First Encounter with Traditional Chinese Medicine

Considering my recent injury and my TCM friend’s miraculous healing of said injury (full story here), I thought I’d share my other two experiences with TCM and related therapies. This post shows a slightly different view of TCM.

About four years ago, I switched careers and became a newspaper editor. Along with the switch came some big changes, the main change being that I sat in a chair for eight hours straight every day . This was extremely uncomfortable for me. I had done office work before, but because of this type of job and the pressure, I was literally stuck in that chair for hours straight. I often couldn’t take time to even stretch.

I had been having some foot problems but didn’t think much of them. Then, the week I got married, I had an excruciating pain pop up in my toes. It turned out to be gout, which was caused by my sitting for so long and not drinking enough water.

We didn’t know what the problem was, so my father-in-law suggested we go to one of the most famous TCM doctors in Taipei, who just happens to live down from my house.

We went to this doctor’s office and I was surprised to see several foreigners working there. (On a side note, there are NO TCM schools set up here in Taiwan that try to attract foreigners. Isn’t that bizarre? Think of all those schools on the mainland.) These foreigners were interning in one of the few clinics that is willing to teach foreigners from the ground up in TCM. Their presence made me feel better for some reason, I guess because I was very skeptical about TCM and being treated there.

This doctor’s office didn’t really put my mind at ease. I should be honest that my job background is mostly in the  medical field — specifically mental health. I am familiar with JCAHO (Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospital Organization) requirements that all clinics and hospitals in America MUST follow in order to keep there doors open. Certain standards of cleanliness, filekeeping, etc. must be maintained.

This doctor’s office broke every rule in the book. It was dirty, noisy, crowded. I couldn’t stand it. I could barely walk because of the pain, but I was asked to move from spot to spot repeatedly as herbs got brought in, patients left, etc.

The medical history that the foreigner took from me was pretty limited. He didn’t ask any medical history questions, regarding me or my family, and only asked limited questions about my symptoms. I had hoped he was only qualified to do paperwork, but that turned out to be too optimistic.  

So I finally got to see the doctor and he obviously hadn’t even read the triage report that his apprentice had filed out. So I went through some questioning again and he said it seemed like gout. I didn’t even know what that was really so he briefly explained and then mapped out the treatment. His apprentice was going to “bleed” me and then I would be sent home with some herbs that I was to drink for the next week.

So off I went with the apprentice who had me lie down while he used a needle gun to shoot holes in my heel. Considering the lack of hygiene in the place, I was worried about getting an infection or worse. I was also worried about sharps protection. So he shot the holes and I bled for a while. He then bandaged me up and they sent us out the door with these huge bags of herbs.

So that night, my wife boiled the herbs and this black concoction was the result. Yuck.

I had to drink two bowls of that stuff and I don’t know how I did it, but I did. We then went to bed hoping the herbs would work their magic.

Well, they did. Boy did they, but it wasn’t what I expected. I woke up two hours later and stumbled to the bathroom for my first of numerous trips to empty my stomach. About three hours later, most of it was gone and I was able to get some rest. I’ve never had something tear up my stomach like that before. It was as bad as the gout.

The next day we sent that stuff back for a refund and I went to a proper Western doctor who confirmed that it was gout and gave me some meds that relieved the pain and swelling within 2-3 days. No fuss and no mess.

After that, I didn’t want to hear about TCM again until I met my father-in-law’s friend that I’ve written about twice now.

Looking back, I’m a still a bit skeptical about some aspects of TCM because of this experience. I think when it comes to internal medicine that Western medicine might have an advantage, at least IMO and from my experience. Taking a more detailed history would have covered whether I was ALLERGIC to anything (a pretty big consideration) and keeping a cleaner clinic would cut down on the chances of infection with invasive procedures. Taking into consideration that I was a foreigner that probably couldn’t handle the same herbal blend that Taiwanese who had been taking herbal remedies their whole live could take, would have helped as well.

So that’s one positive experience and one negative. I’ll post one more experience soon.