Today was our first day in the wards of the hospital, we have been warmly welcomed by our hosts and started to get a feel for how the hospital works. It is very different from our own experience in the UK, it has over 300 hundred beds and both in patients and out patients. It is exceptionally busy, and the Drs and professors here specialise in their own field. They run research programmes and are very effective at what they do. Some patients have very similar complaints to those I see in the treatment room, while others are at the more chronic and severe end of ill-health. for example there is a ward specialising in stroke recovery, and Drs who specialise in the treatment of tumours. The first thing I noticed was the amount of treatment a patient will receive on one visit. Often with manipulations called Tui Na, but is very much like high level and skilled osteopathic manipulations, followed by acupuncture, sometimes with electro acupuncture or with cupping or laser or heat treatments. these Drs are not frightened of resetting misaligned vertebrae, or given traction type treatments to compressed vertebrae. this level of intervention will be done by Doctors with years of experience.
I have had an extraordinary experience myself with the Tui Na specialist. Suffice to say there was a very loud cracking sound from my shoulder joint, after which I thought my arm would drop off, it felt so heavy and fatigued. I am to give it two days and will report back on whether this has worked to fix my joint. In the process the Chinese Doctors and interns were treated to an expletive they had not heard before!!
."nothing ventured nothing gained"....was one of my thoughts ........."No pain no gain"...was the other.