Lhasa, 29th June
Or rather, the day when Hannah gets totally freaked out by a Tibetan doctor...
Feeling a lot better today as we gave in and started the diamox last night, sats have gone up to 91% overnight and I managed the hundreds of steps up to the Potala palace without collapsing this afternoon. It was really beautiful, and I should have some good photos to bore everyone with when I get back!
Anyway, guess you're more interested in why I was freaked out by the Tibetan doctor. This morning we were taken to the Tibetan medical college for a tour, they have 300 students each year and it takes 5 years to train so similar to the UK apart from the fact that theirs is based on yak penises and strange mushrooms rather than conventional stuff. We got shown some of the plants and things they use, then came the fun practical part where they had professors in to analyse us all by feeling our pulses and looking at our tongues. We were given a sheet with about 27 different remedies on it relating to various complaints such as prostate, liver, kidneys etc, and were told that they would be able to tell us which ones would benefit us. Now cynical Hannah felt that they would probably do this based on what we looked like, so all the men aged 50+ would be told they had prostate and liver problems, and so I predicted that I'd be recommended the women's remedy by virtue of being female, and also the slimming remedy seeing as I'm not a size zero. So this Tibetan guy spent a few minutes feeling my pulse on both wrists, then looked at my tongue, then got the translator to tell me his diagnosis. As I thought, he said that the best treatment for me would be the women's one, but it was what came after that which was rather freaky. He pointed to the slimming remedy and said that he could recommend that, but it wouldn't work as the problem I have is with the female endocrine system which is what causes the extra bit of weight - and since I have polycystic ovarian syndrome which does exactly that, I was pretty impressed that he seemed to have worked this out! Weird. Anyway, I didn't buy anything as all the pills they showed looked like yak poo, and I think I prefer to use conventional medicine!
Right, going to go now as there's a queue waiting for the computer - going camping for 2 nights now so no updates for a couple of days!
Feeling a lot better today as we gave in and started the diamox last night, sats have gone up to 91% overnight and I managed the hundreds of steps up to the Potala palace without collapsing this afternoon. It was really beautiful, and I should have some good photos to bore everyone with when I get back!
Anyway, guess you're more interested in why I was freaked out by the Tibetan doctor. This morning we were taken to the Tibetan medical college for a tour, they have 300 students each year and it takes 5 years to train so similar to the UK apart from the fact that theirs is based on yak penises and strange mushrooms rather than conventional stuff. We got shown some of the plants and things they use, then came the fun practical part where they had professors in to analyse us all by feeling our pulses and looking at our tongues. We were given a sheet with about 27 different remedies on it relating to various complaints such as prostate, liver, kidneys etc, and were told that they would be able to tell us which ones would benefit us. Now cynical Hannah felt that they would probably do this based on what we looked like, so all the men aged 50+ would be told they had prostate and liver problems, and so I predicted that I'd be recommended the women's remedy by virtue of being female, and also the slimming remedy seeing as I'm not a size zero. So this Tibetan guy spent a few minutes feeling my pulse on both wrists, then looked at my tongue, then got the translator to tell me his diagnosis. As I thought, he said that the best treatment for me would be the women's one, but it was what came after that which was rather freaky. He pointed to the slimming remedy and said that he could recommend that, but it wouldn't work as the problem I have is with the female endocrine system which is what causes the extra bit of weight - and since I have polycystic ovarian syndrome which does exactly that, I was pretty impressed that he seemed to have worked this out! Weird. Anyway, I didn't buy anything as all the pills they showed looked like yak poo, and I think I prefer to use conventional medicine!
Right, going to go now as there's a queue waiting for the computer - going camping for 2 nights now so no updates for a couple of days!
posted by Hannah | 2:32 pm
4 Comments:
enjoying tibetan blog , but something i know will amuse you has happened in UK.
A sad and crap american tennis player at wimbledon wsa called .... wait for it ... mardy fish !! really
marie xx
Glad it sounds like it's all going well.
Been trying to stalk you and think I found you here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=bhutan&ie=UTF8&ll=29.646437,91.124382&spn=0.132331,0.248566&t=h&z=13&om=1
Wow, Hannah, that all sounds amazing, general practice certainly pays for some decent holidays!
Now It's my turn to be impressed by your ability to blog whilst on holiday. But you're away in the wilds and I was only in the, relatively, developed Canary Islands.
It sounds like a lot of fun though. I hope you enjoyed the camping.
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