Back home

I returned to Hong Kong several days ago, after spending a few weeks in England and Norway.

In England, I visited some relatives; and was very happy to see the newborn baby of my niece. The baby girl, seen in the photo with me, is called Kaitlyn.

I was also very happy to meet, for the first time, a lady friend whom I came to know on the website of the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association. I brought her some Chinese herbs which I hope will be of help in alleviating her TN pain. I am not sure whether the herbs will work well for her, though I very much they will.

As for my own physical condition, I was free from TN pain throughout the trip. Most probably this was because I took sufficient precautionary measures: keeping myself warm with layers of clothing, and protecting my face with scarf and warm packets.

After I returned to Hong Kong, I experienced some pain which was probably the result of travel fatigue. The pain was not serious. I took Tin Mah soup, and the pain was gone.

In the past 6 months, I took 300 mg of Tegretol CR everyday. Last week, I reduced it to 200 mg. and I continue to feel fine. This week, I'm reducing it further to 100 mg. per day, perhaps even giving it up altogether later on.

I think the warm weather is an important reason for the remission of the pain these days. The pain has a chance of coming back at the end of the year, when temperatures fall; and I will have to fight it again with herbs and medication.

Small update

My physical condition in the past couple of weeks improved gradually. I was almost TN pain-free till these two days.

I took fishhead soup with Tin Mah only a few times. I'm not sure if the improvement in my TN condition had to do with the fishhead soup or the increasingly warm weather in Hon g Kong or both.

In the recent two days, a slight TN pain returned, though not at all serious.

Today I took fishhead soup again. I'll see if there'll be any improvement.

I'd like to record here something which I almost forgot. In the post on this blog dated 16 March, I mentioned trying a special kind of "physical therapy" whereby a traditional Chinese doctor used some sharp object to pat on my face and head, with the purpos of strengthening my physique. After trying it for some time, I feel that method is not very useful and I stopped receiving that treatment.

(The photos shown here were taken in Lanzarote, one of the beautiful Canary islands, when I went on a trip there in March.)

How's my friend today?

From the website of the Facial Pain Association (http://www.endthepain.org/), I learnt that a friend, whom I came to know thru the web, is suffering from severe TN pain, so severe that she has resorted to using morphine.

Along with other people, I pray that she'll recover real soon.

Today I have difficulty connecting to the discussion area of the Association's website and cannot gain access to the friend's daily blog.
I wonder how she's doing these two days.

As for myself, I'm fine. Occasionally there's some TN pain, the effect of which is a bit like being pierced by a needle on my face. The pain is not strong, not lasting, and doesn't affect my daily activities. Therefore, I feel very grateful already.

I hope my friend will recover very soon.

Some pain persists

I did not work on this blog for many days mainly because I felt quite tired after the recent trip. I think the cold weather in Europe and the long-haul flights took their toll on me. I did not sleep well and it took me some time to completely regain my strength.

I'm feeling fine now.

There's been some TN pain after the trip. But it's not too serious. Not like the kind I experienced in the past. Not only is it less severe in intensity, it's more 'controllable' in the sense that I can minimize its happening by suitably adjusting my physical movements. The pain occurs everyday; and then it goes away after some time.

Another difference between this pain and the one that occurred a few months ago is that this one doesn't seem to react very well to fishhead soup. I've cooked the dish a few times after returning home; and yet the pain continues (though reduced considerably).

This shows that the fishhead soup does not remove all types of TN pain.

Still, I hope the soup works on some people sometimes.

The photos shown here were taken on one of the Canary islands: Lanzarote. The camel ride was fun.

Back from trip

I returned to HK three days ago, after a trip which included stops in Italy and a cruise that went to Casablanca, Barcelona and the Canary islands.

Long-haul flights, cold weather and fairly strong wind had perhaps contributed to the return of TN pain for me. Some pain occurred almost at the start of the trip and lasted almost throughout the trip. But it was not very serious and did not affect my enjoyment of the journey.

The pain intensified somewhat on the flight home; and also on the first couple of days after reaching home. Still, it was tolerable and not the kind the severe pain I suffered a few months ago after the trip to Dubai in December 08.

I quickly prepared and ate some fishhead soup with Tin Mah. Since yesterday, the pain has subsided considerably but not gone completely.

The experience this time is different from that in Jan/Feb. On that occasion, the very severe pain was completely gone on the next day after taking the fishhead soup.

This time, the improvement only occurred gradually. I am not sure if this was related to the portion size of soup which I took. On the previous occasion, I finished eating the whole soup made from one fishhead. This time, I started by eating half of the soup only, because I didn't feel well in my stomach.

Today, I cooked and ate one whole portion of the soup. I'll see if there's any more significant advancement in my condition.

In any event, I'm feeling quite fine already, with occasional pain which is not serious at all. I'll continue to write about my condition in the next few days.

The photos shown here were taken in Casablanca.

Reference books; another form of treatment

The 1st photo here shows my reference books on Chinese herbs. The other two show the pages from one of the books, explaining about the therapeutic value of Tin Mah, with a brief description about the fishhead soup. The descriptions say explicitly that Tin Mah is good for curing headache related to nerves and blood vessels in the brain.

Since last week, I've been seeing a Chinese medical doctor (trained on traditional Chinese medicine) referred to me by a friend. The doctor applies a special therapy on me in a way similar to but is not exactly acupuncture.

Unlike acupuncture with needles half inserted into your body, the needles used in this therapy are not penetrative, i.e. will not be inserted into the skin. The object or apparatus used by the doctor is like a tiny hammer with a cluster of sharp points at the end (but not sharp enough to penetrate through the skin). The doctor attaches a new set of needles to the tiny "hammer" for each patient. They are sterilised before use.

The doctor uses this object (i.e. "tiny hammer" with sharp ends)to quickly pat on different parts of my body, mainly my face, forehead, top of head, and the back of my body. The purpose is to stimulate my nerves, with a view to correcting irregularities in the nerve system. (The doctor attaches a new set of needles to the end of the small "hammer" for each patient. They are sterilised before use.)

I am not sure if the therapy is really useful. Reason is that I've had no significant TN pain since taking the fishhead soup. With this new therapy, I do not feel any difference in my body mechanism right away. But I'm trying it anyhow as a kind of precautionary measure, hoping that it will improve the fundamentals in my nerve system, thus minimizing the chance of TN pain's return.

Yesterday, I learnt from the news that an American man who had been paralysed for many years on the feet miraculously retained his movement ability after being bitten by a spider. This is something which cannot be explained even by medical experts.

In a couple of days't time, I'll be leaving Hong Kong for a trip to Europe. This will be a test on my physical condition. I'll be taking all sorts of precautionary measures (e.g. covering my head and face on the airplane) to help prevent the occurence of TN pain. Certainly, I'm eating fishhead soup these few days!

I'll report on my condition after the trip (which will be around Easter) . Meanwhile, my best wishes for all TN patients.

Happy times

I'd like to divert a little bit to a lighter subject: travel. Here I share some of the many photos I took on a trip in December 2008. I went to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah of the United Arab Emirates, Muscat (of Oman) and Bahrain.

It was a wonderful trip.

In Dubai, I took a ride on an open-deck tour bus for hours. It was very very windy. I believe it was that ride, coupled with the cold weather upon return to Hong Kong, which triggered off TN pain for me.

Cooking class on fishhead soup

This image is the advertisement for cooking lessons offered by Hong Kong's Towngas (the one and only gas supply company in Hong Kong, which runs some cooking classes as a side-line activity).

I noticed that the contents of the cooking lessons include "Tin Mah and fishhead soup with crysanthemum". I've put an arrow near it in the image.

I'm not sure if you can see it clearly. If you can, you should recognize the first two Chinese characters "Tin Mah", which I've shown in one of my earlier posts. (In my post, I presented the two words vertically whereas here, the words are given horizontally, from left to right. Chinese sentences can be written vertically or horizontally.)

I also mentioned earlier that Tin Mah and fishhead are the two essential ingredients of the soup; and that there may be variations on other accompanying ingredients. In this particular case (cooking class offered by Towngas), they use chrysanthemum flower (which is often used for making tea and occasionally for dishes in Chinese cuisine).

Such an advertisement demonstrates what I have said before, that fishhead soup with Tin Mah is quite well known amongst Chinese people. It can be eaten as an ordinary cuisine or for its therapeutic value. And since I have benefited from its effect in removing my severe pain from TN, I have no hesititation in sharing information about it on the web, with the hope that some other TN patients can benefit from it too.

For nearly a month now, I've not suffered any significant pain.

Was it really the fishhead soup which cured me? Scientifically I cannot prove it; thus I cannot say I'm 100% sure. But I feel 99.9% sure.

Having had the kind of horrible pain experienced about a month ago, I don't think I'll ever forget that I'm a TN patient. I will always be aware of the possibility that the pain may come back anytime.

Somehow I feel that the fishhead soup may not permanently cure the root of the illness. Thus I will keep on being vigilant. In fact, I'm trying another Chinese traditional treatment, with the hope that it will improve my physique basically, thus minimizing the chance of the pain's return. I'll talk about that later.

All you can eat

(If these images look like scenes from a horror movie, again I offer my apologies.)

After cooking, the fishhead looks not very different from what it was.

The fishhead looks intact, on the surface. However, once you use a spoon (or something like that) to try to remove it onto to a plate, for example, you'll see that the fishhead actually has decomposed into parts.

I eat all I can from the cooked dish, including the soup, the Tin Mah, the Kei Ji and any meat/tissues of the fishhead as long as they are edible (of course not including the bones).

Please be extra careful of the bones. Eat slowly in small sips.

One of the photos shows the central part of the head after cooking. I guess that's the main cerebral bone. (I'm not a biologist; so I may be wrong in my terminology.) That strong-looking bone can also be broken into parts with just a little bit of force. Since I've heard that it's the central part of the fishhead which is most useful, I would also eat any meat/tissues that remain attached to that bone. (Much has been dissolved into the soup, though.) Again, be very very careful with the bones.

The little white round thing in a spoon comes from the eye. I don't eat it, of course.

I guess that's all I have to say about cooking and eating the fishhead soup. If I go on any further, I would surely sound like a grandmother (if I don't sound like one already).

I'll continue to update this blog with anything I think is relevant.

Double-boiling

Double-boiling is the method of cooking whereby the ingredients are placed in a pot with lid (preferably with double lids) and heated by boiling water in another container (the external container) with lid.

In one of my earlier posts, you saw me using a special apparatus for double-boiling. It is convenient to use but not a must.

Preferably the internal pot is placed on a steel stand rather than by itself in the external container, thus maximizing the surface of the pot in contact with boiling water that surrounds it.

In the above photos, you see me pouring water into the external container, placing a steel stand in it, covering the internal pot with double lids, pointing at the water level, and closing the lid of the external container. The latter is then heated (say, on a stove).

Double-boiling is often adopted for cooking ingredients with high nutrition value. The period of cooking is usually quite long (2 hours in case of the fishhead soup).With double-boiling, the moisture in the ingredients are preserved; and the ingreidents are very slowly cooked to release their nutrients.

The amount of water to be placed in the external container is such that the internal pot is substantially immersed in water. However, leave a certain margin so that the boiling water will not spill over into the internal pot. (You may need to examine it when the water starts to boil, to make sure.)

Water in the external container inevitably evaporates from heating. Since the cooking process is rather long, you need to check the external container (by opening its lid to see) every now and then to ensure that there is sufficient remaining water in the external container.

Sometimes water in the external container becomes fully dried up (because you did not place sufficient water in the first place) If the external container continues to be heated without water in it, there is real danger of fire hazard. Therefore, if you observe that the water in the external container is becoming insufficient, you should pour in additional water (preferably warm water) to continue with the double-boiling process. Meanwhile let the lid(s) of the internal pot remain closed until the end of the intended boiling period.

I would suggest to use an alarm clock/watch to remind yourself (say, every 20 minutes or so) to see if the water in the external container is drying up, as a preventive measure against fire hazard.

(The special double-boiling apparatus which I use has a timer; and will stop boiling automatically at the end of the intended boiling time or when the water in the external container has dried up, whichever comes earlier. Therefore it is safe and convenient to use.)

In both steaming and double-boiling, the internal container is placed on a steel stand and then placed in an external container with water which is heated to boiling. The differences between the two methods of cooking are as follows:

(a) In steaming, the internal container is not covered whereas in double-boiling, the internal container is tightly covered (preferably with double-lids).
(b) The amount of boiling water in the external container for steaming is much less than that in double-boiling. In steaming, the internal container (usually a plate, rather than a pot) is placed above the water level; whereas in double-boiling, the internal container (usually a pot, always closed) is subtantially immersed in water.
In other words, ingredients are heated mainly by steam in one case; and in the other case, heated mainly by boiling water surrounding the internal pot.
(c) The length of time in steaming is not that long, say, 15 or 20 minutes; so as to preserve the freshness of the ingredients. The length of time in double-boiling is usually long, in terms of hours.

I'm afraid that, once again, my descriptions are making things seem more complicated that they really are.

Next time, I'll talk about the finished dish.

Camera not with me

Hong Kong's temperature dropped further today. But I'm feeling OK. The TN monster is not visiting.

I left my camera somewhere. I'll get it back in a couple of days' time. Until then, I won't be writing about double-boiling etc. because I'd like to show some photos when I give explanations.

In the meantime, since I was on the subject of entertainment (namely, seeing performances as mentioned in my last post), maybe I can tell you a bit of news about the entertainment circle in Hong Kong.

Recently, the big news in Hong Kong's show biz is an incident where two young singers - one male, one female - got caught by the Japan police for possession of cannabis when the couple went on a private tour there.

(Remember I told you about the similarity between the Chinese characters of Tin Mah and cannabis?)

The news confirmed people's speculation that the two singers are lovers (which they've always denied).

More importantly, their involvement in drugs is making headline news here, even though the two are not really top singers.

Below is a youtube video regarding the incident as reported on an enterainment channel on TV, in particular a press conference given by the music company (called A-Music) of the girl singer. The singer is called Jill. If you have nothing better to do, perhaps you would be interested to take a look at the video.

Although much of the dialogue in the video is incomprehensible to you because it is in Cantonese, there's a small part which you would understand. It's Jill's father, who is Filipino, speaking in English.

After Jill's father, you'll see the representative of Jill's company speaking rather sternly. He says that Jill's jobs will be suspended for a lengthy period of time when she is released from Japan. He does not rule out the possibility of terminating contract with Jill, subject to further information being known on her involvement in drugs.

Jill's company is taking the matter very seriously because this is already her second involvement in a drug-related scandal. The company considers that such matter should not be tolerated because of its negative effects on Hong Kong's younger generation.

In the video, you'll also hear another name Janice being mentioned. She's Jill's older sister who is also in entertainment biz (not involved in the scandal).

Near the end of the video, you'll see a man leaving Hong Kong's airport. He's Jill's manager making a trip to Japan. He was interviewed again upon arrival in a Japan airport.

As regards the male singer who was caught along with Jill, he belongs to another music company. The latter is also looking into the matter.

Both singers are being held in custody in Japan right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keH2whB5pX8

I'll resume writing about soup-making after I get back my camera. That won't be too long; a couple of days later.

TN patient taking a break

Sorry for taking a break from my writings on soup-making.

These two evenings I saw two performances which were part of this year's Hong Kong Arts Festival.

One is a dance performance by renowned actress Juliette Binoche and Akram Khan (from the UK). Ms Bonoche got an Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in "The English Patient". TN patient seeing the star of the English patient.

Another is "Alice in Wonderland" by the English National Ballet.

These two days the temperature in HK dropped by 5 degrees C. (That's quite a substantial drop for us. I fear cold weather.) There's been a feeling of tightness and a little discomfort on my face. Not serious. But I do fear that the monster may return and again turn into the kind of severe pain I had some weeks ago. (The fish soup is not working?) I'll report if there's any significant change in my condition.

Will continue to talk about double-boiling etc.