Day 16 - integrated public hospital

Hey travel journal,
This morning we were up early and jumped on a bus and headed over to a public hospital for a tour. The Taipei city public hospital has 8 branches, each of which have a different focus. For example oncology, neurological deficit, aged care etc. The branch we went to today were the Chinese medicine specialist. The hospital is primarily an out patient facility and integrates Western medicine with traditional Chinese medicine. There are floors in the hospital for things such as blood testing and HIV management, while others are dedicated to acupuncture, manual manipulation (chiropractic) and a massive Chinese medicine pharmacy. The prescribed compounded powders are covered by their national insurance, which other herbs, plants etc are all charged to the patient. First we watched a video on the public health system and the 8 branches, as well as one on the focus of the integrated branch. All of the doctors and pharmacist are trained both in Western and Chinese medicine, and can practice both types of medicine. Then after a group photo we had a tour of the acupuncture clinic and they showed us all the different needles they use, including these tiny ones that look like splinters stuck to a sticky pad, which they can apparently place on the patient and leave on for a few days to help provide prolonged pain relief. Then we went to the manual manipulation area which was a big room with lots of massage tables. They asked for volunteers to be part of the demonstration and Andy put his hand up and said that he had a sore back. The doc said his spine was a bit out of alignment and used a little pillow that he put on Andy's back where it is out and then used his body weight and pressure pushed up against the pillow to help crack his back. He said it felt so much better. Then everyone volunteered me for the second demonstration, which I didn't really want to do in front on everyone but I have been thinking about making a chiro appointment for next week, so figured why not. I told him about my knee pain and he said that most of the times knees are sore because the patients back and pelvis are out. So hey lay me on my side and cracked my back, and did both sides. The crack was pretty epic and then did my pelvis. I have never had a pelvic realignment before so the was new. He put the hard pillow in the small of my back while I was laying on my back and then I bent my knees and opened them putting my feet together. And then I don't know what he did but I slide my feet down the bed and he did some kind of resistance and it cracked well. My knee still hurts, but my back feels so much better. The sharp pain I have been getting in my lower back is gone which is amazing. Then we had a tour of the pharmacy. It was pretty decent in size with lots of little cubicles where pharmacists were compounding powered prescriptions for patients and in the back they had a traditional pharmacy set up with all the shelves and things in pots on the wall. I wonder if the set up and the order that things are stored have some kind of meaning?... Then after trying some things (or I should say, eating goji berries), we went downstairs to see the vats where they make all of the liquid mixes. Then it was time to head off. A small group stayed at the hospital and headed off to indoor rock climbing (which was a 3m climbing wall with no harnesses), while the rest of us headed back to campus. On the way back to the dorm we headed to food street and got some food. Sara, Sophie and I first went to my new juice shop and got a drink. I tried the dragon fruit one today, it was pretty good. They also had samples of this raspberry crush thingy that was also pretty tasty. I then got the rice, beef, egg and vegetables thingy from the other day but curry instead of black pepper flavour. The girls decided to just eat some stuff that they had back at the dorms, so then we headed back. Unfortunately Sharni missed the day as she stayed at the dorm with vomiting and diarrhoea. Sophie was also pretty sick, Danny was nauseated and I also had the runs. We all ate the same thing for lunch yesterday, so we are thinking it's food poisoning from that. I felt pretty shit house in the arvo so I just watched Netflix, went to the toilet (I don't even know how many times) and slept for a bit. When I woke up I was so sweaty and foggy, it was like I had just gotten out of the shower. Despite my upset tummy, I have still been hungry all afternoon (maybe I have worms...). Apparently a bunch of people played volleyball in the afternoon and then one group of people were heading to hotpot for dinner and another group were going on a bit of a walk/did the mountain behind campus. Sophie and I decided to head out and go to the juice place and get soda and cranberry drinks and vegetable fried rice and headed back to the dorms and retreated back into our respective rooms to hide from the world. After a while I did my physio stretches and convinced my self that I had energy for a shower. Now, I am laying in bed wide awake a midnight because I slept all arvo. Whoops. Oh well, at least my tummy has settled and tomorrow should be a better day. Night xoRead more