Policy on children in China

I ask many of my friends here about certain aspects of their culture. They know I am just intrigued and interested and not passing judgment. They actually really enjoy talking about certain aspects of their culture.

One such item is China's "one child" policy.

It used to be, that parents were only allowed to have one child (due to the huge population of 1.3 billion people). However, nowadays if both the mother and father are only children, then that particular couple may have two children. If you have over the number of allotted children, you are fined by the government and it is a sliding scale based on your income.

I think most of this is correct. I have verified amongst several friends, and they have all told me the same thing.

I wonder then, When Chinese people are dating, is it common to ask early on in the relationship, "So...how many siblings do you have?", with the entire purpose of the question being, "If we were to end up married, how many children could we have together?"

Many of my friends here (Cookie and Leo, for example) are only children married to only children. But interestingly, many of these friends still say that although they are eligible to have two children, they think one is enough!

Rainy Thursday evening in Chengdu

Tomorrow is a Chinese holiday: "International Labour Day", according to our Chinese-English dictionaries. At any rate...I don't have to go to work!

This evening I decided to chill in my hotel room. We had the most amazing rain storm roll through at about 6pm. It has been fun to sit here and do work while listening to it rain and watching the amazing lightening show!

Rainy evening

And this is just a super cute cat that lives in a nearby convenience store :) Although, he does have pretty dirty paws from the Chengdu pollution!

Surgery with Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu is my boss, and she is a phenomenal surgeon! I am actually learning a lot of cool new techniques/tricks from her. So fun!

I really enjoy her company. She has a great laugh and a good sense of humor :-)

Wedding gift FAIL

My friend Rosie and her fiancée Tony (the couple that took me out for Tex Mex last week) have invited me to their wedding this Saturday, May 2. I am excited to go!

Traditionally, you give the couple money (this was the same in Japan). In Japan, you were not to give an "even" number of bills (money is given in cash only) because they can be equally divided, and that is bad luck for the couple as it signifies that they can be "slit up or divided (divorced)". Apparently in China, it is the opposite--you don't want to give an "odd" number of bills, because that is bad luck. It is difficult to keep up with/learn all these cultural rules!

Well, I certainly planned on following Chinese custom and giving Rosie and Tony cash as a gift. But Mandy (chief resident) told met that Rosie might be embarrassed and wouldn't want me to give them cash. She said, "maybe just some small gift". I had the perfect gift in mind!

I ran back to my hotel room this afternoon and wrote out a beautiful card (handmade from Africa) for the lovely couple. I then went to my closet and pulled out a bamboo cutting board in the shape of Oklahoma. They both love to cook. It couldn't be more perfect for them, right? I purchased two off of Amazon prior to leaving the States.

I immediately looked at the tag to make sure there wasn't a price on it...and what should I see but... "Made in China".  So sad. Wedding gift fail. (I, of course, will still gift it to them just as soon as I tear off the "Made in China" part of the tag...).

A perfect gift for the couple who likes to cook...

 

Upon further inspection...

Duck blood

Cookie and Leo took me to dinner on Tuesday night. I had been feeling pretty sad since I learned that my grandfather had died. (Even though I knew it was coming, and sooner rather than later, it still took me by "surprise").

Me, Cookie, and Leo.

Cookie is so sweet and always thinking of others. We hopped on a cross town bus and then had delicious hot pot. They ordered mostly things I liked to eat (I told them I didn't care what they ordered, I would try it all, and pick around the things I didn't care for). Well, we got some free intestines (yay! It was some promotional gimmick), and Leo apparently LOVES duck blood, "It's his favorite!", said Cookie.

So, I present to you: congealed/coagulated duck blood.

Before cooking

After about ten minutes in the hot pot.

Recall, that Cookie and Leo are the couple that introduced me to the rabbit heads! And Leo, interestingly, is from Guanzhou (the third largest city in China, after Beijing and Shanghai--Chengdu is the fourth largest city in China). He likes to remind me (often) that in Guanzhou they eat: cat, dog, rat, snake, etc. I guess it ain't so bad here in Chengdu :)

Afterwards, they walked me back to the hotel ,and  we got some good exercise. It was a nice evening. Cookie and Leo accompanied me to the front desk of my hotel and helped do some translating regarding specific questions I had. (I am essentially completely unable to communicate with hotel staff).

Cookie also offered to let me use her washing machine! That is a huge blessing because there is not a Laundromat nearby. There is small place down the street that will do my laundry for me, but they speak no English. And I would just prefer to do it myself. Cookie and Leo live about a five minute walk from my hotel, so I will lug my clothes over to their place every once in awhile (I packed pretty lightly and I have been washing some things in the sink, so I am actually doing pretty well, considering I have almost been here a month!)

Cookie and Leo are so great! I am lucky to have them!

Biking in China

We really have been very busy in the eye clinics, doing lots of great work. Lots of surgeries, lots of clinic, and a lot of teaching. In regards to teaching, I try to do some hands-on teaching in the clinics (will post some photos next week after I get some better clinic photos). But I also have dedicated time every Wednesday afternoon in which I can teach about ophthalmology, and we can practice English. I think the residents really enjoy this time!

At any rate, I find myself wanting to blog more about "culture" and "interesting things" in China, rather than "eye stuff". Perhaps that is because, at this point, I have the eye stuff down pretty well (I guess three years of ophtho residency and a year of your own clinics do that! Of course there is always more to learn and experience to be had...)

So...more fun and culture stuff.

Yesterday (Sunday 4/26), Dr. Wu, Dr. Susan, and Cassie (one of the residents) took me to the outskirts of Chengdu to go biking! It was a beautiful day--just perfect. It took us about an hour to get to our destination (despite it not being that far distance-wise), but the traffic is incredible in this city, especially on a nice weekend day! I would be so nervous to drive here, but Dr. Wu did a great job. (I misspoke in an earlier post...Chengdu is about 14 million people, not 10 million.)

I must digress here and talk about the traffic for a moment. I am very amazed by the skill of the drivers here in Chengdu. They all know exactly where they are in regards to other cars, pedestrians, people on motorbikes, busses, etc. They know exactly how wide and how long their cars are. Thus, the traffic FLOWS and flows well, despite the sheer number of people using the roadway. It has best been described to me by the Chris (my Canadian friend from church) who said, "It works for them. It is like a school of fish that dart in and out of the group, but they all know where they are and they move as a unit...". Indeed, that was a great analogy. They just flow in and out, merge and exit, with very few accidents. (I have only seen one accident in my 3 weeks here, and I have been out and about quite a bit). They are incredibly good drivers.

Okay, back to biking. We went to a park and Dr. Wu rented bicycles for us. Of course there were no helmets...(which, in my family, is a major "no-no"). But, I knew we wouldn't be going fast, and we were biking in a park. We had a lot of fun, but my father, who was a "serious" bicyclist would have been horrified. The bikes were in disrepair, there were pedestrians and bikes fighting for the right of way, people stopping in the middle of the path for who knows what reason (mostly photos, I presume), children riding helmet-less standing up on the rear of the bike (small children). It was an accident waiting to happen! But, we did have a lot of fun, despite spending a massive amount of concentration trying to dodge all the road hazards! For how well the motorists "know their position" in relation to everyone else, the bicyclists had no clue!



Cassie, Dr. Wu, me. It was nice to see lots of green! (Yes, here we are stopped in the middle of the path for a photo...)

"Surprise!" This photo was inspired by my friend in Ohio, Julia. Dr. Wu thought this was hilarious and this was definitely her favorite photo of the day!



Cassie and Dr. Wu getting ready to roll!

Me and Cassie. She is so fun and kind. And as a bonus she speaks English really well :)

Afterwards, we went to a nearby restaurant and ate...what else?! Chinese hot pot. It was spicy and delicious, as always. There were a large number of ophthalmologists already there, and we joined their group.

Chinese Hot Pot, Sichuan style. Everyone dig in! (The chopsticks are especially long for these occasions so that you don't burn your hands when trying to grab your food.)

 

We finished out the afternoon by going to Dr. Fan's house. He was the former Chair of the ophthalmology position (a position now held by Dr. Wu). He has a very nice house on the outskirts of Chengdu. This was the first free-standing house I had seen! Almost everyone lives in apartments!

All in all it was a great day :)



Beautiful view in Dr. Fan's backyard.

Setting the table for tea in Dr. Fan's backyard.

Chinese Ophthalmology Conference

On Saturday, Dr. Wu wanted me to accompany her and Cassie to an eye meeting at the Western China Hospital. It is across town, about five miles away, but a 30 minute taxi ride. Having grown up in Iowa, miles usually equated to minutes, but it's not so in the big cities! Here we talk in "minutes" and not "miles (kilometers)" when discussing distance.

Dr. Wu had someone pick me up at the hotel at 8 a.m. sharp. After the first several speakers gave their entire lectures in Chinese, I was wondering just how much I was really going to get out of this conference. But next up were to American doctors! The topic was Giant Cell Arteritis. It was mostly review, but fun to hear my Midwest American accent all the same :)

Western China Hospital auditorium

Um...yeah. I couldn't read it either :-(

The remainder of the Chinese speakers gave their talks in Chinese, but there was a screen to the side that had the English translation! Thank goodness! I actually learned quite a bit.

Chinese traditional treatment is alive and well in China. This outlines treatments for a Central Retinal Vein Occlusion. Note that the bottom option is traditional Chinese medicine.

Descriptions of some of the traditional Chinese treatments are listed below each "phase". I certainly haven't heard of most of these herbs/drugs/concoctions. It is a big part of medicine in China.

Me, Dr. Wu, Cassie

After the conference, I headed back for a quick rest and then headed to church. I had to give the taxi driver instructions on how to get there ("straight!" straight!" while making violent hand gestures). He really had no idea where it was.

After Church, Chris and Valerie assembled our dinner group (we all met at church). It was quite the party, with seven different countries represented: 2 Americans, 2 Canadians, 1 Brit, 1 Haitian, 1 Kenyan, 2 Indonesians, and 1 person from Madagascar. We all hopped into taxis and went to this very dingy looking restaurant. But it was the most phenomenal restaurant I had eaten at in quite awhile! We had so much fun, and Chris and Valerie brought the contraband (some bottles of Chinese beer)! It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we took a walk around "Jinli" street, which is a touristy spot, but it was fun. And we had Dairy Queen for dessert.

A small portion of our dinner party.

Huguette and I had so much fun watching the chef prepare the food while waiting for the remainder of our group to arrive!

Fried tofu deliciousness.

Jinli Street

 

It will be a fun night to remember :-)  I will only be so sorry to see Valerie, Chris, and Valerie's cousin Nancy leave next week.

Here's to the best Grandpa in the world!

C.J.
aka "Grandpa" or "Gramps
3/6/1914 to 4/26/2015

My grandpa died yesterday at the age of 101. In Iowa, surrounded by family.

He was a wonderful man, and truly PERFECT as a grandpa (I am certain he had his flaws, but I couldn't see them!).

He was born in Iowa on March 6, 1914. Grandpa was the youngest of three children--he had an older sister and brother. He was the "baby" of the family, as he was much younger than his two older siblings. His father was a Methodist minister. Unfortunately, when he was only three years old his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was sick and bedridden for three years, until her death when he was only six years old. He always said his only remembrances of his mother were  of her sick in bed. And he ranked this as one of the greatest sadnesses of his life. I honestly think this life event was what gave my grandfather the ability and tenacity to deal with life's lemons and curveballs. And to love deeply.

He proudly served our nation in World War II. He was overseas for many years, leaving behind my dear grandmother. After the war, he came home and he and grandma had four children, my father being the oldest of four and the only other male in the immediate family!

My grandma and grandpa on their wedding day. My great-grandfather (left side of photo) was a minister.

Grandpa in uniform

Grandpa and his first-born, my dad. 1949

He was the Iowa State 4-H leader from 1959 to 1979, and  he helped many kids realize/pursue their dreams. 4-H often worked its way into most of his conversations, as it was a big part of his life!

He was 92 when my dad died suddenly. He became more than a grandpa that day--a sort of stand-in father. A great one to go for when advice was needed. He was his grandkids' biggest cheerleader!

He and grandma were only a short seven minute drive from my childhood home, so I saw them on a nearly daily basis for 18 years. We developed an incredibly close bond--one I cherished. I remember the day I turned 16 and got my driver's license. My first solo drive (with my younger sister as my first passenger) was to the obvious location: a surprise visit to grandma and grandpa's house. I can still picture them sitting out in the yard digging up dandelions as we pulled in.

He was always there at my cross country meets, cheering me on. He was there after ballet class, when my mom or dad couldn't pick me up. He and grandma's house was the "go-to" place when school was cancelled because of weather (and mom and dad still had to work) or when we were sick. He and grandma were the stand-in "parents" when my mom and dad were away on business/vacation. He was the only grandpa I ever knew.

Celebrating 50 years of marriage!!

You cannot quantify grief. My grandpa had 45 more years on this earth than his oldest son (my father). He was 101. He had a wonderful life and maintained his health and mind up until age 100 (his only medication was a daily vitamin and an extra vitamin C!). However, he was my grandfather, my rock, I loved him dearly, and that makes this SO difficult. When we love so deeply, losing them hurts so much!



He and my dad's bricks at the Veterans Memorial in Ames, Iowa.

I love you Grandpa!!!!

Chinese Habits, Part 1

I love China. The people are wonderful and kind and generous. BUT...there is this nasty habit of spitting in public places.

I noticed this immediately. It is difficult not to! Anywhere you go, there are people (usually middle aged to older men, but not exclusively) hawking lugies! They make this awful throat-clearing sound that is super loud, and then they proceed to just spit it anywhere and everywhere. It is one aspect of their culture I have not gotten used to.

The other day, I was in the ophthalmology department putting away my bag in a locker. I heard someone clear their throat and as I walked out, I witnessed him spit it into a nearby potted plant! I think my jaw dropped...

An American friend said that he was aware of this, because this was discussed back around the time of the Beijing Olympics. Apparently, the Olympic committee was worried about "bad habits" such as spitting/hawking lugies and people cutting in line (another common thing in China, which I have mentioned in prior posts). So, I guess they tried to wean the Chinese from these bad habits. A link to an article from the NY Times is below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/world/asia/17manners.html?pagewanted=all

I am not criticizing, just stating the facts. What is copasetic in one culture may be totally taboo in another.

I promise I won't come back having picked up this Chinese habit! 

A few interesting patients

It is much more difficult to get patient photos here, due to the fact that I don't have my own slit lamp in which to examine patients. So it takes time, and honestly, sometimes we are moving so fast, it just isn't possible. Here are a few photos from the last several weeks, that I was able to capture!

This patient had a large cystic structure on the lateral aspect of her conjunctiva. Apparently she had undergone some sort of cosmetic plastic surgery near her eyes about a month ago. This lesion appeared about two weeks after said cosmetic procedure (I was unable to figure out WHAT exactly she had done, but assume maybe tattooed eyeliner??) She had the cosmetic procedure done she said to become "more beautiful", and now she has this ugly thing on her eye! She will have this excised in the future.

 

***

 



Lesion on the conjunctiva. You can see superiorly there are two bumps on the skin (at the edge of the fold of skin). The skin lesions appeared most consistent with Molluscum contagiosum. At any rate, this lesion will be excised.

Same patient as above. Lesions on the external upper eyelid.

***

A patient with two inferior puncta! If you look closely, you can make out both of them. An interesting finding--I have never seen this before.

Back to blogging!

So much has gone on here, and I have been keeping busy, so it is hard to find time to sit down, process it, and write about it!

I think I might stick to some shorter posts for now--observations, interesting patients, etc, and realize that to cover it all would be impossible (and certainly boring for readers), so I'll concentrate on sticking to the highlights!

Last week I had two days in the OR with Dr. Wu. It was fun! I assisted her on Thursday, and it was nice to see her operate up close, as she does a few things differently from the way I was trained. She is an amazing surgeon! Regarding phaco, she sits superiorly almost always (I usually sit temporally). She also makes her main wound before inserting viscoelastic as long as she can tell the anterior chamber is deep. It seems to work well for her... Otherwise not too many variations in surgical technique. We are still  working on the Chinese medical license...will cross my fingers.

Cassie, me, Dr. Wu, and Mandy with our final cataract patient of the day!

They have a LenSx here! It is pricey for the patients, so it isn't used all that much, but we did have three cases on this particular day.

That evening, my friend Rosie wanted to take me out for American food. She had been wanting to do this for awhile, so Thursday was the day! She and I caught a bus from the hospital and took it across town. The bus was PACKED! (It was rush hour, after all). I love Sichuan food, and hadn't particularly been craving American food (or so I thought).

She and I met up with her fiancée, Tony, who was so nice! The three of us went to Peters, which is a Tex Mex chain here (I don't know if it exists in the US). It was really fun, and after dinner, I realized that "American" food totally hit the spot! Rosie knew exactly what I needed. It was really fun to meet Tony too.

Texas style! Tony and Rosie (they are getting married this coming weekend!)

Brewskies

Sign to the Ladies' Room. I took this one for my dear Texas friends, Anne and Cat!

Me and Rosie

Afterwards, we went out and a car was waiting for us... Tony had used Uber to get us home. It seems that Uber came to Chengdu about 8 to 10 months ago, and apparently it is quite popular. I had never used Uber before, so that was also a new experience.

We had a great time and they were so nice to me. Everyone wants to pay for everything here! I told Rosie and Tony that it was MY treat, and they INSISTED over and over that I couldn't pay. Argh. Next time!

Rabbit heads (and a dinner party at Cookie and Leo's house)

I am still getting adjusted to the clinics and surgery here. I am not able to do as much "hands-on" work as I was in Africa, due to medical license issues and the overall way things work here. However, we have definitely had some interesting clinic cases, and I will write more about that in a future post.

I am going to be honest--this week, I have been incredibly tired. Not only physically tired, but a complete mental and physical and emotional exhaustion. I am completely fine and doing very well, but I have noticed this trend when living overseas. I do really well for several days or weeks and feel I am getting so well adjusted, when BAM! I will have a really tiring day, where I just can't seem to get enough sleep. I think this stems from all the energy it takes just to live/survive/be in a foreign country for any length of time. Especially here in China--I can't communicate. Even the most basic things like, "Where is the bathroom?" or trying to tell a story about my life back home takes an incredible amount of energy. Incredible. So it is not just an "I'm kind of tired today" feeling, but rather a "I am completely drained of all energy" feeling. I just take it as it comes.

This afternoon we had our second English lesson. I had prepared some worksheets, some games, etc. They had a lot of fun and we learned all about ocular anatomy! They have the most difficulty with pronunciation, so we were sure to tackle that. At the end, we played "Mystery Box", where I had something in a box and they had to use English to ask questions and figure out what the mystery item was. The first was a toy top, the second an American dollar bill, and the third was an American granola bar. They had a lot of fun guessing! And the winner got to keep the item, so they were pretty stoked about that as well.

After work, Cookie had me, Katie, Michael, Mary, and Laura over to her and her husband Leo's apartment for a homemade dinner. On the walk to her apartment (which is very near my hotel), she told me they had rabbit heads for an appetizer. She wanted to know if I had ever had rabbit head. (I have not). She said it is, "so delicious, so delicious!".  And then all the others chimed in with, "Yes, so delicious!". They were really building this rabbit head thing up for me.

We made it to her apartment, and sure enough, her husband Leo pulls out the rabbit heads. One per person :) First, you put on a plastic glove, and then you munch away on your rabbit head. Honestly, this was all a little tough for me to stomach. But I did take several bites. They consume it all from the eyes to the tongue to the brain. I guess it is a specialty in Chengdu and Cookie surprised me with the following fact: over 2 million rabbit heads are consumed in Chengdu alone each year!

The bag of spicy rabbit heads. You can see the teeth in the upper right hand corner. And there is another head where you can see the tongue (on the very left hand side of photo about halfway down).

Leo, Mary, Laura, and Michael with their plastic glove on...ready to consume the rabbit heads! The glove is worn because the heads are covered in sauce.

Mary, Laura, and Michael enjoying their rabbit heads. They LOVED watching me squirm while attempting to eat it.

We then had fried tofu with hot sauce and fermented tofu sauce, pork and veggies, steamed mussels, preserved egg porridge, and Chinese cabbage. It really was a delicious meal, and prepared ENTIRELY by Cookie.

Mary, Katie, and Cookie preparing dinner.

Steamed mussels

Such a feast :)

Afterwards, we looked at Cookie's wedding photos (she and Leo just got married in early March), played a Chinese game, and had Chinese tea. It was a really fun evening. They all practiced their English so it was a win-win! We all told some funny stories and had some good laughs!



Cookie in one of her wedding outfits. Her husband Leo is a photographer.

 

Liz versus Cookie (this seems to me to be like the American game Othello).

Now it is time for bed. I can't seem to get enough sleep these days. My brain needs a break from the Chinese language!

The group (minus Leo). Laura, me, Cookie, Katie, Mary, and Michael. We are having our after dinner Chinese tea, which, according to Cookie "helps you digest your food and burn fat!".