Chapter 63: Helplessness

"The damage isn't significant." The Circulating Nurse also came to comfort Ji Xiang, "Don't worry, there won't be any substantial impact. Besides, once the stone is crushed and removed, you won't be in pain."

"To be honest, the Laser does cause a tiny bit of damage, but it's no problem at all." The assistant said quite casually, "A man's Kidney injury is like a squeezed plastic bottle; no matter how careful you are, you can't squeeze it back into its original shape."

"..." Ji Xiang was speechless.

"But, you just need to blow on it a little."

"!!!"

"!!!"

"Do the surgery properly, you're talking absolute nonsense." The Circulating Nurse scolded.

"What they said makes sense." The surgeon added with a chuckle, "Feng is just joking, look at how dark your face is, like you've been playing NetEase games."

"You guys are talking such nonsense it's blooming."

"Surgery is done, time to celebrate."

"With the frequency you guys celebrate, I'm afraid your kidneys will be cut out sooner or later."

Ji Xiang lay on the operating table, listening to the surgeon and the Circulating Nurse chat, and felt the light from the shadowless lamp wasn't so blinding anymore.

They chatted from blowing on things to songs they sang as children, and the surgeon occasionally showed the removed stones to Ji Xiang.

A large Kidney Stone was shattered by the Laser and removed in four large pieces. The surgeon couldn't do anything about the pieces that were too small, so they had to be left inside.

Soon, the surgery ended, and Ji Xiang was wheeled back to the ward.

Taking care of Ji Xiang was a nursing assistant, hired in the hospital for 300 yuan a day.

He was about forty years old and was indifferent toward Ji Xiang.

He would do what Ji Xiang asked, but he kept grumbling and whispering complaints, blaming Ji Xiang for wanting this and that.

It seemed he had broken up with his girlfriend, Ji Xiang thought it was funny.

That girlfriend, whom he hadn't even met once, broke up with him because of a Kidney Stone; this reason was too absurd.

Even one's closest family members cannot feel one's own pain; Ji Xiang lay silently on the bed, feeling that the nursing assistant found him noisy.

Ji Xiang felt the bloated sensation coming from the right Kidney area where the surgery was performed.

This feeling wasn't very intense; it couldn't be called pain, just discomfort.

On the first day after surgery, he could eat, and the Doctor requested he drink porridge as much as possible.

Six or seven hours later, Ji Xiang urinated for the first time, and what came out was a reddish, bloody fluid.

In the last Empathy experience with Urological Calculus, Ji Xiang had seen bloody fluid, but it wasn't as thick as this time.

This wasn't just bloody fluid; it was practically urinating blood.

Remembering the jokes he and his classmates made during his internship, Ji Xiang fell silent.

The urine was bright red, and he seemed to be able to smell the blood; it looked truly terrifying.

Ji Xiang even suspected that he was truly broken.

But as soon as he thought about being broken, the words the assistant said during surgery flashed in Ji Xiang's mind—just blow on it a little.

Emmm, hahaha, Ji Xiang couldn't help but laugh to himself.

His nervous mood eased a little, and Ji Xiang drifted off into a drowsy sleep.

When he woke up, Ji Xiang felt the bloated pain in his right waist becoming more obvious, and it even hurt when he turned over.

"Big brother, please call the Doctor for me." Ji Xiang said to the nursing assistant.

"Why are you so delicate, like a woman."

The nursing assistant was sleeping soundly, and it took several calls from Ji Xiang to wake him from his dream; the nursing assistant said unhappily.

Ji Xiang sighed; it is really hard not to have family members accompanying you.

Although some family members are unreliable, it is still better than the current situation.

For someone who takes money and doesn't do the job, Ji Xiang didn't know how to describe him.

"Big brother, my waist hurts..." Ji Xiang explained in a low voice.

The nursing assistant muttered foul language, his eyes bleary with sleep, and he went to find the Doctor with an unhappy face.

After a full twenty minutes, the sleepy-faced Doctor finally walked in wearing a White Uniform; Ji Xiang could even see the sleep in the corners of his eyes.

"What's wrong." The Doctor spoke normally, trying to hide his irritation.

Patients after Lithotripsy are truly pretentious, disturbing his sleep in the middle of the night for nothing; Ji Xiang could even read the subtext in the Doctor's expression.

"Doctor, my waist hurts." Ji Xiang said.

"Let me see." The Doctor walked to Ji Xiang's side, had him turn on his side, and performed a simple physical examination.

"It's nothing, a normal post-operative reaction." The Doctor's explanation was the same as Liu Zhuren's.

After he finished speaking, he turned and left, letting out a big yawn as he reached the door.

Ji Xiang frowned.

During the physical exam just now, there was obvious tenderness in the right waist and Kidney area; was this normal?

Before, when watching Liu Zhuren examine patients, Ji Xiang couldn't realize this, but now he knew very clearly what the Patient was feeling.

Perhaps, going in with a Ureteroscope, there must be some friction and damage along the way.

Discomfort is also normal.

But Ji Xiang was worried that this Empathy experience might be related to Ren Po Lie, so he didn't dare to sleep.

Even if it was a system-based Empathy experience, Ji Xiang didn't want to die inexplicably from Hemorrhagic Shock.

The pain in his waist became more and more severe; after more than an hour, Ji Xiang felt he had to call the Doctor again.

He used all his strength, even waking up the Patient in the next bed, but the nursing assistant's snoring remained like thunder.

A sense of loneliness enveloped his whole body; some things don't seem like much when you have them, but once lost, you feel it immediately.

At this moment, Ji Xiang began to miss his father and mother, and missed home.

This feeling was very unfamiliar; Ji Xiang had never encountered it in his life.

His nose stung, and tears welled up.

Ji Xiang tried very hard to suppress this feeling of desolation and being abandoned by the entire world, as if he were suppressing pain.

The caregiver in the next bed cursed in a low voice; in order to get a good night's sleep, he got up to wake the nurse attending to Ji Xiang.

"Can you keep it down?" the nurse said, looking particularly displeased. "I've seen plenty of patients undergoing Stone Crushing, but you're the most dramatic! What kind of person are you! Would it kill you to just get a good night's sleep?!"

"..." Ji Xiang lay on the bed, not knowing what to say.

"Damn it," the nurse cursed, not hiding it at all in front of Ji Xiang, before turning to go find the Doctor.

The Doctor looked even more exhausted than when he had come last time.

"What is it again?" The Doctor frowned, also not hiding his displeasure at all.

"Doctor, the pain in my waist is getting worse and worse." Ji Xiang tried hard to describe his symptoms using the simplest words.

"It's just a Stone Crushing, don't be nervous." The Doctor frowned, using blunt words to appease Ji Xiang a little.

This time, he didn't even perform a physical examination; his face was dark, looking like someone who had topped up in a game and done ten consecutive draws N times without getting anything, a face of pure bad luck.

Ji Xiang was also helpless.

He was all alone, and after the surgery, his waist hurt terribly; if the Doctor said it was nothing, then it must be nothing.

Even if he knew the Doctor had judged wrong, what could he do?

Damn probability, Ji Xiang thought to himself.

During his internship, he had encountered many similar situations; in the middle of the night, against the wind and snow, Ji Xiang would push the gurney to take patients for examinations, only to find there was nothing wrong at all.

Later, the Family Member would even speak sarcastically, saying he was looking for trouble where there was none, or that he didn't know how to treat illnesses and only knew how to order tests.

Ji Xiang felt conflicted; he stared at the ceiling.

Loneliness surged up like a tide until it completely submerged Ji Xiang.

Maybe it was just that he was too nervous, Ji Xiang thought.

The night gradually deepened, and for some unknown reason, the pain in Ji Xiang's waist suddenly eased, and he felt a sudden sense of relief.

The sudden relief allowed Ji Xiang's tense body to relax; exhausted and with his Spirit completely drained, Ji Xiang fell into a deep sleep.

In his sleep, Ji Xiang dreamed of her, dreamed of a joke, and dreamed of all things beautiful and his home.

Woken by a feeling of thirst, Ji Xiang tried hard to open his eyes.

But all the strength in his body seemed to have been drained away; he couldn't even manage the "simple" act of opening his eyes.

Ji Xiang could feel that his whole body was covered in cold sweat.

He gave a start—this was not a dream!

Half-asleep and half-awake, Ji Xiang realized this must be the cold, clammy feeling caused by Hemorrhagic Shock!

It was different from the cold sweat caused by the pain of Urological Calculus; the former was cold sweat, while the latter was a natural bodily reaction caused by Hemorrhagic Shock.

"Doctor!"

"Doctor!!"

"Doctor!!!"

Like a drowning person trying to grab the last straw, Ji Xiang shouted with as much volume as he could.

But his voice was so small, masked by the snoring of the nurse.

In the dead of night, there was only snoring; Ji Xiang's cry for help was so faint, so faint it was negligible.

Ji Xiang tried to swallow, gathering his strength to try and call for help.

But his mouth was parched, completely different from the cold dampness on his body.

His lips were like a dried-up riverbed, and the skin, curled up from dryness, was like a knife, cutting Ji Xiang painfully.

Struggling to open his eyes, Ji Xiang could still see golden stars dancing in the dark night.

Using his last bit of strength, Ji Xiang raised his hand and knocked over the cup on the bedside table.

The water inside spilled out, startling the nurse awake from his dream.

After doing all this, Ji Xiang lost all his strength, and his consciousness gradually grew hazy.

Perhaps a second passed, perhaps a year.

Ji Xiang felt his consciousness become clear again, only it felt light, slowly drifting toward the sky.

He could see the Doctor walking in, full of weariness, still as indifferent as ever. But upon touching his hand, the Doctor's face was full of shock; he woke up completely and began emergency rescue.

Too late, Ji Xiang thought.

Is this what a Kidney rupture is?

Although the pain and other symptoms were not as obvious as Urological Calculus, and not even as significant as a single needle in the head during a circumcision, it was countless times more dangerous.

Sigh.

Ji Xiang sighed.

The next second, light and shadow flickered before his eyes, and he returned to the System Space.

The System NPC stood right in front of Ji Xiang, looking at him with deep eyes.

"Teacher." Ji Xiang subconsciously licked his lips.

His lips were no longer dry, his whole body was no longer cold and clammy, the drained strength had returned, and everything had returned to normal.

But at the thought of the Hemorrhagic Shock that had gradually appeared in the dead of night, Ji Xiang felt a chill.

What kind of helplessness that was.

"Spontaneous renal parenchymal or renal pelvis rupture is usually associated with kidneys that have underlying lesions, but there have also been reports of some cases of spontaneous Kidney rupture where there was no underlying kidney disease," the System NPC said.

(End of chapter)