In the Tuina clinic

Today wasn't particularily eventful, but was satisfying. We were quite busy, from 8am till 11:30 or so- no rest for anybody! Lots of children- 3 or 4, some regulars, and a few people who were new to me. Might have been the nice weather today... it is so unpredictable.

When I arrived the old singing man was already there. His knee and ankle joints are giving him more trouble. His knee joints are very stiff and cannot flex all the way, his ankles are also very stiff. Otherwise he is in excellent health (especially for an 86 year old!) with plenty of musculature and in good spirits. His posture is not very good (bends over a bit) and his shoulders are thick and hard. When doing his shoulders I rotated and stretched his arms up, forward, and backward (first time I'd done so in the clinic!). He was quite flexible.

A 60 odd man came in next, without a particular complaint but rather just wanting to relax. As we massaged him it turned out his stomach was uncomfortable (unable to lie on his front for a long time) so the other student rubbed his belly for a long time while I did his legs, arms, face and head.

I started doing a new way of massaging the thighs while the patient is on their back- with my leg folded between their upper calf and the bed, I send my two hands around the front and back of the thigh. This gives me a lot more to work on when they are on their back.

The last patient I worked on was the guy that bought ice-cream for all of us last time. Lower back pain. I started on him and he immediately asked for a stronger massage- I told him I was just warming him up. I found that the lower vertebrae were strangely apparent- where the forward curve of the lower spine usually carries the vertebrae inward his were still quite obvious, coming out higher then the ridges of muscle on either side. There was one vertebra in particular, and the tissue on either side was thicker then usual- whether this was muscle or some other tissue I am not sure. During my massage he suddenly started talking loudly in the Changsha dialect, which I couldn't understand. The mother of a patient standing nearby said he was praising me for being so serious and focussed, not like other students who just seemed to be messing around with their hands. This turned into a whole discussion of Chinese work ethic as compared to Americans and Japanese. He was praising the people in Shenzhen for being so focussed, not like most Chinese that he had to work with. He seemed to agree with my assessment that it was the slightly older generation that were assigned to work units where their salary was unrelated to their skills or output that were the worst offenders.

time for lunch!