The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 50

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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 50

One day before Myeong Junsik visited the oriental medicine clinic.

“Manager, are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

A subordinate employee sitting next to him spoke to him as he was working hard at the company.

He was working while clutching his lower abdomen due to pain in an unspeakable area.

It wasn’t pain severe enough to be dying from, but when he bent his waist it hurt slightly less, so he was twisting his body, which seemed to have drawn concern from those around him.

“I’m fine. It’s just… my daughter insisted on eating malatang yesterday. I think I got an upset stomach.”

The employee who asked was someone he was fairly comfortable with, but there were also many female employees sitting right behind them who he wasn’t very close to. He couldn’t bring himself to name the actual area of pain, so he made up a different excuse.

No, actually it wasn’t a matter of gender or closeness. Wasn’t it a body part that could easily cause misunderstandings with anyone?

Even his wife had been shocked when he said his testicles hurt.

“Our daughter is in high school, so what kind of things have you been doing around town?”

Recalling his wife’s tearful shouting still made him feel like tears might trickle out.

At first, he didn’t even understand why she was angry. He had thought things like, if it were me and my wife was in pain, I would worry about her.

“What are you talking about? What would I be doing? It just suddenly started hurting…”

“Oh my, what a fate I have. How could you do such a thing? How could you! When have I ever made you feel disappointed? I’ve lived only looking at you and our daughter. When have I ever nagged you even once! How could you get such a disease…! Where and with whom have you been fooling around?”

“Absolutely not!”

His wife had suspected, no, was convinced of infidelity and sexually transmitted disease.

Good heavens. For about 20 years since their youngest daughter was born, he had barely had sexual relations even with his wife.

He had occasionally masturbated until his 40s, but now he couldn’t even get it up properly so he didn’t even do that. What kind of suspicion could she possibly have about him? There had never been such an unfair incident in his entire life.

After barely persuading his wife who was making a fuss about finding a lawyer and going to her hometown, he went to the urology clinic.

He had excessive worries like, could he have really caught a sexually transmitted disease from somewhere like a public bathhouse? But fortunately the test results were clean.

“Sometimes such misunderstandings do lead to unfortunate incidents, but there are many various causes for testicular pain even when it’s not a sexually transmitted disease. No sexually transmitted bacteria were detected at all, so please be reassured.”

“Ah…”

The urologist comforted Myeong Junsik and helped soothe his wife well.

He felt greatly relieved.

“There’s no particular problem on the ultrasound either, and the inflammation levels aren’t very high. It seems to be epididymitis, and it should heal if you take medication. Don’t worry too much.”

Myeong Junsik diligently took the prescribed medication.

After 2 weeks passed like that, the pain decreased.

He had felt completely reassured. He thought it had ended as just a small incident as the doctor had said.

But after some time, the pain appeared again.

It was at an unfortunate timing.

“Sob sob… Those damn bastards! How much have I done for the company! Let’s see if the project runs properly without me!”

“You’re absolutely right. What are we supposed to do without you, Manager…”

His closest colleague at work, who had been his mentor when he first joined the company, was transferred to a regional factory.

The two of them were drinking soju at a pojangmacha to soothe their sadness and anger, when that area started hurting as if a ghost was pulling at it.

Far from being able to focus on consoling, he felt like he was going crazy from being distracted by that area.

“Ugh… Manager… sob sob…”

Tears trickled out. No, Myeong Junsik was outright wailing.

“I never knew you cared about me this much…”

He worried whether he should go to a big hospital right away.

But the next day, he was fine again.

Had it hurt because of stress?

While he was certainly saddened by what happened to his close work colleague, he was also afraid of his own future as a perpetual manager and had been under extreme stress.

Was he okay now, or not… Myeong Junsik was concerned about that area all day long.

There weren’t many occasions when he suddenly received stress like that time, but whenever it got even slightly cold or when worrying matters arose at work or home, it would start hurting again.

Now even medication didn’t work.

There was no more pain severe enough to bring tears to his eyes, but discomfort about the level of abdominal pain when urgently needing the bathroom appeared frequently.

While struggling somehow to reduce the pain, he was finally caught even at work.

“Does Manager Myeong’s daughter also like malatang? Our daughters also make such a fuss about going to eat hotpot. I’m worried about their stomach health.”

“Haha… That’s right. Where do such foods come from.”

“Why? Malatang is delicious~. Do both of you dislike spicy food?”

“It’s not that we dislike it, but at our age our digestive ability declines so we can’t eat it.”

Moreover, he seemed to have chosen the wrong excuse.

Since it happened to be lunch time, the employees struck up a conversation about malatang. Myeong Junsik, who didn’t have the energy to chat, tried to get up from his seat. He should say he was going to the bathroom.

“Manager, if you have frequent stomach aches, try going to Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic upstairs!”

“An oriental medicine clinic?”

But just before getting up, the employee behind him brought up the topic of an oriental medicine clinic.

“Yes yes! They cured my indigestion from the last company dinner in one go, and my father’s 40-year-old irritable bowel syndrome was almost completely cured after taking medicine prescribed there.”

“Oh…”

Come to think of it, he used to go to oriental medicine clinics frequently in the past. Since he sat for long periods doing office work, his back often hurt. At some point he gave up and just lived with it without treatment, but certainly when he came back after getting acupuncture, his back pain was less.

“Deputy Cha, have you been to Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic too? I went there because my wrist hurt and it was cured right after getting acupuncture!”

“Is it that good? Should I get a set of health tonics made for my mother too?”

“Oh~ Section Chief Cha is such a filial son~.”

“I should take her there on the weekend.”

The colleague next to him was also intrigued by the young employees’ conversation.

Could this testicular pain of unknown cause perhaps be treatable too? It would be fine if the pain just decreased a little. He wasn’t having high expectations, but consulting about it wouldn’t be bad.

If he went on the weekend, he might run into Section Chief Jeong. Moreover, even though it was revealed that it wasn’t a sexually transmitted disease, his wife’s suspicions weren’t 100% cleared, so he didn’t really want to go out on weekends anyway.

So Myeong Junsik visited Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic early the next morning, before going to work.

* * *

‘They didn’t mention it would be a young female doctor!’

Even when he received treatment from a middle-aged male doctor at the urology clinic, it had been quite embarrassing.

But now it was a female doctor, and there was even another person standing behind her.

He barely managed to mention the area where he was experiencing pain. He felt like he was going crazy from embarrassment.

Should he leave right now? There must be plenty of oriental medicine clinics with male doctors.

They said this place was good, but…

When he thought about having to lower his pants and show that area in front of two doctors, cold sweat poured down his face.

“I see. It must have been difficult to talk about. You made a good decision to seek treatment.”

“Yes…”

“We’ll treat you well. How long has this been going on?”

This was a disaster.

Myeong Junsik squeezed his eyes shut. With the conversation having progressed this far, he didn’t have the courage to say ‘I can’t do this, I’m sorry’ and run away.

“It’s been nearly three months since it first started hurting.”

He answered in a state of panic.

“That’s quite some time. There’s no external injury, right? Have you been to other hospitals during this time?”

“Yes. I’ve never been injured at all. I had STD tests at the urology clinic and they said it definitely wasn’t that.”

“What about other tests or treatments?”

His face burned with heat. The doctor wasn’t asking about STDs, but wouldn’t it look like he was protesting too much?

“Ah… I had urine tests, blood tests, and ultrasound. The inflammation levels weren’t high, but they said it could still be orchitis or epididymitis. The medication helped at first, but now even when I take it, the pain comes and goes.”

Whether fortunately or unfortunately, no emotion could be read on the doctor’s face. She asked a few more questions with a faint smile, quite mechanically. It seemed like she was being considerate of him.

“From the outside, are there any prominent or palpable blood vessels?”

“Not particularly. It looks exactly the same as before from the outside.”

“So it’s not varicocele. If there’s no injury, it wouldn’t be rupture either. If it were torsion, it would be hard to walk in like this… Let’s have you lie face down over there.”

So he would have to show it after all.

Myeong Junsik walked the short distance to the bed feeling like he was being dragged to a slaughterhouse.

Even though she was a doctor and he was just a patient, his hands trembled as he tried to lower his waistband.

“Hup.”

Just as he barely finished preparing himself mentally.

“You don’t need to lower your clothes.”

Those words came like salvation.

“Oh, really?”

Color returned to Myeong Junsik’s face and voice.

“Yes. It’s probably not a problem with the testicles themselves. Just take off your shoes, get on the bed, and lie face down comfortably.”

Not a testicle problem? So he didn’t need to show it?

He blinked and lay face down as instructed.

Soon the doctor’s hands touched his lower back.

“I’m going to press on your spine. I’ll only examine your lower back, so don’t worry, and please tell me if it hurts.”

His lower back could be pressed as much as needed.

Myeong Junsik nodded and answered.

“Yes. I understand… Kueoook!”

However, the pain when pressed was more severe than he had imagined. What’s more, even though she only pressed his lower back, wasn’t there a tingling sensation reaching his testicles?

“Oh, that area just now!”

“Did it feel numb or tingly?”

“Yes!”

“As I thought, a nerve is being compressed in the lower back area.”

“Ah?”

Pressure was applied starting from the spine to the surrounding muscles. Some areas felt refreshing, while others were very painful.

“Ugh, that hurts!”

“Yes. Your quadratus lumborum is also severely tense… Your back has been continuously problematic, hasn’t it?”

“It’s been a long time. Probably over ten years.”

“You should have treated this properly. The back problem has extended down to testicular pain.”

The back was the problem?

“Isn’t back pain normal at this age?”

“That’s true, but if you leave it alone, it gets progressively worse, so you need to manage it well. Both the back pain and testicular pain get worse when sitting for long periods or when it’s cold, right?”

“Yes. It hurts particularly when I’m sitting at the company.”

“When you stay in the same position for a long time, muscles stiffen and nerve compression becomes severe. You know where the spinal cord is, right?”

“Inside the spine, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. The spinal nerves branch out from here and extend throughout the body. But when the lower back stiffens, they get compressed in the middle. Disc problems can also cause nerve compression, but the current pattern isn’t typical of that.”

“Ah…”

A vague anatomical diagram he had learned somewhere came to mind. Since his legs sometimes went numb along with back pain, it made perfect sense.

“The back definitely needs treatment. If you’re okay with it, acupuncture on the sensitized inguinal area would also help. You won’t need acupuncture directly on the testicles, so don’t worry.”

“Ah… that’s a relief.”

Myeong Junsik felt greatly relieved by the explanation of the treatment plan that followed. He didn’t think it would come to that, but if he had needed acupuncture there, he would have run away immediately.

“For acupuncture, we’ll do that, and if you’re very uncomfortable right now, we’ll also do chuna therapy to open up your lower back.”

“Ah, yes. You mean pressing and releasing like you just did?”

“That’s part of it. For you as a patient, muscle tension relief is more necessary, and we’ll also do pelvic and spinal correction.”

I had only pressed a few times for diagnostic purposes, but it already seemed to feel somewhat refreshing.

If I press a little harder and get the pelvis back in place, it would be more comfortable, right?

“Yes. My posture isn’t good anyway, so please take good care of me.”

Myeong Junsik nodded his head willingly.

“…Huh?”

And the very next moment.

He regretted his choice.

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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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