Days of cure of my knee joint inflammation: the medicine the doctor prescribed me, Cefdinir, is quite effective. 3 days into the treatment and the swelling of the knee has reduced almost completely. I have also regained good mobility and I do not feel much pain at touch of the knee. Even the left foot, that had become a caricature of itself (I felt so bad, worried, scared that I did not take any picture of the foot.. Imagine like a child drawing of a bread loaf where the 5 toes stick out on one end).
One thing that puzzles me is that Cefdinir is no where close to target rheumatoid arthritis (RA)! I even found reference that RA can be a side effect to the use of this antibiotic! It’s true that the first problem I have to solve is the joint inflammation, and this medicine targets soft tissue infections.
The doctor added that I should walk the least possible and keep the knee warm, therefore sauna and hot bath would be good (not cold showers as stated elsewhere). It was indeed a nice discovery that close to MingZhu square, not far from where I stay, there is a reasonably cheap bath-massage house with sauna and hot pool! I have been there last week with a friend, and also the massage was acceptable.
Among the more traditional Chinese medicine cures, I used again some Fēng yóu jīng, 风油精, massaging knee and foot, for the warming-cooling effect.
Of course there are several lists of natural remedies, all labelled as traditional Chinese medicine.. that I read and try now and then to apply.
Without any special indication from the doctor, I have also cut down the coffee consumption these days. I started already with the change of season, when the days got humid, even if in the office we usually have AC (therefore a hot coffee is not too bad!!). Anyway some studies about rheumatoid arthritis say that total coffee and total caffeine consumption are not associated with the risk of RA, other studies say the opposite. But since I got it already, I should not bother stopping drinking coffee, right?
FUNNY THING OF THE DAY – As a good substitute for coffee, I started consuming the most common Chinese beverage: no, I’m not talking about tea, but about hot water!!!! Chinese people always go around with a water bottle ready to refill at every occasion (in all train stations, airports, bus stations, schools or public buildings there are hot water dispensers).
Adding tea might be to show respect for a guest or just giving some taste to your water, but mainly people drink pure hot water! Fancy water bottles have a sort of filter to stop the tea leaves (no tea bags in China!), but mainly you see people spitting tea bits back inside their bottle or cup, or just spitting it out!
Furthermore, water from a tap in China is not drinkable before boiling it. So people get use to hot water and then maybe some not so proven facts like it helps digestion or it’s very healthy get through from mother to child..
Dreaming of... Asia 