Bloodletting

A few months ago, I twisted my ankle pretty severely. Overall, its been doing better, but if I do too much it hurts a lot still. So, since I have had next to no classes this week and needed to get out of school before I went stir crazy, I went to the traditional medicine clinic this afternoon. I really thought about bringing my camera with me, but decided that was too much, even for me.

After a conversation that was mostly in Korean (of which I understood maybe about 20%) and a few questions in a mix of broken Korean and broken English, the doctor drew a couple marks on my ankle and told me I would be treated with cupping, acupuncture, and physical therapy. Since he didn't mention being injected with bee venom (which some friends have had there, and they said it hurt like all get out), I was good to go.

First, they put suction cups on my ankle for less than a minute. They took some sort of pricking tool and basically stabbed the site a few times (it felt bigger than a tattoo needle, but wasn't TOO bad) and put the suction cups back on, drawing out blood. (I wasn't exaggerating about the bloodletting in the title) I'm not sure how long they left the cups on - maybe 5-10 minutes or so.

After, the doctor came in to place the acupuncture needles. The only one that sort of hurt was the one he put on the side of my big toe. These he left in for 20 minutes with a heat lamp aimed at the ones on my ankle. I'm not sure why, but when he took out a couple of the needles they stung, whereas others were basically painless. Anyway.

Next, the assistant came and strapped a couple of what looked not-unlike crash cart paddles that were hooked it up to a machine on my ankle. Basically I was given a massage with electric shocks. Bizarre, but not bad.

The doctor wrapped my ankle with something that looks sort of like an ace bandage with adhesive on the back. They finished by taking me upstairs and letting me hang out in the massage chair for while. Only it was sort of the Cadillac of massage chairs, and it was awesome.

Total cost was less than $5.

Right now, my ankle actually feels a lot better - to the point where I'll for sure go again to get my knees and both ankles looked at in the near future, even if it is just placebo effect. Also, I asked about preventative migraine treatment, but he didn't seem to quite understand what I was saying. If nothing else, I will probably try to get acupuncture before taking the heavy-duty migraine drugs the next time I get a headache.