The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 344

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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 344

Even though the condition is severe, the treatment method for the wrist itself doesn’t stray too far from standard approaches.

I need to calm the inflammation while guiding the damaged soft tissues to recover.

I started by instructing cold compress treatment to soothe the heat sensation, then went to perform acupuncture.

“I’ll start by removing blood stasis from the wrist and addressing the inflammation. I’ll use pharmacopuncture as well.”

“Yes, please do whatever treatment is necessary.”

First, I carefully injected blood stasis pharmacopuncture at the tender spots and where bruising was visible to the naked eye.

It was a pharmacopuncture containing medicinal liquid that disperses blood stasis, helping to remove bruises.

Bruising means that when impact occurs, blood vessels are damaged and capillaries rupture, causing blood to leak between tissues and pool, showing color through the skin.

This pooled blood stasis should be cleared away by macrophages through immune system action, but in Jeon Byeongho’s case, circulation hadn’t been working smoothly for nearly a month.

“Ugh.”

Whether it’s external or internal injury, when blood circulation problems persist for a long time, resolving blood stasis is the top priority.

Along with pharmacopuncture, I prescribed blood stasis-dispersing medicine for about the first week.

“Wow, you’re inserting them without any pain at all.”

“Yes. Today I’ll work gently.”

Since Jeon Byeongho said he hadn’t received much acupuncture before, I used thin needles to quickly pierce the skin, minimizing pain.

The range of bruising and swelling was wide, so it was difficult to reduce the number of needles.

I placed needles at acupoints around the wrist like Yanggu, Yangchi, and Yanggye, as well as all areas where inflammation was pooled as confirmed by ultrasound.

Though the injury was to the wrist, there was tension throughout the entire arm and even up to the neck and shoulders, so I carefully performed acupuncture while checking for muscle knots.

“Should I come every day?”

“If you can make the time.”

“Once workers’ compensation leave benefits are approved, I’ll have plenty of time. I’ll be at home anyway.”

“I’ll try to make it work out well. Don’t worry and get plenty of rest.”

After finishing Jeon Byeongho’s treatment for the day, I looked into extending his workers’ compensation treatment.

Just like when I had done this before, there didn’t seem to be any major problems.

Regardless of what thoughts the company might have, they can’t call the Industrial Complex and demand they refuse approval, right?

Even if they did, it wouldn’t mean much.

Since the hospital Jeon Byeongho had been attending previously hadn’t applied yet, I wrote a detailed medical opinion and requested an extension.

I wrote in detail about not only subjective pain intensity but also range of motion and sensory abnormalities, and even attached ultrasound images.

“Hello, Clinic Director. I’m here again today.”

“Yes. It’s still about the same. I’ll continue with the same treatment as yesterday.”

For five days from the first day, I proceeded with the same blood stasis removal treatment.

Even on my days off, he received consistent treatment from Lee Ahreum, and as we monitored his progress, the swelling gradually subsided.

What had clearly been different in thickness from his left hand became similar.

The ambiguous bruise between purple and navy blue also changed to a greenish tint and became slightly lighter.

“Finally something is changing!”

When I showed him that the swelling had gone down, Jeon Byeongho was extremely pleased.

“The treatment is working well. We can continue like this.”

“Oh, what a relief. I thought I’d have to live like this for the rest of my life.”

“You must have been very worried. How is the pain now?”

“If the pain was 8 out of 10 initially, it’s about 6 points now.”

It’s called NRS (Numeric Rating Scale), a method of evaluating pain intensity numerically where the worst imaginable pain is 10 and no pain at all is 0.

From 8 to 6.

Considering how severe it was initially, improving this much in just five days was a fairly good recovery progress.

“I think it’s thanks to less pressure as the swelling went down.”

“Yes, yes. Now that you mention it, there’s less pressing sensation, but I still have that aching pain deep in the bones.”

“I’ll gradually switch to anti-inflammatory pharmacopuncture.”

“Yes.”

The blood stasis had been largely resolved, and his natural healing ability, which had been stagnant, was back on track.

There was still blood stasis medicine left from the first week’s prescription, so it would be sufficient to remove the remaining bruises.

I switched the pharmacopuncture to target inflammatory pain. The variety prepared by the External Herbal Pharmacy was really useful at times like this.

And two days later.

Exactly one week after applying for the extension, the approval documents arrived.

“It was approved without any problems.”

“What a relief…!”

Jeon Byeongho was completely relieved, and I was also at ease.

The current healing trend was good, but if he had to return to work, it might have been slow to the point of even worsening.

Though I had only sent basic documents, Jeon Byeongho thanked me repeatedly.

“But the bruise has turned yellow. Is that okay?”

“That’s normal progress. Originally, hemoglobin breaks down and a protein called biliverdin appears, turning it green, then this breaks down again and changes to bilirubin, turning it yellow. It will soon be removed and fade, then disappear completely.”

“Oh… I see. I think I’ve heard of bilirubin before.”

Jeon Byeongho blinked several times, then chuckled.

“We can consider the bruise almost completely gone. Now I’ll change the medicine to a prescription that strengthens muscles and bones. It tastes better than the blood stasis medicine. Let’s continue treatment steadily for ligament, muscle, and tendon recovery.”

“Yes!”

I informed him in advance that the process of tonifying and recovering is a bit slower than breaking through blockages and promoting circulation.

Since he needs to continue working, we must definitely treat it properly to the end.

“Of course. Safety and health come first, don’t they?”

During several days of treatment, I also heard how he injured his wrist.

It seemed his distress was even greater because it was an accident that occurred despite being extremely careful about safety accidents.

“Oh, if the company gives you any trouble, let me know. I’ll have a word with them.”

Thinking it was a joke, Jeon Byeongho chuckled and replied.

“I felt betrayed by the company too, and was a bit angry at that guy who injured my wrist… but since it’s getting better, it’s fine. They say if you endure three times, you can even avoid murder, right? Thanks to that, I met a good doctor and was able to treat my wrist safely.”

“Oh my. I’m getting angry and upset just listening to this, but you think too positively about everything.”

“I have to think positively.”

It was quite a talent to betray such a positive person.

Anyway, since I had secured sufficient treatment time, my job was to heal him without any aftereffects.

* * *

But a few days later, an opportunity came to say something.

Jeon Byeongho had always come alone until now, or occasionally brought his aunt An Myeongja, but today he was accompanied by a man in his 50s of similar age.

“Wow, the oriental medicine clinic is really big? There are many directors too.”

“Yes. I’m receiving treatment from the clinic director.”

From the atmosphere of their conversation, I got the feeling he was a workplace superior.

“I’ll go straight to the treatment room. Please go get your examination.”

As expected, he was the work supervisor from the factory where Jeon Byeongho worked.

He had been consistently calling to ask how his wrist was doing and when he could return to work.

Jeon Byeongho had told him that he was improving a lot this time and recommended that he visit the clinic too.

“I actually wanted to meet you once.”

I brought up the topic as soon as the work supervisor entered the examination room.

“Me?”

Of course, the work supervisor, who was meeting me for the first time, wouldn’t understand what I meant.

I carefully chose my words so it wouldn’t sound like Jeon Byeongho had complaints about the company.

“Mr. Jeon Byeongho was very worried that he had to rest for too long unintentionally. I gave my medical opinion to the Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service that rest was absolutely necessary, but I had no way to communicate this separately to the company.”

“Ah… Really? He was worried about that?”

The work supervisor looked very surprised.

As I thought, this person hadn’t said anything.

“Well, his wrist was originally in this condition.”

I showed him the photos I had taken comparing Jeon Byeongho’s left and right hands.

While ultrasound photos are hard for non-professionals to understand, just looking at the appearance, his wrist was clearly not normal.

“Huh, Supervisor Jeon’s wrist was like that?”

“You didn’t know?”

“…Since he hasn’t been coming to work, I’m seeing it for the first time today. I thought it was almost healed.”

“It was this severe just ten days ago, and he’s been getting better through treatment. He can barely manage eating now, but if he pushes himself to work, it will definitely be too much.”

“No… I didn’t know it was that bad. Of course he can’t work in that condition… Ah…”

Fortunately, the work supervisor wasn’t the type who was unreasonable.

Looking at the photos of the bruised area seemed shocking, as he squinted his eyes and shuddered.

“That guy must have felt very hurt. Oh my, that’s right. He’s not the type to make excuses… I passed along everything from above too directly.”

I clarified that it wasn’t like that, and that Jeon Byeongho had no other intentions at all.

I couldn’t let him get into an awkward position because of something I said carelessly.

Fortunately, the work supervisor seemed to understand what I was trying to say.

“I’ll take responsibility and talk to my superiors.”

He spoke with a somewhat determined expression.

I was wondering if I should say something to the supervisor, but it seemed the supervisor would say something to his higher-ups instead.

“Please do.”

I could leave the rest to him.

I smiled brightly and asked the work supervisor.

“You said your shoulders and back feel stiff, right?”

“Ah, yes. It’s not an injury, but doing various work has gradually made it worse.”

“You came at the right time.”

* * *

Recently, Jeon Byeongho had been visiting the oriental medicine clinic with a much lighter heart.

The bruising had faded considerably, and the aching was gradually getting better.

As the fear that he might have to live with pain for the rest of his life disappeared, he could see himself improving every day.

‘If I had known this would happen, I should have come to the oriental medicine clinic from the start.’

If he had started treatment here from the beginning, couldn’t the treatment have been completed within the initially set period?

Then he might not have found himself in such an awkward situation.

“Today I’m going to insert thread embedding. It will support your weakened wrist.”

“Yes.”

It was too late for regrets. Jeon Byeongho diligently participated in the treatment.

This time it was a special treatment that involved inserting thread under the skin, but contrary to his expectations, it wasn’t very painful.

Well, if he could just get better, a little pain here and there wouldn’t be much of a problem.

“It will feel a bit heavy.”

Director Hanyewon smiled with satisfaction after finishing the procedure.

She genuinely rejoiced whenever Jeon Byeongho said he had improved somewhere.

Fortunately, he didn’t say it out loud, but his conscience was pricked by the unnecessary suspicions he had about his aunt at first.

What kind of misunderstanding could he have had about someone with such thorough professional spirit.

“Ahem.”

As warned, it was somewhat heavy, but compared to the original aching sensation, it wasn’t particularly uncomfortable.

After the treatment ended, Jeon Byeongho sat in the waiting room.

Usually he would go straight home, but today he had a companion with him.

When he told the work supervisor, who always said everything was the same, that he was getting better, hadn’t the supervisor become curious about the traditional Korean medicine clinic?

Though he had clicked his tongue when looking at Jeon Byeongho’s wrist, since he didn’t say much else, it seemed like there wouldn’t be any major problems at the company.

‘…It should be fine. It’s not easy to fire a skilled worker like me either.’

Short-term replacements are difficult, but finding someone to work long-term isn’t easy either, right?

Thinking this way, Jeon Byeongho calmed his uneasy feelings.

He worried, then comforted himself from worrying, and while doing so, the work supervisor who had finished his treatment soon came out.

“Team Leader Jeon.”

Though they had only been apart for 40 or 50 minutes since he went into the treatment room first, strangely enough, he seemed very glad to see Jeon Byeongho.

Quite suddenly, he grabbed Jeon Byeongho’s hand firmly.

“You must have suffered a lot mentally.”

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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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