The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 147

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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 147

“Of course it’s possible.”

I declared firmly.

How could it be impossible? It’s not like she was asking me to bring someone back from the dead.

Kim Hye-yeong looked at me as if she had seen a savior performing such a miracle.

“However, my role is 30%, and what the patient needs to do directly is over 70%. First, you need to come to treatment diligently, and you also need to fix the habit of tensing your shoulders.”

“Ah…”

I wanted to say I’d meet those expectations and cure everything, but to fix not just the immediate pain but also the appearance, the patient’s own effort was essential.

“The reason only the trapezius muscle develops like this on a thin body is because the other muscles are weak. The trapezius is the largest muscle connecting the neck, shoulders, and back.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“When lifting the shoulders and maintaining proper posture, the trapezius is overworking to cover all the parts that should be handled by the serratus anterior and back muscles. That’s why it keeps developing alone. It’s struggling all by itself, so don’t resent it too much.”

“I should let it rest…”

“Yes, and for that, exercise for balanced development is also essential.”

Kim Hye-yeong nodded her head resolutely.

“Let me check the pressure points once. I’ll massage lightly.”

Since she had already taken off her cardigan, she nodded without hesitation.

“Ahhhhh.”

It was severe, extremely severe.

“How on earth have you been living like this? What attempts have you made to loosen it up so far? This is the most stiff I’ve seen among patients this year.”

Usually, it’s middle-aged men who have stiff shoulders with raised trapezius muscles.

People with sturdy builds who do physical labor, have a mixture of muscle and fat, and have short necks.

Kim Hye-yeong had thin arms and legs, yet only her trapezius was as hard as theirs.

“I’ve gotten massages often, but it only helps temporarily, and when I work, it quickly stiffens up again.”

“Oh my, you must be constantly tensing up while working. As you receive treatment, proper posture will become more comfortable, so please write ‘relax your shoulders’ and stick it in front of your desk and try your best to fix it. For now, I’ll thoroughly loosen the painful areas first.”

“Yes. You’ll do it with acupuncture, right?”

“We’ll need to do acupuncture and chuna together, and cupping too.”

Kim Hye-yeong’s eyelids trembled slightly.

“Is this your first time with acupuncture?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll make it as painless as possible. It would be difficult without acupuncture.”

Even when doing chuna, there’s quite a difference between piercing the muscle knots with acupuncture first and not doing so.

Kim Hye-yeong readily agreed and rubbed her shoulders.

“Then we’ll handle the trapezius like that, and let me look at the other muscles.”

“Other muscles?”

Her face seemed to ask, ‘Didn’t you say they weren’t developed?’

“Being this severe and continuously stiffening isn’t just a problem with the trapezius alone.”

“Huh?”

“Direct treatment of the trapezius is obvious, but if it keeps recurring even after being loosened by hand multiple times, it means there’s stimulation elsewhere too. The first thing to consider would be the sternocleidomastoid muscle.”

The sternocleidomastoid muscle is a neck muscle that attaches from below the ear toward the collarbone, and it often becomes prominent in people under severe stress.

“The sternocleidomastoid and trapezius muscles are both controlled by the spinal accessory nerve. Since this nerve comes down from the head like this, compression at the sternocleidomastoid can cause problems in the trapezius too.”

“Ahhh…”

The spinal accessory nerve is the 11th cranial nerve. I traced the nerve line that runs from the head through the sternocleidomastoid muscle in the neck down to the trapezius along Kim Hye-yeong’s neck and shoulders.

“I see.”

“Turn your head to the right. How does this feel?”

Since both sides weren’t in good condition anyway, I had her turn her head to one side first.

When Kim Hye-yeong turned her head to the right, the left sternocleidomastoid muscle protruded.

I pressed lightly on the upper part of the sternocleidomastoid, right below the ear.

“Ah!”

As expected, she complained of severe tenderness.

“I didn’t know this hurt too.”

“If you received acupressure from a professional massage therapist, they would have worked on this together, but it’s been too long or the sessions weren’t frequent enough…”

“Oh, I didn’t go to a massage parlor. I used to get it done a few times in the neighborhood before, but lately I’ve mostly been getting it from my boyfriend.”

Kim Hye-yeong smiled sheepishly.

Then she hadn’t really experienced proper treatment much.

Even setting aside the appearance, if it was that severe, just sitting still would feel like her shoulders were being pressed down, so it was amazing how she had lived until now.

“I was going to tell you that if this doesn’t work, we’d need long-term treatment of the cervical facet joints, but rather than worry, you might recover quickly. Let’s treat the trapezius and sternocleidomastoid muscles and monitor the progress.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Kim Hye-yeong put her cardigan back on, bowed politely, and left the examination room.

She would have to change into a patient gown soon, but even briefly exposing her shoulders outside seemed to concern her greatly.

* * *

Team Leader Oh and the Clinic Director both said it would be fine.

But once she actually entered the treatment room, Kim Hye-yeong became scared.

“Huh, do I lie face down?”

She thought she would receive it while sitting.

“Very rarely, there are people who get dizzy after acupuncture. If you fall backward while having needles in your neck, it could be serious. So neck and shoulder acupuncture is safer when lying face down.”

“Huh.”

“If lying face down for a long time becomes uncomfortable, please let me know!”

Kim Hye-yeong was startled by the staff member’s words as she handed over the patient gown and helped set up her position.

Even though they said it didn’t happen often, she became even more scared.

“You’re tensing up a lot again just now. Let me feel your shoulders.”

After the staff left, the Clinic Director came inside the curtain and touched her shoulders.

As soon as the hand touched her, she reflexively tried to tense up again, but only realized that she was already in a tense state.

“This is just a precautionary measure, and needle fainting occasionally happens but subsides within a few minutes. Don’t worry and try to relax. While exhaling. Whooo~.”

Kim Hye-yeong followed the Clinic Director and exhaled with a “whooo~.”

“Whooo~.”

As she closed her eyes and focused on breathing, something lightly touched her shoulder.

“One just went in. Are you okay?”

“Oh, is this all there is to it?”

It didn’t hurt at all, contrary to her expectations.

“Yes, I’ll needle a few spots like this. I’ll minimize the number by targeting the most severely knotted areas, so please bear with it for a moment.”

“If it’s like what I just felt, I think I’ll be fine.”

Whooo, whooo.

She received the acupuncture while exhaling and relaxing.

She had to be careful about unconsciously tensing up, but the needle stimulation itself wasn’t severe.

It felt about like being poked with a ballpoint pen?

“Acupuncture is done, and I’ll just do four points of herbal injection. These are the knot points in the sternocleidomastoid and trapezius muscles I mentioned earlier.”

“Oh?”

The herbal injection didn’t hurt much either.

Rather, it felt like something was spreading throughout her shoulder?

She didn’t know much about the human body, but when something enters a muscle, shouldn’t it only spread to the surrounding area?

For some reason, from where the herbal injection was administered, a refreshing sensation spread to her shoulders, back of her neck, and even her head.

Electroacupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, and then chuna therapy.

Electroacupuncture was just a tingling electrical sensation, but strangely, in those moments, a refreshing energy was felt throughout her upper body.

She had a very strong premonition that she would feel refreshed when this was over and she got up.

The moment she got up after lying face down for 20 minutes like that.

“Oh my, my shoulders feel loose!”

Out of habit, she patted the opposite shoulder with one hand.

The heavy feeling had changed somewhat.

When she felt around, she could definitely tell it had become softer.

“Of course it should be loose.”

When she went in for chuna therapy, the final course, and reported her condition, the Clinic Director smiled confidently.

She had come just to try it out as an experience.

Her attitude wasn’t like before – hoping it would work but accepting it if it didn’t.

The treatment was thorough, and didn’t she also tell her to do back exercises? She felt confident that she could really get better if she just did as instructed.

“Then I’ll do the chuna therapy right away. May I lower your clothes?”

“Oh, yes. Yes.”

Kim Hye-yeong sat on the somewhat intimidating-looking bed.

She unbuttoned her patient gown and her shoulders were almost completely exposed.

Would it be like getting put in a headlock?

Cracking bones with crack-crack sounds?

She briefly had such thoughts, but the Clinic Director’s touch was gentle.

“Please tell me if it hurts.”

It was similar to massage.

Rather than kneading with hands, it was rubbing with arms.

The energy spread more gently than when her senior pressed firmly with hand strength.

“Does chuna therapy originally include this kind of treatment too?”

“When necessary. You definitely need to release your upper trapezius muscle.”

It was extremely refreshing.

She thought her boyfriend was also good at massage, but compared to the almost pleasurable refreshing sensation she was feeling now, his was just painful.

Of course, she was grateful just for him doing it.

After releasing both trapezius muscles, she lay down on the bed.

Using similar methods, the sternocleidomastoid and scalene muscles were sequentially released, and then hands moved over her cervical spine.

“I’ll do a simple correction for your turtle neck. It doesn’t hurt, but you might be surprised by the sound. Please relax~.”

Crack-crack-crack.

‘Oh, so they do this too.’

Her neck was bent to both sides.

“Please sit up again. Put your hands behind your head, interlace your fingers, and bring your elbows forward.”

This time, a cracking sound came from her back and her shoulders opened up dramatically.

“That’s it. Try sitting with proper posture.”

Kim Hye-yeong straightened her back and lowered her shoulders while sitting on the chuna bed.

“Oh my, it’s comfortable!”

Surprisingly, it was completely different from when she was sitting at work today.

“Until now, you’ve been working like this, right? With your back hunched, head jutting forward, and shoulders raised.”

The Clinic Director demonstrated Kim Hye-yeong’s usual work posture.

It was a posture where hunched back, protruding turtle neck, and raised trapezius muscles seemed all too natural.

“Yes…”

Kim Hye-yeong answered with great embarrassment.

“You’ll be much more comfortable starting tomorrow. It’ll be even better if you build up your core muscles that help you sit properly.”

“Yes, thank you!”

“If you want to go to a gym, the trainer in the building downstairs is really good. You could also just look it up on YouTube.”

“I’ll register at a gym right away. And I’ll come back regularly for treatment too!”

“Good. See you tomorrow. This was your first time with acupuncture, you did great.”

“Not at all! Thank you for making it painless!”

Kim Hye-yeong rolled her shoulders as she left the examination room.

She was so different from when she came in, completely transformed.

After paying and coming out, she glanced at the elevator mirror.

The size of her trapezius muscles hadn’t noticeably decreased yet.

But the refreshing sensation she felt when the acupuncture needles and the Clinic Director’s hands touched her remained.

She gradually relaxed following that energy.

Wanting to give her shoulders even more relief.

Kim Hye-yeong took off her cardigan and headed to her appointment location.

* * *

“Ugh! We had so many chuna patients today!”

Lee Ahreum said as she finished treatment and came out.

Both she and I had over 10 chuna patients today alone.

“Are you okay? It must be very tiring, right?”

I was fine, but chuna was quite a burden on the practitioner as well.

It was at least harder than giving acupuncture to 3 patients.

Moreover, since Lee Ahreum hadn’t fully mastered the technique yet, even though I told her to spare her joints, she inevitably had to use force.

“There are days when they particularly cluster together. If it gets too hard, you can pass them to me.”

“Not at all! It was great being able to try various techniques! I also had time to connect with patients and have proper conversations. I’ll work even harder to be able to perform necessary treatments quickly and effectively like you do!”

I brought it up meaning she could take it easy, but Lee Ahreum answered even more enthusiastically.

By now her initial excitement should have cooled down, but her eyes sparkled just like during her first interview.

“I’m going to eat jjajangmyeon, would you like to come along?”

“Oh, yes! Yes! That sounds wonderful!”

So I found myself suggesting we have dinner together without thinking.

“Oh, of course if you’re tired you can go home first.”

“I really want to go!”

…Is this why the Department Head always takes new employees to drinking parties?

Being weak to flattery was a big problem.

She seemed sincere, but what if she was just being polite.

“Let’s order all the delicious things. Sweet and sour shrimp and stuff like that.”

“Yes!”

Though I suddenly felt worried, I headed to Yongho Restaurant with Lee Ahreum.

I’ll get to see some familiar faces after a long time.

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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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