Korean "Medicine"

I've been having trouble with my body lately, so I ended up going to a new hospital to see what they could do for me. My right knee has been numb for two or three months now, and the past few weeks my arms and legs, and other parts of my body, too, have been falling asleep very, very easily, like if I stay still for a few minutes, put even a tiny bit of weight on a body part, or raise my hands above my head for more than like a minute.


At the hospital, the doctor, who speaks English and lived in New Jersey and New Hampshire for a while, had me get X-rays of my spine and knees. My knees are fine, but my posture is bad, he said, because my spine is slightly scoliated, which I knew. No help there.


He recommended taking hot baths, which I and 90% of Korea can't do on a regular basis, since Korean bathrooms don't have bathtubs, unless they're in a really modern, Westernized building. He also gave me a bunch of pills to take, as is the practice with Korean doctors. Stupid pills.


He said I had to start seeing him two times a week for a few weeks, so the second time, when I hadn't gotten better, he put me on physical therapy, gave me more pills, and suggested I start jogging. I said no to the last part. I told him I do yoga four times a week and walk once or twice a week. That should be fine.


Physical therapy was silly. The nurse started me off with paraffin wax gloves. I had to dip my hands in hot wax ten times to make the glove, then she put plastic bags over my hands and had me lie down for fifteen minutes. At least it's good for the skin. Then she pulled off the gloves and put two suction cups on each forearm and ran electricity through me for fiteen minutes. This is what they did for my neck back in LA, except they used tiny pads, not huge suction cups. That was it the first two times.


The third time I saw the doctor (whose name I was never told, by the way), and told him I felt about the same, he told me to quit yoga, and do something more "oxygenizing." I said no. He also reiterated about the bath. I reiterated that I don't have a bathtub and he suggested a bathhouse. Bathhouses are like a two hour ordeal, and you have to pay. Screw that. I'd love to do it sometime for the cultural experience, but not twice a day. I don't have the time.


Physical therapy added a "massage" to my forearms, where my arm was kind of manipulated around and pulled a bit, and the nurse ground his knuckles up and down my bone. It wasn't too bad, but not a real massage. Then he put my right arm into this big sleeve that had inflatable compartments. The compartment at my hand inflated, then the one at my wrist inflated, and the first one deflated, then a third inflated, and the second deflated, and so on, all the way up to my shoulder. It was pretty cool. This lasted about another fifteen minutes. He didn't do my left arm. I have no idea why.


The fourth time when the doctor asked me if I had taken a bath before I went there and I said, no, I have yoga after this and it's silly to wash before exercising, he hung his head in frustration. Then I decided not to come back. He recommended getting an EMG to get my muscles checked, but we had discussed that idea at the beginning and it's a $600 procedure. No way. He last asked me if I take vitamins, and I said I take folic acid. He said I should take vitamin C and B. I said I get plenty of vitamin C, since I drink orange juice every day and eat oranges and other fruit with vitamin C. He still recommended the pills--they're better (what the crap?). So I asked him how much vitamin C is in a pill, and I don't think he quite got me, so he said the dosage varies. So I said, yeah, but how many oranges are in one pill? He still didn't get me. Even if I ate fifty oranges a day, he'd still recommend the pills. I ended up buying them anyway, because the pills are a B and C complex, with the various B vitamins, and I don't really know how to get those into my diet if they're not there already. After this little series of disagreements and misunderstandings, I really decided not to come back.


My last physical therapy session involved the wax and electricity, but no more inflatey sleeve. The nurse put these massive adhesive strips, like bandaids without the medical pad, on my forearms, and said she didn't know how to explain it in English. She said to leave them on and take a hot shower tonight. I'm not sure if she meant I should take them off before or after the shower. I also didn't bother to ask her if it was okay for me to take my regular noontime shower with them on. I'm almost positive the were just bandaids. They weren't even mentholated, like the muscle-relaxing patches.



So now I have an even poorer opinion of Korean medicine than before, when they were giving me tons of pills and ass-shots and steam inhalants for a cold. Heather took me to the oriental hospital today to see what they could do about it. More on that when I have time.