The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 307

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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 307

Jeon Minji was now a Korean medicine doctor in her fourth year.

Although it had been just under three full years since she opened her clinic, it was about time for her to develop the composure of an experienced practitioner.

When she had just graduated with no experience whatsoever, every patient seemed unfamiliar and new.

– You say you have a boil on your skin? Hmm… it looks like eczema to me? You shouldn’t put ointment on it!

Back then, patients were truly frightening, and without experience, she had no confidence.

Director Hanyewon had told her that this was natural at first, that such periods would help her grow as a doctor by becoming part of her flesh and blood, but those were incredibly difficult days.

‘Right? It must be right? It looks exactly like the photo I saw in the textbook… Why did this person think this was a boil?’

Back then, she put all her energy into every single patient.

When there was something she didn’t know, she would ask her husband or study group, approaching treatment with anxiety.

When patients came back saying they had improved, she would be greatly delighted.

When they didn’t come back, she would try to review what might have been the problem.

About three years had passed since then.

Now she had become somewhat accustomed to treating patients.

Just by looking at their gait and expression as they entered, she could guess whether they were serious patients or patients who had come for consultation while vacationing in Jeju Island.

When they said a certain part hurt, she could predict the prognosis – how long it would take to heal with this or that treatment.

The Korean medicine clinic had done much better than Jeon Minji and Yu Gyeonghun had expected.

The couple had achieved economic prosperity beyond their expectations.

‘Is this the right path?’

But Jeon Minji was sometimes consumed by anguish.

It was a system where inevitably many patients would come once and never return.

When she performed any treatment or prescribed medicine, it was quite difficult to check the progress.

At first, when patients didn’t come back a second time, she worried whether there had been something lacking…

– We’re going back to Seoul this evening~

– It’s been a year, hasn’t it? Thanks to your treatment back then, the strain I had got better right away!

There were far too many exceptions.

– Before, it was hard even to walk here, but now I’m fine.

Of course, there were some local people who came regularly for treatment purposes.

– Is Director Yu Gyeonghun in? I heard that bamboo salt acupuncture cured sciatica.

– Cheonma! I want to meet Cheonma!

– Two Korean medicine doctors? Which one is the representative? Hmm… I’ll see the male director.

– That, Director Cheonma… when I meet him, what should I call him? Director? Cheonma? Ah, my back hurts. It’s been about 45 years since I injured it in the military.

There were many patients who specifically requested Director Yu Gyeonghun.

– It’s natural. Cheonma becoming a Korean medicine doctor is more interesting than the Martial Arts Alliance Leader running a clinic.

Her husband consoled her saying it was natural since his concept stood out.

But still, she had no way of knowing whether she was doing well.

Dozens of patients rushed in every day, but weren’t they coming to see the concept rather than skill?

It wasn’t that there were no patients who specifically requested her, but wasn’t that just because her husband’s waiting time was long?

She didn’t dare compare herself to Director Hanyewon, but she felt like she was falling behind even the other Korean medicine doctors at the branch clinics.

‘It was good when I could learn by watching from the side…’

Director Lee Ahreum, who was a year younger, had grown much more than when they first met.

She would be different in many ways since she stuck right next to Director Hanyewon to watch and learn, wouldn’t she?

What about Director Chu Miyoung and Director Seon Nayeon, who led their clinics with their own strength alone?

Leadership could be felt from the atmosphere they exuded, and they often presented cases where they had taken on difficult patients and finally cured them.

“Phew, work stress was really too severe. I ended up quitting, and though I’m worried about the future… I’m planning to rest well for about three months.”

“Hmm, are you staying on Jeju land continuously?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Rest assured and focus on treatment. The more at ease your mind is, the faster the progress will be.”

In the midst of this appeared a patient with globus sensation.

Seong Sujeong said Cheonma was scary and specifically requested Jeon Minji from the beginning.

They had also prepared the option of treating without concepts for patients who felt this burdened, but the Martial Arts Alliance Leader seemed to be fine.

She expressed her intention to try hard with treatment for at least the three months she would be in Jeju Island.

‘What I’ve been lacking might be the experience of taking on patients for a long period?’

Jeon Minji approached this patient’s treatment with great enthusiasm.

She was familiar with prepared medicine prescriptions, but she hadn’t had many experiences of treating difficult patients with herbal decoctions.

‘Globus sensation… Good. Let’s work hard.’

She had some confidence in her own way.

This was the third time treating a globus sensation patient, but the first two cases had good progress.

The first patient was her aunt.

When she was a student who knew nothing, she had prescribed medicine with help from Yu Gyeonghun, who was doing public service, and her aunt had been delighted that her symptoms improved greatly in just one month.

And the second was a patient who came not long after opening the clinic, and when she asked a few months later when the patient returned with knee pain, she said the globus sensation had completely healed.

“Do you tend to have severe mood swings?”

“Ahem, I was originally a very positive and calm person, but I did become sensitive while working. Since even small numbers are so important. When subordinates made mistakes, I would easily get angry and then regret it.”

“I can feel that your breathing is labored. Try doing comfortable breathing exercises. You need to recover your body’s balance first, miss.”

“Ah, breathing exercises…! Yes, I’ll try that!”

After much deliberation, the prescription I chose was Gamisachiltang, which had shown effectiveness before.

In addition, I had heard countless times in study sessions that Hyangbuja was very good when the sympathetic nervous system was hyperactive.

Since this person had a lot of stress… wouldn’t this show improvement, even if not 100%?

“It’s still the same. *Cough*, *Achoo*! It still feels like something’s boiling in my throat and bothering me. During the day when I drink water and eat, I get by somehow, but when I try to sleep at night, I feel like I’m going crazy. It actually seems to have gotten a bit worse.”

But the results shattered Jeon Minji’s expectations.

“It worsens at night. Are you resting well and sleeping properly? Is your mind at ease?”

“Yes, yes, my mind is much better. When I was working, I used to get upset at the slightest annoyance, but now I’m so much more relaxed… Yesterday at the cafe, a child body-slammed me and spilled coffee, and even after throwing away my clothes, I just thought it was cute.”

“Hmm, that’s fortunate. Your pulse has improved too. It’s disappointing that it hasn’t led to changes in the plum pit qi, but that’s because the treatment hasn’t accumulated sufficiently yet. I recommend additional medication.”

“Please do that. If I take it for another month or two, my throat should get better too, right?”

Various secondary symptoms had improved, but wasn’t she saying the core symptom of plum pit qi was similar or even worse?

Of course, that could happen.

In treatment cases brought by Director Hanyewon and other directors, such situations occurred frequently.

Cases where no change appeared in the first month so the prescription was changed, or where treatment continued judging it as a healing crisis just before recovery.

‘Struggling with a difficult patient…’

It was difficult.

When faced with an intractable patient, it was incredibly difficult.

I couldn’t tell if the patient wasn’t getting better because of wrong treatment, or because the treatment wasn’t sufficient as I had said.

Should I ask my husband? Could I grow independently by always doing this?

But for the patient’s sake, I had to provide accurate treatment.

Jeon Minji spent a whole day deliberating and wrote down her own prescription.

“Um, I have a case I’d like to discuss with the other directors. Would that be okay?”

She raised her hand during the study session and asked.

Among the methods Jeon Minji knew, this seemed like the path most likely to yield the closest answer to the correct one.

* * *

At my question about whether there was a dry cough, Jeon Minji’s mouth fell open.

She moved her lips several times, then clasped her hands together and answered.

– There is. There was also a dry cough. She didn’t mention it as a symptom, but during the consultation, she coughed dryly several times. It might have been because the martial arts concept was awkward…!

It was as I expected.

I explained the conclusion I reached after reviewing Jeon Minji’s first prescription and the consultation content before and after.

“Initially, there was definitely qi stagnation. Just looking at the situation, it couldn’t not exist, and expressions like easily getting angry or sometimes feeling like crying were clear. You also said the pulse was tense. Did you assess this accurately?”

Had Jeon Minji read the pulse well? Even with accumulated experience, this was an area with large individual differences.

– Yes. I observe and record as accurately as possible.

– Minji is meticulous. Actually, for musculoskeletal patients where I don’t think pulse reading is necessary, I roughly skip it, but Minji diligently checks, explains, and records every time.

Yu Gyeonghun added a comment.

Really? Well, patients coming for constitutional consultations would be very curious about their pulse.

I also only check pulses when necessary, but if she checked all first-time patients, she would have accumulated a tremendous number of cases.

Should I ask her to give a separate presentation later?

“Then we can say the qi stagnation existed but was resolved while resting and taking Gamisachiltang. The fact that the plum pit qi didn’t disappear at all means there are problems besides stress.”

– That’s yin deficiency…!

“Since qi stagnation was overlapping, the textbook-like thin and rapid yin deficiency pulse probably didn’t show clearly. Do you have tongue photos?”

Though it has the grand name of four examinations combined reference, it ultimately means combining observation, listening, inquiry, and palpation for pattern identification.

Observation is what you see with your eyes: facial color, body type, gait, tongue coating.

Listening is what you know through your ears: the patient’s voice, breathing, or sometimes cough presence like I questioned.

Inquiry is the disease course and symptoms where the doctor asks and the patient answers.

And palpation is what you know by touch. Usually pulse, but it also encompasses the coldness and heat of hands and feet.

Since this patient had already concluded her symptoms were due to stress, there were many points that could be missed with inquiry alone.

– Yes, I took photos. I’ll send them!

Looking at the tongue photo, as expected, it was red overall with almost no coating.

While thick coating looks bad and causes bad breath while being a sign of excess heat, when it’s this dry, it fails to protect the tongue.

Naturally, it also means insufficient body fluids.

– Ah… I missed this. Since it wasn’t phlegm-dampness syndrome, did using expectorants make the tongue coating disappear more? Is that why the plum pit qi worsened?

“That’s not it. The patient’s feeling of worsening is probably just because this winter has been very dry.

– Ah!

While wrong medication can actually worsen illness, this wasn’t such a case.

Moreover, wasn’t it because she tried expectorants and qi-regulating herbs as the first prescription that we could derive the next answer?

“Plum pit qi is fundamentally qi-phlegm, that’s correct, and as long as it’s not severe and phlegm exists, we can’t exclude expectorants. Hmm… how about Geumsuyukgun-jeon?”

The symptoms felt in the throat probably aren’t 100% psychological in origin.

Perhaps because it’s so dry and the body’s fluid nourishment is insufficient, the elasticity of respiratory tissues has decreased?

And as bronchial mucus secretion also decreases, the throat area becomes sensitive and congested.

For treatment, fluid supply should naturally be the core, but we can’t exclude phlegm removal.

– I’ll try it. Thank you. I really worried a lot about this… You’re so clear!

Even without knowing the effectiveness yet, Jeon Minji was very satisfied with my advice.

She could ask comfortably if she had concerns, but perhaps it’s hard to fit in well as the number of people increases?

“Please speak up anytime you have difficult patients. That’s what I’m here for.”

Jeon Minji let out a sigh of relief.

– Thank you, Clinic Director. I have some experience now, but I guess my studies were too lacking.

– What? Not at all! I would have graduated 3 years? 4 years? That much faster than the previous director, but I still ask Doctor Han!

Chu Miyoung answered instead.

As she said, this kind of thing could be asked through personal messenger anytime.

‘Ah, seeing that Director Yu Gyeonghun doesn’t know either….’

Did she want to handle it on her own somehow?

While feeling relieved, Jeon Minji’s face was clouded with worry.

‘Hmm….’

I thought I knew what stage this was.

Not a complete beginner, but those moments when unfamiliar things come at you just when you’re getting comfortable.

I really had no choice, so I learned everything by facing it directly in an environment where no one taught me.

But did Jeon Minji need to go through the same thing?

The reason I took students at the Medical Institute was because I thought young people could gain experience with a little less hardship.

“Don’t make it so difficult, let’s do it comfortably and enjoyably. Originally there are times when treatment goes well and times when you’re in a slump. During times like this, it’s good to talk openly and refresh yourself by resting for a while.”

– Yes….

“If the Clinic Director is okay with it, it would be good to come visit our oriental medicine clinic for a few days. If you have worries, I’ll listen to them. Since you’re working with Director Yu anyway, leave it to him and rest a little.”

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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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