The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 295

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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 295

All three patients who came from the morning were returning patients.

I waited in the examination room, but kept my ears open to the conversations outside, considering the possibility that the front desk might be the issue.

“Hello~ Ma’am~ You’re here for knee treatment, right?”

“Yeah. Today, please also take care of my elbow here.”

“Yes~ I’ll relay that well to the Clinic Director~ Please go straight to the treatment room~.”

…They’re responding normally and kindly.

The patient went to the treatment room as directed, and while they were receiving physical therapy, I looked over the charts with Yun Heeyoung.

“What kind of patient is this?”

“Oh, let me show you. I’m not really the type to keep meticulous records though…”

“Well, that happens when you’re busy.”

Yun Heeyoung was using the same charts as Our Oriental Medicine Clinic.

Looking at the dates checked on the calendar, this patient had visited 5 or 6 times starting from three weeks ago.

“This patient has knee arthritis. When I asked last time, they said the pain had reduced by about half.”

It seemed like she always did the same treatment.

Last Saturday’s chart had the content that Yun Heeyoung just recited written on it, and there were days where she just wrote what treatment was done like ‘knee, kidney meridian correction’ and moved on.

I also checked the charts of the other two patients.

Her treatment areas were ‘shoulder, lower back, right popliteal fossa, right foot, right jaw, heart meridian correction’.

Looking down at the initial examination record, it noted that the entire right side hurt and she couldn’t sleep well.

Despite being a pain patient, perhaps because she was interested in Saam acupuncture, she had checked all systemic symptoms including digestion, sleep, and breathing during the initial examination.

The third patient was ‘digestive system, head, spleen meridian correction’.

Also marked as a difficult patient.

The length of the initial chart was as long as the previous two patients combined, and the follow-up charts were relatively simple as expected.

If it were me, I would have recommended herbal medicine to this patient… Well, if you’re confident in acupuncture techniques, it’s not bad to continue with that approach.

After a while, the physical therapy ended, and we went to see the first patient.

“Hello, ma’am. How has your knee been?”

“Always about the same, you know.”

Hmm… Seeing that this person also spoke informally, she wasn’t a particularly polite patient. Though for people over 70, that’s just something you have to understand.

Of course, Yun Heeyoung didn’t have a sudden outburst over the informal speech.

“Could you press on the most painful spot?”

“Here and here, they’re the same.”

As the patient said, it was the medial knee area I had just seen on the chart.

Yun Heeyoung spoke gently and began sterilization.

“Yes~ I’ll treat you right away.”

She placed needles in the knee, and kidney meridian correction as written.

Since kidney meridian correction could be done while lying down, it seemed she performed it together with musculoskeletal acupuncture.

“The front desk mentioned you also have elbow pain? How long has it been?”

“It’s been bad for a while, you know. I got acupuncture from the previous director and it was fine for about two months, but suddenly got bad again since yesterday.”

“Ah~ Let’s treat it well again.”

The conversation flowed smoothly.

A treatment style with strengths in empathy and communication skills.

‘Hmm…’

Actually, there weren’t no concerning points.

But since it was an ambiguous part to point out immediately, I watched the situation a bit more.

Then to the second bed.

“Lee Jinseun, hello. I’ll start acupuncture treatment from your shoulder and back~”

“Oh, Clinic Director. You’re here? Last night while I was sleeping, I suddenly got a cramp in my right calf and suffered so much. I don’t know why I always hurt only on the right side.”

“Oh my~ You’ve suffered so much. It’s because your pelvis is twisted. Plus, since your back isn’t good, your legs get strained a lot.”

This patient was a somewhat talkative type.

Yun Heeyoung adjusted her voice tone accordingly and expressed exaggerated empathy.

“My back has been like this ever since the surgery. I wish at least my legs would get better.”

“It must hurt a lot. Spinal stenosis is originally difficult. Even if you have surgery in one place, the areas above or below narrow again.”

“It’s been like this ever since I had a tailbone fracture 15 years ago. Should I eventually have surgery for the stenosis too?”

“Ah~ No. If you receive treatment consistently, it will get better.”

As the conversation lengthened, the subtlety became a bit clearer.

Their words were slightly misaligned.

Of course, mistakes can happen.

But if it were me, I would rather apologize clearly, but Yun Heeyoung had such good speaking skills that she smoothly navigated through the conversation.

She nodded as if she knew the story all along and quickly placed needles in the shoulder, back, right popliteal fossa and calf, and foot.

“Stay like this for just a moment. In fifteen minutes, you’ll get acupuncture for your jaw area and for better sleep.”

“Yes, thank you.”

And just as we were about to move to the third bed.

“Clinic Director, Yang Jeongnok is asking for a longer heat treatment.”

“Please do that. I’ll come back in 20 minutes.”

It wasn’t for nothing that he was marked as difficult – he had specific requests.

In the meantime, we went into the examination room for a brief check.

“How was it? I was nervous with you watching from the side, but I think I handled it reasonably well.”

“It wasn’t bad. You’re kind, and you place needles well. You explained how to treat with Saam acupuncture during the initial consultation, right?”

“Yes, I did.”

“May I look at the charts again briefly? Please record first.”

“Yes, yes. Take your time looking. I’ll record and go check on my son briefly.”

When I nodded, Yun Heeyoung quickly entered today’s treatment areas.

First patient: knee, elbow, kidney meridian adjustment.

The second patient also had a note that they got a cramp in their right calf while sleeping.

What I wanted to see was the second patient’s initial examination record.

While Yun Heeyoung went into the room, I scrolled down to examine all the notes.

‘As expected, there’s no mention of the tailbone fracture from 15 years ago.’

Given how detailed the initial examination record was, I couldn’t believe she wouldn’t have written down something the patient mentioned.

Either she heard it during a follow-up visit and forgot to note it, or she heard it for the first time today.

It was probably the latter… maybe she heard it and just brushed it off thinking she had forgotten.

Seeing this made me suspect that the first patient’s subtle awkwardness wasn’t about confirming the most painful spot, but because she genuinely didn’t know where it hurt most and asked them to point it out.

‘Does she have memory issues she’s not aware of? If this accumulates, patients will feel she’s not being sincere.’

She had contacted me, a complete stranger, through Jang Jungjae and even offered a substantial fee.

Considering the effort she put into things like advertising, the costs she’d already incurred weren’t small.

‘She thinks she’s doing her best.’

Six more patients came during the morning.

Two second visits, four follow-ups. There were no first-time patients.

“You said you use your arms a lot, right?”

“Not that much really. I work as a housekeeper, just a little mopping.”

“Oh my, that’s using them a lot.”

It wasn’t particularly problematic conversation, but… once suspicion starts, everything becomes questionable.

“It’s not healing well. Should I come more often?”

“If you live nearby, coming daily would be best.”

“I’m coming from Yeongjongdo… it’s not that close.”

“Oh, that’s right? Yeongjongdo~ I used to eat a lot of grilled clams at Eulwangni when I was dating.”

“Really? I’m quite an expert on grilled clam restaurants.”

This part was the same.

I don’t know if the patient had ever mentioned coming from Yeongjongdo before.

And probably Yun Heeyoung doesn’t know either.

Her good communication skills helped her get through the moment well, but… if it had been mentioned before, the patient might feel disappointed that she wasn’t being more attentive despite traveling so far.

If not, the gesture of seeming to have forgotten would be puzzling.

Of course, in most cases, the patients themselves would be confused too.

“Clinic Director Yun.”

I observed all morning, but I couldn’t find any other causes.

I wondered if such issues could really cause a 75% decrease in patients.

Maybe it was the result of these subtle problems accumulating over time?

“Yes, Clinic Director. Did you… notice anything?”

Yun Heeyoung looked at me with a tense expression.

At that moment, I could immediately sense that she had high expectations and trust in me.

While I could sense that from her, patients probably couldn’t feel anything special.

“Yes.”

The older the patients, the more sensitive they are to minor details, and a single word, expression, or touch can influence their impression of the entire treatment.

I was planning to mention this point.

However, I couldn’t understand why something that worked well until four years ago wasn’t working now.

Had she become routine in seeing patients over time? Mental and physical fatigue from childcare? Memory issues that come with age?

If it was the latter, for memory issues… from experience, Gagam Bosim-tang would be most effective.

But would it be appropriate to recommend medicine? Should I advise her to take notes more carefully?

Should I discuss this more deeply to find the cause of this situation?

“Mom, I finished all of this.”

While I was pondering how to bring up the topic, Hong Yujun opened the door and peeked his head out.

“Oh my, I’m sorry. The child has an exam coming up. Yujun, wait inside for a moment.”

“An exam? Didn’t you say he was in kindergarten?”

“There’s an entrance exam for English academy… I got practice problems from a parent who knew them, but there’s no answer sheet, so I’m checking them myself.”

Yun Heeyoung smiled sheepishly and showed me the book.

Two pages were filled with English written in crooked handwriting.

“We don’t have patients right now anyway, so let me check this quickly. He must be very good at English?”

“Oh, it’s nothing compared to kids who studied abroad early.”

A kindergartener wrote this. My jaw dropped.

Yun Heeyoung also seemed very good at English, quickly reading what Hong Yujun wrote and marking it in red.

“Did you mean to write ‘conscious’ here instead of ‘conscience’? Not only are they completely different meanings, but it’s a noun.”

“Ah… I wrote it wrong. ‘Conscience’ was in the vocabulary list I memorized yesterday.”

“I see. And you wrote ‘separate’ as ‘seperate’ again. This is the third time Mom is pointing this out.”

“…”

“There are six paragraphs and ‘definitely’ appears 5 times? You did this yesterday too – you like this word too much. Change it to ‘undoubtedly’ or ‘surely’, or you don’t need adverbs in places like this. You answered the topic well, but all these detailed mistakes count as deductions.”

I crossed off one possible cause for Yun Heeyoung’s inability to remember patients’ stories.

At least, it wasn’t memory issues that needed treatment.

“Finish memorizing the vocabulary. I’ll check it when we have lunch later.”

Yun Heeyoung sent the child back in, and Hong Yujun went into the room with his vocabulary book without saying anything.

‘This is, indeed….’

A strong intuition came to me.

It was as if the game system had pinned this place as the correct answer.

Of course, the child is very well-behaved and gentle. He didn’t cry during treatment either.

This morning, the time spent on her son was less than 15 minutes.

Normally, she wouldn’t even bring him to the Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic, so it would be even less.

“You prepare this extensively for a private academy entrance exam?”

But whatever exam it was, Yun Heeyoung’s mind was completely focused on this.

“Oh, yes! It’s called the 7-year-old Civil Service Examination. The large private academies in Daechi-dong conduct entrance exams and level tests, and we’re preparing to send him there starting this year.”

“When did you start preparing for that? No, wait. Your home is in Incheon, right? You’re planning to send him to academies all the way to Daechi-dong?”

“It’s not the large private academy we’re preparing for, but we’re already sending him to Gangnam. To make the child accustomed to competition and ensure he doesn’t fall behind, we have to do this much in advance.”

Yun Heeyoung spoke calmly as if it were nothing at all.

Even as she spoke, she seemed completely unaware of which part was problematic.

Competition, fine.

The attention to detail of even checking how many times “definitely” was used is also good.

“I see. Then let me give you a problem too.”

“Pardon?”

I wonder how much detail about patients she actually remembers.

“The knee patient we treated for the first time today, where did they say was the most painful spot?”

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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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