TCM.

Where do we start? I grew up on western medicines and probably overdosed on them growing up so I'm at a point where chinese medicines work like magic whether its herbal jellies or sea coconut concoctions or herbal teas. I am a fan.

The Hubba on the other hand's closest shave with TCM is their bone breaking massages every now and then to reset things.

Otherwise, TCM is as foreign as chalk is to cheese.

Given our fertility situation, I contemplated consulting one but was really put off by the waiting time both for the appointment and on the day itself. It ranges anywhere from weeks to months and definitely in hours for the latter. Turns out waiting for a popular fertility specialist at a government hospital was still shorter than the physician (how ironic).

C came down with a bout of dry cough which morphed into a phlegmy chesty one, mild flu and alas, diarrhea all within the week. Western medicines were not quite working for him so I floated the idea of TCM, googled, cross checked with my 247 Mummy friends and landed ourselves at the premises of Yu Guo (YG).

4pm on a Saturday was considered "optimal" time to arrive as advised by the one who took our call.
No appointments nor reservations.
You turn up, register, take a queue number and wait either within the claustrophobic clinic or loiter outside (that's when the chinese enrichment class opposite caught my interest).
We even took the chance to get ourselves seen by the physician for adults, reconnected with friends whom I've not seen in years before we were called in.

The session is short and completely communicated in mandarin (I seriously wonder how do the non-chinese even get through these consultation sessions). Stethoscope was placed all over before the physician declared C would proceed for a massage and issued herbal packets to be strapped on his belly button for 24 hours each dosage. There were 2 dosages and announced that he should return for massages the next two days as well.

The general reaction of the babies getting massaged can be categorized into -

• Chill and shiok until doze off
• Mostly alright until the tummy gets rubbed
• Cry like blue murder

C fell in the second category and those 15 minutes were not the best for any of us trying to keep him distracted and still enough to complete the massage.  We  were advised to return on Sunday to get a number earlier...around 830am? All in that fateful Saturday we spent a good 1.5 hours at YG which is considered "short" by the YG fans.



Sunday came and I had a light bulb moment, why not go earlier since I had to expense 90 minutes of my time anyway waiting...might as well do so with fewer people and more peace? Plus, opening hours are way shorter on Sundays so that may mean more people cramming to get a slot.

How wrong because when 8am arrived for 9am opening time, I was already 27 in line. So wait begun with aircon (heng ahhhh) and soon the numbers started disappearing with a ton of babies and toddlers and adults.



By 845am, we all got in line to exchange our queue numbers for another laminated card with the same number. I hope I even make sense but the long and short of it is, this queueing is for registration of new patients and old ones to secure their slots.


Now, if one decides to take the number go jiak roti and lim kopi it's fine by YG's management EXCEPT the number only guarantees you a slot from 9am - 930am, if you return later than the 30 minutes grace period, please re-queue.

After another 90 minutes, we were done with seeing the physician and another round of massage.

Monday came and I was bright at early at 8am to get a number and even at 8am, I was 14 in line. Same routine goes and physician declares that C should be put on a complete plain porridge diet and since they're closed on Wednesdays (Hallelujah), we should return for another session on Tuesday (making it 4 consultation and massage sessions in total).

I thought we could beat the crowd and get the first numbers when they close their shutters after 830pm but turns out, they only stop accepting patients at 830 and clinic continues inside. Meaning...by the time they close the shutters for the numbers for the next day to be taken could be anywhere from 11pm onwards. So the early birds either wait till midnight to claim these numbers (assuming the building does not close) or are legit early birds rising at 6am to be the first in line.

Unbelievable indeed when I thought queueing for food was possibly the biggest achievement to date.

By Tuesday, the diarrhea hadn't improved and infact gotten worse, cough was slightly better and flu gone but with the amount of money spent and time waiting, we headed straight to the paediatrician nearest our place.

I'm not completely against TCM but the waiting puts me off. In the face of stretching my patience, I lost.