"Kar cheng jio"

Backside itchy... that was how I must've felt last night.

Have been playing 'mama' to my own mom and the Yix for the past few days, bringing them to doctors, waiting with them, shuffling them around from clinic to clinic, making appointments for them, making sure they're well-fed. To a certain extent, I kinda had a feel of how being a full-time mom would be like. In my state of boredom at times of waiting, I imagined driving my unborn kids to school, picking them up at lunch, queueing for chicken rice for them, sending them to whatever classes they might have after lunch and then waiting, waiting, waiting. Oh, then maybe picking up the father as well. Wow, I may love driving, but not to this extent, I guess.

The Yix's been visiting a particular Chinese physician for three days in a row. So chummy? Well, no. He didn't go there to hang out, say hi, have coffee. His visits there are all painful experiences, no less - soaking his elephant foot in hot hot hot medicinal water, then having that poor foot massaged vigorously to dissipate the blood clots (ok, I may be dramatizing a little here, but I personally like to think it that way...), and finally having that abused foot wrapped up tightly in layers of bandage with pasty medicine in between that makes you itch a few hours later. And after a couple of hours, you'd see the whole foot turn blue-black - "That's where all the blood clots are dissipating to, it's a good sign", so says the man, who then limps out of the clinic with satisfaction plastered all over his face and determination to play his next game on Sunday.

I just think he's psycho, or for that matter, anyone who finds thrills in such pain-inducing experiences. My first and only experience with a Chinese 'therapist' 14 years ago when I sprained my ankle for the first time as a 13-year-old schoolgirl trying to become a basketballer has made me sworn off such treatment... ever. It's pure self-torture.

So anyway, thanks to my wonderful, ever-informative good friend, Miss Tan, I found out that that particular Chinese physician whom my man adores (who by the way is apparently very famous in the TCM industry for treating sports injury) also provides back 'massages' for athletes - under the highly-deceptive treatment method called "tui na". I clarified, "You mean no injury, go massage shiok shiok also can?" and I got an affirmative reply. So, my backside started itching. I decided last night that since I was going to be waiting for the man anyway while he indulged in his pain therapy, I would get myself a 'back massage'. Aahhh.... how enjoyable that sounded.

What I didn't expect, however, was that I would get poked by four (I think, big) needles on my shoulders ("Hmm... you've got very very tight shoulder muscles," so the therapist diagnosed), undergo an electrolyzed acupuncture treatment that left my muscles feeling so sore and vulnerable, before I could get the "tui na" I was looking forward to. And by that time, the "tui na" was no longer the enjoyable massage I was hoping for. It HURT. Big-time. To round it all up, I was prescribed medicine that looked like Dynamo tablets and the medicinal water that the Yix had soaked his foot in. Regardless how they looked, they all tasted the same - bitter.

There was no one I could blame, though I desparately needed to. So I blamed it on my itchy backside... "kar cheng jio" - that's what they say.