A Wholly Different Visit to the Doctor

Grace has stopped throwing up, but just hasn't regained her strength or her usual cheery disposition and as of last night, was still flirting with the runs (I know she'll be mortified when she is about 14 and re-reads these posts--sorry Grace!), and generally kept complaining about her stomach. So after another fruitless visit to a second hospital this morning, this time with Athena, we decided to take Grace to visit Athena's uncle this afternoon. This is the kindly gentleman who invited us, along with Athena and her mother, to the Inner Mongolia Museum in August and who also treated us to a seafood lunch.

I regret to say I went alone with Grace and Athena, leaving Dave at home with Samuel, and so I don't have any pictures. Athena's uncle has a little shop front clinic near the Muslim quarter, just two rooms, one with a desk, the other with three beds. We showed the doctor the various reports generated by the two hospital visits and after a little consultation, he concluded that if Grace had had better treatment the very first day, she wouldn't have had this long miserable week. No kidding. Anyway, I was happy that he felt the same as me. He prescribed a "nutrition infusion" (I.V.) first, since she hasn't been able to eat very well this week. Grace lay down on a bed with an infrared light directed at her tummy, a hot water bottle under the hand that had the I.V. needle, and a blanket over her legs. Ah, I thought, this is much better than a freezing hospital room. It was a cozy little room and shortly after Grace started her nutrition infusion an absolutely lovely grandma came for treatment for her ankle. She lay down on the bed next to ours and the doctor proceeded to stick acupuncture needles into her ankle. (See why I wish I had had a camera? I kick myself as I write this, I assure you.) Our friend Helen (He Qing) came along with us because she needed to see the doctor for her lower back, which she injured doing sports. She went to a bed behind a curtain and the doctor put 18 bulb needles on her back. That is, there were 18 bulbs on her back and under them were little needles. By this time, the nurse switched out Grace's nutrition bottle for a medicine bottle, something that he said would definitely kill the bad bacteria but that was gentle enough for her little body. A third woman came in and lay down on the bed at the foot of Grace's. On this woman, the doctor used a little mallet, sort of like a meat tenderizer, but very small and with about 6 needles imbedded in it, to hit on her side. He hit a couple of times, then put a bell-shaped glass over the spot, attached a "plunger" to it, pumped a couple of times, and sucked her skin up into the glass. He did this in three different spots and I noticed that after a little while with the suction, blood seeped up through the mallet marks. Once the three glasses were in place, the doctor placed the infrared light over them and left them to do their work. By this time the grandma with the needles in her ankle was ready to have them taken out. The doctor did this, then put some alcohol in a shallow dish, lit it on fire, put his hand in the fiery alcohol and rubbed her ankle all over with it. Really, it was all very amazing and wonderful to see. The grandma was terrifically sweet, too--she gave Grace a lot of pretty wrapped candies while she was on her back with the needles. His four patients taken care of, the doctor proceeded to have an I.V. himself, saying that his stomach was upset and that he needed something for it. So there were three ladies (Helen was done by this point) and the doctor, all sitting around taking their various treatments. It was truly a funny sight, and everyone (including Grace in her own tentative way) was very jovial and chatty.

The doctor gave Grace some berberine tablets that she is to take tonight and tomorrow, then he said she should be completely better within 2 or 3 days. In any case, she is definitely much much better tonight, she is up and walking around, taking an interest in everything and we are all very much relieved. The most crazy thing is that the doctor refused payment. I have never been so touched by such kindness. We couldn't have had two more radically different medical experiences in the past week and in the end I am glad for both of them--even as miserable as the visit on Monday was, it still saved Grace from dehydration, and this last visit has totally restored my opinion of the medical profession in Hohhot.