The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 306

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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 306

While Vittore’s treatment progress was showing results, there were also various good things happening around us.

[Thank you for allowing me to achieve the dream I had given up on.]

[Thanks to you, Clinic Director, I was able to challenge myself beyond the limits of my abilities.]

First was the status report from Ha Dohyeon and Kim Jooho.

They had successfully ranked high in the survival show and made their debut safely.

Honestly, I thought it was a given and watched the broadcast with peace of mind.

But the actual participants must have been quite worried, as they were extremely happy and moved.

[Congratulations! You shined through your hard work!]

I didn’t spare any excitement or congratulatory words.

I even joked that if their throats got sore during practice, I could prescribe the same Hyangseongpajeokhwan that I had given to Kim Taeyun.

And the second news.

Hwangseoyeong had obtained her specialist certification and immediately took office as the Hospital Director of Seongsoo Cure Korean Medicine Hospital.

Although we didn’t hold a grand inauguration ceremony, we had a simple meal with the hospital staff who had helped during the acquisition process.

Since having a hospital in our network was a big event, the directors who had time attended to greet Hwangseoyeong.

“Congratulations. Let’s do well.”

“Yeah, this is just the beginning…!”

I also made time to visit, and while I was at it, I met with Mr. Ju to finalize the building transaction.

Since all the details had been coordinated in advance, all that was left was to stamp the documents and send the final payment.

Phew, a hospital building.

Even though it had a similar number of floors to the oriental medicine clinic building I was using, the square footage per floor was completely different.

Among the things I’ve bought since returning to the present… no, among the things I’ve directly purchased, this would be the most expensive.

The villa I bought in Saudi Arabia as an investment would be a bit more expensive. Though it doesn’t feel real.

Even though I’ve done similar things several times now, owning a hospital building stirred different emotions than when I bought the clinic building or house.

“It was a pleasure meeting all of you in South Korea. If you ever come to California, please contact me. I’ll treat you with the utmost hospitality.”

Farewell with handshakes.

Mr. Ju finished what he had aimed to do in South Korea and returned to the United States as soon as his business was concluded.

“Seoyeong, wait a moment…”

After people left, I briefly stopped Hwangseoyeong.

“Hm? What’s the matter?”

“I have something to tell you about Director Kang Manseok from before.”

“Who’s that?”

…She’s already forgotten.

Well, that person appeared in our lives for less than 30 minutes, and his name was only introduced briefly at the beginning.

From deciding on the acquisition to actually taking office, there were so many things to think about and decide that it was understandable she’d forget.

“You know, the competitor who showed up wanting to acquire the hospital.”

“Ahhhh! That person, why? Did he say something to you?”

“No, there’s been no gesture at all.”

“Then?”

“I think we need to figure out how that person learned about our hospital and what money he was planning to use for the acquisition.”

I confided my suspicions to Hwangseoyeong, who was blinking in confusion.

Probably your uncle-in-law grabbed a director friend from his hospital and put ideas in his head.

“That son of a bitch!”

Bang!

Her gesture of slamming the desk had quite the bearing of a hospital director.

“Calm down. There’s no evidence.”

“Ugh, I just thought it was natural since he had Korean medicine hospital experience, but he’s from Ilsan? Then it’s obvious! He kept putting me down saying I couldn’t do it, not to be a burden to the family, and then he tries to steal our hospital?”

“He probably provided information and money too. There might have been a back-room deal.”

“A back-room deal would mean revenue sharing…?”

I don’t know that much.

Even if there was something, they would have destroyed all evidence by now.

Since Mr. Ju sided with us and their plan was thwarted, there’s no legal ground to pursue it.

“There’s no evidence that it’s not true either.”

“Huh?”

“If rumors spread that he tried to steal what his niece was attempting to do to line his own pockets, your grandfather wouldn’t like that very much, would he?”

“Of course not? Ah… Aha!”

Let’s spread rumors among the relatives.

Director Kang Manseok tried to steal the contract. He worked as an attending physician at Imperial Korean Medicine Hospital in Ilsan for a long time, so where did he hear about the hospital? What money was he planning to use to raise the stakes for the hospital acquisition?

If we spread the story appropriately, it would snowball in no time.

“I’m good at that kind of thing. I’ll make him eat shit properly.”

Hwangseoyeong grinned wickedly.

Doing so wouldn’t benefit us, but Director Kang Manseok probably started this whole thing to prevent Hwangseoyeong from proving her abilities in the first place.

He’d be most afraid of losing the Old Man’s trust.

Even though we won, if he tried to screw us over, isn’t it human nature to accept the risk of getting hit back just as hard?

‘Let’s wrap up this matter to this extent.’

If you keep repaying kindness 10-fold and revenge 100-fold, you end up becoming like the mafia.

I should live diligently within the bounds of being an ordinary citizen!

If I focus on the patients in front of me, won’t more good things happen?

– Hello, I’m new here! I’ll work hard!

– Hospital Director~ Welcome~!

With Hwangseoyeong’s appointment as hospital director, the study group membership also increased dramatically.

Though I had clearly announced that participation wasn’t mandatory, all the attending physicians showed up, saying they’d only come when they had time.

‘It’s strange seeing Director Chu and Seoyeong on the same screen.’

Looking at the screen now showing over ten people’s faces, I announced to the new members.

“Nice to meet you all. Director Seon has compiled everything we’ve studied so far, so I’ll send it to you. There’s quite a lot, so you don’t need to read it all. Just check the table of contents and keep it handy to reference when you have questions.”

– Wow! Such valuable materials right after joining!

The director who had actively gotten my contact information cheered. They’re all enthusiastic people, which is great.

Since there were many new faces, we first took time for everyone to introduce themselves in turn.

Soon we moved to the original schedule where Ryu Jinseong and Chu Miyoung presented the cases they had prepared.

The topic was about improving hypothyroidism through herbal medicine treatment.

– Oh… it even leads to numerical changes like this.

– I should also actively treat endocrine disorders.

Each clinic and each director unintentionally ends up seeing certain diseases frequently.

This was because once a dramatic treatment case emerged, that patient would introduce a string of people with similar conditions.

Even I had hardly seen any thyroid patients, but isn’t it great that we can continue developing through indirect experience like this?

After some discussion, this week’s topic-related schedule ended.

“Are there any other questions or topics you’d like to discuss? Treatment concerns, system-related issues, anything is fine.”

I checked once more in case the newly participating directors found it difficult to ask questions.

But they just looked around at each other without any particular response.

– Um, I have a case I’d like to consult with other directors about, would that be okay?

Then, Jeon Minji raised her hand and spoke up.

Since she wasn’t usually a director with many questions or opinions, everyone’s attention focused on Jeon Minji.

Even her husband Yu Gyeonghun seemed slightly surprised, as if he didn’t know about this.

“Of course. What kind of patient is it?”

– It’s plum pit qi. I’ve been treating them for a month… they say there’s been no improvement at all. They agreed to try the medicine for another month, but I’m not sure if the direction is wrong or if it’s just insufficient time.

Oh, plum pit qi?

She was treating a difficult patient.

Plum pit qi , literally interpreted from the Chinese characters, means ‘the energy of a plum seed stuck in the throat.’

It’s a difficult disease to treat where patients feel a foreign sensation in their throat that can neither be spat out nor swallowed, but shows no abnormalities on examination.

In Western medicine, it’s called Globus syndrome, or sometimes hysterical globus – an expression that came from Hippocrates’ era when they thought the uterus wandered around the body and got stuck in the throat.

“Please tell us in detail. What kind of patient is it, and what prescription did you use?”

The more difficult it is, the more interesting it becomes from a physician’s perspective.

Wasn’t this why we created the network – to see patients like this indirectly?

– Yes! It’s someone who worked as an IR representative at a large corporation but quit at the end of last year due to extreme stress…!

As if Jeon Minji had prepared in advance, she displayed a brief medical history on screen.

Let’s see. Ms. Seong, 38-year-old female.

– She’s had plum pit qi for about 7-8 months. She already wanted to quit because the job didn’t suit her at all, and after much consideration, she used the illness as an opportunity to submit her resignation. But she had important work to finish, so she couldn’t leave immediately. Since last month, she’s been staying at a pension in Jeju for three months, wanting to rest without thinking about anything.

She probably came to visit because our Jeju branch is famous among travelers.

“Is this her first time treating plum pit qi?”

– Yes. This is her first time treating it as plum pit qi. Initially, she went to an otorhinolaryngology clinic and tried expectorant medicine, then did various tests at a pulmonology department and took bronchitis medication. Eventually she went to psychiatry and took a test with tons of questions, but wasn’t diagnosed with depression or anxiety disorders. She got tranquilizers but they just made her drowsy without being effective.

“Hmm.”

Most plum pit qi patients describe it as having phlegm stuck in their throat.

They often wander between hospitals – one place calls it post-nasal drip, another says reflux esophagitis, yet another calls it reflux laryngitis – trying various medications before coming to an oriental medicine clinic.

“What medicine did you use, Director?”

Traditional medicine texts view plum pit qi as qi-phlegm , recognizing it as a disease caused by the seven emotions causing qi to accumulate and stagnate in the throat.

Treatment medicines mainly include anger-clearing drugs and expectorants.

– I thought it was qi stagnation, so I used Modified Four-Seven Decoction with added Cyperus rotundus. There wasn’t much physical tension, so I didn’t include Bupleurum, but should I use more diverse qi-regulating medicines like Bupleurum and green tangerine peel? Or should I add expectorants even though there’s no actual phlegm to spit up?

Modified Four-Seven Decoction… that’s a combination of qi-regulating medicine, expectorants, and digestives.

It’s presented as the first choice for plum pit qi in Donguibogam, and is treated very importantly in anger disorders. It’s also a regular on national exams.

But how should I put it – I haven’t seen patients who improved dramatically with that medicine.

– Don’t mix things ambiguously – if you’re going with Bupleurum formulas, use Bupleurum formulas; if Cyperus formulas, use Cyperus formulas. Check again if there’s really no anxiety or depression.

Kim Chunsik doesn’t seem to like Modified Four-Seven Decoction much either.

I also preferred Bupleurum and Cyperus formulas like Yokukansan, Modified Free and Easy Wanderer, and Jeonggicheonhyang-tang for autonomic nervous system disorders caused by stress.

‘But this patient…’

However, looking at the prescription Jeon Minji sent, though she said the base formula was Modified Four-Seven Decoction, she had already added 10g of Cyperus rotundus.

If Cyperus formulas were going to be effective, this medicine should have shown some change.

“I think I would try tonifying formulas.”

I thought for a moment before speaking.

“While we mainly cite stress and autonomic nervous system disorders as causes of plum pit qi, it’s not 100%. There are also menopausal patients and many patients who talk a lot.”

The age isn’t menopausal, so I’m guessing the latter.

Being an IR representative means not only a lot of stress, but also a job involving many presentations and communications, right?

“When the mucous membranes are dry, you get a similar foreign body sensation along with phlegm, or that kind of feeling. If you use Western medicine to dry up the phlegm, the symptoms get even worse.”

I suggested another possibility.

In other words, abnormal sensations caused by dryness could be the underlying cause.

“Do you happen to have a dry cough? Let’s check your pulse and tongue coating and do a comprehensive four-examination diagnosis.”

– Ah…!

As if she had gained enlightenment, Jeon Minji’s face brightened.

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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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