Certainly a major concern no matter where you live or what you do is health. So easy to take for granted when all is well, but we can easily be sidelined when health struggles occur. Serving overseas offers additional challenges in terms of getting good health care at all stages from diagnosis to treatment to follow up. Some places are extremely modern, and others are more rudimentary.
Serving overseas also offers the opportunity to try alternative approaches to health. Gena has been dealing with increasingly bad allergies over the past few years. While they began while we were still in the States, they have gotten more severe over the past few years. Severe sneezing fits in the morning and a general congested state punctuated with headaches and lethargy have become more the norm. Nothing serious, one might say, but something that wears on her day after day. We presume the allergy has to do with dust and perhaps mold, both of which are in abundance in Medan!
Since it isn’t a serious medical emergency, she opted to start dealing with it recently by trying something she’s always been fascinated by but had limited opportunity to seek out – Chinese herbal medicine. The opportunity to at least experiment with this alternative before seeking a more Western remedy was too good to pass up here in Medan. But how to find a Chinese doctor?
As with much of Asia there is a robust ethnic Chinese community in Indonesia and in Medan. One of our blessings is a young man named Santo, who regularly ferries Paul to and from the airport. We inquired with Santo since he’s Chinese-Indonesian, and in short order he had a recommendation for us. On a Friday morning he scheduled an appointment for her, picked us up and accompanied us to the appointment in case there were any translation issues that exceeded our combined Indonesian language skills.
It doesn’t look like much from the street, but that’s typical for Medan. In a small commercial side-street Santo parked his car and we got out to see what would happen next. The shop is small – long and narrow. On one side are a few chairs to wait on, followed by rows and rows of ingredients. On the right side is the counter where the prescriptions are mixed. Chinese herbal medicine relies on herbs, oddly enough, and this place seems equipped to handle a *lot* of different issues with a plethora of ingredients!
The Chinese doctor spoke excellent English, as it turned out, and had lived or studied in the States at some point. His examination of Gena consisted of taking her pulse at her right wrist. As he did so she described her symptoms. He briefly took the pulse of her left wrist and looked at the palm of her hand.
The prognosis? Her body struggles with being weak and cold. I think these terms mean different things in Chinese medicine than we may associate them with in general usage. Poor circulation is one indication of this. She has congestion in her nasal area that need to be drained. Once that happens she should notice an improvement. The treatment? Elevating the warmth element of her body. No cold drinks. No fresh fruits (particularly citrus fruits high in Vitamin C, as her body has difficulty processing Vitamin C, according to him). No fresh vegetables, though cooked vegetables are fine (fresh are too hard to digest and tax her body additionally). He then prescribed a mixture of about 12 ground herbal elements.
Her prescription was mixed and filled as we waited, and all told, we were in and out in about half an hour. She had a bottle of the powdered elements with instructions to take one spoonful in water each day. She was to finish the bottle completely even if/when she started feeling better. The mixture had a powerful smell, but not an altogether unpleasant one.
She started taking it that day. The results were powerful and fast. After taking it for the first time she developed a headache within short order and had to rest most of the rest of the day. Not an auspicious start!
She awoke the next day without the headache. The sinus pressure was still there and she took the next dosage. She continued it day after day. And day after day she could literally feel the pressure in her sinuses moving down her skull. Little by little. She noticed her lymph nodes were swollen and tender, presumably from dealing with whatever had been lurking about her nasal passages for however long.
She also noticed within a week that she wasn’t sneezing every morning when she woke up. Practically not at all, in fact. And by two weeks into the regimen the sneezing was gone, the congested, heavy-headed feeling was gone, and her energy levels were up and perhaps her thinking abilities as well. The change was remarkable. She’s nearly finished with the treatment, at which point we’ll see how things go. The expectation that is if her sinus congestion has drained out, she’ll basically maintain the dietary changes suggested to see if it comes back or not.
We’re grateful for the improvement, which has increased her quality of life substantially in very short order, for very little cost, and (we presume) in an all-natural fashion, which we greatly appreciate. It may not be for everybody or every situation, but we’re pleased with this first venture!
The Nelson Family Indonesia 