In the morning in medicine class we learned about herbs. We learned that in Chinese medicine herbs are necessarily plants; they can also be minerals or animal parts. Herbs are usually given in one of six forms; decoction, powder, pill, tincture, plaster, or injection, as well as being used combined together in a formula. They are classified by temperature (hot, warm, neutral, cool, and cold), taste (sweet, sour, salty, pungent, and bitter), and by direction (lifting, lowering, floating, and sinking). Each of these categories for the three different areas of classification helps in curing certain types of conditions. One of the herbs we learned about was ginseng, so my teacher brought in some ginseng tea for us to try. I thought it had an interesting flavor, but I thought that it tasted a little bitter. In the afternoon our class worked more on our projects.
In class we learned about diet in the morning and medicinal massage in the afternoon. We learned that in most ways diet is a less potent and easier to administer version of herbs, as they are classified in the same ways. Learning about medicinal massage was really fun. In Chinese it is called Tuina, which means push-grab because that is what you do with your hands when practicing Tuina. We got to practice the different types of hand motions on each other, which was cool because then we could learn how it felt as the person massing and as the person being massaged. It’s especially helpful if you have tight neck and shoulder muscles, so we also learned a few more pressure points that are helpful in treating tight/sore neck and shoulder muscles and headaches. A couple of RA’s had free time that afternoon, and came in to watch our class, so we let them join in the Tuina fun as well.
In the afternoon, in Tai Qi class, the Tai Qi laoshi (laoshi means teacher in Mandarin) made me stand at the front of the class. I had been learning the moves very quickly, and she wanted me up there as another person that the class could watch if they got lost. This meant that I also got to be the person she used as a demonstration model when she showed the class how Tai Qi can be a very effective martial art – all those nice sweeping hand movements are really meant for hitting people in the throat.
In the morning we kept working on our projects. One of the things I learned while doing some research was the reason why people with heart defects often have to take antibiotics before routine medical procedures, like going to the dentist’s, is that the heart defect usually causes the heart to have more nooks and crannies and/or rough spots that bacteria can easily catch on.
In the afternoon both medicine classes took a field trip to a nearby Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. It was really interesting to get to see what we had been learning about being practiced in real life. There was an American man who was a student at the hospital who came to HNC in the morning to tell us about what we were going to see that afternoon, and then he came with us around the hospital, and helped show us around. There was also a doctor from the hospital showing us around.
The hospital was about a 20 minute walk from HNC, so the whole group of us just walked there. Being a pedestrian in Nanjing can be a little scary, just because the sidewalks are often piled high with things so you have to walk in the bike/moped lane, and because the intersection are completely insane, so it’s a good the thing the traffic lights have clocks on them that count down in red green and yellow how many seconds you have left.
When we got to the hospital the first thing we saw was the man who sits outside very single day selling decoction pots. They look like clay teapots, but the handle and spout are both very short and stubby (only a few inches long, and about 1 inch in diameter), and the handle sticks out to the side of the spout, not on the opposite side of the pot. The pots were all the same color; a brown/beige color on top, and a medium blue color along the bottom half of the pot.
We were a little early, so when we got inside we spent a few minutes waiting in the lobby. They had a really big fish tank in there with all sorts of types of large fish. There was also a sign that listed which specialists were practicing in their various fields that day at the hospital.
When we were able to go be shown around the hospital we saw areas treating with Tuina, acupressure, cupping, acupuncture, including the use of moxibustion with the acupuncture, the dual culture pharmacy (Western meds on one side, and herb dispensary on the other side of the room), and some rooms where they were diagnosing people. In the diagnosis rooms we got to see the pulses being taken, and I think at least some people may have gotten to see some tongue diagnosis. Another interesting thing I saw was in one of the rooms with acupuncture and moxibustion they were using the moxa by placing it in a wooden box with coals, instead of lighting the moxa and placing it on the end of an acupuncture needle. This was a technique even Bill hadn’t seen used before, so I thought it was cool that I got to see this.
When we got back to HNC we were just in time for our second activity, so I got to go to Tai Qi. That day in Tai Qi we finished up the set we had been learning the whole time. It was really nice to finally be able to do the whole piece.
This Thursday and Friday the two medicine classes switched teachers, so that Bill went and taught the other class more about acupuncture and herbs, and Sara came and taught my class how to do various Western physical exams. On Thursday what she taught us was how to take a medical history and how to do a neurological exam. A neurological exam tests nerves, so it includes testing a lot of reflexes. There are also a lot of checks you make in this exam to make sure that the person’s nerves are equal on both sides of their body. For example if someone had had a stroke the muscles and nerves on one side of their body would probably be a lot weaker than on the other side of their body. It turns out that a lot of my reflexes seem to be pretty finicky, because Melissa and I, as we were working in pairs, had quite a time trying to get most of my reflexes to respond. It gave us a good laugh, especially when her knee reflex barely had to be tapped for it to respond.
This was our second day of learning Western medicine examinations. We learned how to listen to the heart and lungs, and how to check the eyes, ears, nose, throat, and general head. It was getting to listen to my own heart, and to learn where you place the stethoscope to hear each of the different valves. Sara had some sounds on the computer that she had us listen to that were of different types of heart murmurs. That was cool because there was such a noticeable difference between the normal heart sounds and the ones with murmurs.
Being a Friday, this evening was my second CTY dance. As I had realized at the first dance, even if you don’t want to dance, CTY dances can still be lots of fun. And as I’ve learned over the years, talking with friends at dances can be way more fun that actually dancing.