The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 161

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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 161

 

Im Suchul was a man who had lived his 45 years of life busily.

 

During his school days, he studied desperately with the goal of lifting up his struggling household, and after getting into university, he helped his parents’ business whenever he had time.

 

While others were overwhelmed just by studying and often failed their grades, Im Suchul received scholarships while taking on all sorts of odd jobs in his spare time.

 

After graduation, he planned to solve his military service as a public health doctor like ordinary male Korean medicine doctors and then open his practice.

 

However, during his 3 years as a public health doctor, he became heavily involved in his parents’ business.

 

Before he knew it, he was doing more work than his father, who was the president.

 

“Suchul, if you leave, we’d have to hire 3 or 4 more people. They won’t work as hard as you do… Things are going well, so why don’t you continue? I’ll pass the business to you.”

 

“I have no intention of inheriting it.”

 

“Then help me for just 1 or 2 years. Just until things settle down.”

 

Twenty years ago, when there were only a few Korean Traditional Medicine Universities. Back then, the expected income for Korean medicine doctors opening practices was much higher than now.

 

But even considering that, the business was doing too well. In other words, there was an enormous amount of work.

 

If Im Suchul left, would his father, the president, be able to hold things together?

 

His father had already failed at business several times before he started helping. He was certain the business would collapse in less than a year.

 

What he had planned to be just 1 or 2 years of helping his parents before opening his practice had become 15 years.

 

After various discussions, his company decided to transfer management rights to a mid-sized company that wanted to acquire them under reasonably good conditions.

 

His parents were getting old and had no more regrets.

 

Im Suchul wanted to spend the rest of his life as a Korean Medicine Doctor.

 

When he told this story to his mentor, the mentor clicked his tongue saying that at barely 40, he still had as much life ahead as he’d already lived.

 

But Im Suchul was sincere.

 

He had set his heart on the medical profession, and he had long since graduated from school.

 

Even while running the business, he couldn’t let go of his passion and often went to substitute for others or attend lectures.

 

Finally able to achieve his long-held dream, he prepared enthusiastically for opening his practice.

 

Since he had spent his life in business, and all his classmates he was in contact with had already opened practices, it wasn’t difficult to seek advice.

 

“You’re someone who’s already made enough money! You could just take it easy!”

 

“If I had that intention, I wouldn’t have opened a practice in the first place.”

 

“There are too many enthusiastic young guys like you, Suchul, making things difficult for us…”

 

He thoroughly prepared every process from finding a location, to interior design, hiring staff, creating systems, and marketing.

 

If he had intended to work carelessly like his friends suggested, he wouldn’t have been able to lead the business in the first place.

 

If he had the mindset of taking it easy since he’d done enough, he would have just lived comfortably on rental income and dividends.

 

Anyway, he opened his practice.

 

Contrary to his classmates’ warnings about how difficult it was to start a practice, quite a few patients came.

 

Since it was a neighborhood with many factory workers doing physical labor, there were considerable acupuncture patients.

 

When people occasionally wanted to take medicine, he would prescribe tonics like Ssanghwatang or modified Bojungikgi-tang, and they would invariably be pleased, saying it gave them energy.

 

Meanwhile.

 

The fact that Im Suchul could focus solely on work for such a long period was inseparable from his family’s help.

 

Even though they used a housekeeper, with a child involved, there were quite a few things that required parental attention.

 

So with a heart wanting to repay them, even modestly, he suggested to his wife and mother-in-law that they take about a month-long overseas trip.

 

“When Eunyeong says she wants to eat something, go to the side dish store next to the playground, and on weekends you need to run the laundry one more time, and… what else was there? I’ll change the academy contact to your number, so if they call, please answer…”

 

He realized there were more household matters to pay attention to than he thought.

 

“Dad, I don’t have any short sleeves left. Can I wear yours?”

 

“No way! I mean, how many times do you change clothes in a day… Do you really sweat this much?”

 

And he learned that he had been far too indifferent to his daughter.

 

Im Suchul was shocked to see his daughter change her outdoor clothes three times a day.

 

Even though it was summer, to this extent?

 

Im Suchul also had a constitution with a lot of heat and sweating.

 

Having grown up in the countryside as a child, he used to run around wearing just an undershirt and jump into the valley when it got hot.

 

Even now, since he sweated a lot, he had to be careful by washing frequently and spraying deodorant.

 

“Are you hot even just sitting like this now? Do you also have… I mean, feeling stuffy from the heat, being thirsty as if burning, things like that?”

 

“Not to the point of burning, but I always want to drink cold water.”

 

But his daughter was much worse.

 

And unlike Im Suchul’s childhood, she couldn’t just strip off her clothes and jump into a valley when it got hot.

 

It wasn’t a disease, but he determined that treatment was necessary.

 

‘For spontaneous sweating, Okbyeongpungsan, for night sweats, Danggwiyukhwang-tang… No, this isn’t right. No matter how I look at it, this isn’t sweating from deficiency.’

 

The prescription patterns he had mindlessly memorized while studying for the national exam suddenly came to mind, but thinking calmly, he needed to distinguish between deficiency and excess first.

 

To clear excess heat, would Baekho-tang? Jukyeopseokgo-tang? These types would be right?

 

“Ugh, it tastes bad!”

 

“You’ll feel less hot and uncomfortable. Try to bear with it and drink it.”

 

So he prescribed Baekho-tang to his daughter.

 

“How do you feel? If the heat you initially felt was 10, what would you say it is now?”

 

“10.”

 

“Really 10? No change at all?”

 

“Um… 9.5?”

 

But both subjectively and from observing how much she sweated.

 

There was no significant change.

 

‘Was my diagnosis wrong? Should I have her take it for a longer period?’

 

Im Suchul fell into anguish.

 

‘I didn’t think my skills were lacking… Was it because I’d only seen similar patients that the effects seemed decent?’

 

I had considered it from various angles, but the more I thought about it, the more puzzling it became.

 

‘Unlike the textbooks, are herbal medicines not very effective for excess heat syndrome? Was using medicine targeting sweating the problem? No, but the Treatise on Cold Damage is full of such prescriptions?’

 

Im Suchul had been treating patients with confidence up until now.

 

But the sense of failure from not being able to treat his own child affected him when seeing other patients too.

 

‘This patient would improve with Guibi Tang! …Right? Or what if not? I can’t even cure my own daughter… Sigh, wouldn’t this person have gotten better if they had gone to another Korean Medicine Doctor instead? Why did someone like me open a clinic…’

 

His self-esteem was dropping day by day.

 

He thought about trying various other medicines.

 

If it had been his own symptoms, he would have done so, but he couldn’t prescribe to his daughter as if experimenting.

 

And if it didn’t work, his daughter might doubt her father’s abilities!

 

“Professor, my daughter has these symptoms, could you take a look just once…”

 

Feeling like he wouldn’t be able to focus on work at this rate, he came up with a last resort.

 

He would contact his mentor, despite the rudeness.

 

– Hmm, even I think Baihu Tang should show some improvement.

 

“Is that so? Then why… Should I try using it for a longer period?”

 

– Do you use external decoction services? Or do you prepare it directly?

 

“Ah, we don’t dispense that much medicine, so we don’t have the conditions to prepare it in-house.”

 

Then Professor Kim Chunsik gave him advice he hadn’t expected.

 

– There can be various factors when the right prescription doesn’t work. It could be lifestyle habits, or the illness might be chronic… First, why don’t you get really good quality gypsum and try again?

 

Considering the hassle of managing medicinal materials and decoction, he had thought it was economical to order from external decoction rooms even if it cost a bit more.

 

But the effectiveness could differ depending on the quality of the medicinal materials.

 

– When I was at the university hospital, there was a time when the effectiveness dropped dramatically after changing pharmaceutical companies once.

 

“Ah…? Where can I get really good quality ones?”

 

– Ahem, that’s the problem. You probably don’t have the skill to judge just by tasting like our CEO or pharmacist…

 

Should he try changing external decoction rooms?

 

They would probably send samples if he asked to check the medicinal materials, but unlike fruits or vegetables, it didn’t seem like good quality ones would be easily distinguishable at a glance.

 

Moreover, gypsum is just white powder!

 

– Do you have a lot of money?

 

Professor Kim Chunsik, who had been pondering with him for a moment, spoke up.

 

“I’m not without it, but…?”

 

– I joined the Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic network, didn’t I? The main branch CEO happens to be in Busan. The pharmacist in charge of our decoction room is a real expert, and the CEO’s skills are trustworthy too, so it would be best to go there and have it prepared.

 

“Ah, if you’re talking about medicine costs, I should naturally pay for them.”

 

Then he introduced not an external decoction room, but an Oriental Medicine Clinic.

 

While there, get a diagnosis check to see if the pattern identification was wrong, and if it’s correct, try giving medicine prepared at Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic’s external decoction room.

 

Im Suchul naturally said he would do so.

 

When none other than Professor Kim Chunsik was recommending it with confidence in its quality above anywhere else in the country, what was there to hesitate about?

 

He said he would visit with his daughter in the near future.

 

* * *

 

Im Suchul, having finished his explanation, let out a deep sigh.

 

“Although I lack clinical experience, I was confident that my child had Baihu Tang syndrome. I also thought it was a textbook case as you mentioned.”

 

The thought process leading to the prescription decision wasn’t much different from mine either.

 

If there was no error in diagnosis, adding or removing one or two non-main medicinal materials wouldn’t have a big impact.

 

There might be a difference between 70 and 75 points, but there should be some effect anyway.

 

“Did you use the original formula as is? 20g gypsum, 8g anemarrhena?”

 

“At first I reduced the gypsum significantly, but after looking into it, I found that gypsum doesn’t extract well, so I used up to 12g.”

 

“Hmm…”

 

But if the medicinal properties of the main ingredient don’t get in sufficiently, that’s a different story.

 

“You must have been worried since the child is young. But food-grade gypsum has confirmed safety from the FDA, with a maximum daily intake allowance of 8.5g. Since it’s not eaten directly but goes through decoction where a lot evaporates, you can use it much more boldly than you think.”

 

Decoction is the process of weighing medicinal materials into extraction bags, then boiling and pressing them out.

 

Especially since gypsum is a mineral medicinal material, putting 20g of gypsum per packet doesn’t mean all of it goes into the decoction.

 

Of course, I understand the fear.

 

Don’t animal medicinal materials like scorpions and mineral medicinal materials like gypsum give you the feeling that you shouldn’t eat too much of them at first glance?

 

Since it’s his child and young, he must have been more worried.

 

Actually, I was like that at first too.

 

Until I saw them throw a handful of centipedes into the pot at Sichuan Dang Family…

 

– A-are you really putting this in?

 

– There’s nothing better for back pain.

 

– No, if you asked me to choose between continuing back pain or getting better by taking medicine with centipedes in it, I think I’d choose to keep the back pain?

 

– That’s why don’t tell them what’s in it for no reason.

 

– …

 

Of course, I’ve never used scorpions and centipedes in South Korea, but I’ve occasionally used gypsum, realgar, magnetite, etc. when necessary.

 

Especially gypsum is a good medicine irreplaceable for excess heat patients.

 

“Ah, so was the amount the problem? Professor Kim Chunsik told me to try improving the gypsum quality.”

 

“Should I call it quality? The dosage changes as much as the medicinal potency differs. Do you happen to have any of the medicine you prepared with you?”

 

Just because the medicinal potency is weak doesn’t necessarily mean the quality is bad, right?

 

The medicinal ingredients themselves simply contain energy suited to their environment.

 

Im Suchul hesitantly took out a medicine pouch.

 

He had brought it, but he seemed to lack confidence in it.

 

“Do you really know the quality by actually tasting it?”

 

“Haha.”

 

I just laughed it off.

 

Thanks to what Chu Miyoung had told them, the branch directors knew about this ability, but it was natural for them to think it was strange.

 

Even I found it fascinating that An Juhui could judge the quality of medicinal ingredients using only her five senses.

 

“Hmm, this is 12g per packet? It’s weaker than I thought. At this level, even if you had put in 20g… you should have used 30g to get the expected effect.”

 

“That much?”

 

“Eunyeong’s internal heat is quite severe. Actually, for this kind of condition, even using up to 40g with this extraction amount would be fine.”

 

Im Suchul was shocked.

 

Usually when using medicinal ingredients, the unit is around 4g per packet, so double digits already felt excessive to him.

 

“Do you also use Baekho-tang in double doses?”

 

“If necessary, you have to use it.”

 

I reassured Im Suchul.

 

“I mentioned 30g because the gypsum used here has ambiguous medicinal properties, but if we prepare it, it won’t need to be that much. We’ll use 20g per packet as in the original prescription. We’ll also add supplementary medicinal ingredients, so you don’t need to worry.”

 

“Ah, I’m not worried. You’re someone Professor Kim introduced.”

 

His eyes trembled slightly as he nodded.

 

“Teacher!”

 

Then Im Eunyeong spoke up.

 

Ah, I was only talking with the guardian?

 

“You’re giving me similar medicine but more refreshing, right? Can I drink cold water too?”

 

Unlike her guardian who was a Korean Medicine Doctor, the patient seemed more interested in lifestyle management.

 

“Lukewarm water is better. Your internal heat must feel stuffy, but if you cool down suddenly, your body temperature will drop sharply.”

 

“…Father told me not to drink cold water because it constricts blood vessels.”

 

Since she was asking me with her father right next to her, Im Suchul seemed a bit flustered.

 

“That’s right. When your body is hot and suddenly becomes cold, your organs get shocked too.”

 

“Tch.”

 

“The stuffiness will decrease a lot while taking the medicine. Eunyeong, do you like exercise?”

 

I asked while looking back and forth between Im Eunyeong and Im Suchul.

 

“I like it quite a bit.”

 

“I’m doing judo!”

 

“You chose a good sport. Even if you sweat, don’t just stay under the air conditioning – try to release it as much as possible.”

 

“Yes, I understand.”

 

Though not as much as Namhae Taeyang Gung’s martial arts, martial arts in general are good for releasing yang energy.

 

Both Im Suchul and Im Eunyeong nodded.

 

“Will the redness in my face get better too?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Father said it would get better too…”

 

“It’s the process of cooling down the heat. If you get treatment this time, it will improve noticeably. You can handle it being a bit bitter, right?”

 

Since she hadn’t seen results once before, she seemed doubtful.

 

“Let’s get acupuncture too. You’ll definitely feel the difference.”

 

It didn’t matter.

 

After releasing as much yang energy as possible with acupuncture and taking the medicine for just a week, she would immediately feel the change.

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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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