The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 283
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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 283
The gathering was arranged in an instant.
The location was narrowed down to Daejeon, and the day to Sunday.
Except for our headquarters and Daejeon branch, we don’t operate 365-day clinics, so Sunday was the most manageable option.
[Are you really coming from Jeju Island?]
[I looked it up and it seems quick if we go to Cheongju Airport!]
Since even Yu Gyeonghun and Jeon Minji said they’d come, it was safe to assume everyone would attend.
I quietly contacted Hwang Sanghun and Lee Ahreum separately to ask if they also wished to participate.
[It sounds fun, but you can leave the clinic to me and go with Director Lee.]
Until now, I had trusted Hwang Sanghun and gone on business trips alone.
He said it was fine, but I could sense he wanted to socialize with the other directors.
[Let’s close the entire clinic.]
I simply declared a holiday for that date.
The staff could also take a good rest while we’re at it. It worked out well.
[Waaaah!]
Of course, we needed to give advance notice so patients wouldn’t make wasted trips.
The gathering date was set for two weeks later.
* * *
Two weeks later, in Daejeon.
The waiting room of Seongsuhanuiwon Daejeon Branch was bustling with directors who had gathered from all over the country.
“Let’s have a simple bread lunch, then practice Chuna, and go to a Korean traditional restaurant for dinner.”
Yu Minseong poured out dozens of breads onto the table.
“Wow, thank you! I’ve only heard about these but never tried them!”
Well, after giving Ryu Jinseong a talking-to, he really brought a variety.
‘By the way, when did we expand to seven branches?’
Four people came from Busan: me, Hwang Sanghun, Lee Ahreum, and Im Suchul.
Jeon Minji and Yu Gyeonghun from Jeju.
Chu Miyoung from Daegu, Seon Nayeon from Gwangju, and the two who were originally in Daejeon.
“Nice to meet you for the first time. Pleased to meet you.”
“Ah, please take care of me.”
As everyone was freely eating bread and introducing themselves, the last two people entered.
“Oh my, sorry for being late.”
“Professor~ How are you the latest when you came from Seoul!”
“You’re right about that. I found the wrong platform.”
It was Kim Chunsik and Sandro who had departed from Seoul.
“Nice to meet you all. Thank you for inviting me.”
“Ooh, I’ve heard a lot about you!”
Although Sandro hadn’t opened his practice yet, he was essentially a confirmed prospective member, so I gladly allowed his participation.
They say even a dog at a village school can recite poetry after three years, and Kim Chunsik has been taking him around like a direct disciple for two years now, so surely he can recite the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine?
He’s also studying diligently at school and writing papers, so he might be able to open the Rome branch in a couple of years.
“Thank you for coming all this way. Please have some of this.”
“…Wow? This is the most delicious bread I’ve ever eaten!”
Is he being sincere? Does he understand the effect of a Westerner’s praise?
When Sandro praised the bread highly, Yu Minseong and Ryu Jinseong’s shoulders rose slightly.
“We’ll watch Director Hanyewon’s demonstration first!”
Soon the meal ended, and the study session began with Chu Miyoung’s shout.
Everyone crowded into Yu Minseong’s examination room, placing a Chuna bed in the center and surrounding it.
Hmm, being watched like this feels somewhat awkward.
Since Chu Miyoung volunteered as the practice subject, I performed techniques in order from the pelvis to lumbar, thoracic, and cervical spine.
It was the routine basically performed not only at our clinic but also at other branches, with a few additional techniques.
“Is there anything you don’t understand? Areas other than the spine are fine too.”
“Ah, please show us shoulder joints!”
“I’m curious too. I have a frozen shoulder patient receiving treatment, but the improvement isn’t going well. How should we be careful with rotator cuff tear patients?”
The directors were surprisingly interested not only in shoulders but also in small joint Chuna for knees, ankles, etc.
These are techniques with low usage frequency, but it’s quite troublesome when patients seek them and you’re inexperienced.
“Ah, if you grip with your hand the opposite way, you can apply much more force.”
“Director! Could you show us the atlantoaxial joint (C1-C2) technique?”
“When you feel someone who’s misaligned, you know immediately, um… place your finger here.”
Due to the nature of the Jeju branch, Jeon Minji and Yu Gyeonghun, who didn’t have much Chuna experience, and Ryu Jinseong and Yu Minseong, who had just opened their practices, asked questions actively.
The relatively skilled directors helped with the practice.
“For hip joint pain, acupuncture seems faster than Chuna… Ah, Director Yu! Could you show us deep acupuncture once?”
“What? Deep blood formation? What kind of martial art is that? I wasn’t taught such things.”
“…Acupuncture.”
“Ah, ahhh. Yes yes! That’s my specialty.”
As we taught and learned from each other, we naturally moved on to techniques other than Chuna as well.
“If you’re going to do the hip joint, I’ll be the patient. I fell while playing soccer and it’s been creaking.”
“Ah, yes. Excuse me. I’ll first palpate the ASIS here and then at the anterior superior…”
Yu Gyeonghun first demonstrated his specialty, deep acupuncture.
Chu Miyoung and Seon Nayeon also asked Kim Chunsik for tips on pulse diagnosis and tongue diagnosis.
Sandro showed how he handled the knife needle, saying he learned it from Professor Lee Minseok.
“How to handle pediatric patients…?”
“Yes. Director Seon said you’re skilled at it! When I look at them directly like this, they cry. Would it be better to avoid eye contact?”
“Hmm, you don’t need to glare at them like that, but avoiding eye contact won’t work either. I don’t really think about such things… Ah, I guess I don’t have a talent for teaching. I’m sorry.”
Ryu Jinseong even brought out a notebook and asked Seon Nayeon about pediatric patients.
How many hours had passed like this?
While we were gathered in small groups in the two examination rooms practicing with each other, we heard sounds from outside.
“Director, someone’s here.”
“What? I posted the closure notice properly though?”
When I called out, Yu Minseong, who had been feeling the mystery of pulses by holding the directors’ wrists, opened the front door to check.
“Sorry. I heard sounds so I knocked… Are you closed today?”
A woman who appeared to be a college student answered.
As if they were a group, several other men and women of similar age were standing behind her.
“Ms. Seo Jiyeon? Yes, I posted that we’re closed today, but you must not have seen it. What brings you here?”
She was originally a patient that Yu Minseong had been treating, and it seemed she had visited without knowing that he had decided to rest this Sunday.
The patient called Seo Jiyeon bowed and made a request to Yu Minseong.
“I’m sorry, Director. My hangover is so severe that I came here, but it’s closed… Could I possibly buy some Sochehwan pills? Last time when I got acupuncture from you and took Sochehwan, I got better right away. Even after taking hangover remedies from the convenience store, I keep feeling nauseous.”
“Of course. Come in for a moment and sit down. Is the person next to you also feeling unwell?”
“Yes. She’s not vomiting, but her stomach keeps rumbling and she has diarrhea. Would it be okay for her to take the same medicine?”
“I’ll give the patient different medicine. Just a moment.”
Since it wasn’t a particularly difficult request, Yu Minseong asked for our understanding and let the patients inside.
“Excuse us~”
A whole group of 8 college students came rushing in and sat in a row in the waiting room.
Did they go out in groups of 4 and 4 and drink heavily?
“Sorry for bothering you when you’re busy. You were doing something else… Thank you, really. I felt like I was going to die.”
“These are Korean medicine directors from other branches of Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic. It’s fortunate that we happened to be here.”
Yu Minseong handed Daegeumeumja and Bulhwanggeum-jeonggi-san to each patient respectively, and both immediately took their medicine.
“Student. Your complexion doesn’t look good at all, why don’t you get acupuncture before you go?”
But it was true that she looked quite insufficient.
At Kim Chunsik’s suggestion, Seo Jiyeon, who had wanted to receive more treatment anyway, perked up.
“Would that be okay…? You seem busy…”
“Directors, please continue. I’ll quickly treat them in the treatment room and come back.”
“Yes, do that.”
“Thank you!”
Naturally, the directors didn’t mind at all.
The two patients moved to the treatment room and lay down on the beds.
“Even though you haven’t been open long, you already have patients coming like this.”
Ryu Jinseong and Yu Minseong each took one person and administered acupuncture, while we chatted and waited for them briefly.
After finishing the acupuncture like that.
20 minutes later.
“How do you feel?”
Since there was no staff, Yu Minseong and Ryu Jinseong personally removed the needles while asking the patients.
But unfortunately, the complexions of both people hadn’t improved much.
“I’m still feeling nauseous… but I’ll probably be fine once I leave. Thank you.”
Hmm, it doesn’t seem like she got better at all?
Seo Jiyeon even jumped up as soon as all the needles were removed.
“Let me use the restroom for a moment, sorry!”
She clutched her lower abdomen and rushed to the restroom.
In 20 minutes, the medicine should have spread to some extent, and she had received acupuncture too.
If it were ordinary hangover, there should have been some improvement by this time.
Something seemed strange, so I asked the other patient who had received acupuncture with Seo Jiyeon.
“Did you two have anything else besides alcohol?”
“Alcohol and chicken. I wasn’t feeling well since yesterday evening, so maybe I had indigestion too.”
That should be enough to cover even food stagnation, hmm.
“What did you have the day before that? Were you together the whole time?”
“The day before yesterday? We didn’t drink much alcohol then. We had yellowtail sashimi and oyster bossam.”
“Oysters?”
“Did you say oysters?”
“Norovirus?”
…Found it.
At the mention of oysters, all the other directors thought of the same possibility.
As expected, it wasn’t ordinary hangover with indigestion. The symptoms and incubation period match perfectly.
Norovirus infection.
It was acute gastroenteritis caused by infection from oysters or shellfish, causing symptoms like vomiting, nausea, chills, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.
“But the oysters were fine….”
“Norovirus is different from food poisoning caused by eating spoiled food. The virus can be present regardless of freshness.”
If I had conducted a normal examination, I would have naturally noticed it.
In the midst of the chaos, I was rushing to treat her after bringing her in when she was just trying to get medicine and leave, so I almost missed the causative food.
Seo Jiyeon, who had returned from the restroom, gaped after hearing the explanation.
“The norovirus I’ve only heard about? Oh, what should I do? Should I go to the emergency room?”
“Even if you go, there’s no specific antiviral medication for norovirus. We can only provide symptomatic treatment and wait for the virus to be naturally expelled through diarrhea.”
“Ugh…!”
It would naturally improve in 3-4 days, but she would have to endure quite a difficult time until then.
Since toxins need to be expelled, antidiarrheal medication wouldn’t be used anyway.
If dehydration symptoms appear, she might need IV fluids, but it wasn’t that situation yet.
For now, the best approach was to calm the abdominal pain as much as possible to reduce her suffering.
She had already received acupuncture. And taken medicine.
What remained that I could do.
“Patient, could you come over here and lie down for a moment?”
“Oh, you’re a different director, right?”
“I’m Hanyewon, the director of Seongsuhanuiwon Busan branch. I’m going to try to calm your intestines a bit with visceral chuna therapy. Would it be okay if I place my hands on your abdomen?”
There was one more thing.
“Oh, yes yes. I’d be grateful for anything you can do.”
“Is it okay if the other directors watch too….”
“I don’t mind at all!”
Fortunately, Seo Jiyeon agreed without hesitation.
I had her lie down on the chuna bed and rolled up her top.
Then I spread my palms wide and began pressing very gently on her lower abdomen.
I intended to demonstrate digestive system chuna therapy with this opportunity.
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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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