The mystic world of Chinese Medicine

I have been struggling with some back problem for a long time. I am familiar with most alternative methods of healing as I am not  a big believer of Western Medicine when there are more gentle alternatives that are non-invasive and no drug related. 

I developed a very good relationship with chiropractic treatments and I took forty sessions since April to achieve an improvement that was much needed. However, the pain that I went through with healing and re-aligning my spine was pretty taxing on my daily life. Because I was much less active than normally, weekly yoga and every second day swimming were out of question for a while as it just aggravated my condition, I started to develop terrible muscle spasm. I was using one side of my body much more to protect the other side. 

I started to live on painkillers and daily use of deep heat cream. I was not fan of these things and tried not to overuse them but sometime the pain was just unbearable. 

Just before the holiday a dear friend, a mum of a very talented student of mine, suggested to see an acupuncturist to manage pain. Even my massage therapy was an agony and did not help enough, I was ready to try anything. 

My first visit to my acupuncturist was an eye opening experience. I have had acupuncture in the past, just once but not with a Chinese doctor. It was in Hungary, in my hometown but was not followed by more visits. 

This Chinese Medical Centre was a very modest place, like most Chinese places. Simple and functional. My Chinese medical doctor, is a highly qualified, extremely approachable and knowledgable professional. She is an expert in neurological disorders, pain management (this is what I needed!), internal and gynaecological diseases. She has been practicing Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine for more than thirty years here and in Germany. 

While I was waiting, I had to fill in a new patient form. My doctor was attending to another patient. In the waiting area there were many shelves with hundreds of bottles of Chinese herbs and big bottles of strange looking things like roots and seeds. The whole area had this active messiness that comes from being used all the time. In the middle stood a scale that had papers on their plates. Doc Fei had a list in her hand and started to measure one after the other many different herbs. Once there was the required weight on the paper, she folded the paper towel containing the herbs and poured in to the bottle that contained the required mixture. This went on for minutes, selecting the herbs and measuring them one after the other. I have never seen anything like this. It was pretty amazing. 

When it was my turn, Dr Fei invited me to her room and started to take a very detailed history. She also took physical examination that is part of Chinese traditional examination like looking at the tongue and taking the pulse. Dr Fei was the third practitioner who said that my body was absolutely exhausted. Despite that since April I have been resting much more than ever in my life!

She took my pulse on both hands.  I was amazed to discover that there are twelve different ones, six in each wrist. These pulses are measured by checking the regularity of the beat in three different places on the wrist at a superficial and deep level. In the right wrist there are heart, small intestine, bladder, gall bladder, liver and kidney pulses. In the left wrist there are pulses for the colon, lungs, stomach, spleen, 'triple heater' (the body's thermostat) and 'heart protector (the body's emotional defence system). The pulses give information about these twelve main meridians in the body.

Once she established enough about my condition, she asked me to strip off and lay down on the treating table. She had traditional bamboo cups to do cupping. She used a cotton ball dipped in alcohol then lit fire and with that she created vacuum sticking the cup to my skin. I really liked that feeling! Then she inserted a few needles at different points of my body, including my leg, hips, back, neck and even the top of my head! I hardly felt anything! There was one point on my back that was sensitive when she inserted a needle into my spine and I cried out! During the whole procedure I started to feel more and more relaxed. Dr Fei also used a little heater to direct heat to certain part of my body to keep it warm during the procedure. For the time all the needles and cups were in place, I was almost sleeping. The needles stayed in place for a long time, maybe 20-30 minutes. Dr Fei checked on me frequently. As the vacuum started to release, the cups fell off. Then she removed the needles, massaged the whole are then moved to massage specific points on my forehead. 

In the afternoon I felt terribly relaxed. I was sure that I will be sleeping like a log. For my greatest surprise I had a twelve-hour sleep after my first treatment. That was rather unusual. For decades I have been operating on four-six hours sleep. If for nothing else, for the quality and length of my rest the treatment was worth! Fortunately, the pain management and muscle spasm aspect of the treatment worked too, so I will be going back regularly!

Other positive outcome just after one session was that I was feeling more energised again, gaining back some of my speed and more relaxed muscles!

I had no chance to finish this post so I am continuing today. I had my third acupuncture session. The benefits are even more obvious. Don't expect miracles but nice and steady improvement in all areas. Continuos good sleep, very different from the short bursts of restless sleeps in 1.5-3 hours blocks with Facebooking between! In myself I feel much more the way I used to feel. My energy is returning and the speed of my actions is increasing. More and more of my spastic muscles are getting under control. No need to mention that at the same time, for long months, I have been taking nutritional supplements directed by my naturopath based on a hair analysis and other examinations. The more I work with my wonderful Chinese doctor, the more appreciation I am gaining about this ancient healing profession. The last months I have been exploring different alternative healing options and I must say, I am very grateful for this incredible experience, despite the unpleasant set backs. Thanks to the Internet and my circle of friends who recommended their medical connections, I established an incredible medical team around me. Working with them taught me a lot about myself, about my body, about having options and finding the right solution to heal and hopefully for prevention and anti-ageing. The more I allowed my body to guide me, the better decisions I made and I feel that the closer I get to where I want to be. 

Someone could say that the last six months or much more have been hard. Yes, but it taught me to stay positive and be grateful every single day! 

"A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results." Wade Boggs