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Happy New Year to all my Asian friends. Tis the eve of the year of the goat. I’m not sure what we are doing this evening but I think tomorrow is Yum Cha and some other Asian activities.
I haven’t been writing for two reasons. The first is this strange cough that seems to have sprung up and is making me less than happy. I think it may be allergy related. The second is that it has been so hot that we dare not leave the computer on. George has been going in first thing in the morning while it’s still somewhat cooler and doing his email but he logs off and shuts the computer off before I know it. Today is much cooler. Only in the upper twenties, I should think. The past few days have been hovering around the 39 – 45 degree C mark. That’s up in the 100’s for Fahrenheit folk. It’s been rather humid, too. Makes for rather sluggish behaviour.
Today I went to see a Chinese doctor about my cough. She is really nice but communication is a problem. I’m used to discussing everything in detail with my Naturopath but this doctor’s English is good, but limited. Her main language is Mandarin and George is not fluent in that language.
Anyway, the doctor suggested some acupuncture and some herbal medicine to take home. I figured, what the heck. My cough had me up most of last night, so what can a few needles hurt. Maybe it will help. So, I lie on this table and she sticks two needles in each hand, one on each wrist, one on each inner elbow, one on each ankle, two on each leg then she leaves me there for a really long time, something like an hour and a half. Only a couple of the needles stung going in, and they didn’t hurt once they were established. It was really interesting how my body felt this odd combination of sensations simultaneously: numbness, tingling, lightness, presence… hard to describe.
I have very little previous experience with acupuncture. I was at the Eugene Health and Wellbeing Fair and someone gave me a sampling by putting a needle in my ear and telling me I should feel relaxed and less stress. I felt nothing. I took that to indicate that maybe acupuncture wouldn’t work for me, but I was willing to give it a chance again. Amazingly, I immediately felt better. My lungs cleared up a bit and I was breathing more easily. The cough wasn’t gone, the mucus was still in my lungs, but I felt better. After she removed those needles, she had me sit up, put two more needles in the back of my neck, then did this really strange thing with heated glass cups. She heated the cups and then stuck them on my back in various locations. The idea was that the suction will pull the bad chi out of my body. If there is sickness within, the skin will turn dark, if not, the skin will stay the same. It turns out that in some locations I’m fine, but the area around my right lung turned dark, dark purple. Well, I have some medicine to take and hopefully that will help. The cough is still here but my lungs still feel better than they did this morning. I guess the ancient Chinese voodoo stuff works.
Happy New Year!
Addendum: G. and I went for a walk and when we returned, Belinda wanted to make a game board for a traditional Chinese dice gambling game. She conned me into drawing all the animals for the board, then further conned both George and I into playing for an hour. Luckily, I didn't lose my shirt.
I haven’t been writing for two reasons. The first is this strange cough that seems to have sprung up and is making me less than happy. I think it may be allergy related. The second is that it has been so hot that we dare not leave the computer on. George has been going in first thing in the morning while it’s still somewhat cooler and doing his email but he logs off and shuts the computer off before I know it. Today is much cooler. Only in the upper twenties, I should think. The past few days have been hovering around the 39 – 45 degree C mark. That’s up in the 100’s for Fahrenheit folk. It’s been rather humid, too. Makes for rather sluggish behaviour.
Today I went to see a Chinese doctor about my cough. She is really nice but communication is a problem. I’m used to discussing everything in detail with my Naturopath but this doctor’s English is good, but limited. Her main language is Mandarin and George is not fluent in that language.
Anyway, the doctor suggested some acupuncture and some herbal medicine to take home. I figured, what the heck. My cough had me up most of last night, so what can a few needles hurt. Maybe it will help. So, I lie on this table and she sticks two needles in each hand, one on each wrist, one on each inner elbow, one on each ankle, two on each leg then she leaves me there for a really long time, something like an hour and a half. Only a couple of the needles stung going in, and they didn’t hurt once they were established. It was really interesting how my body felt this odd combination of sensations simultaneously: numbness, tingling, lightness, presence… hard to describe.
I have very little previous experience with acupuncture. I was at the Eugene Health and Wellbeing Fair and someone gave me a sampling by putting a needle in my ear and telling me I should feel relaxed and less stress. I felt nothing. I took that to indicate that maybe acupuncture wouldn’t work for me, but I was willing to give it a chance again. Amazingly, I immediately felt better. My lungs cleared up a bit and I was breathing more easily. The cough wasn’t gone, the mucus was still in my lungs, but I felt better. After she removed those needles, she had me sit up, put two more needles in the back of my neck, then did this really strange thing with heated glass cups. She heated the cups and then stuck them on my back in various locations. The idea was that the suction will pull the bad chi out of my body. If there is sickness within, the skin will turn dark, if not, the skin will stay the same. It turns out that in some locations I’m fine, but the area around my right lung turned dark, dark purple. Well, I have some medicine to take and hopefully that will help. The cough is still here but my lungs still feel better than they did this morning. I guess the ancient Chinese voodoo stuff works.
Happy New Year!
Addendum: G. and I went for a walk and when we returned, Belinda wanted to make a game board for a traditional Chinese dice gambling game. She conned me into drawing all the animals for the board, then further conned both George and I into playing for an hour. Luckily, I didn't lose my shirt.