Tag Archives: Acupuncture
Seasonal Allergies and Other Cyclical Summer Ailments
In Chinese medicine, the seasons can play a major role in your personal healthcare. Specific weather patterns ebb and flow with the seasons, just as certain health concerns take on a cyclical pattern. Some common health concerns that have a cyclical nature are seasonal allergies, autoimmune disorders, and some mental health conditions. If one struggles […]
Ke Garne? What To Do?
If you have spent any time with local Nepalese, you will have heard the phrase “Ke Garne.” It literally translates to “what to do?” It is said when life presents you with a difficult situation or a frustrating situation or really anything challenging. The first time I heard ‘Ke Garne’ was from a patient […]
Reflections on Nepal
This is the first article in a short series reflecting upon my clinical experience with the Acupuncture Relief Project in Nepal. When you treat a high volume of patients five and a half days a week, the poignant stories start to stack up. Writing weekly does not begin to overcome the stack. I am home […]
Spring Tis’ The Season of the Liver and Gallbladder
In Traditional East Asian Medicine our bodies are a microcosm of the natural world. Each organ system is related to a season, an aspect of nature, a cognitive function, a body tissue, and an emotion. March marks the beginning of spring and the season of the Liver and Gallbladder in East Asian Medicine. The Liver […]
A Case of Ankylosing Spondylitis- Nerd Geeks Unite in Nepal!
In the treatment room, I am greeted with a slender, smiling face. Eager and animated, he doesn’t wait for my introduction, he dives right into perfect English. I admit, I am excited to have a break from the time-lag of interpretation. My interpreter looks momentarily shocked. My patient is a twenty-five year old pre-med student […]
Laughter in the heart of Nepal
Every now and then, the strain of working six days a week in a different culture, in a different language starts to wear on my spirits. I find myself a little less jovial, a little tense, and sometimes even morose. Usually on those days, my patients arrive with an excellent sense of humor. Call it […]
Under Pressure
Today is Wednesday, the day I juggle two outreach clinics in one day. The clinics sit about twenty minutes apart by motorcycle. The morning clinic is in the village of Sipodol, nestled between green mountains and terraced fields. The afternoon clinic is in the bustling urban metropolis of Bhaktapur. It takes Sachyamohan and me forty-five […]
Rooftop Clinics and Motorbikes
Ramesh kickstarts his motorbike and looks at me expectantly. “How should I get on?” I ask, thinking about Nikki, our clinic director, instructing us not to wrap our arms around our interpreter when riding the motorbike. “Don’t grip with your knees,” Nikki said with a grin. I look at her blankly, thinking that you ride […]
My First Day at the Vajra Varahi Clinic
Coffee in hand, I stroll downstairs into the Vajra Barahi Health Clinic’s waiting room to prepare for my morning. Before the clinic bustles into life, I have the privilege of traveling out to a nearby Newari village and treating Asa Maya, a sweet, elderly woman, who recently had a stroke. I have been hearing about […]
Coffee in Thamel
At eight a.m. we venture out for breakfast. The streets are relatively sleepy compared to last night. Only a handful of cars weave through the streets and we can walk normally across the ring road. At various intervals along the sidewalks, people huddle around temporary fires built from scrap wood, and I wonder if they […]
Stick Out Your Tongue 