Yann Ltn (sic) Chinese Herb Clinic

2-4-14 4:35pm Tues. (*2)

     This afternoon Leona will try to set up an appointment for me to see the acupuncturist a block away on Dong-Shan Road. I don’t think I have to get x-rays for my ankle at the China University Medical Center. My ankle feels better in the morning after it’s been rested all night and starts to hurt in the evening if I’ve walked on it during the day. Last evening, Leona and I walked to the Japanese noodle place a block away and to the hardware store next door to it and my foot felt bad on the walk back home. I took another pain killer and put on a patch before I went to sleep.

     

      Leona went with me to the Yann Ltn (sic) Chinese Herb Clinic up the block this morning. Yan Lin (as it should be spelled) is run by a female acupuncturist, Tsai Tzu- Ru, who shares two storefronts with a male masseuse/medicinal medicine man. We waited about one hour and we were called into an office for a consultation. Leona spoke Mandarin and told her my problem and its history. The acupuncturist took notes on a computer, looked at my foot, and decided that I deeded treatment for a blockage caused by gout crystals which made my ankle swelled and painful. We went into the next room where there was a cot with a hole for the heads down position which I took. She gave me fifteen minutes of electric acupuncture and moxibustion; I have to go back tomorrow for another treatment. I then went next door to have a plaster applied to my ankle and bandaged up.

      I’m glad we went to the Chinese Herb Clinic. I found out interesting ‘facts’ about myself. First, she said one of my legs is visibly shorter than the other. The gout left uric crystals in my ankle joint that blocked the flow of recovery when I twisted my ankle in Kenting Park. I twisted my ankle favoring my left calf which had been aching me for weeks. The acupuncture should break the ‘log jam’ or uric crystals and let the swelling go down. Like when I sprained my left wrist, it will take weeks longer for the sprain to go away because of the effects of the gout.