wide awake

Had my first 见习 lesson today, and it happened to be acupuncture. Woots. Lesson 1, and we already had to stick needles into ourselves. Spent awhile practising on toilet rolls, trying to stab them with the correct method and angle without bending the needles. Then we had to try on ourselves. Haha. I was damn scared, hands got cold and clammy, but when everybody around you is doing it too, somehow you just abandon all fear, caution and hesitation and just do it. It was like a now or never thingy, instead of asking people how it felt and whether it was easy to puncture human skin, you just had to try it yourself. And try it we did! One near the elbow, and the other at my fave 合谷穴 which is on the hand. Freaking fun, I tell you. It seems scary and sadistic seeing lao shi do it to patients, and how it is described in the textbook, but really, twisting the needle, pushing and pulling on it after insertion, isn't as painful as it seems. Or rather not painful at all - no feeling! I think I poked the wrong place la haha. But at least I got the needle in deep without freaking out or fainting or something. And I only wasted like a teeny drop of blood when removing the needles, so the aftermath is just 2 holes haha. More to come! I didn't feel as suan as I should have, cos some of my friends could still feel the stimulation after removing the needles, so the next thing I have to do is to find a small bottle to kope some alcohol from the hospital, then I can go home and practice poking myself ;) Yays, no more needle phobia, all in a morning's work! Whee! Acupuncture is actually so fun. It's kinda weird feeling the needle traverse the different layers of fascia- skin, muscle, fat etc but we probably have less nerves than I thought, cos once the needle goes deep, pain is replaced by other sensations, or even no feeling, depending on whether you've hit the right spot. Fascinating eh? But we have to memorize lots of shit :( And the next lesson we'll be tested on 拔罐. It's like, after seeing the teacher do it on a patient, we'll have to practice on each other till we're up to her standards. LOL. Wonder what will happen if we can't pass. Feels like a crash course of sorts.

This morning it was 10 deg outside -.- Please let me enjoy more of autumn before it suddenly zooms into winter!

Just had my 八宝 noodles, named on account of the 8 different ingredients used ;) Damn full now. I need to bathe and study!!! ENT exam!!! Grraaahww ><

内科见习 tmr. Hope I get to use my stethoscope on real patients :D