Wanted to go back to SW Medical Clinic to see doc, but realised it's closed for this week, so went to Chung Hwa Free Clinic (yishun branch), a TCM clinic under my old block instead. Of coz, it's not literally free...juz much cheaper.
And going back to my old neighbourhood brings me back good memories...Especially what happens in the 1st 10 yrs of my life. Bypass Peixin, crossed the ever-familiar yet distant bridge that i once crossed everyday from my old house to school from p1 to p4. The location of the landmarks have not changed alot, juz that their appearances have changed.
If i ever said that i preferred western med to TCM, i think i gotta take back my words. Coz of some of the incidents that happened in the clinic...
Chung Hwa is very traditional indeed, it requires your Chinese name for consultation, which i actually liked..haha. Another thing about this clinic is you only have to pay a consultation fee of $4, while the actual consultation with the doc, including body check ups and acupuncture treatment are all free!! Now that's what i call a good bargain!
I didn't have to wait long for my turn. The doctor i had seen (He Fu Cai) is an interesting man, not like the typical doctor i've expected. First his chinese is damn strong, i didn't get some of the meaning of the words he used. Next, he's damn funny...speaks in a humorous way..i like the way he speaks. Then, he's medical skills damn power!! I'll go into the details later. Lastly he's a very knowledgeable guy who is very concerned about people and a doctor of high integrity.
The treatment is really special indeed, coz i wanted to cure my sore throat prob as well as my arm prob. I told him what was wrong, and he used an interesting device, a pen with the ink removed and a metal rod in its place, to press on some of my acupoints along my wrist and side of the hand.
He asked me if my phlegm tastes like rust (yup!), how long i coughed and how i would feel pain if i moved my left shoulder abt. Then with a swift movement of great expertise, he inserted 3 needles, 2 into my right hand and 1 on my left wrist.
He then wrote my illness into the com, the way u wrote chinese characters onto a palmtop using a pen. It states sth lyk "cough with thick phlegm, phlegm is green, left shoulder pain". Then he wrote some other weird stuff including "fat body" (i dun tink it means i'm fat, but i dunno wat it really means either) as well as the names of the acupoints that he has inserted the needles into.
Then out of a list of medicine, he chose a few and told me he wld be prescribing them to me. One of them literally means "fish stench grass tablets". He oso told me and my mom that my " breath was weak"(qi4 xu1) and i shldn't eat too much "cool"(liang2) stuff, thou he allowed me to drink chrysanthmum tea, chinese barley (he said western barley no use) and green bean soup.
After having the acupuncture for 10 min, he asked me to lift a chair and see if my arm felt any more pain (the pain in my arm has greatly lessened!) and he asked if my throat and nose felt betta (they did!) He removed all the 3 needles after some time, but b4 that he kept talking to me while my mom went to collect medicine (coz there were not many patients 2dae..wahaha).
Upon knowing i'm from njc, he told me to rmb to contribute to society in the future. I enquired a few questions abt TCM fr him. He told me that if i compare recent scientific developments with ancient TCM annuals, u could see that several discoveries and findings are more or less stated in the ancient books.
He felt that to be a good TCM physician, u shld follow the ancient annuals as they are accurate medicinal findings that have been recorded long ago and have been followed thru by lotsa chinese physicians till now.
Compared to recent scientific breakthough in medicine, he felt that stuff that are conjured up later and then added to the medicinal history by people in the future are less accurate and cannot be compared with ancient medicinal annuals written by people long ago that have been tried and tested to be true.
He oso felt that the current s'pore govt is taking a step backwards by trying to encourage the mixture of Western and Chinese Medicine. He insisted that a TCM physician shld take the route of a TCM physician while western docs take their own routes. Coz to study TCM, u muz follow the traditional way faithfully, but be flexible in ur own thinking.(though he admitted to me he isn't one that has the ability to change the whole TCM world)
For instance, he invented his own device (that weird pen thing with retractable metal rod) to test for pain in certain acupoints. Another example is that he dursent have to make use of the rest of the acupuncture materials, gua1 sha1(the black cream used for application on skin b4 acupuncture), shen2 deng1 (lamp) and the bamboo containers etc. He juz needed the needles and patient to carry out acupuncture treatment..juz lyk ppl of the ancients.
He said he oso noe how to tinker with all the acupuncture stuff (he referred to them as toys), but a truly skilled doctor dursent need the "toys" to carry out treatment, it's the technique that counts. W/o those supplementary items, one can truly see how skilful a doc is...by the way he identifies the acupoints with not his naked eye, but his long years of experience.
Btw, i'm not saying that Dr He is against western med...although he graduated from s'pore TCM academy and Nanjing TCM academy, he knew alot abt western science, including stem cell research, nanotechnology, life sciences etc (He was even a graduate of electronic and electrical engineering!) but he said that it is not his scope of job to be a part of them.
When i mentioned abt the Biomedical Sci and TCM course in NTU, he told me tt the govt only started to collaborate with China in TCM research due to the rise of China in recent yrs. He felt that if i were to study TCM, i shld go to the TCM academy in Nanjing instead of taking these sorts of combined courses.
He oso said that it takes hard work and talent to succeed as a TCM physician. That's why he detest the s'pore education system, in which everything depends on grades. The real students who are interested in courses such as the TCM course offered in NTU couldn't get in due to their average grades.
He oso brought up an interesting point: for a TCM physcian, the older u are, the more valuable u are. He gave an example: The Chinese govt gathered 200 most outstanding young physicians to learn all the knowledge abt TCM from 100 old physicians of age 80-90 yrs old. They wanted to prevent the loss of medicinal skills from these experienced old TCM physicians. And where do these old physicians learn their skills from? From the old medicinal annuals in China. They dun juz read and memorise alone, but understand the underlying meaning of the profound concepts.
He told me that the 1st thing mentioned in one of the old Chinese medicinal annuals "Discussion of the injuries and illnesses of the cold" (shang1 han2 lun4) is that b4 u learn how to treat people, u muz learn how to "treat the spirit"(zhi4 shen2). I dun realli get it thou.
But he does admit that u won't become rich being a TCM specialist. He himself is an example. He works on Saturdays in Chung Hwa Free Clinic, a clinic that unlike others, do not charge ppl by the type or duration of treatment, but gives free treatment and juz charge very little on the fee of consultation as well as the medicine. (My whole consultation costs $12, $4 for compulsory consultation fee and $8 for medicine. They didn't even charge extra for the acupunture treatment). In a way, they are a welfare group that contributes to society by charging very little.
He oso mentioned that we have never heard TCM physicians in the past that become very wealthy coz they treat ppl. (In fact, i heard more of stories like how chinese physcians went around to give free treatment to ppl..like Hua4 Tuo2 during the 3 kingdoms period - he treated Shu3 General Guan Yu's arm in the episode of "Gua1 Gu3 Liao2 Shang1" in one of the four famous chinese novels "romance of the 3 kingdoms - as well as Li3 Shi2 Zhen1, the physician who wrote "Ben3 Cao3 Gang1 Mu4", a medicinal annual in one of the ancient dynasties).
However Dr He said tt it is inevitable that some other TCM clinics are charging more on the medicine due to survival needs. He oso said that u shldn't take advice from some of the ppl who open TCM convenience stores coz they are not properly trained in TCM. (He said those TCM physicians that are really good do have a diploma in medicine and surgery too, juz lyk the western docs.)
He oso told me that if u wanna be a doc, u really won't have a lot of free time. The only ppl that u'll be in contact with will probably be ur wife and business partner. So if u were to study sth different fr ur frenz, prepare to part ways...even thou u may say that try to keep in touch, more often than not, u'll probably lose touch wif ppl who take diff routes and have diff ambitions as u.
That really made my day abit dull. It saddened me alittle when i thought of the people i have lost touch with since primary sch, the ppl i seldom keep in touch wif in sec sch and the ppl i may lose contact with in jc and bmtc...
I fear i may lose touch wif ppl whom i'm once very close to. Ppl i used to joke and have fun ard wif. Ppl who are always there to support me when i'm down. Ppl who brighten my day up. Ppl who i treasure alot.
But the doctor oso told me to believe in the path i wanna take, no matter how other ppl may disagree with ur idea. Juz do what i bliff in. Believe in my heart.
So i guess i shld start wif my path in NS. No matter where i'm posted to, i'll continue my path. Where i wanna go. Maybe someday, when i look back, i can relax myself and walk down memory lane. Juz like how i return to my old neighbourhood 2dae. Yishun. Chung Hwa Free Clinic. My old block, 215. Northpoint.
Change is inevitable. Even thou many things have changed here, i'll still rmb the days i walked on the same old path 8 yrs ago. I still see the same old features in my memory..and i imprint these memories onto what i see now...a very interesting mix of new and old. A very memorable past that will always be etched in my mind...together with a very bright future which i can foresee b4 me.
Who says u can't have the past, present and future at the same time?
&its not what you think
9:56 am
