Everyone's a Doctor

Last weekend, while playing in our final soccer match, I took a spill on the astroturf and roughed up my knee. It's nothing too serious. Most soccer players are accustomed to having rug burns or 'raspberries' on their legs or arms after a tough indoor match. Many of my soccer playing students also have these battle wounds so I feel less clumsy and less alone. What I've found in the treatment of my simple rug burn is that everyone in China is a doctor.

At the beginning of my classes this week, I've had every student gasp at my leg and wonder what happed. After my tall-taled conclusion (I always tell them that I got into a fight with a shark while swimming in the Pearl River... And you should see the shark!), the students often tell me what I need to do to make it heal faster. One sophomore student, Wing, approached me after class on Tuesday and gave me a note. It read, "Paul, Take care! To make your leg healing faster you must not eating these foods: goose, mushroom, egg, beef. Trust me, it works! Please, listen to me and take care!" Her concern was genuine and touching.

Chinese medicine is firm about abstaining from certain 'hot or cold' foods to bring a desired medical effect and to restore balance to one's Qi (often misspelled as "Chi")- the body's health force. Since Wing's note, I have drastically cut goose out of my meal (to be honest, I've eaten it only once in my 20 months here). To be sure, I have abstained from the other foods Wing mentioned as well, and have kept up with ibuprofin just to balance the Eastern philosophy with good old Western pharmaceuticals. Chinese medicine has been around for 5,000 years, why not give it a try?

Some have even prevented me from buying their 'hot' foods, in respect to my leg. As I approached my favorite fruit vendor, who sells amazing whole, cut pineapples for 1 RMB (US $0.12), she noticed my rug burn. I asked her for 2 fresh pineapples. She said, "No." No,? Why not? "Pineapple is a hot food and your leg will not feel better if you eat it. You cannot by pineapple," she firmly explained. But, I'm thirsty and I want pineapple! "No," she said, ending the debate. I conceded the point and decided instead to buy some fresh mangos at 2 RMB a piece. "No. Mangos are also hot. I will not sell you mangos," she firmly replied. Argh! You win! No citrus fruits! I asked her about green apples. Green apples aren't a hot food, are they? "Ok," she said, "I will sell you green apples." She plopped 3 in a bag for me. How much? "9 RMB, please," she said. I paid her and as I walked away, I was amazed at how firm she was in protecting me from buying pineapples and mango. Then, I did the quick math. Pineapples were 1 RMB. Mango were 2 RMB. She protected my health and sold me apples for 9 RMB. As she's been fair in the past, I'm sure her desire to see me fit outweighed her quest for profit.

Then, at the request of my students, I went to the campus clinic to see what the doctor would prescribe. The doctor first cleaned the exposed area with hydrochloric acid and rinsed it with a neutralizing liquid. He then painted my leg with 红药水 (red medicine water - it's honest technical name) to accelerate the scab and growth process. He also gave me some amoxicillin pills to ward off infection. To be distress of some purists, many modern doctors supplement Chinese medicine with western drugs. The 红药水 left a light red water-color stain on my skin for a day or so and made my wound look like it was bleeding profusely. My students were all the more terrified at the sight of it. Prompting them to tell me other things to cut out of my diet, like coffee (you're killing me here!), and to increase my intake of cold teas and turtle Jello (a herbal medicine in gelatin form made in part with turtle).

Slowly my leg is improving and with the help of my friends' common wisdom of Chinese traditional medicine I've been assured a speedy recovery. Now, when students ask me about it, I keep the facts positive, "Well, it's getting better everyday. I don't think they'll have to amputate it afterall." They smile and nod diffidently, not sure if I'm being serious or not, and then continue to write their list of what 'hot' foods I should avoid.

peace, love, and red medicine water. paul.