Overseas Adventures: 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.