I have witnessed an awesome happening.
I'm serious.
It doesn't have to do with Abrahamic mythology, though.
Last week, I went to an appointment with Dr. Daniel Wong, a Chinese herbalist at his small business, the Apricot House of Herbs.
His English is not the best, and we communicate mostly with nouns and perhaps a sprinkling of verbs.
When he asked me what my problem was, I feared it was too complex, and I called a friend who explained to him in Cantonese sort of what my problem was. When he understood this, I explained my disease better. Then he went to ask me a few questions. My answers that seemed significant to me are as follows:
Each time I said something that didn't sound normal, he wrote down an herb/some herbs to add to my perscription. When he was done asking questions, he told me I could go through the door and give his wife the perscription. (his wife speaks much less English than does he) I gave his wife the perscription, and she started weighing out herbs from jars and putting them in a paper bag. When she finished, she stapled the bag, handed it to me, and gave me a small container of "haw flakes". I looked on the back of the haw flakes to see what the ingredients were. This was no help, the ingredients listed were "Haw, Sugar" in that order.
When I got home, I ate a haw flake. Well, they're addictive. Apparently haws are fruits that taste like rasins. So they make these haws into little things that look like pepperoni in both size, shape, and colour. However, if you try to bend them, they will snap. They're actually very much like candy.
So, the next week, after I was done with a medication I had been on ("the next week" = yesterday), I brewed up the herbs. I put a Pyrex pot on the stove (you can only use glass/ceramic cookware, not metal the instructions said), with 6 cups of water and all the herbs except the "small pack of herb" that was in a plastic baggie at the top of the bag. When the water was boiling, I turned it down a bit but only enough so that it would still boil. I set a timer for 50 minutes, and 50 minutes later I checked on the herbs. At the same time I opened the "small pack of herb" and emptied it under the other herbs as instructed. I set the timer for 5 more minutes. The whole time this was cooking there was a bad odor in the air.
After 5 minutes, I strained the tea over and over until I felt confident that all the floating bits of herbs were gone. I poured the tea into a cup, and took a large sip. It was probably one of the most disgusting things I'll ever taste in my life. (there was about 4/5cup of it) I was soon sorry I'd eaten all my haw flakes earlier. I drank loads of normal water, then put about a teaspoon of sugar on my tongue, swished it around for a while, and then swallowed. I then took another sip and repeated the process over and over (interrupted only once by me going to the bathroom) until I couldn't take it anymore. I'd drunk about 90% of what was in the cup. I poured the rest down the sink, I wasn't able to bear anymore. If it wouldn't work without the last sip, fuck Chinese herbs.
I felt nauseous almost right away, and I felt this way for over 30 minutes. After the nausea went away, so did much of the pain in my abdomen. At 6pm it came back, but went away again at 8. I went to the bathroom 1~2 more times after that.
The next day, I woke up. I went to the bathroom twice, the second time I made a horrible mess of things. However I did notice that there was significantly less blood, almost no pain, and a very small amount of almost-formed stool.
That afternoon, I went to Dr. Wong's again. I told him about what happened, he asked the same questions he had before, except without most of the ones that didn't have significant answers. This time, he wrote up even more herbs. I gave the list to his wife, and told him that I'd like them to prepare it for me (at an extra cost of US$3). I got it about an hour later with two packs of haw flakes. Well, it was about half as much as before. And it tasted almost twice as nasty. I almost threw up. But I made it about 90% of the way through. Then I felt nauseous again, for about the same amount of time as the day before. Then the pain went away almost completely.
Well, "that afternoon" was this afternoon. Later today, I had a bowel movement. It was completely formed! There was still blood, although about half as much as before. I had no cramping during the bowel movement. I had to go again half an hour later, but still the amount of times I've gone so far today (right now it is 11:30pm) is far less than yesterday or the previous day etc.
Tomorrow, I'll see Dr. Wong and tell him that. Hopefully, now that it's formed he'll be prescribing less herbs so it won't be a nasty-tasting. (perhaps he'll eliminate the ones for pain and diarrhoea)
So far, I think it's working. After having months of being sick with the same symptoms and trying medications that didn't help, I find it hard to believe that something else could've caused this improvement.
Comments?
Oh, and don't tell Dr. Wong that I didn't drink all of it
I'm serious.
It doesn't have to do with Abrahamic mythology, though.
Last week, I went to an appointment with Dr. Daniel Wong, a Chinese herbalist at his small business, the Apricot House of Herbs.
His English is not the best, and we communicate mostly with nouns and perhaps a sprinkling of verbs.
When he asked me what my problem was, I feared it was too complex, and I called a friend who explained to him in Cantonese sort of what my problem was. When he understood this, I explained my disease better. Then he went to ask me a few questions. My answers that seemed significant to me are as follows:
- I have pain in my abdominal area, caused by my colon. I have it very often, almost all the time, but especially before, during, and after bowel movements. It has prevented me twice from going to college classes because it was so bad (in the last month, before then I've missed more)
- I often have long periods of remission where I have no symptoms.
- My most recent bout of the illness started early summer this year. The previous one ended near the beginning of this year and started in about October 2001.
- My bowel movements are never solid. They are always completely liquid.
- My bowel movements have loads of blood in them. Loads and loads, always visible in the shit-and-blood pudding that emerges from my ass.
- Sometimes I cannot make it to the bathroom in time, this has gotten worse recently.
- I sweat in bed about every other night.
- I feel hotter than everybody else from 1pm to when I go to sleep.
- I've recently been having problems with ear pressure. My Eustachian tubes, that is.
Each time I said something that didn't sound normal, he wrote down an herb/some herbs to add to my perscription. When he was done asking questions, he told me I could go through the door and give his wife the perscription. (his wife speaks much less English than does he) I gave his wife the perscription, and she started weighing out herbs from jars and putting them in a paper bag. When she finished, she stapled the bag, handed it to me, and gave me a small container of "haw flakes". I looked on the back of the haw flakes to see what the ingredients were. This was no help, the ingredients listed were "Haw, Sugar" in that order.
When I got home, I ate a haw flake. Well, they're addictive. Apparently haws are fruits that taste like rasins. So they make these haws into little things that look like pepperoni in both size, shape, and colour. However, if you try to bend them, they will snap. They're actually very much like candy.
So, the next week, after I was done with a medication I had been on ("the next week" = yesterday), I brewed up the herbs. I put a Pyrex pot on the stove (you can only use glass/ceramic cookware, not metal the instructions said), with 6 cups of water and all the herbs except the "small pack of herb" that was in a plastic baggie at the top of the bag. When the water was boiling, I turned it down a bit but only enough so that it would still boil. I set a timer for 50 minutes, and 50 minutes later I checked on the herbs. At the same time I opened the "small pack of herb" and emptied it under the other herbs as instructed. I set the timer for 5 more minutes. The whole time this was cooking there was a bad odor in the air.
After 5 minutes, I strained the tea over and over until I felt confident that all the floating bits of herbs were gone. I poured the tea into a cup, and took a large sip. It was probably one of the most disgusting things I'll ever taste in my life. (there was about 4/5cup of it) I was soon sorry I'd eaten all my haw flakes earlier. I drank loads of normal water, then put about a teaspoon of sugar on my tongue, swished it around for a while, and then swallowed. I then took another sip and repeated the process over and over (interrupted only once by me going to the bathroom) until I couldn't take it anymore. I'd drunk about 90% of what was in the cup. I poured the rest down the sink, I wasn't able to bear anymore. If it wouldn't work without the last sip, fuck Chinese herbs.
I felt nauseous almost right away, and I felt this way for over 30 minutes. After the nausea went away, so did much of the pain in my abdomen. At 6pm it came back, but went away again at 8. I went to the bathroom 1~2 more times after that.
The next day, I woke up. I went to the bathroom twice, the second time I made a horrible mess of things. However I did notice that there was significantly less blood, almost no pain, and a very small amount of almost-formed stool.
That afternoon, I went to Dr. Wong's again. I told him about what happened, he asked the same questions he had before, except without most of the ones that didn't have significant answers. This time, he wrote up even more herbs. I gave the list to his wife, and told him that I'd like them to prepare it for me (at an extra cost of US$3). I got it about an hour later with two packs of haw flakes. Well, it was about half as much as before. And it tasted almost twice as nasty. I almost threw up. But I made it about 90% of the way through. Then I felt nauseous again, for about the same amount of time as the day before. Then the pain went away almost completely.
Well, "that afternoon" was this afternoon. Later today, I had a bowel movement. It was completely formed! There was still blood, although about half as much as before. I had no cramping during the bowel movement. I had to go again half an hour later, but still the amount of times I've gone so far today (right now it is 11:30pm) is far less than yesterday or the previous day etc.
Tomorrow, I'll see Dr. Wong and tell him that. Hopefully, now that it's formed he'll be prescribing less herbs so it won't be a nasty-tasting. (perhaps he'll eliminate the ones for pain and diarrhoea)
So far, I think it's working. After having months of being sick with the same symptoms and trying medications that didn't help, I find it hard to believe that something else could've caused this improvement.
Comments?
Oh, and don't tell Dr. Wong that I didn't drink all of it