Joining 2 cultures

[tonado]

[i have really horrible migraines and the only way I've been able to deal with them in China is to get some pain killers from the black market. I've been to the hospital and all they did was give me a shot of antibiotics!

 

On the other hand, I do have Chinese massage 2 times a week and that seems to help a little.

 

Xiao ming always tells me that Chinese medicine just takes longer to work, that you have to take it for a long time to get results. Well, when I have a migraine I can't wait a long time!

 

My wife also has bad migraines (5 times a month). However, she chose to take Chinese medicines. Her father is a Chinese doctor and she follows his receipe of herbs and other stuffs. It usually takes a day to make her feel better.

 

Whenever I give a OTC medicine (like Advil) to my wife, she would ask me about the side effects. She said western medicine is too strong and not good for the body. I told her that OTC medicine is very safe.

[johnxiaoying]

I have a pinched nerve in my arm that has caused the little finger and ring finger to be numb. My wife took me to a Chi Kung (pardon the spelling) doctor in Guilin who shot electricity out of his index finger into my hand, neck, etc. It was quite a jolt. He was wearing street shoes although he had us put on the traditional house shoes, apparently to keep himself from discharging. I looked for wires running down his arm, looked for bulges of battery packs in his pockets but could find none. Somehow he was able to charge himself up and discharge.

 

When he was through with me, he worked on the wifes shoulder. I was standing next to the doctors wife and began rubbing my feet on the concrete floor and touched his wifes arm while laughing.

 

Needless to say the treatment had no effect. Maybe you have to believe in it for it to work. That was 20 rmb down the old drain, but worth the story.

[MarkLuvsShuPing]

My son had a bad headache while we were in China and I asked my wife to find some asprin, had to use the dictionary for the right word, but we found some. She was deathly afraid of the side effects and wanted to make sure he didn't take too much of it. I laughed and said it's only asprin and she looked at me like I was crazy.

 

Later on, I got a headache and popped 3 of the pills, I had to listen to her tell me how dangerous it was, "not good for stomach!" She made me eat a big meal just so it wouldn't hurt my stomach.

 

I did go to get acupuncture and massage for some circulation problems I had in my leg. It hasn't come back, I assume the treatment worked.

 

Now that ShuPing is pregnant, she's gone twice to get IV injections. She was having terrible morning sickness and probably dehydrated, so I can only imagine this would be the treatment over here.

 

As far as her having the baby there, there's a reason why pregnancy is a reason to expedite the paperwork. I'm deathly afraid of her going to the doctor for check-ups and I hope to God she doesn't have to have the baby there. One doctor has already suggested aborting the baby, I shudder to think what might happen if there are any complications.

[awch]

My wife also has bad migraines (5 times a month).  However, she chose to take Chinese medicines.  Her father is a Chinese doctor and she follows his receipe of herbs and other stuffs.  It usually takes a day to make her feel better.

Can you find out the name of that medicine for me (the Chinese name)? I have tried different kinds of Chinese medicine for my migraines and none have worked. I live with a headache of some sort almost everyday.

 

The thing is, I have some "special" kind of migraines that don't respond to most Western medicines either. I'm willing to try some other kinds of Chinese medicine though, especially if it works within 1 day!

 

Thanks

[Jim - Portland, USA]

The other issue I have with medicine in China is the gross over-use and mis-use of antibiotics! At the first sign of a cold, everyone starts popping penicillin and then they only take a few doses and toss the package! It is no wonder there are so many mutations and varying strains of bacteria and viruses in China. My husband gets cold sores and his first line of defense is always to try antibiotics. It doesn't matter how many times I explain that cold sores are viral and therefore immune to antibiotics, he will still take a day or two's worth before trying something else.  

Not just popping pills, but my fiancee gets IV antibiotics at the hospital at the drop of a hat. She's always telling me about going for "injections" when she gets a sore throat, etc.

Amen to that! Antiobiotics are way waaaay too overused in China. Sure, they are great at first because they can quickly cure what ails you, but of course the long-term consequences are grim.

 

My honey also quickly turns to antibiotics (bought cheaply over the counter in China) for anything that might ail her.

 

Ditto on the sore throat thing. I had a bad one last week. My usual cure? Do nothing, just wait it out for several days, maybe some lozenges if it gets real bad. Well, she brought over a bunch of drugs from China (uhm ... that sounds bad. I mean, *medicine* that she bought at Chinese drug stores!!). I have no idea what they are, nor does she. But she knows when to use which ones. So she insisted I take some of these pills to help cure my sore throat. "Okay, sure, thanks honey". I took a bunch of the pills she gave me, and sure enough, the sore throat went away by the next morning. That's when I figured out what those pills are. Antibiotics.

 

I'm all for TCM (traditional Chinese medicine). I think there's a ton of knowledge and expertise there. Except for the rhino-horn aphrodesiacs and Siberian tiger testicles for hair growth or whatever. But I don't like MCM (modern Chinese medicine) because it's all just antibiotics and as we all know, those aren't going to remain effective much longer.