The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 93

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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 93

Myeong Seonju’s treatment goal is clear.

When I heard the main symptoms and diagnosed it as vasovagal syncope, I had already decided on the sovereign medicine.

Since I needed to treat autonomic nervous dysfunction, and she said she felt pressure in her chest and abdomen, there was no doubt that I should use a Bupleurum formula.

The herb Bupleurum has excellent effects in reducing inflammation while providing relief from depression, treating mental symptoms like depression and anxiety, and normalizing the autonomic nervous system.

Oh, of course I’d also add Cinnamon Twig and White Peony to relax physical tension.

Then I just need to make minor adjustments considering cold-heat patterns, bowel movements, digestion, and sleep.

“How are your appetite and digestion?”

“I eat very well. I digest well too.”

“No problems with bowel movements?”

If she were an elderly person, she might say she eats well while only having three spoonfuls a day, but since she’s a tall athlete with a good physique, I continued the examination without suspicion.

“Not… exactly. I’ve been having diarrhea a bit more frequently recently.”

“By recently, do you mean within a month?”

“It’s been longer than that. About a year?”

“I guess the stress has been greater since your professional debut?”

“Since I was picked as second choice, there’s some pressure to prove my skills~.”

When Myeong Seonju brought up this topic, I felt a bit regretful. I should have sent Kim Ijin out before starting the examination.

It was only possible for her to speak so confidently because Myeong Seonju had very high self-esteem, even with someone nearby who would inevitably feel competitive or inferior.

“Do you sleep well?”

“I don’t have trouble sleeping, but it does take a bit longer to fall asleep now. It’s not severe. If it used to take 10 minutes, now it’s about 30 minutes?”

“Ah, and you don’t wake up in the middle of the night?”

“I wake up if I need to use the restroom or have strange dreams. I think it happens about once a week.”

“Do you dream often?”

“Almost every day. But I don’t remember them well.”

“Hey, sometimes you wake up drenched in sweat too. I know because we share a room.”

The last comment was added by Kim Ijin.

…It seemed like things weren’t entirely fine after all.

“Do you feel cold or hot easily?”

“I get hot when I exercise, and I get really cold when the air conditioner is on.”

Alternating cold and heat? It’s a bit ambiguous to call it that.

“Do you sweat a lot?”

“I do, but I exercise a lot~.”

“No pain, right? Headaches, stomach aches, back pain, anything?”

“Muscle pain seems normal from exercising. My stomach hurts a little when I have diarrhea?”

“Dizziness, motion sickness, nausea, dry mouth, etc. – please tell me if you have any symptoms other than what I’ve asked about.”

“I don’t think I have anything like that.”

All the symptoms were ambiguous as to whether they required treatment.

Not comfortable, but to a degree that everyone might find this level of discomfort normal.

“Let me check your pulse.”

So I finally checked her pulse as a reference.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

“…? Why is it so fast?”

“Oh, when I had an EKG, they said my pulse was a bit fast too. But there was no arrhythmia and everything else was fine, so they said it was probably from nervousness?”

“Are you nervous now?”

“A little? Is it that fast?”

Myeong Seonju tilted her head.

I took her right hand fingers and had her feel the pulse point on her left wrist.

“Can you feel it?”

“Just the beating…”

“Try feeling Lee Jin’s too.”

I had her feel Kim Ijin’s pulse too.

“And mine too.”

I offered my wrist as well.

Since she hadn’t studied pulse diagnosis professionally, she wouldn’t know the specific pulse patterns, but she should be able to distinguish between fast and slow.

“It really is fast! Why is it like this?!”

Why would it be like this indeed.

“Your heart is constantly overworking. It normally beats this fast, then gets even faster when you’re more nervous like during national team selection, so your body thinks ‘oh, this could be serious’ and flips the switch off.”

“Ah!”

“You don’t need to worry about the condition being serious right now. I’ll treat you, and worrying will only hurt your recovery. But you should be aware that it’s not entirely fine.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Myeong Seonju’s expression became a bit more serious. She nodded with a disciplined look on her face.

People with this type of condition are usually… somewhat extreme.

Of course, there are more people who are anxious about everything, easily depressed, sensitive, and have severe mood swings, but there are also quite a few patients who believe their mental state is good.

Like Hyeon Jumi, who suffered from panic attacks last time.

When bad external stimuli persist, they should know to avoid stressful environments, but they keep overworking their bodies while saying they’re fine, they’re fine.

“Let’s do an abdominal examination too. Lie down for a moment.”

As expected, her rectus abdominis was slightly tense, and her abdomen was cold.

When I pressed the Tianshu acupoint next to her navel, I could feel pulsation too.

“I’m going to use a prescription called Bupleurum Cinnamon Twig and Dried Ginger Decoction.”

I had definitely decided on the medicine.

* * *

The Clinic Director explained various things about the herbal medicine, but I forgot the details as soon as I left the Oriental Medicine Clinic.

However, since I remembered that my pulse was fast and where to check it, Myeong Seonju frequently checked her own pulse.

“It’s still fast.”

She had been grabbing Kim Ijin to compare almost daily, but there hadn’t been any particular changes over the two weeks that passed.

However, there were definitely parts that had changed during that time.

First was that she had started sleeping well.

It used to take time to fall asleep because she would review whether today’s practice match went okay, but now she fell asleep much more comfortably than before.

There were even days when she slept without dreaming, and she felt refreshed the next morning too.

“Would that get better so quickly? You’ve been running like this all year long.”

“That’s true.”

The second was that the diarrhea had disappeared, but since this used to come and go originally, it was ambiguous whether it was the effect of the medicine.

And third, the aching all over her body after exercise had lessened.

She felt somewhat unsettled as if she hadn’t exercised enough, but when she compared with Kim Ijin and other team members, this level seemed normal.

The peculiar thing was the fourth change.

“Seonju, go in!”

“Yes!”

Originally, when it came time for a match, heat would surge to her head and she would feel elated.

Her heart would pound with excitement reaching its peak, thinking “Now it begins!”

Myeong Seonju had quite enjoyed that thrill… but now that the pounding had disappeared, she felt strangely empty.

This was also the result of comparing with Kim Ijin.

“Don’t you get heart palpitations every time you compete?”

“Not really. Matches are always happening.”

“Ah, how annoying!”

“Still, I was quite excited when I faced you at the last athletic meet.”

“…”

She could tell that her body was in the process of getting better.

“You’ve been taking this good stuff all by yourself until now?”

“I only got acupuncture, and I kept asking you to come with me.”

“Where do you get the acupuncture?”

“Ankle and knee care. Since I’m always overexerting myself.”

“Take me with you next time too~.”

Myeong Seonju headed to the Oriental Medicine Clinic with much lighter steps than last time.

* * *

Myeong Seonju visited the Oriental Medicine Clinic again after two weeks.

Although she hadn’t finished all the prescribed medicine yet, I brought her into the examination room to check her progress.

This time I didn’t forget to send Kim Ijin to the treatment room either.

“How is your condition? You haven’t had any fainting spells, right?”

“Yes~! Of course there was no dizziness, and I sleep much better! I can feel my body getting better little by little.”

“That’s fortunate.”

I listened to her stories from the past period while checking her pulse.

The stabilization of her digestive system and sleep was a very good thing. Just that alone would activate the functions of accepting energy and self-recovery of the body.

“But my pulse still seems similar.”

As Myeong Seonju said, her pulse was still fast.

Even when I examined the specific patterns, the heart pulse was still irregular.

“Yes. It’s still unstable. Since you continue to have stressful situations, it can’t be helped.”

“That’s strange. I feel so much better!”

Observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking.

Which of these four diagnostic methods to prioritize differs depending on each physician’s perspective.

Personally, I tend to emphasize questioning, but for patients like Myeong Seonju, pulse comes first.

Not only is pulse important because the illness itself is autonomic nervous dysfunction, but also because the subjective complaints of patients who are too accustomed to being tense are difficult to take at face value.

“If you continue treatment steadily, your pulse will improve too. Please get acupuncture today as well.”

Of course, she would get better with long-term treatment.

I had prescribed accordingly, and if she was going to live as an athlete, it was right that she should get used to the appropriate pressure of competition.

But what if vasovagal syncope occurred again during treatment?

It was naturally something that could happen, but I wanted to resolve it before the patient who came to me suffered damage to her career if possible.

‘It would be good if she could get acupuncture every day.’

If consistent acupuncture treatment were possible, I would have directly moved her energy.

Like when treating Kim Ijin’s knee, or as I always do for Seol Yuhui, directly providing relief would make her recover much faster.

‘But taking sick leave might be more problematic for her career…’

Since Myeong Seonju wanted to end what happened during the selection as just a happening and didn’t want to inform the team, daily treatment was impossible.

Then what other method was there?

“Are you getting along well with your family?”

Taking the opportunity of counseling one-on-one without Kim Ijin, I also checked her family relationships and friendships just in case.

“Of course!”

But her family seemed very harmonious, and she appeared to get along well with all her colleagues except Kim Ijin. She had been a respected captain in high school too.

Well, if she’s close enough with Lee Jini to come here together like this.

The only external factor was her athletic career.

‘That’s the only way.’

It had excellent compatibility with the medicine I prescribed.

There was one method that would allow me to circulate energy without direct contact.

…Since Yu Hee picked it up quickly too, it should probably be possible.

“While taking the medicine, let’s also practice un— I mean, meditation.”

“Meditation?”

“Yes, it’s not just your pulse that’s fast, but your breathing is quite rapid too. Even now while talking with me, you keep inhaling. It seems like it became a habit from exercising.”

“Is that so.”

Her expression didn’t look very enthusiastic.

She felt the medicine alone was making her feel sufficiently better, and it would probably be bothersome anyway.

“If you train in breathing techniques, not only will your current symptoms heal quickly, but oxygen supply during exercise will also become smoother.”

I threw out bait that Myeong Seonju would be interested in.

Personal willpower was very important for making time to meditate every day.

“Really?”

…And this was absolutely not an exaggeration.

Energy circulation breathing could truly improve athletic ability dramatically.

Incomparably more than doping or anything like that.

“Of course. Don’t worry about it unnecessarily during exercise, just meditate for exactly 30 minutes before bed. At some point you’ll feel a dramatic difference.”

“I understand. Should I follow something like ‘meditation for peace of mind’ on YouTube?”

I shook my head.

“I’ll send you a diagram and an audio file later. Try following along while listening to that.”

It’s embarrassing but… I had no choice but to create and send martial arts manuals directly.

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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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