Pricked to Health
Sorry we’ve been radio silent for a number of days. Jess was sick with some sort of virus for almost six weeks after we arrived here. Finally I succame to the force of it myself, and it’s hit me pretty hard. While it was not unusual for Jess to keep a cold for several weeks, I can usually knock one out in a couple of days.
I’m going into week three now, so it’s gotten pretty ridonkulous.
Anyway, after giving the over-the-counter medicines a try, I decided to see what oriental medicine had to offer. I found a reccomendation for one acupuncturist on an expat website, and decided to giver her a shot at curing what ails me.
She’s located down in southern Seoul which is a two or two and a half hour trip from here, but I can read on the train and bus which is nice.
So I showed up at her office a week and a half ago. It was small, but very clean and professional. She greeted me kindly and we chatted a bit in broken English about my illness. She had me lay my wrists on her desk and she took my pulse in my right and then left arm. She proceeded to correctly diagnose my lower back/hip pain, poor digestion, ADD, and several other less polite aspects of my body’s functioning.
I was absolutely amazed, even dumbfounded.
So, she tells me that according to Chinese medicine, all of these seemingly disconnected phenomena I’ve grappled with for years are all resultant from “way too much yang in my stomach”, and the fact that this excess stomach yang has weakened my liver. I don’t understand what that means exactly, but the diagnosis was too uncanny to ignore.
So, I told Dr. Choi that I’d love to give her a shot. She’s confident that she can help put my body back in balance by jabbing me with needles several times a weeek and filling me full of vile-tasting herbal brews.
Hey, if it can clear up this pesky yang-issue I’ve got, I’m game.







































