Broken jars can withstand a hundred years of boiling We often say that “broken jars can withstand a hundred years of boiling”, meaning that a patient with a long-term illness, often with the jar for the company, the patient can often live a good life, and some can even live to a hundred years old. Why is this? Why did the “medicine jar” with a chronic illness live peacefully? The author believes that this is related to the patient’s ability to accept and live peacefully with his illness and to master the experience of seeking medical help. There are so many things involved in being sick, first of all, the ability to accept the illness; secondly, how to choose a hospital, department, doctor and how to consult a doctor, which requires a lot of information; and thirdly, how to cooperate with the doctor’s treatment, make a judgment on the doctor’s treatment plan, and how to use medicine, and many other details, all of which require patience and experience. TCM believes that being sick is an important life experience and seeing a doctor is a necessary survival skill that we should master routinely. Seeing a doctor requires experience. Being physically ill is not scary, what is scary is not being able to seek help! How many patients who have never been sick, when suddenly one day the disease comes; never noticed before a certain organ, one day suddenly it does not work properly; like a moving car, a sudden accident causes the vehicle to break down on the road, if there is not enough experience to deal with, and no way to seek effective help, people will be confused, and even life-threatening. If you want to seek medical attention efficiently, you need to come prepared. Chinese medicine is different from Western medicine in that Chinese medicine is based on the “examination, smell, smell, ask and cut, and the four consultations”. The author summarizes the following consultation preparation, so that the patient can better cooperate with the doctor to successfully complete the consultation and treatment. (1) Accept the pain peacefully, examine the disease and state the condition concisely. Pain is an alarm signal from your body, and a concise and detailed statement of your condition is of great importance to the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. For example, if you have a cold stomachache, you will feel a cold or cramping pain in your stomach; if you have an angry stomachache, you will often feel a bloating or stabbing pain in your stomach; if you have a stomachache due to anxiety, your stomach will often have a burning pain. You may not have studied anatomy, but your body will often tell you exactly where the ailment is. Of course, there are some ailments that we can’t feel, or are even at a loss. The onset of internal fever, for example, is often a discomfort throughout the body, and the pain is often generalized and can be uncomfortable in many parts of the body. In such cases, the pain should also be stated truthfully, and this generalized discomfort can also help the herbalist to rule out or identify a certain type of disease. Key points: state the main ailments concisely and with emphasis. Contraindications: Lack of careful physical examination of the condition due to distractions of pain. (2) Calmly recall and rationally determine the suspected cause of the disease. A precise statement of the possible causes of the disease will provide the doctor with very important information for diagnosis and treatment, especially the abnormal state in the period before the onset of the disease, including the environment, diet, emotional state, etc., to provide detailed information to support the diagnosis and treatment. Patients should also focus on these three main causes and look for the possible causes of their illnesses according to the diagram and tell the doctor as completely, objectively and clearly as possible. Common causes: ① External causes Diseases caused by the external climate and other natural environments. These include: “wind, cold, heat, humidity, dryness, and fire”, which are called the “Six Phenomena” in Chinese medicine. ② Internal causes Diseases caused by emotions, diet, improper work and rest. Including “joy, anger, sadness, pity, fear and fright” of the seven emotions, “cold, hot, warm, warm, sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty, too hungry, too full” of improper diet, and “long vision, long lying, long walking, long standing, long sitting” and other illnesses caused by the lack of rest and relaxation. (3) Other causes: Traumatic injuries caused by falls, gold blades, insect and animal bites, etc. Point: The patient will give a detailed statement of the possible causes of the disease, and the doctor will make a final decision. Contraindicated: The patient avoids the doctor, hiding, avoiding or covering up the possible causes. Consultation preparation (3) objective statement of the “onset of disease – before the consultation” between the changes in the condition. Usually there is a period of self-observation from the onset of the disease until the patient is seen, often with attempted interventions. Don’t forget to tell your doctor about the onset of your illness, as well as your interventions and their effects, as this will give him/her first-hand information about your treatment. Let’s take stomach pain as an example. If your stomach pain is relieved by rubbing and pressing, it means that the condition is probably caused by weakness of the spleen and stomach, so treatment will focus on strengthening the spleen and tonifying the stomach; if your stomach pain is relieved by restricting your diet, it means that your stomach pain is probably caused by food stagnation, so treatment will focus on eliminating food and harmonizing the stomach; if your stomach pain is aggravated after drinking alcohol, it is probably caused by damp heat in the stomach, so treatment will focus on resolving dampness and clearing heat. If your stomach pain worsens after drinking alcohol, it may be caused by damp-heat in the stomach, so treatment to resolve dampness and clear heat may become the focus of treatment. In conclusion, an objective description of the changes in your condition from the onset to the time of consultation can provide very important information for treatment and diagnosis. Important: A detailed statement of the factors of improvement or exacerbation is important for treatment. Contraindications: Exaggerating or processing the relevant influencing factors can be misleading to the diagnosis and treatment. The consultation should pay attention to the state of one’s face and the nine orifices of the five senses. Chinese medicine theory is based on the theory of “viscera”, which is to explore and infer the function of internal organs through the performance of external skin, meridians and orifices, therefore, Chinese medicine practitioners are good at inferring the function of internal organs through judging the performance of external skin, meridians and orifices. Therefore, the patient needs to pay attention before the consultation to facilitate the statement of the relevant content. Eyes: abnormal states and sensations. These include: strength of vision, range of visual field, dryness of the eyes, state of secretions, etc. Ear: abnormal status and sensation. Including: hearing strength, tinnitus or not, secretion status, etc. Nose: abnormal state and sensation. Including: smell status, ventilation status, secretion status, etc. Mouth: abnormal state and sensation. Including: oral odor status, oral saliva secretion status, etc. Tongue: abnormal state and sensation. Including: taste state, tongue, secretion state, etc. Urine: abnormal state and sensation. Including: stool quality, volume, color, odor, degree of fluency, abnormal secretion status, etc. Stool: abnormal state and sensation. Including: stool quality, volume, color, odor, degree of fluency, abnormal secretion status, etc. Key points: the orifices are the windows of the internal organs and are very important for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Contraindications: Makeup is contraindicated, including pupils, eye shadow, painted lips, powdered face, and scraped tongue, which can lead to misjudgment of diagnostic information. Summary With the above preparation, you can go to see the TCM doctor. It is best to find a note to record your health information against the tips above so that you can communicate with the doctor, i.e. focus and not forget the details, thus allowing the doctor to quickly and comprehensively understand your information and provide important information to support a successful TCM diagnosis and treatment. Don’t worry that your doctor will be too long-winded, because Chinese medicine has accumulated a lot of theoretical researches and discussions on the symptoms of the human body, from the writing of “Huangdi Neijing” during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, to the writings of Chinese medicine in successive generations, and then to the higher medical textbooks of modern Chinese medicine. They also have a wealth of experience in treating these symptoms. Although contemporary TCM practitioners also need ultrasound, X-ray, CT, and MRI, TCM practitioners need a detailed description of your condition – your symptoms, which are your body’s objective claims about your health.