Buttercupchappati Chronicles

my life in a lab coat

It's funny. For someone who was and is a bookish nerd, and was being directed down the path to be an English Teacher, my life has taken some very interesting sidesteps. And it's really funny that some of them have put me into a lab coat.

Before I immersed myself in the healing profession I spent 14 odd years working and studying in the wine industry - really. (sshh, I'm a corporate refugee). During that time I studied at Roseworthy College in South Australia, Australia's oldest and most prestigious wine studies institution. As the wine industry here was going ahead in giant steps it had been realised that to promote the product and indeed the industry, we needed people with marketing skills and qualifications who really understood the product, from the ground up literally. So this course was divided between mainstream marketing subjects and hard core wine subjects like viticulture, winemaking and sensory evaluation (wine tasting in a fancy mood).

Which is where the first lab coat comes in. For viticulture we spent as much time in the lab as we did in the vineyard and a coat was also a requirement for the tasting lab. Trust me, all that spitting of red wine - you don't want it on your clothes. It takes practice to become an acurate wine spitter. In one way wearing the coats was kind of amusing, expecially as we had got mine at a seconds outlet and one arm was longer than the other ... On the other hand, one winemaker I did a lot of work for, who was and is very gifted at his craft but very old school and scathing of the lab work, called those who wore these garments "white coated idiots." 

I don't work in the wine biz anymore but I still have my lab coat, with its dappling of red wine stains down the left side. Here is the evidence. I found this photo during a big clean up on the weekend, which started this train of thought. A hint, in those days I thought - perhaps wrongly - that I was really meant to be a red head!

 

Then many years and lifetimes later I find myself studying Tibetan medicine (and hey, all that wine evaluation comes in very handy for the urine analysis, except the tasting part). And when we are in Amdo studying we do rounds at the hospital in Xining. One time a patient asked if we were tourists and it was felt that it might be more professional if we wore white coats. Well yes.

So this year white coats were procured for us. To make it easy they just got one size - extra large! Now you might not know this about me, but I just scrape in at about 5'2". So this coat is flapping around my ankles. But, its fine, its appropriate to wear them, and the pockets are handy.

Our rounds this time were with a very lovely young doctor (who I am going to marry when I grow up, yes I know you have heard this before). We all, the girls of the group, developed instant crushes and there was a race to get our photo taken with him. He was very sweet when it was my turn, clasped my hand strongly, how nice he was to the old lady I thought. Then when I see the picture I just about died laughing. The gorgeous boy towers over me, I have my eyes closed, and with white coat dusting my ankles I look less Dr Karen, more like an escaped mental patient!

So there it is, a white coat is no guarantee of scientific anything in my experience. But I am glad I veered off to the right or the left or wherever these paths were, it's been fun.

 

Tibetan Medicine adds another leaf to its newly planted tree in Australia

In 2009 we were blessed to have the first intake of students for Traditional Tibetan Medicine studies here in Australia. At the end of that first course, our teacher Dr Nida Chenagtsang said it had long been a dream of his to teach TTM in Australia.

So coming back for our second year of studies felt like a real consolidation of that dream into a very real reality. Our TTM family had grown with the inclusion of some new students who had completed studies during the year to enable them to join the current group.

As always it is with great anticipation and excitement (and some fear – what have I forgotten!) that we start our classes with Dr Nida.

TTM is such a vast and rich subject, with it’s history going back thousands of years; deeply embedded in the indigenous Bon culture of the Tibetan people and then later entwined with Buddhism, as it became the predominant religion of Tibet. Tibetan medicine can encompass not only the things we expect from a healing system such as medicines, external therapies, suggestions for diet and lifestyle; it can also include dream studies, astrology and an understanding of Sa Che or geomancy or more esoteric techniques such as healing with mantra. So it’s no wonder that we feel a little daunted as westerners embarking on this journey.

We don’t need to worry, Dr Nida makes sure we don’t get lost, don’t feel left behind in the cultural or historical differences. The fundamental thing we all need to practice any kind of healing is compassion and he shows us that in so many ways. We laugh, cry, and learn a lot!

As our nine days fly by we learn more about pulse reading, urine analysis – everyone is used to coming to class with their small yellow jars now. We look at tongues and hear about leeches. We try not to set each other on fire as we practice moxibustion. We face the prospect of bloodletting – what is worse, giving or receiving?

We learn about the amazing infinite, internal journey of the fetus. Long before the advent of x-ray or scanning, Tibetan doctors had a clear understanding of the way a woman’s body becomes a whole universe for every child that is born. And of course the mysteries of the end of life journey, with its dissolution of the body back to the five elements from which we all are formed.

We find out there are 72,000 internal channels in the body (and I hope we are not expected to learn them all by next year!) The three humors become more detailed as we go further into the subtle energies at work in us all. Pathology studies begin, and understanding the systems of our amazing bodies.

We all so enjoy having the gentle energy of our Tibetan students with us in the classroom, and the opportunity to hear Tibetan spoken each day is lovely.

(And we learn that an orgasm every day is good for your health…)

And it’s here in this room in a hotel in Melbourne that we have taken another step forward on our TTM journey; and started to really comprehend how connected we are, to each other, to our chosen subject, to our teacher, our patients and everything in and around us. That seems to be the most important thing anyone who wants to work as a healer can learn; that there is no separation.

you cannnot say you were not warned

An enthralling and educational day of TTM studies was had, with especial emphasis on the art of urine analysis. Funnily enough we all share the experience of not having anyone to talk to about this fascinating subject in our own homes. Sigh.

(And we are all behind on our homework, shhh, don't tell Dr Nida.)