The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 52

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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 52

Exactly two weeks after his initial consultation, Myeong Junsik said he wanted to prepare herbal medicine.

One of my predictions was right, and one was wrong.

“How does the Clinic Director know everything so clearly, even things I didn’t mention? I never imagined my erectile dysfunction would suddenly get better!”

What I got right was the fact that he would have erectile dysfunction and that recovery from it would lead to a need for medicine.

“Everything is connected. Since the treatment direction is the same, it naturally improves.”

“Thank you so much. Thanks to you, I can hold my head high both at the company and at home.”

“Ahaha…”

“Honey!”

What I got wrong was who would be taking the medicine.

“So I wanted to prepare some tonic medicine for my wife too, which is why I brought her here.”

“You’re the one who should take it, honestly…”

“I’ll take some too. When this project goes well and I get my performance bonus. Oh, since my back got better and I’ve been working hard, things at the company are going very well too.”

“That’s really something to celebrate.”

Myeong Junsik asked me to prepare tonic medicine, saying he hadn’t appreciated how much his wife had suffered. He had resented his wife for not understanding his pain and being suspicious of him, but it turned out she had just as many painful areas as he did.

When I actually examined his wife, she showed quite severe symptoms of hwabyeong, and her metabolic balance was disrupted.

“Let’s do as you suggested. We’ll prepare tonic medicine for your wife first, and Myeong Junsik, you can continue taking the Yukmi insurance medicine for now, then switch to deer antler tonic when you can afford it. This is just a recommendation as a Korean medicine doctor – the choice is up to the patient.”

“Yes, thank you!”

The two of them made their payment with satisfaction, then went home holding hands.

“Wow… When I first saw him, I thought he was just someone who lived under his wife’s thumb and trembled with fear, but he’s incredibly sweet?”

“Right.”

Chu Miyoung and I smiled warmly as we watched their retreating figures.

Indeed, seeing a family find peace was incredibly rewarding.

Today Myeong Junsik only prepared medicine for his wife before leaving, but other patients were waiting for me.

I went around the treatment room giving acupuncture, and Chu Miyoung followed me around, continuously writing something down.

Everything from meaningless comments to the acupuncture points I used.

If only some unusual patients would come occasionally, there would be more to show her, but after Myeong Junsik, similar patients kept lining up every day Chu Miyoung observed.

People with stiff necks, twisted backs, or knee arthritis.

Since she should be familiar enough with treating common musculoskeletal patients by now, I showed her how to treat them while having her practice chuna therapy whenever possible.

“Teacher Yuhee, could you lend me your back for a moment?”

“What?! Oh, for chuna practice. Of course that’s fine with me!”

“Please be gentle with the teachers, like you would with patients. You can go as hard as you want with me.”

“Yes!”

At first, the subjects were me and the staff, and to help her get used to patients with various body types, I also asked familiar patients for their understanding.

“Kim Malja, please don’t leave just yet. I have a favor to ask – could you come to the examination room for a moment?”

“The Clinic Director wants to see me? What’s this about?”

I called reasonably healthy patients with good personalities into the examination room and made them an offer.

I was teaching chuna therapy to a doctor I knew, and would they be willing to receive it? Of course, at the mention that it was free, every single one of them accepted.

Chu Miyoung was able to practice on more than 10 people a day.

“Oh, this person comes regularly too?”

30 minutes before closing time.

Two people who appeared to be today’s last patients registered, and their names appeared on the program.

When I clicked on those names to open their files, their treatment history appeared. The calendar displayed in the upper right corner of the screen showed colored dates for visits, with at least 3 days per week marked, and some weeks showed daily visits.

So Chu Miyoung expected she might be able to practice chuna therapy on him too.

“Ah, this person is a bit…”

“Ah… Is he a difficult patient?”

Based on his behavior so far, that wasn’t the case. He didn’t have the kind of temperament that would cause trouble if I asked him to help with practice.

But it was also true that I couldn’t make the offer as casually as I did with the grandmothers and grandfathers who joked around with me every day.

“Patient Kim Jinsang is in a lot of pain, but he has lived up to his name before, and Park Seon-yun… this person is all better. I was just about to tell him he could stop coming.”

Chu Miyoung nodded without raising any particular objections to my judgment.

“Since you’re here late, we’ll go straight to acupuncture treatment without physical therapy.”

“Yes, please do.”

Since there wasn’t much time left before closing, the desk staff called me right away.

The two men undressed quickly, and I opened the curtain of the bed where Park Seon-yun was first.

“Park Seon-yun, hello.”

“Hello, Clinic Director.”

When I greeted him, Park Seon-yun, who was lying face down, nodded with his usual neat smile.

“How is your sacrum feeling today?”

“Good.”

“If the initial pain was a 10, how much do you think remains?”

“Hmm… almost 0?”

0? I thought he would say at least 1 or 2.

When treatment becomes prolonged, I often ask this question, but there are hardly any patients who answer that nothing hurts at all.

Quite naturally, most people don’t like having needles stuck in their bodies.

Elderly people who have worked for long periods continue treatment regularly since their bodies are always stiff, but young patients who were temporarily injured from accidents stop coming as soon as their pain decreases even a little.

“Let me press on it once. How does that feel?”

“It doesn’t bother me at all.”

In cases like Park Seon-yun where ligaments or tendons are injured, I recommend continuing treatment with rest when there’s still pain at rest or during daily activities like walking. It’s also preferable to get treatment when it hurts when passively bent or stretched.

But pain from pressing is somewhat ambiguous. Of course treatment helps, but since it can originally take several months for ligaments to recover 100%, if you don’t overexert yourself in daily life, it’s okay to rest and wait for natural improvement.

But even the tenderness was gone?

“You can finish treatment today if you’d like.”

There was no particular blockage of energy, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that not only the inflammation treatment but also ligament and muscle recovery had been achieved.

Any further treatment would just be wasting his body’s natural healing ability.

“Ah….”

But even with the complete recovery diagnosis, Park Seon-yun’s reaction wasn’t very good.

What’s this. Does he actually enjoy getting acupuncture? At first he was so afraid of the pain.

Is he a pervert? Should I kick him out after all?

“If you sit for long periods, your back will stiffen, so just come once in a while when you feel a bit uncomfortable.”

…I did think that a little, but basically everyone with desk jobs gets stiff necks and backs.

It’s practically impossible for someone to work sitting in perfect posture.

No matter how good your posture is, maintaining it for long periods causes strain, and environments where you can get up and stretch every 20-30 minutes aren’t that common either.

“Yes.”

Perhaps because I backed down slightly from what had sounded like an eviction notice, Park Seon-yun’s face relaxed.

But I still found it hard to read what he was thinking.

‘What exactly does he want?’

I just couldn’t figure it out.

Generally, the purpose of patients coming to a clinic is obviously ‘treatment,’ but there were occasionally those who went around knowing they wouldn’t get better, or feigned illness to achieve some other goal.

But even those types at least pretended to be in pain or said it was for maintenance purposes even though they felt fine now.

But Park Seon-yun was a strange patient who openly said he had no pain yet insisted on stamping his attendance at the Oriental Medicine Clinic.

At first I suspected he wanted to make a business proposal, but there was nothing worth proposing about, and there had been no action at all since he gave me his business card. He just quietly checked in, got acupuncture, and occasionally left gifts at the desk.

‘Desk gifts… Ah! Could he be interested in Teacher Yuhui?’

It was a plausible guess that made me wonder why I hadn’t thought of it before.

Was he coming to see her face every day even though he flinched during acupuncture? Unexpectedly pure-hearted?

‘If that’s the case, there’s no need to kick him out… No wait. Take this opportunity to properly ask for her number. You can’t just keep coming to the clinic forever, right? From now on, meet separately on weekends!’

While having all sorts of thoughts, I faithfully placed needles in Park Seon-yun’s back and tailbone. Since he wouldn’t be coming for a while, I found and loosened all the tight spots from his lower back to his buttocks and legs throughout his lower body.

“Ugh.”

“Ah, right there! Just a little more.”

No matter how many times I hear it, he really holds back his groans intensely.

“Doctor.”

When I finished the needle insertion and my hands stopped, Park Seon-yun opened his mouth while panting like someone who had just finished a marathon.

“Yes~. Please go ahead.”

“By any chance….”

Even then, Park Seon-yun hesitated for a long time. Since the only patient waiting was Kim Jinsang anyway, I leisurely waited for his words.

Does this guy also have some unspeakable concern like testicular pain?

He’s not at that age yet… Age? Wait. He’s not at the age for kidney deficiency back pain, but he was still in his thirties.

Come to think of it, Seol Yuhui is in her early twenties. Is that why he’s been hesitating all this time?

“Do you have concerns?”

If Seol Yuhui says no, I can’t solve it for him, but I can at least listen. I bent down and made a gesture of bringing my ear close to his face.

I even had Chu Miyoung, who had been quietly observing, step away and drew the curtain.

Only then did Park Seon-yun open his mouth.

“By any chance, um!”

“Yes. Please speak comfortably.”

He opened his mouth, closed it again, hesitated several times.

“…Do you also do diet pills?”

He finally managed to say it.

“Excuse me?”

I unconsciously made a stupid sound and was dumbfounded.

While I don’t particularly read the room in daily life, I do have some experience when it comes to dealing with patients.

What Park Seon-yun was about to say just now was definitely not that.

What’s so concerning about dieting that he’d open his mouth after all that deliberation?

“Of course. But I don’t think you particularly need it?”

“My cousin asked me to inquire about it. When I told her my back got better quickly at the Oriental Medicine Clinic, she asked me to get some prescribed.”

“Is it difficult for her to come directly?”

“Yes. She’s in Seoul.”

Hmmmm.

It didn’t seem like a complete lie. If he was going to lie to come to the clinic, it would be much better to say his tailbone still hurt.

There probably really is an acquaintance who inquired about dieting.

‘Should I press him more about what he originally wanted to say?’

But after setting things up like that, it would be a bit much to coldly reject a request to help with romance.

Quickly organizing my thoughts, I gave up on reading between the lines and just gave an answer as an Oriental medicine doctor to his question.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t prescribe remotely. I need to diagnose whether her body condition can handle diet medication, and she needs consistent management with follow-ups every two weeks at most. I recommend getting a prescription from a nearby Oriental Medicine Clinic.”

“Ah… I understand. I’ll tell her that.”

Park Seon-yun’s eyes wavered back and forth. He said he understood with a face overflowing with such lingering attachment.

I left him alone and moved to the next bed, giving acupuncture to Kim Jinsang who said his back was stiff today.

As expected, the two of them were today’s last patients.

A moment later, Park Seon-yun finished his treatment, silently completed his payment at the desk, and went outside.

‘Will he not come anymore?’

Though it was natural for a frequently seen patient to stop coming after treatment, I felt just slightly regretful.

Of course, having experienced this hundreds of times, I didn’t think about Park Seon-yun for long.

However, a month later, making that fleeting regret seem meaningless, I saw him again.

Park Seon-yun had come to the Oriental Medicine Clinic with a woman.

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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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