Michael and I Tried Traditional Chinese Medicine for My Allergy and His Insomnia. Did It Work?

We're living in Taiwan, so we figured: why not?

Michael and I have both struggled with chronic health issues.

Michael has written before about his struggle with insomnia, but mine is a bit more complicated.

Back in 2021, I received the Pfizer vaccine for Covid, and a couple of weeks after getting my second dose, I had a really bad reaction: a red rash around the vaccination spot on my left arm, and an intense itching unlike anything I’d ever experienced.

My U.S. doctor told me it was “Covid arm,” something that happens to about two percent of the vaccine’s recipients, and it would go away in three to five days.

It lasted over a year.

It was truly one of the worst experiences of my life: a furious itching that came and went without warning.

I tried every remedy imaginable, but the only thing that worked — the only thing that allowed me to sleep — was Benadryl, a strong antihistamine. I ended up taking so much of it that it started having its own effects, including hallucinations.

It was a very low point in my life.

Photo by noelle on Unsplash

My U.S. doctors and Western medicine in general were, frankly, terrible: first, insisting my condition would soon go away, and then shrugging and saying that, short of recommending Benadryl, there was nothing more they could do.

Far and away the worst part of the whole experience was not knowing when — or if — it would ever go away.

I now understand what people with chronic pain deal with: how constant discomfort and a pervading sense of powerlessness can slowly kill your soul.

At one point, I said to Michael, “If I knew for a fact that I had to spend the rest of my life dealing with this, I think I might kill myself.”

But after about six months, it seemed to be getting better, and in the end, it finally did go away.

(Please note: I am very much not an anti-vaxxer, and I’m not even anti-Covid vaccine. The human body is very complicated, and anyway, sometimes shit just happens. If I’m going to trust the science of airplanes and elevators, I’m going to trust the science of vaccines too.)

Unfortunately, in April of this year, my Covid arm came back. I was in some mountains in Mexico at the time, and I wondered if it was maybe the altitude.

At one point, the itching was so bad that I got physically ill — and I barely slept at all, even with Benadryl.

Still, the whole experience definitely wasn’t as bad as before, and I’ve long tried very, very hard to control my emotions on this issue — to not let the condition control me.

Then, this summer, Michael and I arrived in Taiwan, and my arm still wasn’t much better, so he suggested we give Traditional Chinese Medicine a try for both our chronic issues — my itchy arm and his insomnia.

I was well aware what Western Medicine thought of Chinese Medicine: that, except for acupuncture, which has been scientifically proven to work quite well on certain issues, it’s mostly pseudoscience — a collection of superstitious beliefs and practices that have no actual effect on a person’s health.

On the other hand, when it came to my Covid arm, Western Medicine had completely failed me — had, in fact, really pissed me off, telling me things that obviously weren’t true.

And if my international travels over the last eight years have taught me anything, it’s that the Western World — especially the United States — is incredibly arrogant in its views and has almost comically ridiculous blind spots when it comes to the practices and beliefs of other cultures.

So I said, “Why not?”

What follows is the story of what happened to us both.

Chinese Medicine and My Covid Arm

We found a highly rated doctor of Chinese Medicine right near our apartment, but there was no website, and all the contact information was in Chinese, so we simply walked over to the office without an appointment.

No one in the office spoke English, but there happened to be a woman in the waiting area who did, and she translated for us: Could they deal with our issues? And did the doctor speak English?

We were assured that they could, and that he did, so we gave our contact info and waited a few minutes until the doctor called us in.

I confess, I was expecting Traditional Chinese Medicine to be more, well, traditional.

No, I did not expect the racist stereotype from the 1980s movie Gremlins. Except, well, maybe I kinda did.

Instead, the office was very plain, the doctor wore a white coat, and he was fairly young and very soft-spoken — a total nerd.

Waiting to see the doctor.

I spoke to the doctor first, explaining my allergic reaction to the Covid vaccine.

The doctor’s English wasn’t great, but he said that my issue couldn’t be treated with acupuncture; instead, he recommended an herbal concoction to be taken three times a day, mixed with water, thirty minutes after meals.

He said I should try it for one week and then come back.

The cost for the consultation and one week’s worth of herbs was $28 USD.

I tried my first dose right after lunch.

So… did it work?