Sunday, January 10, 2010

dit da

So I woke up and the ankle was a bit more swollen this morning. My mum called from work and asked if I needed to see the doctor.

I thought I'd better; late trains are enough, I don't need unnecessary MC's.

Since there was no one at home, she managed to get her church friends to fetch me to see the shinsei. Apparently this one in Taipan comes recommended.

The aromatic fragrance of Chinese ointment greeted us as we stepped into the 1st floor clinic. We wondered about the choice of location since it specialised in joints and bones; surely someone like me would have had to struggle the flight of stairs before being able to see the doctor.

Since I grew up with traditional Chinese medicine, I have no doubts about its efficacy, though it's classified as alternative medicine in most parts of the world. The shinsei came to attend to me as I sat down at the chair and had my legs propped up on the small stool.

After being briefed about my situation, he proceeded to rub some whitish lotion mixed with oil onto my ankle. He then massaged on the swollen region, pressing deep on points which were particularly sore.

With much deft he did something I can't explain, but if you can imagine those masseuse who grabs your limbs or neck and twist them around, what this shinsei did was something close to that. I think I heard a sound when he did it, but I was closing my eyes when the pain came so I must have missed it.

Later he came back with some dark brown paste in a silver bowl, with which he slabbed all around my ankle. I had thought the massage was the end of it, but the treatment came with the traditional Chinese medicine known as dit da, which have been used for centuries by the Chinese to heal injuries.

The healing powers of the paste would supposedly be absorbed into the skin to do its magic. My feet was wrapped with surgical gauze over plastic film. So now I have something that looks like a cast from afar, but is too soft for any signatures.



I really hope this works, because I paid RM60 for that very short session.

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