After my first appointment with Dr. Chen I started to feel really good. The pain in my right side went away and I was having less problem with reflux. I was confident that Dr. Chen had cured my reflux. Amazing! For the next week or so i got progressively better, then something changed. The pain in my right side slowly came back and my reflux issues came back. It was very distressing. I sent an email to Dr. Chen and asked to go see her. I made an appointment and went to see her that Friday.
After Dr. Chen checked my tongue and took my pulse, she was very unhappy with me and she told me so. She said that I should have gone to see her sooner, my treatment was not complete and now I had relapsed. She gave me a stern lecture about how Western people do not understand how Chinese medicine works. There are no magic bullets or drugs that seemingly make people instantly better. In fact, these things do not exist in Western medicine either but for some strange reason, Western people do believe that these things exists. In Chinese Medicine, you have to stay the course and go through as many acupuncture treatments and take as much herbal medicine as necessary. I listened to her lecture without protest because she was absolutely right. I should have known better because I did know enough about Chinese Medicine to be aware of all of the things that she said. The truth was, I was busy and I felt that the treatments and herbs that she gave were sufficient. One week slipped into two weeks and then three. In truth, the only reason I called her after three weeks was because I could not stand the pain on my right side.
Dr. Chen kept me for almost two hours that evening, by the time I left her office it was past 9:30 PM and she still had another patient after I left. Now that is true dedication! In addition to a thorough acupuncture treatment, she thoroughly questioned me on every aspect of my health and bodily function that anyone could possibly think of. She also did a complete physical examination of my abdominal area. Dr. Chen discovered the scars of my gall bladder operation and realized that I had by gall bladder removed. She seemed to feel that this was significant information and asked why I did not tell her before. I said that it did not occur to me that this was important information. I could clearly see that she was exasperated with me.
She gave me several different medicines to take and gave me explicit directions on how to take them. In Chinese Medicine there is no such thing as off the shelf medicine. Every prescription of herbal medicine is individually tailored to the patients specific illness and condition, so what Dr. Chen gave me and her instructions that she gave me might be completely different for someone else who had a similar ailment.
I felt good after I left her office, it was the effect of the acupuncture. Even without the beneficial effect of the herbal medicine, the acupuncture had a positive effect on my condition. I went home and slept very well that night which was unusual because I was getting up at least one a night to deal with the effects of nocturnal reflux which usually meant going to the bathroom to vomit.
The next morning, I drank Kombucha before I went to practice Qigong. Afterwards I ate a small bowl of congee then I ate breakfast with my wife. Before break fast I drank my herbal medicine in a glass of warm water. I went on to drink my herbal medicine three times a day, before every meal. Dr. Chen also gave me goji berries to eat with my congee in the morning. since the goji berries are dried I soaked them in water before I added them to my congee. I only added to them after I heated up the congee because I didn't want to do anything to diminish the beneficial effects of the goji berries.I followed Dr. Chen's directions explicitly and took the medicine exactly as she prescribed it.
The next day the pain in my side improved but still did not disappear. I was feeling better but all my symptoms had not disappeared. I was looking forward to my appointment with Dr. Chen on the following Tuesday.
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