The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 32

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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 32

Jeong Inseong, 18 years old. Senior in high school.

A tall male student with distinct, well-defined features.

He was the perfect son that mothers brag about – serving as class president for all 6 years of middle and high school with exceptional leadership, excelling at everything from studies to soccer to gaming.

“Oh my, my handsome puppy! Did you come to see grandmother!”

If you just retouched his skin with Photoshop.

His facial features were truly handsome.

But he had never heard a woman other than his grandmother and mother call him handsome in his entire life.

There was just one problem – the acne scattered across his face.

“Yes, grandmother. Mother made side dishes and sent me on an errand to bring them.”

“Our grandson has a hard time studying, why did you come all the way here with these? I could have gone myself!”

“I wanted to see you too, grandmother.”

“You should be playing with a girlfriend, what are you doing coming to see an old lady!”

Grandmother, a girlfriend?

There’s no way I’d have one of those.

…Though there is a girl I like.

That girl had never once looked directly at Jeong Inseong’s face.

Even when she had to talk to him as class president, she would avert her eyes to the side.

He wanted to get close to her, and even confess his feelings.

But if he ever confessed, she might burst into tears.

“Don’t have one? Wow, because of this acne?”

She probably knows I’m not actually handsome, right?

Grandmother hit the nail on the head.

“Haha, I am getting treatment but it’s not getting better easily.”

“Didn’t you say you were taking herbal medicine? My back got incredibly better after taking herbal medicine, so why does your face look exactly the same?”

“That’s what I’m wondering too.”

He had tried treatment.

The first dermatology clinic he went to was the best. With laser treatment and medication, more than half of his acne disappeared and he was very happy.

But less than a month after finishing the 5 treatment sessions and stopping the medication, it all came back.

– It’ll get better after puberty. There’s nothing good about continuing to take those drugs.

In his young heart, he wanted to take acne medication for life, but his mother wouldn’t extend the treatment sessions.

After that, he begged and pleaded with his mother, asking for at least extractions if not medication, going to esthetics whenever it got severe.

It would improve when he went, but inevitably rolled back within a month. The weekly torture was unbearable, so after becoming a senior he gave up even that.

– Mom, can’t I try going to this oriental medicine clinic just once?

Around that time, Jeong Inseong saw an advertisement for Haneul Clinic on the subway.

The ultimate acne treatment! We’ll completely solve your worries with fundamental treatment!

When he searched, there was a plausible story that the root of skin problems was the intestines.

Reading the columns and treatment cases, he realized his digestion and sleep weren’t very good either.

‘If I get treatment here, won’t all my problems be cured?’

His grandmother, who had lived with a bent back for a long time, straightened her back after getting acupuncture and taking medicine at an oriental medicine clinic, so maybe his acne could improve too.

– If you get a grade 1 in math on the September mock exam, I’ll let you go.

His mother made a deal based on grades.

Jeong Inseong achieved the score his mother demanded.

And he got a prescription for medicine.

But his condition was.

“Where did you go that it’s like this? Let’s go to the oriental medicine clinic I go to!”

Exactly the same.

“Haneul Clinic in front of the station. They specialize in skin and beauty, and when I searched, they had many treatment cases.”

“What are you saying. Our clinic director is the best in the world.”

“Ah… Of course she’s amazing. She fixed grandmother’s back like this. But don’t oriental medicine clinics have specialties too?”

“Specialties my foot! What can’t our clinic director do?”

After hearing grandmother’s words, Jeong Inseong asked his mother if they could try changing oriental medicine clinics.

His mother stared intently at his forehead, then said she would get a refund.

But… unfortunately, she couldn’t get a refund.

“Just finish what’s left. You’ve tried enough, so stop now and focus only on studying until the college entrance exam. There’s not much time left anyway.”

Jeong Inseong thought his mother’s words made sense.

So he told his grandmother that unfortunately, it would be difficult to go to Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic together.

And the next day.

“Hey, forget about it. Why do more at a place that talks like that? How much could herbal medicine cost? I’ll pay for it, so let’s go together!”

Perfect son Jeong Inseong’s father was an artist who barely made ends meet, and his mother was a full-time housewife.

And his grandmother… was an art collector who had accumulated considerable wealth.

Grandmother easily convinced his mother.

And he finally got to see Dr. Hanyewon, whom grandmother praised endlessly.

‘Wow… This is crazy.’

The moment an unexpected villain appeared at the oriental medicine clinic, Jeong Inseong flinched.

Here, he felt a sense of duty that as the only man there, he should do something.

But before he could take any action, the doctor from somewhere grabbed the villain’s arm.

And then, whoosh!

I thought he was going to throw him down? …Unfortunately, that wasn’t it.

‘So cool!’

Instead, he completely crushed villain 1’s spirit and defeated villain 2 with a phone call, which naturally drew admiration.

Like the protagonist of a medical drama, no, a legal drama. He wanted to hurry to school and tell his friends about today’s story.

‘Eek, I came to get my medicine made, right?’

Jeong Inseong, who had been gaping with his mouth open, only snapped back to attention when he heard his name called.

* * *

Although the patient Jeong Inseong sat in the front seat, as is usually the case with minor patients accompanied by guardians, it was his mother who earnestly complained about the symptoms.

As I had guessed from looking at his face, the main symptom was indeed acne.

“It seems like this has been going on since middle school. At first it wasn’t this severe, but it’s been getting worse and worse. I wanted to help him somehow, so we went to hospitals, skin care rooms, and recently even went to another Korean medicine clinic, but nothing worked. And I’m reluctant to keep giving him steroids.”

“Our Inseong has no flaws anywhere, but how much stress he gets from this damn acne! The poor kid looks so pitiful that I came here to get medicine made again!”

Both the patient’s mother and Grandmother Heo Sunnam spoke with great concern.

So this kid is the top student grandson that grandmother often talked about.

“How long did you take medicine at Haneul Clinic?”

“We took it for a little over a month.”

This was the first thing Jeong Inseong said after entering the examination room.

“We asked them to tell us what medicine it was, but they wouldn’t even tell us. And they wouldn’t refund the medicine they didn’t even make!”

Soon his mother’s words continued.

At the time, it seemed like they had accepted it, but apparently their resistance was greater than I thought.

I glossed over the refund part and only mentioned the part about the medicine composition.

“It would be good to reference it, but unfortunately, that clinic has its policies. Network Korean medicine clinics have particularly strict regulations.”

“Oh, Inseong. You have some left, right? Can’t we use this for reference?”

But they seemed quite serious about this too.

Jeong Inseong’s mother rummaged through her son’s bag and suddenly held out a packet of herbal medicine.

‘Suddenly asking me to taste it and guess what it is?’

Hah, really. Isn’t this too much?

Giving me such a confident mission.

While it wouldn’t be easy for an ordinary doctor, for me who studied under the Sichuan Tang Family’s strange policy of needing to know the taste of all poisons and medicines, it was as easy as eating cold porridge.

Gulp.

I cut open the pouch and swallowed a mouthful of the medicine.

This taste is…?

Bupleurum, Cnidium, Saposhnikovia, Aralia, Schizonepeta, Poria, ginger, jujube, Atractylodes, tangerine peel, Magnolia bark, licorice!

Correct! Modified Shimihaedoksan combined with Pyeongwisan!

“How is it? Is there anything strange in it?”

“No, that’s not it. I was surprised because there’s no bitter taste of Coptis. It’s a Shimihaedoktang series.”

“Shimihaedoktang?”

Jeong Inseong’s mother quickly searched for the medicine I mentioned on her smartphone.

“It’s a prescription from Japan, usually considered as the first choice for acne treatment. They added Pyeongwisan, which helps with digestion.”

“Coptis? You’re saying that medicinal ingredient was left out?”

“It’s not that it was left out. That clinic director probably judged it unnecessary. Shimihaedoktang alone is sufficient help for papule-centered acne, but since the student has severe suppuration, I would use much stronger heat-clearing and dampness-drying medicines. In fact, the inflammation didn’t subside at all.”

“That’s right!”

While Shimihaedoksan does help cool heat through its ingredients, its core role is to unclog pores blocked by excess sebum.

When suppuration is severe, reducing inflammation should be the priority.

‘Why did they use this?’

It would have been disappointing if they hadn’t brought it. Personally, this prescription raised big questions for me.

I haven’t done the consultation yet, but even just looking with the naked eye, the suppuration is so obvious?

If they had safely used Coptis Detoxification Decoction, or just added Coptis to the current prescription of Shimihaedoksan, it would have had some effect.

‘…Don’t tell me they used it without knowing the composition?’

Suddenly I recalled the rumor that among network Korean medicine clinics, there are places where even the prescribing doctors don’t know the composition because they receive prescriptions from headquarters.

Honestly, it’s quite suspicious, but I can’t say things that would undermine the credibility of the entire industry in front of a patient.

“Since the inflammation didn’t subside, there’s no visible difference, but ultimately the whole body needs to be made healthy. There must have been some changes in one way or another.”

“Yes.”

“On my end, I’ll prescribe again in the direction of reducing suppuration. Don’t throw away that medicine either, keep it and take the medicine I give you first, then after the inflammation decreases, you can finish taking the rest.”

“Understood.”

What’s past is past.

Using the previous failure as a stepping stone, if I treat him well this time, that’s enough.

I started properly consulting Jeong Inseong, thinking of prescribing from the beginning.

“Are your appetite and digestion okay?”

“Just so-so. I do eat when it’s time, and digestion… I don’t get indigestion, but I sometimes have diarrhea.”

“And you sleep well?”

“Since I’m a high school student, I often study late, so when I try to sleep early, I can’t fall asleep easily.”

Jeong Inseong listed various symptoms as if he had been waiting for someone to talk to him.

“It’s not severe. Do you feel like you have a lot of heat in your body?”

“Only my head feels hot. I think this is also because of studying. I get very stressed every time I take an exam.”

“Let me take a look at your tongue.”

I was just planning to check if the tongue coating was dry, but his tongue was severely swollen and cracked. How severe must the heat sensation be?

Exam preparation is truly the root of all evil. Even a healthy person like me had aches and pains everywhere during my senior year of high school.

“You have dry mouth too, right?”

“Yes. I study while constantly drinking water.”

“For food, do you mainly eat school meals? Things like flour or chocolate…”

“I try not to eat them, but I need to have coffee or chocolate to concentrate well.”

Hmm.

This is quite difficult. From what he’s saying, it’s not that he doesn’t know chocolate isn’t good for acne, but he just can’t quit, right?

“Then it can’t be helped. You can completely quit after the college entrance exam.”

“Can it get better without quitting?”

“As you know, flour and caffeine do stimulate sebaceous glands, but even if sebum rises, there’s no problem as long as it’s discharged well. That’s what we need to use medicine for.”

“Yes!”

Jeong Inseong’s face brightened considerably at the words that it would be okay to eat chocolate.

If he could quit just because someone told him to, he would have quit long ago.

Besides, if we improve basic conditions like appetite, digestion, and sleep, the craving for sweets along with stress will naturally improve too.

“What kind of medicine will he be taking? It’s stronger than that Sipmi… thing, but it’s not steroids, right?”

Jeong Inseong’s mother asked.

The patient was full of treatment motivation from the start, and Grandmother Heo Sunnam’s trust goes without saying, so she must be the final boss of this stage.

She seemed very wary due to what happened at Haneul Clinic, so I needed to reassure her especially.

“Don’t worry. Even if the medicinal properties are strong, they’re still natural plants. They’re completely different from hormone preparations.”

I wrote down the complete composition of Hwangryeon-tang (Coptis Decoction) on paper.

Coptis, Pinellia, Ginseng, Fresh Ginger, Cinnamon Twig, Jujube, Licorice.

If I removed the cinnamon twig and added scutellaria, this would be the Banxia Sasim-tang I had prescribed to Hwang Sanghun before.

Acne is also a symptom of damp-heat, and since Jeong Inseong also complained of slight insomnia and upper heat-lower cold, the treatment direction was similar.

Even with similar pathology, the symptoms that manifest differ from person to person.

‘Since dry mouth is severe, I should add some ophiopogon and lily too. …Coptis alone isn’t enough. I need to add phellodendron and gardenia too.’

After adding four more medicinal ingredients, I began my explanation.

For this type of person, the same kind of explanation I gave to Hwang Sanghun wouldn’t be appropriate.

If I talk about pattern identification like phlegm-retention or damp-heat to patients without basic knowledge of traditional medicine, their expressions will obviously turn strange.

“The main active component of coptis is an alkaloid called berberine, which has excellent effects against various bacteria, fungi, and parasites. It’s used not only for acne but also helps regulate intestinal microorganisms, so it’s frequently used for digestive problems too.”

At times like this, my secret weapon.

Firing off pharmacological knowledge.

Sure enough, the more grandmother and Jeong Inseong got tired of the incomprehensible talk, the more the remaining suspicion disappeared from his mother’s face.

“Well, the clinic director knows what she’s doing and will prepare everything well! Please, do your best for us!”

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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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