Chapter 423: Casual Chat

"Teacher, the patient has agreed," Ji Xiang said.

"It's normal for them not to agree. Clinical work is extremely complex, and you have to face all sorts of people..."

Zhai Yuhan was speaking when she suddenly froze.

Agreed? Who agreed? Agreed to what?

A triple-combo of massive question marks appeared over Zhai Yuhan's head.

"What did you say?" Zhai Yuhan asked, puzzled.

"The patient and the Family Member have agreed to the examination," Ji Xiang said. "I don't know our hospital's clinical workflow, but if it's possible, Teacher Zhai, could you see if we can schedule the exam for half an hour before work starts tomorrow?"

"..."

Zhai Yuhan looked at Ji Xiang as if he were a monster.

How did he manage that?!

And the plan Ji Xiang proposed was actually feasible.

In the Review Room, Ji Xiang was chatting with the patient on the screen.

"When I first got sick, I almost thought I was having a Myocardial Infarction. It hurt right here, it hurt like hell. I'm usually healthy and rarely get sick, but when it started hurting, it was truly life-threatening; I was banging my head against the wall."

Ji Xiang pointed to his own upper abdomen and chatted casually with the patient.

"Many Myocardial Infarction patients don't just have chest tightness or shortness of breath; they have other symptoms. For example, abdominal pain. Some patients even present with toothaches, go through a whole rigmarole in the Stomatology department, and then die from a Myocardial Infarction."

"What does 'a whole rigmarole' mean?" the patient asked, looking at this young Doctor with curiosity.

"Ah, it's a local saying from the Northeast. It means they spent a long time in the hospital, the Stomatology department thought it was a cavity or some other disease and prepared for a Root Canal, and then the patient suddenly passed away from a Myocardial Infarction."

"Later on, all patients going to the Emergency Department at our hospital had to get an Electrocardiogram to rule out a Myocardial Infarction."

"Hahaha, you guys really are..." Seeing that Ji Xiang spoke in such an easy-to-understand way, like a boy next door, the patient gradually let down their guard.

"You probably think doctors can't diagnose illnesses without tests, right?" Ji Xiang said with a smile.

"This kid..." a guest in his fifties scratched his head.

"His affinity is maxed out. He doesn't look like a young Intern; he looks like one of the old doctors under my command," Professor Shen said.

"When I was an Intern, there was also a doctor with extremely strong communication skills with patients. Just like Ji Xiang, they would solve the problem just by chatting," Mao Mao added.

The guests gave brief comments, while on the screen, Ji Xiang continued his "casual chat."

"Getting off track, that time I was sick, I practically crawled to the Emergency Department."

"Why crawl?" the patient asked, confused.

"I lived in the hospital's student dormitory, less than 200 meters from the Emergency Department, but in those 200 meters, every step I took felt like a knife was being stabbed right here. I had to crawl; my legs were weak, and I couldn't even move by holding onto the wall," Ji Xiang said, patting the Murphy point of his gallbladder in his upper abdomen.

"Later, I met a patient with a knife wound. After the surgery, I asked if it hurt, and they said it didn't."

"It was only after that I realized this illness hurts even more than being stabbed by a knife."

The patient felt a sense of empathy.

"I hadn't even walked ten steps before my clothes were soaked in sweat, no exaggeration. How about you? Did it hurt as much as mine?" Ji Xiang asked.

"When I got sick, I endured the excruciating pain, called 120, and while gasping for air and trembling, I told them my address. Then my spouse went downstairs to wait for the 120."

"After the call, I was in too much pain to move, soaked through, and could only lie on the floor curled up like a shrimp."

"The floor is cool; lying on the floor eases the pain a little bit," Ji Xiang added.

The patient, who had previously suspected Ji Xiang was making up a story to trick them, immediately treated Ji Xiang as a kindred spirit the moment he mentioned the floor being cool and that lying down could ease the pain.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes!" the patient said four times, "Those few hours, I really wanted to just die; it was too miserable."

"Me too. When I went to the Emergency Department, the teacher in our Emergency Department even joked with me, saying I had a terminal illness."

"Uh..." the patient froze slightly upon hearing the word "terminal illness."

Not just the patient, but even the Family Member and the camera crew were stunned. What kind of thing was that to say?

"I also know why the teacher said that," Ji Xiang explained. "Gallstones are a terminal illness. I heard that over a decade ago, there was a surgical procedure to cut open the gallbladder to remove stones, but the results weren't good, so it was discontinued."

"But this terminal illness of ours, as long as you cut out the gallbladder, it's fine."

"Hahaha, so that's how it is."

"There's another benefit after cutting it out, do you know, Zhou Ge?" Ji Xiang had already started calling the patient "brother."

"What benefit?"

"You get diarrhea whenever you eat something greasy. Look at me!" Ji Xiang patted his chest. "I used to be over 200 jin, now I'm around 160. I lost weight successfully and now I even look a bit thin."

"I'm not like that. I gained over 20 jin after the surgery," the patient said.

"I'm a glutton. After the surgery, I'd eat greasy food and it wouldn't stay in at all. My classmate even teased me, saying I have a 'straight gut.' I'm so envious that you can put on weight. Look at me, Zhou Ge, I'm too thin."

Ji Xiang kept drifting further and further off-topic.

The camera crew was a bit bewildered.

"Ji Xiang is really a 'natural-born socializer'." A guest didn't know how to evaluate Ji Xiang and could only come up with that label.

"This isn't being a natural-born socializer; it's intentional," Professor Shen was very familiar with Ji Xiang's way of speaking. He said with certainty, "First, build a rapport, stand from the same perspective as the patient, and let the patient relax and stop being guarded."

"He looks very professional. Among these Interns, only Ji Xiang is as professional as an old doctor."

An old doctor? Professor Shen sighed inwardly.

Most old doctors couldn't do what Ji Xiang did.

Especially that bit about lying on the floor and the coolness easing the pain—this description of Empathy gave Professor Shen a feeling that Ji Xiang's gallbladder had truly been removed, rather than him just trying to build rapport with the patient.

For a moment, an old Clinical hand like Professor Shen felt a bit dazed.

Various reasonable yet unreasonable thoughts appeared. He couldn't tell if Ji Xiang had actually had his gallbladder removed and thus truly shared the patient's suffering, or if he was just spouting nonsense that happened to hit the nail on the head.

"After my surgery, I had two MRIs in a row. Doing the MRI was the real torture. Before that, I had no idea what claustrophobia was, but..."

"Wait." The Patient looked at Ji Xiang in confusion.

"What's wrong, Zhou Ge? Let me tell you, do you know what claustrophobia is?" Ji Xiang acted as if he had no intention of talking about "serious business," shifting the topic to claustrophobia.

"You said you had two Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans done after the surgery; what is going on with that?"

"I have sludge-like stones. They said the part of the bile duct inside the liver might have sludge-like stone accumulation. My teacher was worried there would still be problems after the surgery, so he insisted I have it done twice."

"It's useless. Look at me, my body is in such good shape!" Ji Xiang patted his own stomach and said with a smile.

(End of chapter)