Days 3 & 4 September 28-29, 2016

Day 3 & 4 in Bhutan

The lovely six nuns brought two more of their friends Yesterday, I enjoy that giggling sound during the treatment with them.

One of the two case came back from the day before yesterday still not doing well. She purposely came here for the treatment from Paro because of the terrible suffering. I took her aside asked more questions, found out she was in the middle of menstruation, also it's very heavy, she is a vegetarian as well, I checked her diet, mostly it's rice and vegetables, not much protein. That is the key!!! I changed all my treatment plan, nothing on her head, just a few needles to nourish her, told her drink rice soup, lentil soup and  ginger tea with molasses when got home, give us a call if the headache came back. by 3:00pm yesterday afternoon, she called that the pain it's coming back, but not as severe, I reassure her things will be OK, just keep drink the soup and tea. When someone suffered so long, it's scaring to put the trust out there. But she trusted me, I am so appreciated. I saw her this morning, she is better. I am very concerned about the vegetarian diet here,  she is a teacher, I told her that she should educate her kids and parents about how to eat right.

I met some highly educated women in my office, started to encourage them to form a women's group, I will share what I know about food, if the mother knows how to eat right, will benefit the whole family. They are very interested in my suggestion. I am a vegetarian, if you eat right, will feel great, but sometimes you do have limited choice, and Bhutan has limited plant protein.

I had a special visitor today. When I first arrived Thimphu, the hospital official told me that they would arrange an appointment for me to go the Department of Health as courtesy, because they granted my visa.

As I was in roomful of the patients, one of my colleagues came in whisper to me that the Minister of the Health is here.  I was surprised he was coming. as my days passing in Bhutan, I started to meet people in different background, I have to say that I felt warm and comfortable with all of them.

I had a private talk with the Minister, we had nice conversation about nutrition facts, women's health, spiritual aspects at both traditional Bhutanese and Chinese medicine and future collaboration.

It's 7:30 AM now, Yeshey already outside waiting for me, I had a bunch of patients won't be able to finish last night, promised them to get there early. The hospital is really trying to take action control how many people can been seen daily, let's see how thing will go.