Beware: The Evil Winds Are Blowing

Exam room 401 is not what you would call large. And considering that two desks, two treatment carts, two cabinets, six patient beds, six roasting lamps, six moxabustion machines and countless other treatment apparatuses are placed about the room, there's not a whole lot of room for the two doctors, three visiting docs, four rotating students, and three foreign misfits to stand while we rush patients in and out for treatment.

On a seemingly unrelated note, deodorant is quite difficult to find here in Beijing. I've only had success in foreign import stores located near the embassies.

Now, add the first two paragraphs together, and you will understand my pain as the temperatures in Beijing continue to rise. I genuinely fear the upcoming summer. The natural answer to this problem would be to open a window - simple, cost-effective, easy, right?

You would never guess that the same nice cool breeze that cuts the odors of a room could also bring calamity upon its inhabitants. To "受风" (shou feng) is to be hit by the wind, and many of our patients have already suffered this atrocity. They come to us for facial paralysis, stroke recovery, and colds, and it is our duty to both treatment their illness, and also to protect them from the evil wind during their treatment. We have strict orders on who can and can not be placed in the bed next to the window, and in extreme cases the window must be closed and locked before certain patients enter.

So day by day, I suffer in front of the half inch crack in the window of room 401. Anything to protect our patients, right?

Side note: before you roll your eyes, know that I'm rolling mine. I sincerely believe in the efficacy of Chinese medicine, but I simply cannot make myself believe in the evil winds. I'm trying, but it's hard to push twenty years of logical western medical thought out of one's consciousness. However, I do have my own theories about the winds, be they friend or foe, which I won't post here lest I bore my readers with "Carmen's view of TCM." However, interested parties are free to inquire and subject themselves to my opinionated rantings.