Belonging to the first batch of trainees implementing TCM therapies at San Lazaro Hospital, I was tasked to assess a patient at the TB ward based on TCM and perform the therapy the patient needed at that time.
In front of me was a body that was all skin and bones. After gathering information from the relatives of the patient, I was looking for some flesh where acupressure may be applied with or without a gadget but there was none. I learned that some if not most of these patients go to the hospital when they already have difficulty in breathing. Once they are relieved with an oxygen tank, they're main complaint would be incessant coughing.
I knew what to do to relieve the complaint, but I admit when I saw the body that looked like a living dead, I had a mental block I didn't know what to do. The body reminded me of a corpse of a child that I sew after it was autopsied, when I was a Medical Technology intern at the National Children's Hospital.
But this patient is living, my compassionate nature prevailed and my first instinct was simply to comfort him, regardless of his complaint. I got my comb gadget and combed his scalp because I knew it would comfort him. That made him look relaxed so I came to my senses and thought of the best way that would stop his coughing by scanning that magical comb gadget on the lung meridian of his arm. His coughing stopped and by the time I left he was already sleeping. I did the same to the next two patients who complained of incessant coughing and I was glad the same result was achieved: incessant coughing stopped and they became sleepy. Only one out of the three was awake when I left, but that was because she won't stop telling me her stories. She told me though that what I did made her feel relaxed and sleepy.
