Sunday, October 10, 2010

Acupunture




Basically I have been having this pain in my leg for the longest time and when I first went to a panel doctor, she concluded that I had high uric acid and therefore I have gout. Alright I'd admit that I do enjoy high protein food like seafood, crustaceans, red meat, mushrooms, scallops, beans and well, you get the idea. So since my diet consisted of all the things I've listed, I concurred with her conclusion that it was gout.

It was not until recently earlier this year when I felt the same pain again and this time, since I've left my old company, I decided to pay my family doctor a visit. The good ol' doc took a good look at my foot and prescribed me some pain medication and told me to stay off my feet. I was thinking that he was going to say that I have gout as well and just when I was going to relate this story to him, he told me that I've sprained my foot. It was a relief because I was told that gout medicine was rather a long term thing and requires constant consumption. Now I'm thinking, it was a good thing that I didn't start on it.

So I recently felt the pain on my foot again and this time I thought let's try Chinese medicine instead. I've always been skeptical about it because for me, nothing beats taking a few tablets and be done with it. Of course it'll be bad for my kidneys, but I was thinking since it wasn't long term, it shouldn't mess with them too badly. So, what the heck, why not give it a try?

I was thinking that it was going to be some simple foot massage and reflexology thing, just lie there and let the master work on my foot. As I walked in, I was ushered to the room and asked to lie down on one of the empty beds. There I was reading some e-mails from my Blackberry and next thing I knew he returned with a packet of new needles. Now this wasn't what I signed up for!

Without a word he took some cotton wool dabbed in alcohol and rubbed my skin. The next thing I knew he was sticking needles into my foot. The first one was kinda prickly and once he completed all 6, my foot felt warm. Now this was a brand new experience for me. So there I lay, for a good 1 1/2 hours, just letting the needles do their work. I didn't know if it'll work or not but at this point, my foot was too painful to even walk.

After the needle treatment, the master then rubbed my foot with some ointment and finally applied some herbs that felt really cold. Soothing... Finally he wrapped up my foot and I was limping back home.

Today I was told to go back there and somehow my right ankle started to hurt really badly. I think for all the time when I was limping on my right foot, it could have hurt my other ankle without me knowing. So guess what, I had to go through another session of needles and this time the right foot as well.

Oh yea, he prescribed some herbal medicine that was a size of a musket ammo, 3 of them! And they tasted awful, really funky herbs. I had a tough time finishing them. Just when I thought that the ordeal was over, I was given another 4 today! I'm told to go back on Tuesday night to have another session of needles.

Improvements? Well, my left foot feels a lot better now. Maybe it's just psychological... or it could be that it's working. This place has a website as well http://www.yeechou.com/home.htm