The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 115

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 115

Song Jongman said he felt much better subjectively as well.

The chart indicators sent from Sowon General Hospital also clearly showed improvement.

I examined all the blood test results to see if there were any significant changes to be concerned about, but there were no major issues.

I could reasonably judge that the medication dosage was neither excessive nor insufficient.

“I’ll prescribe the same amount for the next 20 days.”

I don’t have much experience with controlling chemotherapy side effects either.

In fact, the patients Professor Lee Juhyeok referred to me after opening my clinic constitute almost all of my direct experience.

For that reason, I referenced many papers and medical cases from Korean medicine doctors working at cancer-specialized Oriental medicine hospitals and convalescent hospitals. I was particularly careful because they often used double the dosage compared to the original prescriptions found in ancient medical texts.

Twenty days passed from that day.

There was no particular contact from either Song Jongman or Professor Lee Juhyeok.

However, a cancer patient in his 40s who shared a hospital room with Song Jongman at Sowon General Hospital came to see me, so I could tell that he was recovering well.

“Hello, this time you came with your wife.”

Song Jongman came to the Oriental Medicine Clinic two days before his medication ran out, on his scheduled consultation day.

This time, since it hadn’t been long since he received his IV treatment, I was worried whether he would be okay.

“Thank you so much, Doctor. My husband has definitely improved since starting treatment here. He eats well now, and he’s even the one suggesting we go for walks.”

Seeing his wife’s joyful reaction put my mind at ease.

“Oh, that’s a relief. Has the difficulty maintaining your balance while walking improved a lot now?”

“Yes. Although some of it remains, I have much more strength to endure it. Haha! Even just this much makes me feel like I’m living like a human being.”

The worry, anxiety, and depression that had been plastered all over Song Jongman’s face had largely disappeared.

“During the break from medication, I felt really good. I only felt a little nauseous when getting up in the morning, but I was fine during daily activities. I thought I could even be discharged.”

“But Professor Lee didn’t allow it?”

“…I got scolded.”

“How did you feel after receiving the IV?”

“Right after, it was inevitably a bit difficult…”

As if the mere thought was dizzying, he pounded his chest and paused.

But when he opened his eyes brightly and spoke, there was vitality in his words.

“I’m more than halfway through now.”

Just changing your mindset like that gives you much more strength to endure.

Symptoms like dizziness and weakness in his limbs had improved a lot, but most encouraging of all was the improvement in his nervous exhaustion.

“How about the profuse sweating?”

“Ah!”

“Is it still uncomfortable?”

“No. It’s the opposite. That wasn’t painful, so I wasn’t paying much attention to it… but the drenching sweat on my head and back has almost completely disappeared!”

“Signs that your energy is returning are appearing in various places. As you said, you’re more than halfway through, so let’s hang in there just a little longer.”

Song Jongman grinned and tried to bow his head.

“Yes, I’m truly grateful, ugh!”

“Don’t make yourself dizzy for no reason! You just stay still.”

His wife grabbed his head.

“Thank you so much. I’ll bow on his behalf. Please continue to take good care of us.”

She stood up abruptly and bowed 90 degrees at the waist.

“It’s thanks to the patient keeping his spirits up and the family’s efforts. Let’s work together until the chemotherapy is finished.”

“Yes! We’ll do our best!”

Song Jongman also answered vigorously.

After the two left the examination room, I wrote a new prescription, adjusting the herbal medicine amounts slightly.

“Did you hear? Just a little more and it’ll be over. Tell our son to book airplane tickets to Finland for next year!”

I could faintly hear Song Jongman boasting in the waiting room.

Just from the energy in his voice, I could tell.

He would endure the treatment well until the end and be able to travel safely.

* * *

“Hmm~.”

I took advantage of a brief break between treatments to catch up on my backlogged charting.

I would run around the treatment room for acupuncture and cupping treatments, and when I had a moment, I’d return to the examination room, but that didn’t mean I could rest.

I had to organize the notes I had hastily scribbled down while talking with new patients, and I also had to record the progress I observed during small talk while treating returning patients.

“Did Hwa-yeong say it got worse around the front of her pelvis? No wait, this was Ga-yeong.”

Tap tap tap tap tap.

I typed at an incredibly fast speed.

If charting gets backed up, billing and settlement get delayed too, and it could make the staff’s departure time late.

“Oh my!”

Since I was busy in my own way, I wasn’t paying much attention to new patients entering the waiting room.

I heard the ding-a-ling sound of the door opening and the bell swaying, but anyway, I had four more treatments before meeting that patient.

“Oh my, what’s going on?”

“Wow…!”

But it was unusually noisy outside.

What?

According to my qi sensing, he was an extremely ordinary citizen. He wasn’t displaying any particularly aggressive energy, nor was he weak like someone on the verge of death.

I slightly opened the door to confirm the patient’s appearance.

“Oh?”

It was a bit unusual.

He was a male patient with hair grown down to his shoulders.

This was certainly an uncommon hairstyle in South Korea.

…But would a long-haired man really cause such a commotion?

That doesn’t seem right?

What, is he another celebrity that only I don’t know about?

I opened the door a bit more.

It was to get a better look at the man’s face.

Then I could see much more.

An oversized cardigan, and underneath it a t-shirt with some bizarre drawing.

He gave off the impression of someone who would do art.

But what stood out much more than his outfit was.

“A sketchbook?”

The sketchbook he was holding against his chest.

“Ah, hello? This is Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic… Have you been here before?”

Seol Yuhui, who was sitting at the desk, greeted the man with great confusion.

“Kyaa, it must be a confession!”

“Shh!”

Sitting in the waiting room is basically boring.

Some of them were getting more excited than expected at this unexpected event, stamping their feet.

‘…Is it really a confession? Coming here so suddenly during work hours?’

He didn’t seem like the type of man who would suit Seol Yuhui.

But who knows, maybe after her health improved, she started going to concerts and having fun?

No, but creating an event by coming to the clinic is a bit…!

Right then, the sketchbook page was turned.

I was so curious about the contents that I opened the door completely and walked toward the desk.

[Hello, my name is Kim Taeyun.]

“Ah, yes… Hello, Mr. Kim Taeyun.”

Seol Yuhui’s eyes shook, not knowing where to look.

Her face showed she had no idea what was going on.

She grabbed Seo Inae’s sleeve, who was standing beside her, as if asking for help.

At the same time, Kim Taeyun turned another page of his sketchbook.

[I came because my voice is hoarse. I’ll take out my ID.]

…Ah?

“Ah, ah, ahh! Yes! I’ll process your registration right away. Please wait just a moment!”

Perhaps very embarrassed by the misunderstanding, Seol Yuhui’s face turned bright red as she received his ID.

“What? What’s happening?”

“A roundabout rejection…?”

The patients in the waiting room, who couldn’t see the sketchbook’s contents due to the angle, whispered among themselves, but Kim Taeyun didn’t say a word.

No, if he could speak, he probably wouldn’t have prepared the sketchbook in the first place.

But even so, a sketchbook was excessive.

It wasn’t strange at all that Seol Yuhui, myself, and the other patients in the waiting room mistook it for some kind of event.

Why would he prepare something like that when he has a perfectly good phone?

“Doctor, patient in bed 1 needs acupuncture.”

I wanted to watch a bit more, but there were many patients waiting for me in the treatment room.

I didn’t have time to leisurely wait around, so I hurried off to perform acupuncture.

* * *

After performing acupuncture treatment and seeing two more new patients, it was finally Kim Taeyun’s turn.

“Please sit over here.”

He bowed to me and then sat in the chair I indicated.

Then he took out the same sketchbook from before and flipped through several pages.

[I am a vocalist in a band. I sang too much and my voice became hoarse.]

He even prepared lines for the examination room.

I nodded and wrote down his occupation and symptoms.

[A YouTuber I like to watch takes Ryukakusan when his voice gets hoarse, so I tried it too, and it was effective at first.]

Oh, Ryukakusan ?

I know about that.

Of course, I’m much more familiar with it as Gamgil-tang , a prescription from the Treatise on Cold Damage.

[But after practicing singing a lot, I felt it wasn’t enough. When I looked it up online, they said you should take the powder form rather than Ryukakusan candy, and you shouldn’t drink water afterward.]

Hmm? Is that really true?

I searched without letting the patient see.

The explanation about Ryukakusan said this:

The powder comes into direct contact with the throat mucosa during the process of swallowing with saliva, which is how it takes effect, so drinking water immediately after taking Ryukakusan would render it ineffective.

“That’s not necessarily true. Originally, Gamgiltang is a decoction, so-.”

I tried to explain something, but two-way communication with Kim Taeyun was impossible.

He flipped to another page in his sketchbook.

[I also heard that Hyangseongpajeok-hwan is better for hoarse voices from singing. They say there’s even a famous singer who cured vocal cord nodules with it.]

I nodded.

“Both are good, but Hyangseongpajeok-hwan has a few more medicinal ingredients.”

The sketchbook pages continued to turn.

[So I wanted to receive treatment at an oriental medicine clinic to see which of the two would be more appropriate, and get a prescription if possible.]

[But I heard you have to prepare herbal medicine in monthly batches? I want to take Ryukakusan as powder and Hyangseongpajeok-hwan as pills.]

[While searching, I found Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic’s Instagram, which said you have a separate herbal preparation room and can prescribe medicine in all forms – decoctions, pills, and powders – so I came here.]

Huh? We advertised that on Instagram…?

Or maybe Chu Miyoung wrote it after announcing the news about hiring a traditional medicine pharmacist?

While we each operated our own blogs separately, Chu Miyoung managed the clinic’s integrated Instagram account.

She had given the login information to the other directors too, but neither Kim Chunsik nor I were regular Instagram users, so we weren’t familiar with the system.

Ah, maybe An Juhui is different? She might have posted it herself.

“Yes, making it into pill or powder form isn’t difficult.”

Anyway, it was possible. I hadn’t prescribed Ryukakusan yet, but I had prescribed Eungyo-san for throat colds, and I’d also prescribed topical skin treatments in ointment form. As for pills, I’d prescribed countless numbers of them.

If I just wrote the prescription, An Juhui would make the medicine in whatever form was needed.

At my confirmation that it was possible, Kim Taeyun flipped through several pages of his sketchbook.

[Thank you!]

It was a simple greeting for all the effort he’d put into searching.

Having been rejected once at another oriental medicine clinic, it seemed he had prepared two versions in his sketchbook – one for rejection and one for acceptance.

“The original form of Ryukakusan is a decoction called Gamgiltang, and since it works by being absorbed through the digestive system, it’s not ineffective just because it’s not in powder form. Of course, there is also the effect of acting directly on the mucous membranes, so if you prefer, I’ll naturally give it to you in powder form.”

Kim Taeyun nodded.

He meant he wanted it as powder medicine.

“Since we’re making a new prescription rather than using a ready-made product, we can tailor it to your condition. I’ll listen to see which of the two is closer to your symptoms, and if there are any additional herbs needed, I’ll add them.”

Ryukakusan is strictly speaking a product name, not a prescription name.

It’s a powder medicine from a Japanese pharmaceutical company that originally got its name from containing dragon bone, dragon brain, and deer antler gelatin… but those ingredients were all removed, and the current form contains Gamgiltang with apricot kernel and Senega (Polygala senega Linne) root, which Native Americans used for throat inflammation.

Even though it’s a Japanese medicine, it seems to be officially imported and sold in some pharmacies in Korea, so it can be obtained easily enough if you want it.

But the fact that he specifically came to an oriental medicine clinic that could compound medicines meant he was either more drawn to Hyangseongpajeok-hwan or wanted a custom prescription.

As I expected, Kim Taeyun nodded vigorously.

“But do you currently have vocal cord nodules? Are you just resting your voice? Can you not speak at all?”

I asked for more details about his symptoms.

Kim Taeyun then placed his hand near his chest and looked around left and right.

Had he not written about his actual symptoms in the sketchbook?

“I can still speak.”

Just as I offered him a pen, Kim Taeyun opened his mouth.

“If it’s difficult to speak, please use this to write.”

“…!”

He politely accepted the pen and began writing earnestly.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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