As most of you know, I'm a nurse. I push pills and support Western medicine. But, that doesn't mean I always agree with it. I would rather give warmed prune juice to my constipated patient, rather than a laxative in pill form. I'd rather give Valerian tea than a sleeping pill. Get my drift?
I prefer the natural route. Chinese medicine is just that. Being at the place of it's origin, I couldn't pass the opportunity up to sample a little magical Eastern medicine. 

I decided to try cupping. It's maybe something not a lot of you have heard of. It's a therapy using plastic or glass cups that are suctioned onto your back. In theory, this stimulates blood flow, drains the lymphatic system, and removes toxins. It's used for things such as lower back pain, headache, respiratory ailments, etc ......

My reason for cupping, besides being curious, was for lower back pain. My pain can be so severe sometimes, it causes me to grimace. This is the dark side of being a nurse. I've lifted too many overweight patients over my 15 years in the health care field. I started my career as an aide..... which is even worse for your back. Ironically, after Western medicine hurt my back, I turn to Eastern medicine for a cure. 

Remember how I said I was going to give China a second chance? Well, I did, and I still don't like it. I don't hate it, it's just not for me. Things seem strict here. People seem uptight. They talk loud and fast and sound like they are arguing with each other when they really aren't. They make me nervous. I'm more of an Italy girl. I'll take the laid back Tuscany lifestyle over China any day. But, I came, I saw. Now I know. This is the most frustrating country I've ever traveled in. It seems like nobody speaks English. I can't expect them to, but it turns the simplest task into a daunting chore. There are so many people surrounding me, but I can't speak to any of them.  I've had a splitting headache the entire time in China because my stress level is through the roof. Trying to buy my train ticket to Mongolia was the most complicated tangled web of confusion you could ever imagine. I'm convinced it took years off my life.
I was originally planning on spending more time exploring China, but to be honest, I have no desire to anymore. 

But since I'm here, I wanted to take advantage of testing out some of the alternative therapies they offer. After a ridiculous amount of time trying to find the cupping clinic, I hike up 3 flights of stairs in a shady cement building and ring a doorbell. A Chinese women with a massage uniform opens the door, revealing an elegant studio fit for a queen. (me!) I'm shocked. She greets me with a calm demeanor and tells me to follow her. She shows me to a dimly lit room with soothing misty air. I tell her I want the cupping treatment and she retrieves "the cupping lady". Her English is just enough to get by. She has me remove my shirt and lay face down on the massage table. She gives me a short oil massage, leaving me feeling more greasy than an Italian. Plastic cups clink together as she opens a suitcase. My face is comfortably situated in the cut out part of the table. My heart is beating hard, but not fast. I'm nervous. I hope this doesn't hurt....

She plops the first cup on my oiled-up shoulder and uses the hand pump to suck out all the air. Suck, suck, suck, suck. I feel my skin pulling taught. "When will she stop?!", I wonder, as my heart beats forcefully. She places another torture device cup on my back. My skin stretches and burns. Another cup. And another. And another. My back feels like it's on fire. This is seriously painful! I try to meditate to deal with the pain. She asks me if I have pain, I grunt out "a little".
"A little pain ok, a lot of pain not ok." she informs me. 

As she puts the cups on my lower back, she exclaims "wow! You usually have back pain?"
"yes, almost always". I answer her, surprised that she knew, since I hadn't mentioned anything about it to her or anyone else there.
"oh wow, much pain you have, it's very red." she says in her thick Chinese accent.
Apparently, the more illness or pain you have in your body, the redder the skin becomes. 

All together, I have 17 cups stuck to my back. My skin is stretched so taut, I can barely lift my arms. As I lay on the table for 15 minutes in slight agony, I ask if she will take a picture so I can see what it looks like. I gave her step-by-step instructions on how to use my camera since the cups had made me immobile. After she snapped the picture, she shows it to me. "Oh my gosh!" I exclaim. She laughs. I'm horrified. 
It's a little graphic, but it's for educational purposes!

I'm unable to make any large movements, fearing my skin will tear at any moment. My face is in the little hole of the table and I'm staring at the dark floor of the dimly lit room.
She explains to me that it's best to have cupping done once a month.
I feel extremely relieved when she removes these large leeches from my back.
She places a plate of watermelon, tomatoes and a cup of coffee in front of me and silently slips out of the room.  

I fork over $14 for the treatment and walk out feeling like I've just had a dozen baseballs pummeled at my back. 
Besides the pain, I feel oddly relaxed for the first time in China. It seemed like my stress had melted away into those little plastic cups. I felt sleepy for the rest of the day.
When I get back to my hostel, I go into the bathroom and lift up my shirt to check out the damage. I gasped. My back was covered in huge, deep purple, red hickeys! I'm sharing a room with 5 other Chinese girls. There are 2 in the room and I show them my leopard spots. One of the girls tells me her grandpa is a Chinese medicine doctor. She says my body has an illness because of the deep purple color. I get a little worried. 

When I was in India, I had my palm read by an old, decrepit, incontinent  Indian man, supposedly the best in Jaipur. Everyone went to him and believed in him immensely. As I was kneeling at his bed side, he held the palm of my hand 2 inches from his face as he rattled off his interpretation in Hindi to my translator. He told me I would travel the world for the next 5 years, then I would get married and have 3 children. I would meet my husband on a Tuesday. He said I would always be wealthy and that I would live a long life. I was extremely happy with his predictions. He told me a few other things that were too personal for him to make up. I stared at him in disbelief, wondering where he obtained these special powers. He didn't generalize and was very exact. It was scary. He had no idea who I was, I had only told him the time and day I was born. Near the end, he told me that I was sick but I didn't know it. My mind raced.... did I have cancer? Lupus? MS? Malaria?! Suddenly, I didn't like this hand reading business. Now, I find myself in China, receiving Chinese medicine and am told once again that there is an illness lurking in my body. What is this ailment these people around the world speak of?
I can't let it worry me.....
I've made my own diagnosis. The ailment is wanderlust, and I'm currently treating it aggressively. Yes, my prognosis looks very good, but I better continue to treat it until I'm fully cured. It's going to take a few more years of traveling to cure it ;)