ok. anyway, i lie down on the table which is still warm and sweaty from the patient before me (they do not change the sheets) and i'm a little disgusted, but am quickly distracted by the pain of the doctor pressing on the points he thinks need to be worked on... in chinese medicine if you have a pressure point that is sore, it indicates an imbalance somewhere in the body, so the doctor works on the painful point to try and correct the imbalance.... anyway, the needles did not hurt, but him pressing on the point certainly, in the words of marvin gaye, made me wanna holla...
in the end it was quite pleasant, just not as sterile or serene as being treated at home..... these doctors do really understand something different about the human body....i think western medicine and science are amazing, but chinese medicine is a different kind of understanding....it helps to correct the entire body and to maintain health. i'll let everyone know how today goes and if i start to feel better.....
going to bali on friday!!! can't wait to do some hiking and lounging on the beach and visit some hindu temples.

thieves strike again! my friend marla had her wallet stolen on thursday which had 1400 rmb in it because she was on her way out of town for the weekend...........................
on our way to the doctor on monday lu says to me that until one visits a country you don't really know what goes on or how the culture truly is... he said there is often much propaganda by our own countries so that we will believe on country or the other to be our enemy or weaker than our own nation. (this isn't a direct quote, but pretty close, chinese english and all) but, he said, when he finally visited america he didn't find these to be true and that america seemed like a quite a nice place to be... however, (he is laughing quite hard at this point, he's a jolly guy), i come to china and our first outing his friend's stuff was stolen right in front of us and then i've had many things stolen from me as have my friends..... this was a huge, i mean huge thing for him to admit this... basically that this is a huge problem in china... very difficult and strange for a chinese person to admit that china has problems... very noble on his part to recognize this... especially to say that he didn't have many problems in the u.s...... (the u.s. has many problems as well, but i'll step up and admit it) anyway, just a side note.........hope everyone is doing well.
"one's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things" ~henry miller
p.s. the spell check never works and i don't proof read, so i apologize for any grammatical and spelling mistakes