Headache

I woke up with a gigantic headache this morning. I’ve been having bad allergy since I got here. At first it was sore throat and then sneezing and running nose and now headache and nausea.  My uncle picked me up with his new Ford Focus and wanted to drive me around the city for a tour. I was in no shape to deal with the stop and go traffic and it didn’t take long for me to ask to be dropped off home before I throw up in the car. There is no shortage of doctors at home and grandpa’s medicine cabinet is probably well stocked enough to run a small pharmacy. I was proscribed a number of Chinese medications, some of which should be outlawed due to its vile taste.  However, I had not hesitation to take down just about anything at this point. I’ve always been a big advocate for Chinese medicine. You don’t need to believe it for it to work but it sure helps to get the prescription from people who know what they’re doing. Rather than finding common cures in western medicine, the Chinese form is much more individualized and tailored to each patient’s normal physical condition and illness symptoms. Nowadays many traditional medicines have been made into pill form but it still takes a trained physician to prescribe the proper combination and quantity. Luckily with the right stuff and some rest I recovered quite a bit in the afternoon.

What’s worse than being sick is being sick away from home. Although this might be “home” as well, I am far from being comfortable. For me (and probably most western people) modern conveniences take up an overwhelming portion of one’s over all comfort. And by modern conveniences I mean a western bathroom with proper water pressure. This is the reason why I’m not a camp person. This is why I always get so stressed out coming here. My mom keeps telling me, “…at least it’s the end of summer. You could be sweating in 100 degree summer days or freeze to death in the winter with no heat!” She’s right. I was back here in December of 09 and I had to go to a hair salon to get a haircut just to get my hair washed. It was way too cold inside to even consider taking a shower… I wasn’t home for long. I absolutely dread going to the bathroom here or taking a shower. I know it’s terrible but I countdown the days until I can go stay at a 5-star western hotel in Shanghai and then go back to TRF!

What’s worse than being sick and away from home is being blamed for it all as well! Everyone keeps coming up with diagnostics for my illness that has nothing to do with the root cause. There is only one reason why I am sick and it’s because of the air quality or lack thereof! The environment here is even worse than what I remembered from two years ago and exponentially worse than then I grew up. I’m convinced that there is no blue sky in China. I saw something close to it in Beijing in the winter but the best day there is still the worst day in LA. Some of my relatives would turn their noses up and say, “You people from America have no immune system, unlike us, so strong.” A few others would say nonchalantly, “it’s no big deal; everyone has to get sick when they come back to China.” Bullshit! My immune system is just fine! It is your damn environment that is killing all of us! Of course I didn’t say that but I sure thought about it.

The sad thing is that people don’t know what they don’t know. There is nothing for them to compare with. The big cities are tolerable but smaller cities like Changsha are so dirty I am afraid to touch anything when I go out and I’m not even germaphobic. I had no hesitation to eat street food in Brazil but here I am becoming more and more cautious. With all the respiratory difficulties the last thing I need now is a bad stomach.

Not surprisingly my desire to come back to visit is at an all-time low. I informed my aunts and uncles that from now on they have to go over to the US to visit me. Frankly I’m happy to meet up with them anywhere in Europe and the western hemisphere.

Underneath it all, everyone here is aware of the poor air quality (water quality, wild life quality or any other quality there is). A variety of diseases brought on by environmental factors are on the raise. Years ago lung cancer was an extremely rare thing. Nowadays, it’s so rampant the government can’t build cancer center fast enough to receive new patients. Even the number of miscarriages has gone up drastically in recent years. Grandpa summited it up well, “China has developed it economy and this is its price.” A nice big dose of selfless sacrifice spirit.