So I went to talk to the head of the Foreign Affairs department at the school today, and she told me that there could be a slight change in plans. Instead of going to the 8th floor tomorrow morning (Friday), where I'd see the stroke inpatients again, I'd be going over to the Psychology department -- where I'll be following one of the doctors who's in the Andryny specialization. That's the men's health angle that I was thinking about when I came here in the first place. Of course, because of the acupuncture focus of the school and the stroke service, I pretty much went with the flow, to (I think) very good effect. But this is something I was hoping to see while I was here.
Treatment is a combination of acupuncture, Western medicine, and Chinese herbal medicine, so I'm totally going to have to be on my game if I don't want to look like a dummy. But that's no problem. The only problem is that the doctor I'm supposed to be following tomorrow is only available Monday and Friday of next week -- and that's supposed to be my last week in Tianjin! I'll see if I can get another doctor to follow on Tuesday, at least. Then there's a conference that has some interesting lectures on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. So I'm just busily remaining flexible!
The afternoons upstairs are generally pretty slow, so the instructor takes some time to go over specific treatment protocols with me for different conditions (besides stroke). These aren't the same as what I got in the textbooks in school -- they come from one of the doctors here at the school. So I've gotten a little list of things to try based on other people's experience, too.
One of the things that's a little frustrating is that the computer system they use here to place doctor's orders is interminably slow. It literally takes half an hour to update anyone, so if (like today) a patient needs something for her cough, interns who can't read the Chinese (and consequently can neither help nor learn) have been stuck doing, well, nothing. But the last couple of days, the instructor has brought a book of research papers published at the school, so I've gotten additional notes on treating obesity, manic-depressive disorder, prostatitis, and, of all things, conversion of atrial fibrillation with acupuncture.
Good stuff. Stay tuned!
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1 comment:
Sounds like you're doing a lot of uber-neato stuff. I'm totally sneaking a look at your notes! Email me more details on the kinds of patients you're seeing? Sounds really amazing.
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