Blog Reflection

After finishing all my hours with Dr. Song, I've come to realize how much I've grown during the process. This project has pushed me to use and sharpen skills that I wouldn't normally use on a daily basis.

May 6th, 2013 #3

So the last hour I spent at Dr. Song’s office was talking with her in general. We talked about the project itself, my dad’s situation and health overall. She asked about any last minute details that she needed to do for the project, such as paperwork, so I gave her the evaluation sheet to fill out. Before she left to fill out the paper, she talked about how I felt about the project and that it was ok for me to be confused, which I was at times. So just for last minute lesson we both looked over the acupuncture chart she had on her wall. She said that even if I don’t quite understand the concept of acupuncture I just had to know a few key points on the body that pretty much help with EVERYTHING, such as stress, stomach pains, back pains, eye strain, relaxation, etc. Once we cleared the air about the project we had a little language exchange, since her English wasn’t the best, I helped her translate some of the things she had to say in Mandarin to English and she taught me a few Mandarin words (even though I’m pretty sure I’ll forget them). Once everything was finished I pretty much had nothing left to do, but to go home, since I learned as much as I could from Dr. Song and her giant book of acupuncture and moxibustion. 

May 6th, 2013 #2

The next practice that relates to acupuncture is cupping, now this is a practice that I find really interesting and believable. Basically cupping is creating a vacuum within the cup as it attaches to the skin. By using the cupping method it warms and promotes chi and blood in the meridians, gets rid of cold dampness and reduces swelling and pain. For me this is a more believable practice because I've had it done on me on my back and when I finished the treatment the pain in back was significantly reduced. The only downside to cupping was the ugly looking bruises that were left behind, but it was worth it because it’s something that really works. 

May 6th, 2013 #1

Today I arrived at Dr. Song’s office to finish off the rest of my hours. I started learning about Moxibustion a similar practice to acupuncture, but with moxi sticks, which are herbs, that are burned and placed over points of the body. I have to say this one of the practices of acupuncture that I’m more skeptical about because as I see it you’re potentially burning the body and not necessarily moving body chi. I guess that’s why I had such a hard time grasping the concept of it. There are several ways to administer moxibustion; using a moxi stick, using moxi wool or placing the wool on a needle and puncturing the needle into the necessary point. To me this is a little puzzling because how can holding smoke over a point make someone feel better. I guess its one of those things that you can’t question much if you’ve never experienced it. Nevertheless it’s a practice that is close to acupuncture. At this point of my project I’ve learned so much, but it’s not everything I can learn. Over the past few months I’ve only been learning the bare minimum of acupuncture and its sub practices. 

May 4th, 2013 #3

I noticed I never really blogged about the patients before, so I thought I should. Every time I come into Dr. Song’s office she has at least one patient she’s working with. What I find really interesting about eh patients is that they are literally people from all walks of life. The patients here are majority of the time, though Asian, but of course once in a while there are people are different races/ethnicities. I really admire Dr. Song when she works because she really is careful and conscious of all her patients. She wants to make sure that each of her patients get all the attention and care that they need. For example she has a regular patient that comes in on Fridays and she always reserves that spot for him because she knows his sleeping habits and wants to make sure that she gives him enough time to rest. Another patient of hers always comes in with information about food, water and health in general and she shares them with me, which I always enjoy. Today the 5 patients were really diverse. There was a girl probably my age to a senior citizen male. He had brought his daughters who were probably in their 30s to be treated.

            I love that Dr. Song has really taken the time to make sure that each of her patients are comfortable and treated well. She makes sure that when they are waiting they have something to read and always makes sure that every patient and I mean every patient gets tea when they finish their treatment. It’s nice to know that doctors like Dr. Song are still taking their time to give the best care and don’t treat them like another number.  

May 4th, 2013 #2

Acupuncture points fall under 3 categories: points of the 14 meridians, extra points and ashi points. The “meridian points,” are found along the 12 main meridians and are the more common points and are distributed symmetrically in pairs, one on the left and another on the right of the body. The extra points are experiential points that have specific names and definite locations, but are still relative to the meridian channels. They are particularly effective in treating certain diseases. And the ashi points are typically used for pain syndromes. These points are the earliest stages of acupuncture that don’t have specific names or locations are referred to as “reflexing points,” “unifixed points” or “tender spots.”

            The interesting thing about acupuncture is the names of the points. There groups of points that are analogous to certain aspects of nature. To be honest, this is where I get skeptical of Eastern medicine sometimes, but I just listen and decide for myself if I want to believe it or not. So about these names, There are names that are analogous to water flow, mountains, valleys, animals, plants, utensils (like ancient utensils, like bamboo), architectural structures, astronomy, meteorological phenomena, anatomical terms and therapeutic properties. The names are a little out there for me, but the practices of acupuncture I can 100% agree with.

            Though I’ll never really get the chance to do acupuncture because I’m not a licensed practitioner, I can still use acupressure on points that I learned about and I think for me that’s enough. 

May 4, 2013 #1

Essentially these are the pathways that the qi and blood of the body move through, they are what form a network that connects tissues and organs together. The meridians are the bases of these channels and run longitudinally in the body, while the collaterals represent the branches. Collectively they are known as Jingluo in Chinese medicine. This whole system is comprised of 12 main meridians, 8 extra meridians, 15 collaterals, 12 divergent meridians, 12 muscle regions and 12 cutaneous regions.

            The purposes of these channels are to move the qi and blood to the zang-fu organs, skin, muscle, tendons and bones to ensure normal functions of these organs and maintain a relative equilibrium in the body. Since there are some many channels and sub channels to cover within the body, Dr. Song figured it’d be best to just cover the basics of the 12 main meridians, then move onto some of the acupuncture points in the body that would be commonly used and easy to access. What makes up these 12 channels are the 6 yin and yang (3 yin and 3 yang) channels of the hand and the 6 yin and yang channels of the foot (3 yin and 3 yang).

            The meridians and collaterals serve 4 main functions: transport qi and blood and regulate yin and yang; resist pathogens and reflecting symptoms and signs and lastly transmit needle sensations while regulating deficiencies and excess conditions.

            The first function is pretty self-explanatory. What it means when the meridians can resist pathogens and reflect symptoms and signs is that anytime there are any disorders of the organs, it can reflect in the face, basically what I explained in my previous blogs. These two tend to have a concurrent relationship as any disorders to the meridians affect the internal organs and any disorders to the organs can cause damage to meridians.

            Luckily it can be repaired with acupuncture and acumoxibustion. These two treatments stimulate the qi in the body to travel to the zang fu organs thereby restoring the their regular functions and curing diseases. Therefore the major objective of acupuncture is to regulate yin and yang and the flow of qi. Once that is achieved the body and organs are in their best shape.

            This is the second time I’ve on a Saturday since I started working with Dr. Song, the rest of the times were usually on a weekday afternoon, and it’s really weird yet exciting to really see Dr. Song in action. Saturdays are usually her busiest day and today is no exception, she currently has 5 patients in her small office at 1pm and she’s been able to keep her cool while catering to every need of each her patients. Of course I’m not allowed in the rooms because of the confidentiality agreement Dr. Song has with her patients, but it’s kind of funny to hear the sounds the patients make during treatment. For example, just right now one of the patients is groaning in pain, but she’s laughing, I don’t know what to make of that, but whatever. Another patient that is waiting out front just talked to me about patience and the younger generation. He told me that when he was younger he was taught patience was gold and how that lesson has helped him every day and even while being in treatment. I think that it’s really cool that all the patients Dr. Song works with are from different walks of life, some are doctors themselves while others are retired or working. It’s amazing as well because Dr. Song builds these relationships and in return she is able to get all these valuable lessons, information, insider tips and such.