Monday, March 21, 2011

Beautiful Times

Sometimes I am wondering what's happening to me? At one time, I was going through a difficult period and after a while, the sun seems to be shining brightly on me. Of late, I must count my blessings for I am having a very good time. There are almost no pain at all. I can eat well and I would also say also sleep well, notwithstanding a little difficulty falling asleep. Sometimes, I forget I have cancer as I am so engrossed in some of my reading activities.

My first Traditional Medicine Class (TCM) was really fun. We had a class of about 25 students, people ranging in the mid 30s to the early 60s. The text books we used were translated from Chinese texts (one of the classic text, Huangdi Neijing (黄帝内经) completed in 111 CE, is now more than two thousand years old) and I must say the translation seems literally done. As a result, it can be a bit cryptic to read the text, for example, "spirit = supreme dominator of life activities". Obviously the translators were also technically trained, so most of the words were just direct translations. One way to overcome this is to read in English but think in Chinese. It was also the first time I encountered so many medical terms in a single day such as epistaxis, hematochezia, pericardium, dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea and vertigo just to name a few. Luckily for us, there is an American gentleman in our class. He is, a medically trained doctor in his late 50s or early 60s. He would kindly explain some of the medical terms to the class. We will complete a text book in about 6 weeks (18 hours of classes) which means there are so much more reading to do on our own. But knowledge does not come free. As I learned about the organs of the body, I am also beginning to think what I can do more for my body. Anyway, I am enjoying myself.

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