Traditional + AI med clinic: first timer
Meggie
3 days ago
The day has finally arrived: I am walking into my first traditional Korean medicine clinic! I found this clinic on Creatrip, but looked independently on other sites for reviews. I was encouraged to put my health in their hands based on the positive experiences I read.
I walked up the stairs of a large building and was greeted with this entryway, which immediately enticed me to check it out.
I had made a reservation, but they were extremely busy when I first arrived, so it took a bit of time to get me sorted. That was totally fine with me, as I needed to catch my breath from the transportation and walk there. I was enjoying looking around, taking everything in, like this amazing map that has dots where their clients are from! I'm aware this is a terrible photo, but sometimes you have to keep things unedited to prove it's not AI, right?
After some herbal tea, I was offered an AI body scan from this machine in the entry area. They offered it free for patients who left a review online, otherwise it was a small fee.
My report was a many pages PDF sent to my email in English, which I have since repeatedly viewed!
I was then brought to visit with the doctor for my consultation. While I was really excited to try chuna, the body scan actually showed that it wasn't something that my musculoskeletal system currently really needed. Plus, I had come with many questions and other health issues I wanted addressed, so we prioritized other treatment options.
I have multiple chronic illness and disease diagnoses that are quite active day-to-day that impact my pain and quality of life, let alone my physical capacity. I typically expect to be ignored and pushed away quite quickly when I am meeting with a physician, because in my experience, they only want to discuss one major system of the body or issue in a single visit. Thankfully this doctor was more patient and give me a more comprehensive perspective.
He said he would email me a detailed breakdown of suggested herbal supplements to try, after I told him I was very interested in hearing what he recommended but would need to research each of them individually. I take quite a bit of prescription synthetic medicine as well as supplements already, so ensuring there's no counteracting or canceling out medicines is really important for me.
He recommended a comprehensive traditional combination of treatments, which I was really excited about. I had never tried acupuncture before, because I have multiple nervous and neurological system disorders, particularly ones that are impacted by that sort of treatment. He said that we could give it a try using pediatric needles, which are the smallest possible ones they have. The experience leading up to that made me feel like I needed to give it a shot!
He inserted the needles across various body parts with varying degrees of success. I had to have some removed, because the pain was too extreme; a couple of them fell out on their own. Some I didn't feel at all, and some were a range of sensation but supermanageable. Ultimately,I'm really glad that I gave it a shot, and I definitely think i'm in the minority group of people who it does not benefit, but I won't be doing it again anytime soon.
We also tried varying sizes and types of cupping, some of which was new to me. I really liked the wet electric cupping and I found that it left extremely minimal external marks on my skin.
TheThe whole time this going on, I was lying here with my knees. Propped up with a bolster pillow period the red light therapy. I was on my feet the entire time.
There seemed to still be consistent confusion with the staff in terms of which patient was where and needing what, but it was okay. One of the physicians at the end apologized for the mix ups and handed me a medicated mud pack in a sheet for takeaway as a gesture, which was not needed, but nice.
I definitely asked more questions and required more time for understanding what was happening at each step than their normal patient, which was very clear to me at each stage. I tried to be polite and express my gratitude with their explanations, and they knew this was new to me. That said, I wouldn't suggest this location to someone who has complex health conditions, is unfamiliar with these treatments, or who doesn't immediately trust and roll with whatever they're told, as it can be a bit intense.
The acupuncture continued to cause pain, nerve tingling, migraine, disorientation, slow speech and fatigue for the rest of the day. I know that's not a common reaction, but you should know these things do happen to people sometimes! The cupping and red light was great. To my surprise, the doctor emailed me the herbal suggestions in great detail within 2 days, in English, directly.
Grea experience overall!
