Dear Readers,

Nowadays, even though when a layman can search for information of medical “diseases” (疾病) from the internet, many people actually do not know what to do when they experience bodily “symptoms” (病癥) or “signs” (病狀). They are “anxious” (焦慮) whether they should wait and see, or should “seek medical advice” (求診) ASAP (as soon as possible), or what are the “First Aid” (急救) methods that they can help themselves. This is of particular importance to those who are abroad, either as travelers, overseas students or immigrants. Very often they do not know how to express their “symptoms” in English clearly to the doctors at the “consultation room” (診室) or at the “Accident & Emergency Department” (急症室) of the “General Hospitals” (全科醫院).

It is how this new monthly column in English “Flora in Medicine” 「醫學萬花筒」 begins, with the aim of helping an ordinary person to know how to help themselves when they do experience unexpected physical discomfort. When and where to seek help, and how to express themselves to their physicians (doctors) so as to help them make accurate “diagnosis” (斷症), so as to avoid unnecessary anxiety or “investigations” (檢查). We are very fortunate to have a number of experienced Christian doctors who are willing to help and to provide their expertise in “general medical practice” (通科). Nevertheless, they would remain anonymous so as to avoid unnecessary personal publicity. We will concentrate on management of “symptoms” and signs”, and not on particular diseases. Please note that they would just try to provide general good medical advice, with no intention to treat individual patients, who should if needed seek direct help from their “family doctors” (家庭醫生).

This is also our first attempt to write in English, with Chinese translation of all medical terms as far as possible. We pray that this could help our readers when they travel to other countries, that they can express their bodily discomfort better in the universal English language, or to find good medical advice searching through English webpages.

Please feel free to give us some feedbacks so we can improve this column in the future. May God bless all our writers and our readers!

Editor.
January, 2018