Chapter 643: Impossible to Believe

"Does it have anything to do with my condition?" the Patient asked, looking at Ji Xiang with confusion.

If it weren't for the fact that the young man opposite her was clean-cut, tall, and pleasant to look at, she would have certainly lost her patience long ago.

"Hey, little Doctor."

The Patient wasn't impatient, but Xie Kai couldn't help but snap first, "Say less. We're here to see Zou Fuzhuren; what does this have to do with you? If you don't understand, don't ask blindly. If you want clinical practice, you should listen more to your teachers. I've never seen a young person so ignorant of the rules; I don't know who taught you."

"I taught him. What Ji Yisheng Xiang is asking is exactly what I want to ask. Do you have a problem with that?" Although Zou Fuzhuren didn't know the full story, he stood on Ji Xiang's side without hesitation, choking off Xie Kai's words.

"..."

Xie Kai was stunned for a moment; he absolutely did not dare to offend Zou Fuzhuren.

Although Zou Fuzhuren kept drooling, which was somewhat ridiculous, Xie Kai could clearly perceive the "dignity of a superior doctor" on him.

Ji Xiang was just a young doctor, at best with the descriptor of having a promising future; why was Zou Fuzhuren protecting him so much?!

And it wasn't the kind of calculated care, but an instinctive defense of Ji Xiang the moment he heard someone show slight hostility toward him.

It seemed to have become an instinct, commonly known as being protective of one's own.

"What kind of snacks do you eat? Does it have anything to do with licorice?" Ji Xiang completely ignored Xie Kai, just as others ignored Lin Jiuze, perhaps even more thoroughly.

In Ji Xiang's eyes, Xie Kai was just a buzzing Xiaofei.

"Black jelly beans, I like eating the licorice-flavored ones," the Patient said, puzzled.

"Oh, that must be it. Your hematochezia is likely caused by eating black jelly beans," Ji Xiang smiled brightly. "Let's do the tests first and check your blood potassium."

"Doctor, Doctor?" the Patient hurriedly called out to stop Ji Xiang.

Although young doctors gave one a sense of distrust, this young man had "guessed" that she ate licorice-flavored black jelly beans.

This undoubtedly made the Patient feel curious.

"Does my eating snacks and taking cough medicine have anything to do with hematochezia?" the Patient asked.

"Black jelly beans aren't common in the country, but they are very common abroad," Ji Xiang said. "Reports of adverse reactions after consuming food or medicine containing licorice substances appear constantly."

"For example, water and sodium retention, hypokalemia, or hypertension. In severe cases, it can even lead to rhabdomyolysis, periodic paralysis, hypertensive encephalopathy, cardiac arrest, and so on."

"Your situation is quite special, the intestinal endoscope..."

Combining the medical history, Ji Xiang broke it down and explained his reasoning from the Patient's symptoms to his hypothesis.

What he said wasn't complicated; in fact, to Xie Kai, it seemed Ji Xiang didn't use medical terminology for some parts, which looked a bit low-class.

But the Patient and the Family Member understood, and they nodded repeatedly.

"Long-term, large-scale consumption of licorice-based medicine will lead to hypertension and hypokalemia. Have you felt weak all over for about the last year?"

"Yes, I have."

"Frequent palpitations and shortness of breath, where your heart suddenly goes thump-thump-thump, but only for a few beats, and then it's fine."

"Yes, exactly!"

"These are all caused by hypokalemia," Ji Xiang said. "Hypertension and hypokalemia have a small probability of causing mucosal lesions, but they are very mild. Hematochezia will occur, and it is very difficult for an intestinal endoscope to find the specific location of the bleeding."

"..."

"..."

By the time Ji Xiang stated his conclusion, not only the Patient and the Family Member, but even all the doctors present were stunned.

Especially Zou Fuzhuren; he was an Elite-level Expert in Gastrointestinal Surgery, skilled in surgery and endoscopic polypectomy. He had never heard of such a thing, nor had he seen such a patient.

"Although the country hasn't completely banned the production of Compound Licorice Tablets, it requires a doctor's prescription. I suspect that as the amount of Compound Licorice Tablets you took increased, the hospital couldn't prescribe enough, so you became particularly interested in licorice-flavored snacks."

"!!!"

What Ji Xiang said was something the Patient herself hadn't realized before. Now, looking back at every step, it was indeed the case.

Her dependence on Compound Licorice Tablets had grown higher and higher; she always wanted to increase the dosage, but couldn't get them prescribed.

By chance, she ate a licorice-flavored snack and felt completely refreshed. That snack was truly delicious, simply the most beautiful taste in the world.

Since then, she had sought out many kinds of licorice-flavored snacks and eventually started eating black jelly beans.

The persistent hematochezia, dizziness, palpitations, and weakness were actually related to snacks and coughing!

The Patient felt somewhat lost.

Her logic was a bit chaotic.

"Go do the tests first," Zou Fuzhuren said.

He asked Miao Zong to issue the outpatient tests for the Patient to go do, and then Zou Fuzhuren pulled Ji Xiang aside to start whispering.

Zhao Zhe looked deeply at Ji Xiang, recalling Ji Xiang's diagnostic train of thought in his mind.

Even knowing the result, Zhao Zhe still couldn't replicate it.

"Zhao Zhe, who is he?" Xie Kai asked.

He was somewhat bewildered. As a doctor, someone had explained the diagnostic process, but he couldn't understand it.

This was incredible; it was like a heavy blow that shattered all of Xie Kai's values.

"That's Ji Xiang, I've introduced him to you," Zhao Zhe replied. "I'm in Xiao Ji's medical team now. He's very capable, especially in Interventional Surgery, which he does exceptionally well. I..."

"I didn't ask you that much. Zhao Zhe, tell me, how did he diagnose it?"

"How would I know? My job is to cooperate well with Ji Yisheng Xiang," Zhao Zhe said with a relaxed smile. "I got a signed jersey from Neymar yesterday! Could you have imagined that in the past? Anyway, I wouldn't have dared to."

Listening to Zhao Zhe rambling on about Neymar on the side, Xie Kai felt his mind in a mess.

If an Expert from Hang Yi Da Yi Fu Yuan had cut through the Gordian knot and given the diagnosis, he would have been very impressed, and he would have frequently brought this up at the dinner table after returning home.

This was good material for bragging.

It was perfectly normal for a superior doctor at a superior hospital to give a correct diagnosis; there was no need to be surprised.

But the diagnosis was given by a young doctor, which was something Xie Kai couldn't accept.

With Zhao Zhe's buzzing, chatterbox-like voice in his ears like a fly, Xie Kai watched the figures of Ji Xiang and Zou Fuzhuren whispering, feeling increasingly lost.

It was called whispering, but in reality, it was Ji Xiang doing all the talking, while Zou Fuzhuren was thinking like a student.

This scene of the teacher's earnest instruction made Xie Kai even more unable to understand.

They chatted for a while, then Zou Fuzhuren took Ji Xiang and Zhao Zhe to get busy, leaving Xie Kai cast aside.

Pretending, Xie Kai thought to himself, feeling unconvinced.

In his view, all this talk about Compound Licorice Tablets or licorice-flavored snacks was nonsense; in the past, countless patients ate Compound Licorice Tablets until they were old, and he had never seen anything happen.

The Patient was only in their early thirties, so how could they have hypokalemia?

However, four hours later, the test results came out, and Xie Kai held the report, rubbing his eyes in disbelief as he looked at the values on it.

(End of this chapter)