I have been feeling quite horrible for the past two weeks, and no matter what I did — full-body spa, massage, vitamin supplements — things didn’t improve much. Honestly, it made 2026 felt slightly rough. That said, I’m in favor of accepting that the month of January is the Trial Month. New Year is not started until the Lunar New Year. There.

Anyway, I then decided to try TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) method. Mostly because: 1. It’s quite common here in Malaysia, and 2. TCM is pretty great, too. While it’s easy to dismiss the method as “woo-woo science”, it’s actually not. I can understand the skepticism, though. I grew up in Orde Baru Indonesia, in the 1990s, and during that time, everything Chinese is demonized. The late president of that time followed CIA playbook down to the T, and the USA, through the CIA as their proxy, was — and still is — scared shitless of “communism”. Hence, everything China should be banned. I grew up in the Indonesia where we used to see anything China-related in such suspicion, even the Chinese-Indonesians at that time had to change their names to avoid suspicions despite them were born and bred in Indonesia and had a deeper and closer relationship with ayam goreng sambel matah than xiaolongbao. Chinese language teaching was forbidden, folks couldn’t celebrate Lunar New Year openly, and no millennials in Indonesia could forget the 1998 Tragedy.

Side note: If this interests you, you can read “The Jakarta Method” book by Vincent Bevins.

That said, it’s all about how government through media shaping our thoughts and opinions, hence why critical thinking is important, and the reason why I stood in front of a TCM clinic on Thursday morning.

I learned about this place from the Threads app. Someone there shared her experience having acupuncture treatment at this clinic, and since this place is quite near from my place, I decided to give it a try.

Acupuncture isn’t new to me. I had my first acupuncture treatment when I was pregnant with Rey, my youngest. I had a terrible sinusitis during the pregnancy, but I didn’t want to take medicines for fear of fetal growth issues (if any) and I thought the sinusitis would go on its own (it didn’t). I then decided to try acupuncture when I was back in Indonesia, and it helped a bit. “A bit”, because acupuncture is the type of treatment that you need to do several times/regularly, and I only could do it once since I was on a trip back home.

When I came back to KL, my obgyn referred me to an ENT specialist. The ENT specialist asked me if I ever got any treatment for the sinusitis, and I told him, between mucus and snorts and watery eyes, “I had an acupuncture treatment when I was in Indonesia.”

I was surprised when he said, “oh, that’s good! It’s a shame you can’t continue it since you have to go back to KL ya.” I asked him, “is it (acupuncture) actually effective?” He said that yep, it’s effective, and he prefers his patients to try acupuncture or TCM first before resorting to regular medicine intake.

When I was in the clinic, the practitioner checked my pulse and… I honestly didn’t know what she checked on my wrist, but I know it’s being taught in the TCM, and she, correctly, listed down my conditions. I remember folks said that TCM practitioners also trained to “listen” to other parts of body organs, so it was beyond just a pulse and blood pressure.

I told the practitioner my concerns, on how I have been feeling horrible for the past 2-3 weeks, my joints are aching, horrible sleep, and lack of energy. She then recommended me to undergo acupuncture and cupping.

We went to one of the treatment rooms available, and I laid down on my stomach and had acupuncture on the back of my neck, my shoulders, and my feet. Once the needles are set, the practitioner put a heat lamp on my shoulders and told me to stay for 15 minutes. It was so warm and pleasant, I even snoozed off during that time. Once the 15 minutes was up, the practitioner took off all the needles then asked me to turn my body around. I then turned my body and the practitioner set the needles on my abdomen area. She then set the heat lamp to my abdomen and leave me again for 15 minutes.

After the acupuncture was done, we moved to cupping treatment. Now, it was my first time in doing cupping treatment, and I would say that… It wasn’t super painful, but it was indeed uncomfortable for the first 2-3 minutes as you have your skin pulled by the cup. Also, while yes, you will have bruises and the bruises are temporary, for the uninitiated, it might looked like you got beaten up 😅

The result has been great, though! I definitely feel more energized, less pain, and I could sleep better. I still need to work on the sleeping time (dang Animal Crossing for taking up my time), but things have been great so far. My next appointment would be next week, and I’m quite excited, hahah.