Chinese Medicine

Germs spread like wildfire here; classes full of 50 students, people crammed in close quarters, limited hand washing facilities – it's a hotbed of infection. One person gets sick, everyone is sick.

So this past week I've been sick. Not doctor visit sick, just annoying cough sick. I visited the school nurse with the aid of Penny, my "English speaking" contact at the school, where the loaded me up with a round of antibiotics and (I think) cough medicine, no questions asked, no exam.

Those didn't seem to have any effect so I went wandering about town in search of my own cure. I wandered into a pharmacy and looked around awkwardly for a second while the workers stared at me. I coughed and they finally figured out why I seemed to be in there. One of the girls pulled out a box of something from under the counter…

This is straight from the box.

Qiangli Pipalu Lianmi

Ingredients: The prescription is composed of seven Chinese herbal drugs including Folium Eriobtryae, Pericarpium Papaveris, Bulubs Lilii, Rhizoma Cynanchi Stauntonii, Cortex Mori, Radix Platycidonis, and Mentholum etc.

Characters: A brown sticky liquid, clear, with a pleasant odor and sweet in taste. A blatant lie; It smelled and tasted disgusting.

Dosage and Administration: Orally taken .20g each time .3 times a day.

Actions and Indications: It has effects of nourishing YIN and astringing lungs, relieving cough and removing the phlegm. It is applied to cure bronchial cough in clinical.

Sure. Why not? Sounds perfect. I'm not really sure if my YIN needs nourishing, but relieving the cough and removing the phlegm sounds good.

I was feeling desperate and there is no American medicine to be found… I paid around $2.50 for a big bottle of what I have ascertained to be cough medicine. Sweet deal. It tasted disgusting but it helped a bit. Unfortunately it was not the miracle cure I was hoping for. I guess this is the type of thing that you just need to wait out.

A week later, I'm finally starting to feel better and my cough is almost gone. Yay!