Sunday, December 04, 2005

A Visit With Amy, the Acupuncture Intern

For the past four years or so, our friend Amy has been studying to be a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which incorporates natural healing techniques that have been used for thousands of years — including acupuncture and customized herbal medicines — to treat almost any ailment.


Traditional Chinese Medicine Intern Amy poses with her three newest patients (aka guinea pigs). :) (12/03/05)

Before she graduate, she must complete nearly 1,000 hours of internship and treat at least 60 new patients by April. So naturally, we volunteered ourselves to be her guinea pigs. Our friend Everett also joined us.

For Everett and myself, it was our first time trying acupuncture (Tim had tried it once before). Believe it or not, we weren't in the least bit hesitant to try it. After all, all three of us have at one time or another goten body piercings, so needles aren't that scary to us. Besides, acupuncture needles are much finer than anything you'd find in a doctor's office.


Tim relaxes, not minding in the least that there's seven acupuncture needles in his head. Click the photo to see more detail. (12/03/05)

The number and position of the needles depends entirely on the symptoms for which you're seeking treatment. For example Tim was fighting off a cold, so he got seven needles on his head, mostly around the area affecting his sinuses. I, however, had no facial needles, but more on my arms and legs (and one on the top of my head, strangely).

Once the needles are in, they allow you to relax to some very pleasant Asian music for about 20 minutes. Afterward she prescribed each of us some herbs. You can get them in two forms: as a tea (which doesn't always taste so great) or as pills (we chose pills).


Afterward we continued with our Asian-themed day by taking Amy to Thai Beer restaurant, specializing in Thai-Chinese cuisine as you can see from the sign. (12/03/05)

By the time we wrapped things up three hours later, we were starving. So we treated Amy to lunch at a nearby restaurant that, appropriately enough, had Asian cuisine.

By the way, if anyone has an interest in seeking Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment for any ailment, get in contact with us and we'll give you the number of the clinic where Amy is interning.

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