My Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine

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If you were to meet my Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor on the street, you would never think he was a doctor of Chinese medicine.  First of all, he's not Chinese.  That, of course, doesn't matter.  But it's kind of like walking into a Mexican restaurant and everybody who works there has blond hair and blue eyes.  The food may be good, but are you getting the "real" thing?

My doctor is passionate about Chinese medicine, that's for sure.   He's been practicing it for 40 or so years.  He is an older gentleman, with dark hair and a dark mustache.  He looks like Mario from Nintendo, only older and taller.   And he's not a cartoon.

We'll call him Dr. X.  That sounds mysterious.  And it fits for Chinese medicine.

Chinese medicine is mysterious, especially for someone in the West, raised on Western concepts of medicine.  The Chinese have an entirely different way of approaching medicine.  It's about balance and harmony.  They throw terms around like "Hot" and "Cold" and apply it to your condition.  Heat is bad and certain foods, like coffee for example, put heat in the colon.  Tea, on the other hand, is "cold" and that is soothing to the colon.  It's all about balance.  The ying and yang.

Dr. X and I talked for awhile at my first appointment.  Tried acupuncture for the first time.  And he prescribed a bunch of pills for me.  All herbs designed to provide balance to my system and remove that "heat" from my colon.  Here is what I am taking:

• Honeysuckle-12 tablets a day.
• Agrimony--12 tablets a day.
• DHT-INT--12 tablets a day. This is a blend of peach seed, Job's Tears seed, Baikal Skullcap root, Patrinia, immature bitter orange fruit
• RBX--15 tablets a day.  Pulsatilla root, Lithospermum root, Sophora fruit, Sanguisorba root, Corydalis rhizome, Rhubarb rhizome, Red Peony root, Licorice root

This  is divided into 3 doses, taken before or after meals.  The hardest thing about taking these 17 pills at once is the amount of water than needs to be consumed.  Yesterday, after taking pills in the morning, I started on my way to work.  My ride to work is about 40 minutes and halfway there I realized something:  I had to pee.  Bad.  Luckily, McDonald's was nearby and off I went.

The problem with stopping at McDonald's in the morning is the smell of coffee.  The one thing that I look forward to every morning is my coffee.  In fact, just last week, we bought a new coffee maker.  And McDonald's smelled of coffee that morning.  But I haven't had any coffee since meeting Dr. X last week.  He gave me a list of food to avoid:  coffee, alcohol, seeds, nuts, chocolate, spicy foods, raw fruits and vegetables.  Not only are these things difficult to digest---and we want to lessen the distress on my colon--they also contribute to the "heat" that  damages my colon, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine.

So, I no longer have my coffee.  Once my condition is under control, and Dr. X thinks that the probability of me experiencing relief from Traditional Chinese Medicine is very good, then I may be able to re-introduce some of these foods later.  But, for the time being, I am missing my coffee.

And my wine, that is for sure.

Are things working?  I don't know.  My colon has calmed down a bit.  I go maybe two times a day and it's relatively normal.  My lower colon, both interior and exterior, is still very inflamed.  Talk about a pain in the ass.  Haven't noticed much change there, nor did I expect to experience much change this quickly.  Patience is the key, as Dr. X told me.  But I am impatient.  Like most people, I want things to get better now.  That's the way we work in the West and Western medicine caters to this desire.

Dr. X told me that he has a patient who has Crohn's and was going 17+ times a day before he started this treatment.  I've never been that bad.  When I first was diagnosed with Crohn's, the most I ever went was 14 times in one day.  This other patient now goes only once a day and he is no longer taking any drugs.  My colleague at work who gave me Dr. X's contact information told me that his good family friend has Crohn's and it has been controlled with the help of Dr. X.  So I am hopeful.

But skeptical as well.  Much of what what we have done--from the herbs to the acupuncture-- seems a little alien to me.  And that would fully be realized at my next appointment.  Let's just say that Dr. X blew my mind.

And it involves milk.

More on that later.....