One of the girls that I work with is from Vietnam. She believes in herbs. She recommended an herb store that has a doctor trained in Acupuncture and Chinese medicine, so I went to see him.
He told me that my pulse was too fast. According to him I am under stress and I need to determine what was causing my stress. He looked at my tongue and told me that I had something wrong with my stomach. I have heard this before, from another Chinese doctor.
When my father died (just about 10 years before this journal entry), I expected to get a fever blister from the stress of the trip, grief, no sleep, etc. But I didn’t. Instead I got a burning sensation in my mouth and some swelling of my tongue. I couldn’t eat for a few days because of the pain and swelling. When I got back home, I went to see a Chinese doctor. She told me that I had something wrong with my stomach. She diagnosed stomach fire and gave me some herbs to mix in water and drink. Additionally, I had to take Swedish Bitters. Eventually the pain went away, but I was left with a small slick patch on my tongue. Over time that slick patch grew. And no doctor or dentist that I consulted had any idea what it was. |
But I feel perplexed.
I don’t feel like I have any stress in my life right now. And I certainly don’t know what is wrong with my stomach, as I don’t have any symptoms. He asked what my doctor has told me, but no doctor has ever found anything wrong with my stomach. He gave me some herbs, told me to boil them, steep them for 30 minutes, add more water, boil and steep again and then drink three times during the day. It just hurt my stomach more.