Adventures In Acupuncture (#5 in series)

This is a tale of healing as well as a tale of travel so bear with me as I start at the beginning and include a few pics of my big, fat feet:

I got nailed back at the farm in Pennsylvania Aug. 2.  By a spider, I think.  When I whacked it, I smooshed it up and don't know for sure, except that it was black. Whatever it was, within three days my foot looked like this...  

A few days later it got worse -- all of the smaller toes looked like the ones on the right.  The pressure got so bad that I thought they were going to burst!  I could barely walk and when I did I hobbled along with a crutch.

One thing about traveling, I've learned, you're not ambulatory, you can't get around, you're in trouble.  The problem was that I had already forked out $632 for round-trip airfare NYC to Bangkok.  And most international carriers these days charge $200 to change or cancel flights, or more...(don't get me started on that).

What was I to do?  By Labor Day, the departure date loomed only a few weeks off.  Yes, as some of you have already guessed...

Customer service assigned me a special seat, where I could elevate my foot.

Night train, Bangkok to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

My plan was to pass through Chiang Mai en route to Myanmar/Burma anyhow. So I decided to stop into the Mungkala Clinic in the old city and see Dr. Rungrat. I had visited her twice in years previous for general health appraisals, but never had had acupuncture.

Understand that it was now early October, two months after the bite.  I had been taking antibiotics (Cephalexin) every day, which reduced the infection but didn't get rid of it.  As I sat down with the doctor, I was still a hurtin' puppy and willing to try about anything.

These helped, but not enough.

Located in the "old city" district of Chiang Mai.

She examined the foot and concluded that my system would not eliminate the poison via regular processes.  It needed some help.  Acupuncture could aid in this, she said, by stimulating circulation and thus flushing out the contaminants. She recommended two treatments and then see how it went.

This sounded good, especially at 500 Baht ($14 U.S.) per treatment.  "Have at it," I told her.

Your humble correspondent receiving his pinpricks.

During treatment...Note toes still inflamed months after the bite.

She swabbed the foot with a desensitizing agent, which left the target area cool and somewhat numbed.  Tiny pricking sensations as she inserted the needles, but no real pain.  She worked astonishingly quick; about thirty seconds for all seven of them.  I laid there for half an hour afterward, until a timer went off and a nurse came in to remove them.

The first ten minutes or so I wiggled a bit -- all that hardware protruding from me was unsettling.  Then I got used to it and went semi-meditative.

I underwent one treatment Friday and one Saturday (I quit taking the antibiotics beforehand so as not to confuse the two treatments).  Come Monday, I caught a bus north and continued with my trip.

So soon after the treatments, the foot wasn't cured or anything; it was just time to move on to Myanmar/Burma.  I only had so much time.

Barefoot in Bagan (no shoes allowed in temples).

As described in previous posts, Myanmar is an interesting country with great scenery, food and culture, and friendly people.  But it's also a rough place to get around, especially by foot.  Garbage disposal is poor or non-existent and in general the place is dirty and littered.  The sidewalks are horrible and many foreigners were wincing around with bandages on feet or knees as a result.

One day I was exploring the great templed complex of Bagan, in the hot central plain, when it struck me -- Hey, I'm walking without pain!  I plopped back onto some stairs and ripped off my New Balance hiker.  Sure enough, the swelling was almost gone and the toes had reduced almost to normal.

This wasn't a total surprise, I must admit, because I had noticed a certain cycle in the days after the treatments:  The toes would tingle, the kidneys would work noticeably, my urine would come out thicker and smelling stronger.  Obviously the body was cleansing itself because the next morning the toes would be reduced.

By the time I reached those temples in Bagan, some two weeks on, I was taking those sidewalks with ease!

Sidewalks from hell in Yangon..

Imagine trying to navigate here with a bad foot.  (Reddish spots are from betel nuts.)

I was able to climb this near Hpa-An, all the way up, because of acupuncture!

If this all sounds like a rah-rah for acupuncture, then so be it.  It's made a believer out of me.  It may not be right for everyone or for certain aliments, but who would have thought that it'd help with an insect bite?  

Years ago a man back in Penna. was treated for a case of shingles, a terrible rash afflicting many people as they get older.  His experience of healing was similar to mine.  Who would have thought that, shingles?

If this sounds like a plug for the Mungkala Clinic, so be it as well.  When you come right down to it, it just happened to be there along the way, a part of the journey.  For what it's worth, the clinic's website is richly colored and informative; worth a peruse even if you don't need its services:  http://www.mungkala.com/

A man and his e-bike.  Note flip-flopped and carefree feet.

All things must come to an end, and after three-weeks plus in Myanmar/Burma I exited back into Thailand.  This time via a southern border crossing at Myawaddy.  In essence I had made a big semi-circle through the heart of the country, and in more ways than one.

As usual, I took a lot of photos, maybe four hundred all told.  Below is one of my favorites.  Even though of a child, it shows the openness and innocence of many of the people...

They start 'em young with the face cream.

Now, also as usual, a few notes of reflection... 

After decades of isolation, the country overall seemed lost in time and space; in many ways living as it did half a century ago when the military seized control.  It stayed where it was while the rest of us went on with so-called progress. 

Weeks before, as soon as I crossed in, I knew that I was in another land.  Not only because of thanaka cream on the faces and the men wearing traditional longyis (dresses-like), but the whole feel.  Every day offered an element of the surreal, like a dream.  Often I'd walk around blinking my eyes in wonderment, "Is this real?  Am I really experiencing this?"

On these pages I've detailed some of the ups and the downs, the good and the bad, even the tasty and the not-so tasty...In Myanmar's case, this all added up to one memorable travel experience.

Those of you who read all five of these, thanks for comin' along and happy travels to all!

J.M.

[END OF SERIES ON MYANMAR/BURMA]