2013-10-22

Traditional Chinese Medicine

So it's been a while since I've posted, but I wanted a good topic to talk about that didn't just consist of a play by play of my travels in Taiwan.  And today I found it.... traditional Chinese medicine.

Continuing the saga of Taiwan and I's stand off in terms of medical issues... I busted up my right middle and ring fingers on Friday night playing basketball with some of my male co-workers (2 v 2).  My team won though so it's all ok (and I scored half my team's points).  Originally I thought I just jammed them and continued to play the game, however afterwards I realized my fingers hurt more than they should... like a lot more.  The nurse at the school thought they were broken, but other people weren't so sure since I could still bend them a little and move them around. So I decided to wait until the next day to see if my fingers showed any improvement before rushing off to the hospital for x-rays.  I did learn how to eat with chopsticks left-handed that Friday night which was a cool skill to learn.  My fingers slowly improved (meaning they weren't broken thank goodness).  But when I tried to make a fist, my two fingers didn't come down the way they used to.  If anyone is familiar with chiropractic care (which I am a huge supporter of), I felt like my fingers were "out of adjustment" (not dislocated, but not set quite right either).  But where do you find a chiropractor in Taiwan/Asia??? Do they even have chiropractic care here? The answer my friends is yes... and it is called Chinese traditional medicine!

After asking my coordinator Iris if she knew of a chiropractor or a place where I could get my fingers examined because they felt stiff, she recommended going to a Chinese traditional medicine place because they could "pop" my fingers there if need be.  So off we scootered down the street to the traditional medicine CLINIC.  Not "tiny little store on a side street with glass jars full of herbs everywhere run by a really old Chinese man/woman." Clinic.  With a receptionist and "nurse" in full scrub garb and a doctor in a white lab coat.  They even took the national health insurance (ya for alternative medicine taking health insurance!!!). The doctor then proceeded to examine my fingers, wrist, and elbow followed by a series of twists, pulls, and pops.  And my fingers felt infinitely better! But they still weren't quite there.... Chinese medicine doctor: no problem! *pull**pop* How's that?... And I could naturally make a fist again. Granted, my fingers still hurt and are still a little stiff (we'll see how they are after a week post-injury), but this was an incredibly positive experience for my first encounter with traditional medicine.  Afterwards, a nice nurse wrapped some herbal medicine on some gauze pads around my two fingers which then proceeded to feel like icy-hot as well as create cloud of minty-freshness surrounding me for the rest of the day.  Completely made from various natural ingredients. 

In other updates...

Sun Moon Lake
My fellow Taichung ETAs and I visited the famous Sun Moon Lake, which lives up to its reputation as beautiful scenery... however said beautiful scenery has created a tourist town around it as well that is less than ideal.  But you take what you can get.


Look at that fog (Sun Moon Lake)



10/10 Party!
Taiwan's national holiday (October 10... aka 10/10) was last week, and we got to go to the big party with the president, ambassadors, and all sorts of other people that I would never have the courage to approach.  It was also not a very good networking type place, but I definitely got to see what these sorts of people look like in person.  They had TONS of food there representing all types of famous and traditional Taiwanese food.  They had stuff you can commonly find in restaurants anywhere (except this was the most delicious version I have ever tasted), aboriginal food and liquor, and even some western style food (the brie, grape, leafy green thing, and walnut horderve was particularly popular amongst the Fulbright program.... and yes I had to look up how to spell horderve sadly enough). They had lots of cultural presentations from Taiwan and various countries who are Taiwan's political allies.  And did I mention all the free food?


Henna

This past weekend (and this coming weekend too for that matter) was the Taichung Jazz Music Festival and it was awesome. Honestly it was more like a shopping and food festival with jazz music in the background for atmosphere... and if you wanted you could eat your food on the lawn watching some jazz players play.  But besides the shopping and eating, me and my fellow ETA got henna done! It'll be gone in a week or so, but it's fun while it lasts. 

Newest updates on Amanda personally: inspired by my awesome looking students at a dinner I attended Friday night (with my damaged fingers), I will now be joining them on Monday afternoons for their Taiko class.  I will be learning Taiko people!
And I got my ears double pierced :)

Coolest Taiko Group is at JiFeng Elementary School

2013-10-01

Taiwan's Medical System

In case you didn't already know, I had a cough that was persisting over an approximately 3 week period.  Although it was slowly getting better, I had never experienced anything like this before especially since the rest of my body felt like a champ.  Then when my throat randomly got sore, I decided I wanted answers.  So far I had been to the doctor's office twice, and each time they said "You have a cold. Take these pills, and you will get better." Well I took the darned pills, but I didn't get better. So this time, I was gonna go to the hospital.  There they would for sure do a swab test of my throat, maybe take me in for some scans of my chest, or something more than just do a visual observation, right??? Wrong.  The ENT took a more thorough visual observation of my throat and said, "I see nothing wrong with you. You look fine. You just have a cold." ---- I almost cried right there.  When I've had a cold, I have never had a cough that would just not stop nor did I have a sore throat where it felt like knives were stabbing my throat when I swallowed.  And I think he saw how upset I was because then he said he would take another look.  And he looked again and came back with the same answer.  Was it too much to ask to have them stick a q-tip down my throat to swab for a bacteria culture test? However, instead of giving the same pill regimen that I had been working with (general anti-cold stuff), he gave me anti-cough medicine and gave me specific instructions to not talk so much (aka not talk as much during teaching for a while).  So in a nutshell, it felt like a waste of time.

However, after about 5 days of being on the anti-cough meds, my sore throat went away. And now that I'm off the anti-cough meds, I am no longer coughing. So in the end, I suppose the doctor knew what he was doing.  But I came out of this experience with a couple thoughts.... 1- when we first came to Taiwan, we were so excited about taking advantage of the cheap medical system here. I have since found that, in most common sickness cases, their cheap medical system is very helpful and reassuring, especially for those people who don't have a lot of money.  But if you get a more complicated sickness or one that is inexplicable and you are not worsening/on the brink of death, they aren't going to go out of their way to find out what is wrong with you.  They will continue to push you the standard diagnosis (you have a cold) and some standard medication. Although America's healthcare system is overpriced, as long as you have the money, they will do what is in their power to find you a medical answer until you're satisfied. So both Taiwan's and America's medical systems have their pros and cons.  For those of you who say poo-poo to "government medicine," it feels amazing to only have to pay $0.20 for 7 sets of pills.  For those of you who say poo-poo to America's medical system, one way or another they will get to the bottom of your sickness if it continues to persist or not follow the standard symptoms. 

The finale of an epic hike in Yilan
In terms of travel and teaching.... I visited Yilan and did some amazing hiking (on possible the most intense hike I've ever done).  We were climbing up ladders, hiking up steep hills with ropes, climbing over rocks, wading up rivers, and all sorts of stuff.  Something new I learned... there are leaches in Taiwan. I had never thought "there aren't any here," but it was something I had never thought about before.  About 5 minutes into the hike, I look down, and sure enough... there is a leach on my foot. Luckily I was able to spot it and brush it off before it attached to me.  My friend on the hike was not so lucky.  On the train ride home we spot this HUGE leach crawling around on the ground beneath us (*cue the "gross!" and quick moving of bags to different seats on the train*).  We had no idea where it came from until we got home and he found a bloody part on his foot under his sandal strap. 




ETAs + Waterfall (credit to fellow ETA's awesome camera/running-to-get-into-the-picture skills)


Why yes, we commonly meditate before class :D
Teaching! If you would like to see some pictures and videos of me teaching a bunch of 2nd graders, head over to my Facebook profile page.  I would upload them here, but they are not my pictures/videos.  Teaching is still going well, and I have discovered that 99.99% of the children here LOVE and/or watch Adventure Time (dubbed in Chinese of course).  I foresee many grammar lessons involving Adventure Time in the future....

Main office where my desk is
Being silly

























Side of Jifeng Elementary School's building
Lotus pond in front of my school