Like the virtuous Britney Spears, oops, I did it again. Last May, I found out that I have something in common with new mothers carrying babies, a tendency to accidentally dislocate a rib (mine, not the baby’s). Apparently, carrying our twin boys at odd angles in the vain effort to get them back to sleep caused a rib in my back to “pop” out of place. And although I never got to feel the pain of breast feeding, I like to think that the throbbing pain in my back that lasted the better part of a week brought me slightly closer to understanding how painful nursing can be. Okay, not really, but my back did hurt constantly.
Not being one to let personal experience teach me a valuable lesson, on Friday night, I repeated the rib cage offence by swinging a baby around for 20 minutes just to try something new. Not only did the child not go to sleep, but I also managed to re-dislocate my rib. As it occurred on a holiday weekend, I couldn’t get into see Dr. David Zhang, until Tuesday. Good times!
Although nearly a year had passed since I visited Dr. Zhang, he remembered me clearly and was not surprised to learn how I hurt myself – again. He is learned in both Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Chiropractics, but fortunately this time he passed on the lecture about how I should gain some weight and go to the gym more often. Honestly, I’m eating a fifth meal a day, but it is not working due to the scourge of being permanently skinny. Essentially, when it comes to the ribs on your body, as well as the ribs that you eat, you want some fat in there.
No surprise, once again Dr. Zhang and his amazing therapeutic masseuse were able to finesse my rib back into place. I’m still sore, but I’m grateful to have everything where it belongs and it is nice to breath again without feeling as if someone is sitting on my lung. The big change this year is in Dr. Zhang’s office. Last year I found him at Beijing United Family Hospital and the Joyful Bliss Massage Center, but this year he is working at Vista Medical Center and the International Medical Center.
To book an appointment with Dr. Zhang in English or Chinese call 6433 6232 or visit the websites for Vista or IMC. Dr. Zhang is at Vista on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 1-6pm and at IMC on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am-6pm and on Saturdays from 9am-1pm.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
