Chicken Soup for the Soul

I hate those books.

I love chicken soup.

I love my grandmother's chicken soup.

Especially when I am sick.

Today is such a day.

I know. I know the begging question in your mind right now...what do you do in a foriegn city when you get sick? You ask the healthiest person you know where they go to the doctor and roll the dice. Remember, this whole thing is an adventure, and at worst will provide MOLDINASIA blog-fodder if it is a disaster. That is, unless it is the Avian Flu...in that case you bend over and kiss it* goodbye.

So, what is it like going to see a Chinese Dr. for a visit? Well, you have two choices:

DOOR # 1) Medicine Man...ok, not really. They actually hand out degrees for Chinese Medicine and it is highly respected among the world community. In fact, the Pharms are getting nervous because with the rise in organics, more Americans are moving to this type of health care.

DOOR # 2) Normal Medicine Man we call Doc and pay a rediculous amount of money to because of the addiction to immediate relief we in America are so addicted to. Oh, silly America...let's just slow down and stop eating all the crap we shove in our faces and see what happens... ( says the man who on the BMI index chart at the Docs office read that I should weigh 165 lbs...Hmmm...how do I say this gently...Um, well, let's try this...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Have you seen my chest size? Big boy, not fat boy, but BIG boy. I am listed as stage II obesity. Stage II...not Stage I, not In-Danger of becoming, but a secondary stage. This is like the terrorist threat level rating...ambiguous at best. Granted I could drop 20 lbs but that would still only put me at 200lbs. )

I chose #2. Not that I am not wanting to go to #1...I am , almost did today. But I needed something in my system to bring relief, and to ease my way into this thing of organics and elk poop as a remedy. Oh, and Ox testicles, and I saw some other dried things that are pretty nasty. But hey, if God gave it to us and it works...and it is not a friggin cancer ridden chemical...I say bring it. Unfortunately you have to get all of this dried "stuff" after you get assessed by the Chinese Medicine Doc, then take it home, reconstitute it and boil it for some reeeediculous amount of time to bring out all of the essentials in the tea/broth liquidy thing. So, i needed quicker relief and went with traditional medicine.

My Dr.'s visit cost me $150HKD, that is roughly 20 bucks and included 2 days worth of prescriptions. Not too bad at all. Of course the Doc spoke English and he spent 20 minutes welcoming me to Hong Kong and telling me what opportunities I have here...of course while he is talking...my eyes teared, my nose ran, and my throat went from sounding like my voice, to Bea Arthur's voice, to Barry White's...RIP my souljah!

Better news is that this doctors visit landed me with a day off tomorrow and I get full reimbursement for it.

So, who knows...I may post more tomorrow than normal. I have a few things on my chest...other than phlegmatic residues.


* That would be your @ $ $. And, last night I cooked a chicken breast that was buy one get one free. Great deal! Then I saw the fact that it was from China...he shudders...Most of the poultry, including eggs (yes I know they classify as poultry but who thinks like that) is imported from the U.S.