The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 231

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 231

“Going to your hometown?”

“No, not exactly my hometown. Just a place I used to live.”

After boldly declaring I would participate, I realized the event was scheduled for Saturday. A work day.

I could withdraw, but I had already started feeling like I wanted to go.

I asked Hwang Sanghun if we could switch weekend shifts once.

“It’s all the same to me. I don’t mind, so go comfortably. I’m fine working both Saturday and Sunday.”

Could I even call it my hometown? It wasn’t where I was born, and my relatives had all moved away by now.

Still, thinking about it did bring some nostalgia. I was curious if the paths I used to frequent were still the same.

I hadn’t been there since returning from the Martial Arts World, and even after getting into university and moving into the dormitory.

“Is that really okay? It’ll be tough.”

“I’ve been taking breaks here and there. You haven’t taken a single vacation since coming back from Europe.”

“Ah, was that so?”

“I’ll work on Monday too! Director, please rest well!”

Since the goal was volunteer work, it would probably be difficult to rest completely…

Anyway, since both of them offered to be considerate, I didn’t refuse and accepted their kindness.

When Lee Ahreum and Hwang Sanghun used their annual leave, I would cover for them, but I hadn’t taken any work days off since my trip.

I decided to take a 4-day, 3-night vacation, leaving Saturday to Hwang Sanghun and Monday to Lee Ahreum.

Of course, after promising generous compensation.

‘Should I go volunteer on Saturday and walk around the neighborhood on Sunday?’

I didn’t think I’d have enough to do for 4 days, so maybe I’d meet friends in Seoul or head down to Busan early.

‘I don’t miss home, but I do miss the noodles a bit. I wonder if it’s still there? Didn’t it close on Sundays…?’

Thinking of the anchovy noodle restaurant I used to frequent as a child, I headed up to Yeoju.

I considered flying to Seoul and taking the chartered bus with the school, but decided to drive myself.

As long as there’s no traffic, I quite enjoy driving.

A modern marvel that lets you run faster than lightness skills and enjoy speed without learning any martial arts at all – truly, the present era is the best.

“Ah, everyone’s already here.”

Unlike last time when I arrived too early, arriving at the hall right on time, people were almost all there already.

I first looked for Park Jun, who had invited me.

Since he was the club vice president, he must be moving around busily… ah.

“Junior, I’m here!”

“Wow, Director! I didn’t think you’d actually come!”

He was moving things with the students and welcomed me very warmly.

What do you mean you didn’t know? After throwing a tantrum saying you’d go to other schools but not come to ours!

“Teacher Han Yewon, good to see you.”

Professor Lee Minseok’s appearance wasn’t particularly surprising.

Usually a few professors get mobilized for these kinds of events, and he was among those who showed great interest in students.

Well, even if he wasn’t interested, he might have been mobilized anyway since he was an acupuncture professor and relatively young.

“Professor, have you been well? Your complexion gets better every time I see you.”

“Teacher Han Yewon is the one who becomes more impressive each time we meet. Expanding into the Middle East, I hear.”

“That was lucky… well, not exactly lucky, but it just happened that way.”

I reflexively started to say I was lucky with the compliment, but I changed my words.

There were too many complications to simply describe it as good.

“I thought you’d become someone great even as a student, but to this extent.”

“You’re too kind.”

Besides Lee Minseok, there were many professors I knew, so I greeted them one by one.

Even among seniors and juniors I didn’t know well, there were those who knew me, so I exchanged numbers with them too.

“I get to see Miss Yewon here.”

“…Director Choi Eunhee.”

But this was a bit surprising.

Actually, I was quite flustered.

Come to think of it, Director Choi Eunhee was also a Korean University senior.

‘This was where I first met her too.’

Even precisely here at Happiness Hall.

…More than 10 years ago.

“I didn’t know you still did volunteer work.”

“Still?”

“I’ve met you here before.”

Choi Eunhee smiled brightly and brushed her hair back.

“I see. I try to participate once or twice a year.”

Choi Eunhee from over ten years ago, who treated incurable patients and devoted herself to volunteer work, and her current self who only looked at money.

I thought there had been a major change of heart in between.

“That’s impressive, considering how busy you must be.”

“Well, the vice directors are working hard at the clinic.”

Of course, I was also in the position of leaving the clinic to the vice directors and taking a vacation.

But when the faces of the vice directors I met at the Daegu branch came to mind… I felt really strange.

Besides, I had instructed the main branch vice director to make diet patients write pledges too.

“I see. Let’s do our best today.”

People don’t have just one side to them, but my feelings were quite complicated.

“You seem to be acquainted with Director Choi?”

After finishing the greetings, Park Jun approached me again and struck up a conversation.

“Ah, yes. I was surprised since I didn’t expect to see her here.”

“Director Choi is really amazing, isn’t she? I think she came to almost all the events last year… She probably often accompanies her husband to university events too, right? Oh, Director Choi Eunhee also provided the medical supplies.”

Park Jun pointed to the box containing herbal medicine preparations.

The other equipment would belong to the school, and the consumables would be powdered medicine preparations and acupuncture needles, but that’s all money too.

Since this was something I had no idea about at all, I nodded in admiration.

More than the fact that she was doing volunteer work, I was more surprised that I had been completely unaware of it until now.

Coming here would just mean taking a day off work, so that’s understandable.

Wouldn’t it be natural to write phrases like “participated in medical volunteer work” or “donated this much” on the clinic’s website?

But to think she had been doing this kind of work without anyone knowing.

“Now, everyone to your positions!”

The junior students had set everything up in advance, and since this was a place they came to consistently every year, there were plenty of beds.

It wasn’t as poor as the place we went to in Gyeongnam last time.

‘Still, there are more patients than I expected.’

Since there are naturally clinics and oriental medicine clinics in downtown, these events are held in rural areas where there’s almost no infrastructure.

Yet somehow word had gotten around, and many grandmothers and grandfathers had gathered.

Of course, there were just as many participating Korean medicine doctors and senior students, so it wouldn’t be as busy as last time.

Soon the treatment began, and patients came in sequentially.

The patient group was, as expected, mostly musculoskeletal disorders. And occasionally consultations for other internal medicine conditions.

“Cough! This cold just won’t go away. I guess it’s because I’m getting old…”

“How long has it been?”

“It’s been over ten days.”

“What are the symptoms like? Sore throat? Runny nose? Body aches? Cough?”

“I cough occasionally, but my throat keeps hurting.”

“I’ll prescribe Eungyo-san for 5 days and Socheongryong-tang for 3 days. When the throat pain decreases and you get a runny nose, switch to Socheongryong-tang.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Since it was the change of seasons, there were occasional cold patients too.

In times like this, it’s good to prescribe preparations, you know?

“My shoulder hurts and it hurts toward the back of my head. Right here.”

“That’s the location of occipital neuralgia. I’ll give you acupuncture treatment right away, and I’ll also give you Galgeun-tang.”

Depending on the patient, I gave acupuncture and prescribed medicine.

“My back hurts all the time…”

I did my best to give acupuncture to the usual lumbar disc and cervical disc patients.

I couldn’t completely cure these people with one or two treatments, but I still performed acupuncture to minimize pain and improve their physical condition as much as possible.

“Mr. Lee Gwanhaeng has discomfort in his knee.”

The next patient was a knee case.

According to the preliminary examination by the student handling reception, it was written that it had always been bad but had become severe recently.

At 84 years old with knee pain, it would probably be degenerative arthritis.

“Ah, I have some degenerative arthritis.”

The old man sat down in the chair, limping.

He was a very gaunt old man with no flesh on him at all.

“Please sit and roll up your pants. I’ll check the location and movement.”

When I tried to check the painful area, Lee Gwanhaeng rolled up his pants.

“I’ll remove the pain relief patch.”

“Wait! You have to remove this gently.”

He said it would hurt if removed forcefully and very slowly peeled off the patch starting from the outside.

I waited quietly for Lee Gwanhaeng.

“Hm?”

But when he removed the patch, there was another bandage underneath.

On the outside of the bandage, I could even see stains that weren’t completely covered.

“Isn’t this a burn?”

How could he put a pain relief patch on top of a burn? When I asked in surprise, Lee Gwanhaeng flinched.

“Is it?”

Because my voice had unintentionally gotten louder, the President and Vice President, who had been walking around checking if reception and treatment were going well, approached.

“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s not a big deal. Could you bring some moist dressing for burns?”

I explained to them and requested the student assisting with treatment, but at the mention of burns, even Choi Eunhee from the next seat showed some interest.

On the surface, it was just stains.

But when I removed the bandage, the epidermis had peeled off and the dermis was exposed underneath.

“Oh my.”

The students and I sighed together.

“Father, you can’t just put band-aids on burns like this. Chemical patches are even worse. You should have at least gone to the health center.”

It would have been better if he had rinsed it with cold water and applied a moist dressing like Mediform.

The skin had even peeled off where the adhesive part of the band-aid that couldn’t cover the wound area had stuck.

The chemical components in the patch were the same.

While not severely harmful, they couldn’t have had a positive effect on recovery when the skin barrier was already stripped away.

“How long has it been like this?”

“Um… five days?”

“What did you get burned by?”

“…”

Lee Gwanhaeng didn’t speak and kept his mouth tightly shut.

Was he acting like this because I scolded him about the wrong dressing?

But improper treatment had to be corrected.

“I won’t scold you. Please tell me.”

When I coaxed him gently, he finally opened his mouth with a pout.

“I did some moxibustion.”

“Moxibustion? Where?”

Unlike acupuncture, which is generally recognized as a medical practice, public perception of moxibustion lies somewhere between medical treatment and folk remedy.

Places that perform moxibustion for money exist even outside oriental medicine clinics, frequently causing disputes with the association.

It was also easily purchasable if ordinary people decided to buy it.

From a patient’s perspective, it wasn’t easy to find an oriental medicine clinic that provided proper moxibustion treatment.

Moxibustion treatment at oriental medicine clinics falls under medical insurance coverage. The fees that can be received are set by the government.

But that amount is ridiculously low compared to the labor required for direct moxibustion or indirect moxibustion using ginger or salt, and the risk of burns… so most oriental medicine clinics use machine moxibustion.

I had been doing the same unless the therapeutic effects of direct moxibustion were absolutely necessary.

So when someone gets moxibustion burns like this.

“Ah, there’s this friend named Jang who’s good at that, and it felt good when I tried it. So I got some and tried it myself.”

Cases like this where patients do it themselves and get burned are frequent.

It seemed that while old men with knee pain were doing moxibustion together, Lee Gwanhaeng, who wasn’t even familiar with it, had made a mistake.

“The burn area is too wide. Even if it had festered, it’s not easy to get injured this extensively from moxibustion…”

“Ahem.”

But it still seemed strange, so when I asked, Lee Gwanhaeng’s reaction was odd.

“They told me to make it this small, but I clumped together a bit too much mugwort.”

…This is driving me crazy, really.

To do direct moxibustion, the basic method was to clump the moxa cone really small, about the size of a fingernail, and light it.

Even when made large, about 1cm at most?

But Lee Gwanhaeng had placed the moxa floss in a large clump like the large moxa used for indirect moxibustion and lit it.

This was almost like deliberately burning the skin to cause burns.

“Father, this is.”

“Please never do this again from now on. Fortunately it hasn’t festered yet, but this could have been really serious.”

I was about to say something.

But Choi Eunhee, who had been glancing over from the side, couldn’t hold back and interrupted.

Come to think of it, this clinic director… she used to treat burns and frostbite quite often in the past.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————