Friday, March 25, 2005

Today, for a change, I went to see a chinese sinseh for the nagging pain in my right shoulder which I have been ignoring for like, a hundred years already.

My mom persuaded me to go try TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) because she reasoned that all the western doctors could do was just give some pain-killers and that's it. Which, in my opinion, sounded quite true.

So early this morning I went to this dark and eerie place which looked everything like a massage parlor, inclusive of the female Chinese nationals with the heavy make-up and all (no offense!).

So with apprehension I entered the shop. The sinseh led me to this curtained space with a bed in the middle and asked me to take off my shirt. At first I thought I heard wrongly, but when the sinseh repeated, my shock was confirmed. Take off my shirt in front of a total stranger in a massage-palor-lookalike-place?! Are you kidding!

But heng the sinseh was a female ah. The Chinese national female.

Quite surprising, but I have to admit she is one professional. And she is goood.

She made me lie down on the bed, and I just told her my shoulder hurts when I swing, then she probed and pressed at my right shoulder, and poked this exact location which is the center of pain, which made me squirm in pain. Then she used oil and started rubbing my whole hand - rub and rub, knead and knead (which reminds me of baking bread because my arm is like the dough while she kneads and rub and massage, stretch and pull, compress and poke and probe). She worked as if she had magic fingers... Whenever she rubbed it was as if she was scraping a raw nerve or muscle - it hurt like crazy!

And after about 20 minutes of torture, it was finally over. I couldn't be more relieved. And I have to say, even though it was a very painful 20 minutes, my hand actually felt better afterward. So the sinseh threatened for me to rest for at least one week, else it won't heal (all doctors use the same threats... no originality. haha).

But I don't have one week.

2 days later is a friendly. 1 week later is most probably the beginning of the competitive season. And in between will be trainings.

It's too important to skip those.

Sigh. I just hope the pain will go away so I can play normally again.

Hope.

writing at 9:14 PM

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