The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 127

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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 127

Captain of Busan BUK, Lee Sora.

She was a veteran who had played for BUK for over 10 years and received love from many fans.

Now she’s the player Busan fans love most, and she made her name known through her Olympic participation, but.

Lee Sora had a period early in her professional career where she only trained for quite a long time without being able to participate in official games.

She didn’t think that was a problem then, and she doesn’t think so now.

Through training, she improved her skills thanks to guidance from coaches and seniors, and later gained experience in professional games and world competitions to reach where she is today.

BUK is a strong team, and each starter is formidable.

So it’s perfectly natural that new players can’t become starters right away.

Until a rookie joined just one year ago, she had thought that way.

“This kid is really crazy. We absolutely have to put her in the starting lineup. Absolutely!”

But Kim Ijin was different.

High school basketball MVP? There’s one of those every year.

But Kim Ijin’s excellence was simply unbelievable for someone who was only twenty years old.

Her height is 183cm. In Korean women’s professional basketball, that’s just slightly above average. Not much different from Lee Sora either.

But her jumping ability was so good that when fighting in front of the basket, it felt like facing a foreign player who was 2 meters tall.

Speed and strength were also top-tier. Her endurance was phenomenal.

There were those who said she relied only on her physicality based on her high school videos, that her game management was lacking, but anyway it would be 10 years before she could lead teamwork as captain.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be this year, does it?”

“Even for our team, benching Lee Jin would be wasteful.”

Lee Sora strongly advocated for putting Kim Ijin in the starting lineup.

The director used her as the sixth man.

– She’s truly a monster rookie! Player Kim Ijin! BUK’s Kim Ijin!

Once again, Lee Sora confirmed that her eye for talent wasn’t wrong.

It was finally the beginning of the birth of the next generation star player.

“Going to the oriental medicine clinic again? You’re not injured, right? You need to report your condition accurately to the team.”

This Kim Ijin had a peculiar jinx… she would go out whenever she had the chance.

At first, she thought Kim Ijin was just making hospital excuses. Wouldn’t a rookie be reluctant to say she was going out to have fun?

“I’m not injured. My ankle ligament is just slightly swollen.”

“What? You twisted it? Let me see.”

Lee Sora was startled and examined Kim Ijin’s ankle, but.

“…?”

“It’s not visible swelling.”

It was fine.

“Sorry, Captain… She’s a bit like that. She says she can feel every change that happens in her body.”

Instead of the calm Kim Ijin, her peer Myeong Seonju frantically made excuses for her.

Myeong Seonju had the advantage in height and build. Despite her appearance, she seemed to have a somewhat weak mentality which was worrying, but she was a player who quickly pulled herself together and worked hard.

“What does that mean?”

“It’s probably not malingering. I followed her last time and she really went to an oriental medicine clinic, and after getting treatment there, she was definitely in peak condition. She really performs well.”

“Really?”

“Yes. After I received treatment there too, even when I get a little nervous, the symptoms don’t show up physically anymore.”

Hmm? It wasn’t something she overcame with willpower, but she received treatment at the same oriental medicine clinic?

Due to the nature of being athletes, injuries are frequent, so everyone usually has a regular hospital, but Kim Ijin’s love for the oriental medicine clinic was a bit excessive.

She thought it was like a jinx that she kept going, but they must really treat her well?

“Could I come along too?”

Suddenly Lee Sora became curious.

“Captain, are you hurt somewhere?”

For some reason, Kim Ijin sent a slightly wary look.

“My neck, shoulders, and back are always stiff. It would be nice to get some chuna treatment.”

“I’ll ask about it.”

You can just go to a hospital, what’s there to ask about?

* * *

As promised, Kim Ijin came to the oriental medicine clinic with Lee Sora.

“Wow! Player Lee Sora! Could I get your autograph?”

I had added 10 sports channels to my YouTube subscription list over the past few days.

I studied the history of Korean women’s professional basketball and Olympic participation records, so naturally I came to know the face of Lee Jin’s team captain.

“Of course~ Wow, many celebrities have been here too? Will my autograph be hung here too?”

“If you’ll allow it!”

“Wow, it’s an honor.”

“Oh no, I’m honored to have a national representative receive treatment here.”

Lee Sora skillfully signed her autograph.

But behind her, didn’t Kim Ijin’s face look quite displeased?

“Lee Jin’s autograph too! Please!”

“Do I really need to…”

“Lee Jin is a superstar~!”

Hmm, their relationship isn’t very good, is it?

It’s not because I didn’t give her chuna treatment, but she’s… jealous of the Captain?

She acted the same way when I taught Myeong Seonju breathing techniques to relax! There seemed to be subtle competition among the team members.

“How would you like to handle the examination? Should I see Sora separately?”

I asked Lee Sora.

Would she also feel uncomfortable with her junior around?

When a guardian accompanies a patient, I usually let them into the examination room together, but if there’s even a hint of awkwardness, I send the companion out.

“What? I don’t mind at all!”

Lee Sora seemed completely unbothered.

“What brings you here today? What’s bothering you?”

Her symptoms were quite ordinary.

“It’s not severely painful, but my back and shoulders are always stiff. I guess it’s because I exercise a lot, right? I came along thinking chuna treatment might help loosen them up.”

“Ah, of course that’s possible.”

Push , pull .

Isn’t pushing and pulling the essence of chuna treatment?

In chiropractic, they call it by fancy names like rolfing or myofascial release therapy.

“But if your only goal is to loosen the muscles, acupuncture can achieve that too. Let me examine you first to see if we need to include correction treatment.”

Many Korean medicine doctors perform chuna treatment for muscle relaxation purposes.

So this is purely my personal preference, but.

If a condition can be treated with acupuncture, pharmacopuncture, or chuna, I prefer them in that order: acupuncture > pharmacopuncture > chuna.

Unless correction is absolutely necessary, like realigning the spine, I don’t readily recommend it to patients.

It’s also more convenient to insert needles into acupoints when channeling or controlling energy.

It also takes much more treatment time.

There’s also a cost difference. Insurance does cover it, but it’s still more expensive than acupuncture, isn’t it?

I tell Hwang Sanghun not to overdo it unless absolutely necessary. While stamina isn’t a major concern for me, it’s at least three times more exhausting for the Korean medicine doctor performing the procedure.

“Please stand up straight and relaxed.”

I had Lee Sora stand up and began with the examination.

“You have a slight straight neck, don’t you? Ideally, when viewed from the side, the earlobe and the center of the collarbone should form a straight line.”

“Ah, that’s right. When I had an X-ray taken for a shoulder injury before, they said the same thing. I probably had it since I was young.”

“Let me have you bend your back once.”

I observed how the pelvis shifted when the lumbar spine flexed.

“Please lie face down.”

I had her lie on the bed and examined her again.

“Is it misaligned?”

“There’s no scoliosis, but your pelvis is slightly twisted. Looking at it this way, your left leg appears a bit shorter, right?”

Kim Ijin stood beside me and confirmed the difference in Lee Sora’s leg lengths.

“Oh, you’re right.”

“This degree of difference isn’t severe, but it looks that way because the left pelvis is elevated. Bend your knees and relax. I’ll try moving them forward.”

“Okay.”

“The right side moves much further forward, right? You can think of it as being rotated slightly forward.”

“Ah.”

Lee Sora, lying face down, nodded with her face buried in the chuna bed.

“This degree of misalignment is present in most people, so it’s not severe. But it would be good to do some correction for the straight neck and straight back. When you lose the spinal curves, gravity isn’t distributed well, so more weight load is placed on you. You’re also tall and exercise a lot, so that puts more strain on your neck and back.”

“Oh, really?”

Lee Sora got up from the bed and felt her own back.

She had occasion to get neck X-rays before, but apparently didn’t know about her straight back.

“After the treatment, my body balance should improve, right? The corrected state won’t feel awkward and reduce my athletic performance, will it…? I’m worried since it’s during the season.”

“That won’t happen. It will definitely be better than before the treatment.”

“Then I’ll do the correction too!”

Since she came intending to receive chuna treatment anyway, Lee Sora agreed to the correction treatment.

“The muscle relaxation will be quick, and the correction will also be aligned temporarily. But it will return to its original state as you go about your daily life, so you’ll need to repeat it several times to maintain it.”

“Yes.”

Kim Ijin, sitting in the chair, watched Lee Sora and me with somewhat envious eyes.

Hmm, should I have sent her to the treatment room first?

Having nothing to fix is actually a good thing!

I used my hands, gua sha tools, and a percussion gun to first loosen the muscles in her neck and shoulders.

This was both to relieve muscle pain and because muscles that are too stiff can actually cause injury during correction.

Next came pelvic correction using the chuna bed’s drop mechanism.

This method used the rebound from the separated bed’s pelvic section dropping down with a thud! to lower the elevated pelvis.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

When doing it by hand, I had to use much more force, but having the machine really makes it better.

I also rotated the sacrum that was twisted along with the misaligned pelvis.

After making contact with both sides of the lumbar spine, I used the drop mechanism to create lumbar flexion.

For the neck… thrust would be better than drop correction since drop would be painful.

Crack! Pop!

I performed thrust techniques on the lumbar, thoracic, and cervical spine in that order. This was to release adhered soft tissues while correcting the twisted alignment.

“Let me have you sit up.”

“Wow, it feels so refreshing. It’s so comfortable when I turn my head!”

As the muscle tension she originally wanted resolved was released, Lee Sora was extremely satisfied.

“Straightening my back and stretching my shoulders wide feels so much more comfortable too? Ah, how did I live like this? I feel like I’ve been reborn from an ape back into a human!”

Moreover, while correction effects usually aren’t immediately noticeable, perhaps because she was an athlete sensitive to bodily changes, she even noticed the subtle realignment adjustments.

“You’ll feel it even more when you exercise. Thank you for enduring the chuna treatment, now let’s go get acupuncture.”

“Yes!”

So I sent Lee Sora out to receive physical therapy first.

“How about you, Lee Jini? Is your condition okay these days?”

I observed Kim Ijin, who was strangely sulking.

She gets upset quite easily, doesn’t she?

No wait, she’s usually bright-eyed when she comes alone. It seemed like she pouted every time she came with someone.

“My ankle is just slightly stiff. It feels like the ligaments might be swollen too? I think training was a bit excessive the day before yesterday.”

“I see. Let’s go to the Treatment Room and I’ll treat it.”

…More than that, to immediately sense stagnant qi. She really was extraordinary.

“Let me check your pulse after a long time. Close your eyes and breathe comfortably.”

How much internal energy had she accumulated?

Even if I taught her properly, I didn’t think her efficiency in accumulating qi would be that high.

I took her pulse and carefully let my energy flow in.

“Oh?”

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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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