The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 187

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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 187

Kim Shinyoung was the owner of a Kids Café and the mother of two children.

Although she hadn’t received professional education, she loved children so much that she had worked with them for years since her salary worker days.

Raising a child was already her second time.

While raising her eldest daughter hadn’t been easy either, when her second child Sinbi was born, she realized that her first had been very well-behaved.

Her eldest had slept through the night starting from just over a month old, ate well whenever she wanted to nurse, and played well by herself with any toy given to her.

Unlike her, the second daughter had been a bit difficult since her newborn days.

As soon as she put the child down after holding her, she would whine and simply wouldn’t sleep.

When a child cries, what else can you do? The mother or father had no choice but to hold her all night long and sing lullabies.

Thirty days passed after the eldest daughter started sleeping through the night, and even the anticipated 100-day miracle disappointed the couple.

Usually children sleep through the night around 100 days, between 40 to 120 days, but for some reason Sinbi tormented her parents until she was almost a year old.

After those difficult years passed.

The eldest entered elementary school, and the second entered kindergarten.

As soon as she turned 5, they enrolled her in the kindergarten where her friend worked.

“Waaahhh!”

And soon, the family’s nights turned into nightmares once again.

One day suddenly, the second daughter started crying without sleeping.

“Sinbi, what’s wrong? What happened?”

At worst, she would wake up two or three times in a single night.

Some days she would cling to her mother and whine.

Other days she would hide in the restroom and sob.

She would also stand in front of the master bedroom door and scream loudly.

“Did you have a bad dream? Mommy’s here. It’s okay.”

“Waahhhhh”

“Tell daddy about it! Did a ghost appear? Did robbers break in? Daddy will beat them all up!”

At first, naturally both parents would get up and comfort her.

They thought she must have had a very bad dream, and that it was just a passing incident.

“Waahhh! Wahhh! Mommy! Daddy!”

But the same thing repeated the next day, and the day after that.

“You go comfort her…”

“I’m tired too. I got up yesterday and the day before.”

Kim Shinyoung and her husband pushed the task of comforting the child onto each other.

“Ah, so noisy!”

The eldest daughter, who woke up because of her younger sibling, burst out in anger.

“You can’t hit your younger sibling!”

“Ah, Mom! She keeps being annoying!”

At first she thought this would pass, that it would get better, but when it continued for over 2 weeks, Kim Shinyoung became serious.

“Does Sinbi not get along well with her friends?”

Though she was careful not to burden her, she also consulted with her friend who was Sinbi’s kindergarten teacher.

“Fighting with the kids, or something stressful…”

“Not at all. She’s doing fine without any problems.”

But she shook her head.

She was a friend who had absolutely no reason to lie to Kim Shinyoung.

And even from Kim Shinyoung’s perspective, her daughter was perfectly fine during the day.

When she played with other children at the cafe where she worked, there wasn’t a trace of shadow on her face.

“Why on earth are you doing this…”

“What?”

“You don’t remember at all? Is it sleepwalking or something?”

“I don’t know!”

Of course, she also took her to the hospital.

“No fever, and there’s nothing particularly abnormal in the tests. There must have been stress factors from entering kindergarten. Mild night terrors are a physiological phenomenon, so observe the psychological and environmental aspects carefully.”

Was it mild from the doctor’s perspective?

Was this something other children experienced occasionally too?

“If it gets too difficult, I can prescribe sleep-inducing medication.”

There was no proper solution.

At best, when she took cold medicine and fell into deep sleep, what used to be 3 wake-ups would reduce to 1 or 2 times.

“I can’t get any work done at the company at all. Yesterday I almost had drowsy driving. At this rate, there might be a big accident.”

Her husband even brought up getting an apartment in front of his company.

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“You won’t get fired. You can even walk to work.”

“…I think I’m going to go crazy!”

It had now been 2 months since the symptoms started.

When she was moving from worry to irritation, anger, and into depression.

Her friend, who was the homeroom teacher, brought something up.

“Shinyoung, how about taking her to an Oriental Medicine Clinic? There’s a newly opened Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic in the central shopping area, and I heard they’re really good with children.”

“Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic?”

“Yeah yeah. There was a kid in our class with really bad rhinitis, but after taking medicine there, he doesn’t sniffle anymore. Since then, there are so many kids carrying herbal medicine pouches around?”

Kim Shinyoung immediately scheduled an appointment.

“It doesn’t seem like convulsions, just crying. No fever either… It’s night crying, right?”

The Korean Medicine Doctor calmly nodded and listened to her story.

However, for her heart to be eased by the comforting words that it must have been very difficult, the child who smiled so brightly was far too frustrating.

“We diagnose night crying when symptoms of crying 3 or more times at night persist for 2 weeks or more. There can be various causes. It could be environmental issues like being too cold or hot, or stress from marital fights or kindergarten relationships. Most commonly, it occurs after something very startling like a traffic accident. Physical discomfort like high fever, indigestion, stomatitis, or otitis media can also be causes.”

He explained night crying in detail, but there was nothing that seemed to fit.

During the day, she was perfectly fine both at kindergarten and at the kids café.

“Could you let me talk with the child for a moment?”

After listening to Kim Shinyoung’s story thoroughly, the Korean Medicine Doctor requested a one-on-one consultation with the child.

Of course, she gladly waited in the waiting room for the consultation to end.

Could he find out something? When even her mother and teacher don’t know the cause?

“What did the child say?”

After about 10 minutes of consultation, this time he sent the child out.

Kim Shinyoung asked the Korean Medicine Doctor with hopeful expectation.

“I’m not sure yet. She says she’s fine, but… it seems like there’s something.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It seems like she’s hiding something.”

“What on earth could it be…”

“If we press her right now, it will backfire. Let’s find out slowly while treating her.”

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find out the cause right away.

All that came back was a meaningful story.

…Could her daughter really be hiding something even from her mother?

“For now, let’s watch while doing standard symptomatic treatment for night crying. I’ll prescribe Poryonghwan and do acupuncture treatment twice a week. Think of it as a pediatric Cheongshimhwan that calms easily startled and sensitive children.”

“Ah, I understand. Is it for a month?”

“It’s not a long-term medication. I’ll prescribe 2 weeks’ worth first, so watch the progress while taking it, and if I determine long-term herbal decoction treatment is necessary, I’ll prescribe customized herbal medicine separately. It would be even better if we could open Sinbi’s heart and find out the psychological cause.”

“Thank you.”

“You must be really worried. Our son also used to throw tantrums for no reason, so I deeply understand that feeling. Please hang in there a little longer.”

She thought nothing would help, but Kim Shinyoung’s depression eased just a little.

“We’ll treat twice a week, can you come?”

“Yes, I like the doctor!”

Contrary to her worries, she received acupuncture treatment very well.

She had worried the child might throw a fit about not wanting to take medicine, but it was fortunate that the child had no resistance to treatment.

* * *

Crying and making a fuss at night, while smiling brightly during the day as if nothing happened?

From the guardian’s perspective, it was maddening. Medically, it was quite an interesting case.

– I was thinking of prescribing Yangshintang too but only gave Poryonghwan, I’m not sure if I did well.

The medicinal composition of Poryonghwan was Udamnamseong, Cheonchukwang, Sahyang, Ungwang, and Jusa.

These were all medicinal ingredients with extraordinary properties that wouldn’t be included in general prescriptions.

In contrast, Yangshintang uses much gentler ingredients like Sanjo-in, Boksin, Banha, and Bokryeong for expectorant and calming effects.

While the goal of calming shock and enabling peaceful sleep was the same, Yangshintang would be better for long-term use.

Both were prescriptions I used frequently as well.

I often used them for night crying after traffic accidents that Seon Nayeon mentioned, and they were very effective for symptoms from everyday stress exposure too.

“You spoke well. If we can continue with acupuncture treatment anyway, it’s better to clarify the cause before prescribing.”

– Do you have any suspected reasons, Clinic Director?

Seon Nayeon asked.

The feedback so far had focused on treatment processes and medication prescriptions, but this question was quite vague.

‘Hmm, have I had similar experiences?’

I had treated night crying many times.

In modern times, most cases are screened by pediatrics and don’t reach traditional medicine clinics, but in the Martial Arts World, I saw febrile convulsions very frequently.

Even excluding secondary night crying from other diseases, the causes were quite diverse.

From a sensitive child who couldn’t sleep because of a single bean under the blanket.

To a case that suffered PTSD for months after witnessing a martial artist kill someone.

From patients who came knowing the cause from the start, to cases I discovered, to cases with no particular cause but successful drug treatment – they were very diverse.

‘Ah.’

While pondering, an incident suddenly came to mind.

It wasn’t night crying, but it had the common point of an unclear cause.

“Doctor Seon, how about asking the child once?”

– Of course I asked, but…

“No, not the patient. Your son and the patient’s sister.”

– Our son?

“There’s a high possibility she was startled by something we adults would never think of. For your elementary school son, it’s only a few years ago, so he might remember to some extent what he thought and what was scary, right? Maybe there are ghost stories circulating among the children.”

“Hmm?”

It was really an absurd incident.

– The child has a fit whenever she sees dumplings and refuses to eat them.

An innkeeper from an inn not far from Dangjia Hall brought the child to me.

She had no appetite at all and vomited everything even when force-fed, so I initially thought it was a problem with the spleen and stomach.

However, digestive system prescriptions had no effect at all.

Her complexion improved thanks to the nutritional components in the medicine, but the symptom of refusing food couldn’t be cured.

Anorexia? Some kind of mental illness?

I had pondered over it in many ways.

– Divine Physician, that child said she would only tell me and made strange remarks. May I tell you about it?

A child from a branch family of the Tang Family who was studying to become a physician happened to provide the answer.

…As it turned out, some household had spread ghost stories.

Perhaps the common story about tigers taking away disobedient children wasn’t effective enough?

They had frightened the child by pointing to the fierce-looking dumpling shop owner and saying that uncle makes babies into dumplings and eats them.

Of course, it would have been effective in preventing their own child from wandering around at night, but as the rumor spread throughout the neighborhood, it created a child who was severely terrified.

– Good heavens! Are they in their right mind? How can they say such nonsense just because they can’t discipline properly? It’s too horrible educationally, and what kind of trouble is that for the restaurant owner?

When I told the story to Seon Nayeon, substituting the Tang Family student child with another child who came for treatment, she was horrified.

“I was quite shocked too. It sounds absurd to us, but…”

Actually, it’s not entirely impossible over there.

Sometimes, very raaarely, such things do happen.

So just in case, I had even gone undercover to the shop.

Of course, it was 100% a false rumor.

He wasn’t an ordinary dumpling shop uncle, but rather a chivalrous person who had received many misunderstandings due to his fierce appearance.

I couldn’t bring myself to tell him about the rumor and just ate dumplings diligently.

“Children can experience great stress from unexpected points.”

– Sigh… I understand. I’ll keep that in mind and look into it.

Seon Nayeon nodded from beyond the screen.

I wonder if she’ll be able to find out?

I became a little curious about what might have happened.

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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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