Alternative Treatment

For the past three weeks, I've been hacking my head off with a stupid cough. After the first few days of my coughing adventure, one of the teachers at the school took me to the pharmacy near the school. The teacher and the pharmacist talked about the medicine in Korean without any translation, except for the price which was $21 for a week's supply. I didn't find out until later that it was simply herbal medicine. After finishing that dosage, one of my good friends drove me to friend of his that is a doctor, who speaks pretty good English. Except this doctor is a specialist in herbal medicine. When he looked me over, he didn't even bother to look at my throat, nose, or ears. He did push my stomach in a little and asked if it hurt. He decided that some acupuncture could do me some good. They took me in a special room where the the doctor stuck some needles in my index finger, a couple of toes, and on my leg. He then took a pen and pricked my thumbs a few times and let them bleed some. He kept asking me, "are you feeling better?" Of course, I didn't. Now, I was worried about the blood. He is doing this while I have needles sticking in me. After he finished, I layed on the bed with the needles in for about 20 minutes; a nurse then came and stuck some hot pieces of metal near the spots of the needles. She then took it all out, and they gave me some medicine. Except, this time it was again herbal medicine. My friend and I were hoping that he would give me some real drugs this time. The good thing, though, is that I got to experience acupuncture, and he didn't charge me anything. However, I now feel obligated to help this doctor correct grammar and structure in his pending medical journal. I don't think it helped, though, because I still have a bad cough. It isn't as bad, but my voice is still so hoarse and raspy.

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