One big needle

This is what normal sized acupuncture needles look like.  Tiny!

So today we had no school in observation of the Saturday holiday.  I had intended to get all caught up on my work today, but I didn't.  Instead I slept in, did some yoga, finished birthday shopping for my nephew and then went to the hospital to check out the Traditional Medicine wing to see if I could get some acupuncture.  (For those that don't know, I injured my wrist back at the start of the year and although it's better than it used to be, the pain is still noticeable at some point every day.  I tried acupuncture at a couple of places in Berkeley to no avail, but thought I might have more luck if I get it done at THE SOURCE.)  It was a funny deja vu moment when I walked in - first when I went through the glass doors I was met with the scent of herbs and thought, yep, it smells like a Chinese medicine clinic.  Then I noticed that the treatment rooms even had the same pink curtains for sectioning people off that they had at AIMC in Berkeley.  So funny. 

I think it must have been National Help a Gweilo Day, because first I went to the desk to try to ask about making an appointment and the nurse went to get someone from the back.  The very nice woman who came out was dressed in street clothes, and said she was a student there.  She was there on her own time though, waiting with an older woman for an appointment, so out of the goodness of her heart she walked me all the way back down to the lobby to help me get a registration card.  That done, she walked me back up and helped me explain why I was there to the desk nurse and then explained where I should wait until my name was called. 

After about half an hour in the waiting room it was my turn and I went into a normal looking hospital room and tried to explain my problem to the doctor with my usual charades.  She seemed to understand the problem, but was having trouble explaining what she wanted to do.  She knew some English, but said she rarely used it so it took a long time for her to think of the words she wanted.  Finally she called someone else to come help and when that didn't work they got another guy in street clothes who spoke pretty decent English and used his iPhone to translate the important/difficult words.  Between the four of us, they told me that they wanted to do a combo of Eastern and Western medicine and numb my skin with lidocaine and then stick in one big needle.  She kept repeating this phrase, so now I'm envisioning something like a small nail, but I can't really imagine it will be too horrible.  Probably she just thinks I'm a wuss.  I mean how big can it really be?  Can't be worse than when my doctor in Berkeley did myofascial release with a needle.  (This means sticking it into a muscle and the wiggling it back and forth really fast.  Your muscle instantly becomes jelly and you feel like that part of you has been hit by a truck for the rest of the day.  But it works.)

Anyway, so then the poor guy had to try to explain all the points on the release form I had to sign, which of course was in Chinese, and kept using his translator ap for "hematoma" "anesthesia" "infection" and "allergic".  In the end we got there and I made my appointment for Saturday and paid my 300 pataca fee.  Hopefully the "one big needle" approach will do the trick.  The doctor made a point of telling me they can only do it one time.  Not sure why.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of Oscar's presents.  They're totally cute but since Rach is a dedicated reader I don't want to spoil the surprise. Hopefully she'll take photos when they arrive and I can share them then.

Since this is a picture-light day, I'll leave you with this comic I found when I was searching for images.  Pretty funny.