Art of Acupuncture

This was a wonderful workshop. Not only did I learnt the techniques of Zhu scalp acupuncture, I am also humbled by his attitude to life and his dedication to the healing of patients. Can't wait for the next course!

Acupuncture Relief Project

New blog post from Australian practitioner Kaikit Wong who just finished up at our Bajrabarahi Clinic. Please enjoy. http://acupuncturereliefproject.org/news-blog/282-the-magic-of-determination

Kaikit in Nepal Day 53 This will be the last post on my time in Nepal with Acupuncture Relief Project. Thank you to all who have enjoyed my posts, liked, loved or left comments. Your words are too kind. I'm just a person trying to do my best for others with my limited lifetime. In the past 7 weeks, I have seen a total of 765 patient-visits, about 12-26 per day. Most patients come on repeated visits. I have seen countless of stomach and abdominal pain, knee pain, back pain, neck and shoulder pain, heel pain. Also a handful of polyarthralgia and rheumatoid arthritis, hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. The most impressionable are amenorrhea with PCOS, uterine prolapse, leucorrhea, cerebral palsy, cerebral atrophy and stroke. I am glad and relieved at the same time that my work has helped most of my patients with pain relief, or instil hope of getting better eventually. This rewarding experience will not have been possible if not for the generous donations and kind encouragement of my selfless supporters. A few of you I know are struggling with life and have even put yourself out in order to raise funds for this trip. Thank you for believing in me and you have not been let down. (so I was told that a new storage room is built because of the extra funds that you have contributed). Your generosity have helped many Nepalese people receive primary health care, enable job opportunities for the local people, provide training for local acupuncturist interns to be groomed as competent primary care providers. Once again, I deeply bow and salute your kindness and compassion. Namaste. _/\_

Photos from Vital Energetic's post

Kaikit in Nepal Day 52 Last day in clinic today. Finally! Haha... Yes. I'm not ashamed to confess that there were many times I was counting down the days. It's cold, it's hectic and stressful. Yet the beautiful Nepalese people, the lovely patients, and the wonderful interpreters give me good reason to wake up everyday and do my best. I came here with the intentions of using my skills to help more people and widen my exposure. In my first few weeks here, I struggled with intense internal conflict that what I knew could not be used here. Every patient wants a needle where the pain is. That's not what I know as good acupuncture practice. The patients are also very stiff, and low in body awareness that asking them to bend and move their bodies in patterns for the myofascial adjustments is just impossible. What can I do?! All I can do is to be as human as I can. To lower myself. To forget that I'm a doctor. To speak their language, literally. To smile. To laugh. To cry. To forget about treatment plans and be flexible. To be patient and listen to their story. Be respectful because God may appear in any form any time. To clap and cheer and make a big deal out of every single progress. It's not about what I can do. It's what they need and what they can do. Now I am at the end. Did I heal anyone? No. Because I'm not God. There is no healer and no one to heal. Did I help anyone? Yes I did. More pictures of some beautiful patients who changed my life.

Photos from Vital Energetic's post

Kaikit in Nepal Day 47 I have been pondering this question. If the prognosis of the patient is poor, will I still help? To answer this question, I place myself in the situation. If my prognosis is poor, will I want someone to help me? OMG yes! Therefore 将心比心 I will try my best to help. As Kylie Tai says "helping comes in many forms. " There is a Chinese saying: 医者父母心 The doctor's heart is like that of a parent. We feel for our patients as if they are our children. If I cannot have that empathy, what right do I have to call myself a doctor? There is no right or wrong answer to this question. Perhaps it's a internal debate between humanity and practicality. Perhaps one only needs to look within and answer to one's own conscience. On this Christmas Eve, let's pray for those are suffering from war, poverty and hunger. May those who are suffering from greed, anger and delusion find liberation. May there be peace on Earth. Amen.

Photos from Vital Energetic's post

Kaikit in Nepal Day 45 Finally a night of music and songs. Thanks to the guys Tsering, Ritesh, Sunil, and Tupesh for the relaxing evening. Music is a universal language that touches all hearts even though the songs were sang in Nepalese language. Quite a refreshing change from the typical sombre conversations in the kitchen. Had 24 patients yesterday at clinic. So tired that I couldn't even talk after clinic. But it was a terrific day. Thanks to Sushila my interpreter who stuck with me even though she had a headache. By the end of the day, we were both joking that we are like our patients "my head pain, my stomach pain, my neck pain my back pain, my hands pain, my legs pain, everywhere pain! " 😁 One of my patients says she loves me so much that she wants me to take her home to Sydney so I can continue to treat her. She keeps holding my hand tightly and not let me go. I joke that she will forget me next month when the new young handsome doctor arrives. Even though such words of praise are frivolous, it is encouraging to know that I do have a heart connection with my patients. One other patient presents with headaches and dizziness. Her blood pressure is 200/120. We chat and discover that she started smoking since 8 years old and is now smoking 20 cigarettes daily. I encourage her to decrease to 15 cigarettes daily. When she comes back after a few days, her BP comes down to 180/110. We set the target to reduce further to 10 per day. Yesterday her BP is 150/100. Her headaches and dizziness is gone. I'm so proud of her.

Timeline Photos

Kaikit in Nepal Day 43 Had an interesting conversation with a patient today. She reports arm pain above her elbows and has difficulty reaching behind her back. I was inserting needles in her legs. Her: Do the acupuncture needles contain medicine? Me: No. Her: Then how do the needles work? Me: Your body have lines that you cannot see. When I put this needle in your leg here, it will transfer information to your arm like a current. Her: Oh yes, I can feel it in my arm. Look! Something is moving. I look up and there is a pulsation in her elbow. ☺

Timeline Photos

Kaikit in Nepal Day 42 Discharged this lady today who presented with lower back pain 6 weeks ago. She has full range of motion in her back with flexion, extension and lateral flexion. Straight leg test with no pain. She is treated weekly with acupuncture using points Taixi, Yanglingquan and Chize. Total 6 needles each time. Today she says I have no more pain in my back. 😊

Timeline Photos

Kaikit in Nepal Day 40 It's half day clinic today and I saw 17 patients. That is like a full day patient load squeezed into 4.5 hours. Million thanks to my dear interpreter Melina who is tremendous help even though she is putting up with her sore coccyx. One lady who has been coming every week for the past few weeks is being treated for her back pain. Somewhere amongst the weeks, we discover that she also does not sleep well and has poor appetite. We chat a bit during the consultations. Seems to me that she is troubled about something. Today she reveals that she is still sleeping in a tent since the earthquake almost 2 years ago. It hit me that "So that's why she's worried and why she can't get warm, and her back hurts. " Another patient, a 68-years old male, has such pronounced muscle wasting on his arms that he has difficulty raising food to his mouth. His MRI report concludes cerebral atrophy, possibly of the left brain which may be affecting his left eye and right arm. I have to tell him with a heavy heart that his prognosis is poor. I cannot cure him and that his condition will get worse, probably affecting his other arm and legs eventually. He travels more than one hour to get to the clinic by a truck and spends 1500 rupees (US$15) each time. As such he can only come in once a week for treatment. Given the time and effort he takes to get here, I asked him several times if he thinks it's worth coming at all. Especially with the frequency of visits, the progress will be slow, or none at all. However he says he will still come and try this treatment. We agree that I will only try to strengthen his arm so that he can feed himself. Tears well up in my eyes as I talk to this patient. Not because I can't help him, but more because of the agony he must be experiencing with this debilitating disease. What deep and intense karma does one have to suffer this pain? As I needled his scalp points, yang ming points and Loo point, I chanted the name of Amitabha Buddha. May the compassion and wisdom of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas help this man. A-m-i-t-u-o-f-o.

Timeline Photos

Kaikit in Nepal Day 39 39-years old male reports pain in his throat when swallowing for 3 years. A slight nodule can be palpated to the right of the thyroid cartilage, with mild pain under finger pressure. Cold weather worsens the pain and also triggers heart palpitations. He does not have symptoms of hot flushes, spontaneous sweating nor bulging eyes. Denies weight loss or weight gain. His blood pressure and blood glucose are within normal ranges. Thyroid panel taken 4 years ago shows elevated TSH with low T3 and T4. Diagnosis hypothyroidism. He has been on thyroxine 100mcg per day since, with Vitamin D supplemented every month. Since he is already on medication, I treat him solely using acupuncture twice weekly. On every treatment, the points needled were: Baihui, ZSA head/face x 3, Yintang, Zhaohai, Lieque (bilateral) , LI18 Futu (right) On the fourth treatment, he reports feeling fresh and does not feel sick like he previously did. He no longer feel sleepy or drowsy. The nodule on his throat does not have any pain or discomfort on palpation, swallowing or talking.

Photos from Vital Energetic's post

Kaikit in Nepal Day 33 I love seeing old patients. They are cute. They are long winded and keep repeating themselves. Sometimes they are hard of hearing and answers completely irrelevantly to questions. Or they will be shouting as they cannot hear themselves. But they are cute. And beautiful. Their lines full of wisdom. I call all my elderly patients Grandpa and Grandma. Today 83 year old grandma came back for her weekly visit. She is always happy and makes me happy. We had an interesting conversation. She said "My knees are much better now and I can walk better. And my teeth does not hurt now after you told me to brush my teeth. But my head hurts sometimes. I think it may be time to die." I said "Are you ready? " She said "I think so. I will make appointment. " I replied "That's a good attitude to life (and death)." After the acupuncture treatment, I wanted to take a photo with her. She said "Why do you want to take photo with an old lady who is going to die? " I said "Don't worry Grandma. We all will die. I will join you sooner or later. " We took many happy photos together, thanks to Ritesh. She put her forehead to my hand and we said Namaste.

Kaikit in Nepal Day 32 Today one of my patients broke down and cried. I am monitoring her blood glucose levels and treating her for the past few weeks as they were high even though she is on the highest dose of metformin. Every time she comes to clinic, she will fast so that I can check her blood sugar. The levels were trending downwards and we were quite happy with her progress. Today due to some mishap in scheduling, she arrived early in the morning and found her name was not in the book. As a result, she had to wait till the afternoon, without any food or drink. Unfortunately, her blood glucose shot up again. I guess she felt desperate as well as hungry and having gastric pain that she started crying. We quickly got her some food from our leftover lunch. I could not needle her today as she was weak, so we have to wait till her next visit.