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My Story With
Chinese Medicine
by Dr.
Xia
Cheng
When I am giving lectures to my
students, I always like to tell them some of my experiences
with Chinese medicine. Sometimes, they laugh at me, saying
that I have almost had every single illness in the textbooks.
Although that is bit of an over statement, the truth is that I
went through quite a lot of health problem in my childhood and
the majority of the treatment was Chinese medicine. Here are
some of my stories to share with you.
I was born during the
very difficult time in China when there was not enough food
for every one. Poor nutrition from my mother during pregnancy
resulted in a weakened immune system for me. I had colds, flues,
tonsillitis and arthritic joint pain so frequently in my early
childhood that my mother (who is a western medical doctor)
decided to take my tonsils out to prevent rheumatic fever,
arthritis or heart diseases when I was 5. At age of 6, I was
infected with hepatitis A, together with over 20 other
children in the neighbourhood, every little face turned yellow
and there was no appetite, and no energy to play. The
treatment prescribed was herbal tea free to pick up in the
hospital everyday. 20 days later, all of us recovered very
well and then we were happily play together again.
Just before my 8th
birthday, I had fever with vomiting and a few days later, my
neck started became stiff, I couldn’t even bend my neck to
look at my new clothes, which was my birthday present from my
mom. I was misdiagnosed as the flu until mom noticed that my
neck was stiff and decided to take me to another hospital.
After a spinal fluid test, I was diagnosed with encephalitis b
and I was admitted into the hospital in a critical
condition. I was
hooked up with IV and in addition, an hour later, a big bottle
of herbal tea was delivered to my room and I had to drink it
immediately. Over
the next ten days I had one big bottle of herbal tea to drink
every day and I was discharged in two weeks.
When I was 12, I fell from a car and
hurt my knee. Because I had arthritic joint pain so frequently
the doctors thought that the knee pain I felt from the fall
was from arthritis. I was given bags of herbs that mom had to
cook for me every day as well as I had to have acupuncture 5
days a week. After a year treatment with Chinese herbs and
acupuncture, my knee pain wasn’t any better. Finally, one
doctor thought we should check if there was an injury in the
cartilage of the knee. The results from the x-rays showed that
the meniscus was broken.
I had to have an operation to take it out and after the
operation, my knee recovered very well. Afterwards I did not
suffer from any further joint pain that I had before my fall,
I realized that was because I had taken that full year of the
treatment for my “arthritis”, my arthritis was cured from
it.
My most recent story is a couple of
weeks ago; I decided to learn a new exercise rollerblading.
After practicing couple of times in my backyard, I went to the
pathway along the river. I was doing pretty well until there
was a bell ring behind me and I suddenly lost my balance,
landing on my buttocks and over extending my ligaments inside
of my right knee. After I got home, slowly the pain built up
until towards the evening, I could hardly walk on my right
foot. By that time, I knew I had to do something. I decided to
do some acupuncture on myself. I took my needles out; put a
couple of needles in for myself and after the treatment, the
pain was better. Went to bed. At 5 o’clock, my knee pain woke
me up. By that time, I started to worry, what am I going to do
if my knee pain is not going to get better? I decided to give
myself another treatment, insert another few needles, take
them out, then went to sleep again. The next morning, my knee
pain wasn’t as bad; I was able to work without people noticing
that my knee had any problems. Towards the afternoon the pain
almost completely went away. What a relief.
Now, if I tell you that it was my mom who
had decided that I should learn Chinese medicine in order to
take care my own health, you will not wonder why, right?
When I started to learn Chinese
medicine, I remembered that in my very first class of Chinese
medicine, my teacher said “you will never regret that you have
learned Chinese medicine, because it is a life long skill
which will benefit yourself, your family, and many many other
ones”, He was right. |
About Dr. Xia Cheng
About Dr. Wenli Wang
D.T.C.M., R.Ac., R.M.T. 
