The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 129

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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 129

“Are you sprawled out like a pig again?”

Her first memory in life was Father’s verbal abuse.

“Honey! Heejoo isn’t asleep yet…!”

That one careless remark was deeply etched into young Shin Heejoo’s mind.

“What time is it and you’re still not sleeping?”

“She’s staying up this late because she wants to see you! Come home early for once. Who were you with again today…”

“Ah, with you being so fat and flabby, would I want to come home?”

Mother and Father had a very bad relationship.

At one time Mother tried to hide it, but Father soon began hurling harsh words not only at his wife but also at his children.

“Are you eating like that because you want to get fat like your mother?”

She had just happened to wake up at night.

Shin Heejoo only wanted to drink some water, but she found jelly in the refrigerator and had just taken one bite.

“…I’m sorry.”

Her heart dropped with a thud.

Father eventually had an affair and left home.

Mother decided on divorce.

But Shin Heejoo couldn’t forget the emotions of that day even after becoming an adult.

* * *

Shin Heejoo’s mother raised her siblings by running a soup restaurant.

“Wow~ You’re such a glutton!”

First year of middle school. These were the words she heard after bringing a friend she’d gotten somewhat close to to Mother’s restaurant.

“Oh, did I eat too hastily?”

How had she been eating? Did it look that disgusting?

“Wow, a pig eating pork soup like a pig!”

“Right, no wonder it smelled like pig!”

A nickname that stuck because she was the soup restaurant owner’s daughter.

Every time she heard that word, Shin Heejoo would flinch and tremble.

A new wound had formed next to the dagger her father had stabbed into her heart in childhood.

Dozens more daggers were stabbed after that, and careless words people threw around left wounds both big and small.

“Are you really 48 kilos? If you’re 48 kilos, shouldn’t you have no belly fat at all?

Words from her first trashy boyfriend.

Shin Heejoo broke up with him immediately. There was no point in stupidly enduring it like Mother – the ending was obvious.

She quickly met someone else.

This time it was a pretty decent person.

“Honey~ Today’s our 100th day, so let’s go eat spaghetti and steak!”

“I’m on a diet, so noodles are a bit…”

“Then I’ll eat and you can have a salad?”

“There’s dressing though. It’s hard when I’m in front of food… Let’s just walk in the park.”

“No, eat something on a day like this! How long are you going to diet? You’re nothing but bones right now!”

“Sorry, I can’t control my appetite well.”

“Just break up!”

But her cursed gluttony made her partner sick of her, and she ruined everything again.

“Wow, you’re so slim? Can I hold your wrist?”

Even so, she continued meeting strange men through dating apps.

While she got angry when she heard rude comments, she felt good when she got first impressions about being thin.

“How do you get thinner every time I see you?”

Her friends gave similar compliments too.

“What do you mean thin. It’s just because I’m covering up. I have a lot of fat too.”

“Heejoo doesn’t eat much anyway~ Still, you should force yourself to eat~ I’m worried about your health, girl~”

Sometimes there were tempting hands like that, trying to turn her back into a pig.

She had just barely become acceptable to look at, but now they were calling her fat too.

“Uurgh!”

After meeting such friends and pretending she naturally didn’t gain weight while eating cake,

Shin Heejoo always threw up what she had eaten.

She should have just not eaten it.

But it looked so delicious. It actually was delicious.

She absolutely couldn’t resist.

‘I threw it all up, right?’

This week she had no snacks at all except for cake. So why wasn’t the flab coming off?

Was it because of things she ate before and didn’t throw up?

Detox juice? Would toxins come out if she drank that?

Shin Heejoo used money earned from part-time jobs to buy all kinds of products with ‘diet’ in the name.

When I sat in a chair, I hated how terribly my belly fat would fold.

When I undressed to shower, seeing my fat legs in the mirror drove me crazy too.

Then one day.

“Ta-da~ Don’t I look different?”

“What? How did your face become half the size?”

“Hehe, I lost 10kg!”

The friend who used to annoy Shin Heejoo by forcing her to eat had come back having lost weight.

I thought she’d stay a pig forever eating like that, but she lost 10kg so quickly?

“How did you do it? Fasting? Exercise?”

“Not quite fasting~! When I told my mom I wanted to lose weight, she took me to this super famous Oriental Medicine Clinic in Gangnam and got me herbal medicine, plus signed me up for PT! After taking the medicine, I didn’t think about food at all? So I just ate half of what I normally ate while exercising and the weight came off quickly!”

“Where is that place?”

“Heejoo, you’re already skinny though~.”

“Ah, not for dieting, I want to consult about something else.”

“Right girl, you need to increase your appetite instead!”

When I got the name from my friend and searched it up, it was a very famous place.

Why didn’t I know about this until now?

Shin Heejoo took the Saemaul train up to Seoul.

“Going from 70kg to 60kg is completely different from going from 44kg to 34kg. The latter would be a disaster. Dieting at your current weight is a bit…”

“I won’t go down to 34kg. I’ll just lose down to 40kg and maintain that.”

“That’s also excessive. You have absolutely no weight to lose, patient.”

“Look at this belly fat and thigh fat I have right now! This is all fat, so how can you say there’s nothing to lose?!”

“Please wait a moment.”

The Korean Medicine Doctor who had been reluctant at first looked troubled and stepped outside briefly.

Then he soon returned with a piece of paper.

“Then let’s start with a mild level first to test for side effects, then gradually increase it over about 3 months…”

“I don’t have money to take it for that long. Please give me the strongest dose!”

“Understood. If you experience side effects like insomnia or palpitations, please cut the dose in half.”

“Oh?”

“Our clinic requires your agreement that we have fully disclosed the side effects, and we bear no responsibility if problems occur due to these disclosed effects.”

It was a waiver.

The content stated that there was no medical responsibility if disclosed side effects occurred, and exchanges or refunds were impossible for such reasons.

“Ah~ I’ll sign it! Thank you!”

Shin Heejoo happily signed and received the medicine.

When she took it, food really didn’t appeal to her.

Even with cake in front of her, her mouth just felt astringent and dazed.

So great! I should have gotten help sooner!

If there was any side effect, it was just not being able to sleep?

When she called for consultation, they said it was an overdose and told her to reduce the medicine, but she didn’t listen.

Wouldn’t staying awake actually increase her basal metabolism? The only problem was getting extremely hungry when the evening medicine’s effects wore off.

Ah, this won’t do.

I’ll eat just a little and throw up right away.

“Heejoo, please… you look terrible right now.”

“What’s wrong with how I look? I’m healthier than ever.”

“Heejoo!”

But unfortunately, Mother caught her in that state.

“Do you know how much this cost?!”

The next day when she returned from her part-time job, all the medicine had been thrown away.

“Heejoo, I looked up this clinic and there’s a lot of bad talk about it. Let’s go somewhere else with mom. Okay? I’ll get you new medicine. You need to sleep while losing weight.”

She was furious.

But she didn’t have money to go back to Seoul again.

She wanted to storm out of the house in anger, but had nowhere to go.

Shin Heejoo had to follow her mother to a new Oriental Medicine Clinic.

* * *

“So you think your appetite is excessive and your digestive function is fine. Sleep is poor. Even when not taking medicine you didn’t sleep very well, but after taking medication you’re only getting 2-3 hours of sleep.”

“That’s right. I have some constipation, so please make it so everything gets flushed out from below too.”

Eating tiny amounts like a mouse tail, how could there not be constipation?

After preventing the mother and daughter from fighting in the examination room, I conducted an initial consultation, but there wasn’t a single healthy aspect.

“If you lose more weight here, it won’t be the fat your body stored for reserves that burns, but problems will occur with essential components. Your muscle mass is already at dangerous levels, and you have anemia too, right? At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before your organs are affected.”

“Right? Her pulse isn’t good either, is it?”

At Mother’s request, I checked her pulse.

Of course it would obviously be bad… but it was beyond just bad.

“It’s not a matter of time – it’s already reached that point. I can feel a true organ pulse.”

“What’s that?”

How should I explain this? A true organ pulse is a pulse condition where the true qi of the five organs is severely exposed, appearing when the stomach qi that protects them is severed – a very serious pulse.

“In terms of pulse condition, you’re no different from someone about to die, Ms. Shin Heejoo.”

“…”

“I’m not exaggerating to give you shock therapy. At this rate, you won’t make it past thirty.”

“…So that means you can’t give me diet pills?”

Shin Heejoo’s eyes rolled back.

I can’t give it to her. Of course I can’t.

Reducing her appetite here would be like stabbing someone who’s already dying to make sure they die.

“You’re in a state of malnutrition. Far from dieting, we need to increase your appetite—”

“Who asked about medical standards? I said I want to reach my ideal weight!”

She’s already below her ideal weight.

“What kind of ideal body are you thinking of?”

“Here, about like this person.”

At this point, it was clear her perception was distorted.

The foreign woman in Shin Heejoo’s phone was thin, of course, but her complexion looked fine.

“You’re thinner than this person. Even in a crop top, her ribs barely show.”

“…? She has no belly fat.”

“Neither do you.”

“But I can feel it?!”

Shin Heejoo grabbed my hand to make me check, but it was really just skin that could be pinched.

“This is what ‘none’ means. Without even this much fat, your internal organs won’t be protected. To not protrude when seen from the side, you shouldn’t eliminate even this and leave only skin—you need abs to hold it in. Look.”

I lifted my shirt and showed her my own stomach.

I didn’t expect this would completely correct her perception, but it did have some effect.

Her eyes trembled as if confused.

I went with a direct approach.

“Stop dieting immediately and eat nutritious food. I’ll prescribe medicine that’s both treatment and tonic for recovery—”

“I don’t need it.”

“You’re currently unable to judge what your body needs. Whether you’re healthy or not, fat or thin.”

“When I obviously have this much fat, how can I not judge? Are you saying I’m mentally ill?”

“It is a pathological state. Your brain function needs to recover through adequate meals and sleep before you can judge properly. Anorexia actually causes problems in brain neural networks.”

“It’s not anorexia, I’m choosing to vomit myself…!”

Convincing Shin Heejoo right now is impossible.

“You can think that way. The obsession you feel about body shape and eating isn’t your fault either. You won’t understand, my words will seem absurd, and you might feel wronged. Still, the way to change this situation isn’t diet pills, but proper diet and sleep.”

If she were in a state where logical conversation worked, she’d know from the numbers on the scale alone that she’s not overweight.

“Shin Heejoo, if you keep not sleeping like this, you’ll collapse within a week.”

For whatever reason, if sleeping less than two hours a day continues, there’s no way to endure it.

And not eating on top of that?

“…”

I clearly warned her of the situation’s severity.

“Go home and think it over carefully. I’ll give you three days’ worth first. Keep it with you, and when you feel like you want to sleep properly, take the medicine right away and come back.”

I gave her time.

Shin Heejoo, who had been angrily shouting just moments before, hesitated.

Her pupils had been trembling since earlier, and her teeth chattered several times.

“I’m perfectly fine…”

Hesitating over what response to give, she eventually closed her mouth and stood up from her seat.

Then she left the examination room.

Only her poor mother remained, restlessly looking back and forth between the examination room door and me.

“Doctor, what you said earlier about not living past thirty…”

“I was serious. In the old days, she would have died within six months in this condition. If it continues just a little longer like this, she’ll collapse frequently and be in and out of the emergency room. She might survive by supplementing nutrition with IV fluids, but…”

Anorexia kills not only through malnutrition but also frequently through suicide.

Since there were no immediate warning signs, I held back my words.

“Since I spoke strongly, please continue to support her emotionally. If she asks whether she looks thin, please tell her yes.”

“It’s, it’s all because of me. Because of the family environment…”

Shin Heejoo’s mother wiped away tears as she confided about their family situation.

“Even if it started with psychological factors, if we fix the body first, cognitive function will recover too. Let’s wait for now. There will be a response.”

“…Yes. Please, I beg you to help her.”

A patient with no insight into her illness and no will to be treated.

A very difficult case with complex mental and physical symptoms.

But there is a way.

I could see clear potential for change in Shin Heejoo.

She can be treated.

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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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