Chapter 1990

1920 We are doctors, we should talk about science.

What happened next? Director Pan asked.

After taking medicine for a few days, he said his sore throat got worse and worse. Not to mention eating, he couldn't even drink water.

Any fever? Zheng Ren asked.

No fever, that's the strange part. When I first heard the symptoms, I thought it was pharyngitis or tonsillitis or something. But I asked his classmates in detail, and they all said he didn't have a fever. So I... sigh.

Wang Daoshi sighed.

Please continue.

Now his throat pain is severe, occurring especially frequently, about once every 5 to 10 minutes, each lasting roughly 5 minutes. Eating and drinking clearly aggravate the symptoms.

That frequent? And it's not continuous, but intermittent.

Zheng Ren listened carefully to Wang Daoshi's medical history, and his mind began to ponder diseases related to the throat.

He said that sometimes even loud stimulation or unintentional activity could trigger a bout of severe throat pain. The same happens when falling asleep at night, with no decrease in frequency. The child has now gone 5-6 days without eating or drinking; his body can hardly hold out.

Wang Daoshi said this, his eye sockets a little red.

But he forced himself to endure, clasped his hands, and said: "Director Pan, Boss Zheng, that's all I know about the situation; please trouble Boss Zheng."

Where is your son hospitalized now? Zheng Ren asked.

Wang Daoshi named a hospital in a third-tier city near the imperial capital.

The hospital isn't big, it's close to the school, so classmates can look after him easily. At first the child didn't think it would be this serious, figuring he'd wait a few days and it would get better. But the longer he waited, the worse it got, leaving no choice but to call me.

Zheng Ren asked a few more questions; the young man is only 20 this year, previously healthy, with no surgeries or trauma. Family history also shows no positive conditions; everything is normal.

It's just pharyngitis—could it really be this serious?

Has a laryngoscopy been done? Any foreign objects or masses in the upper airway or esophagus? Zheng Ren asked.

It's said they did a laryngoscopy upon admission, and found nothing abnormal.

Any test results?

Yes. Wang Daoshi immediately pulled out his phone, walked over to Zheng Ren, found the image, and handed it to him.

Su Yun stood up, also came to Zheng Ren's side, craning her neck to look.

The images showed two laryngoscopy views; although the selected positions weren't entirely standard, they were sufficient for diagnosis.

No foreign objects or swelling were visible in the throat or vocal cords, not even inflammatory edema.

Zheng Ren continued flipping through; aside from the serum electrolytes, the lab report was entirely normal, showing no problems at all.

The abnormal serum electrolytes were due to the patient not having eaten for a long time.

Going five or six days without water or grain generally causes some electrolyte imbalance.

"Do you have any recent photos of the child? It would be best if you could send a current one; I'll check the body surface for any abnormalities." Zheng Ren said.

Wang Daoshi immediately contacted his son's side; a few minutes later, four or five photos were sent over.

The transmitted photos covered the area quite completely, basically nothing missing.

Wang Daoshi's son's skin surface showed no bruising or red swelling, and no obvious lumps were seen; Zheng Ren's doubts were dispelled by those few photos.

At this point, Zheng Ren muttered curses at the Big Pig Trotter, wondering why he couldn't see the System Panel.

If viewing the pictures also had a System Panel, remote consultation would be much more convenient.

Zheng Ren began to ponder the condition related to the throat.

"Little Wang, if this is someone who goes to your Daoist temple to burn incense, what are you planning to do?" Director Pan asked.

In TCM it's called plum pit qi; they believe this disease is caused by emotional injury, leading to liver qi stagnation, liver qi stagnation or qi stagnation blood stasis forming. TCM treatment generally involves: soothing the liver and regulating qi, eliminating phlegm and dispersing nodules. Wang Daoshi said with a worried frown.

"So you mean your son broke up with his girlfriend?" Su Yun laughed.

""Cough cough..." Wang Daoshi was also speechless.

"It doesn't feel like that." Zheng Ren said: "The innervation of the throat is extremely rich; sensory and motor nerves mainly come from the pharyngeal plexus on the posterior pharyngeal wall, containing branches of the vagus, glossopharyngeal, accessory, and parasympathetic nerves."

"Do you suspect it's a nerve problem?" Su Yun asked.

"According to what Brother Wang said, just opening the mouth to speak hurts, so it must be stimulating a nerve." Zheng Ren pondered, one hand holding Xie Yiren's hand, the other picking up Chopsticks and unconsciously tapping on the Bone dish.

Besides that, the second branch of the trigeminal nerve, the glossopharyngeal nerve, etc., are directly distributed in the throat. Therefore, throat sensation is extremely sensitive; even a minor issue will manifest quite obviously.

"It's as if nothing was said." Su Yun scoffed.

Many bodily organ diseases can also, via neural reflex and conduction, produce abnormal sensations in the throat.

"For example?"

"Not mentioning anything else, just speaking of thoracic esophageal diseases—esophageal spasm, diverticulum, achalasia, early malignant tumor, traumatic esophagitis, reflux esophagitis, cardia spasm, diaphragmatic hiatus—these can all cause throat discomfort."

"That's too rare!" Su Yun said.

"Indeed, these are all quite rare, so the likelihood is low." Zheng Ren said, "On the other hand, there is a method that can simply rule out many possibilities."

Wang Daoshi's eyes lit up.

"Brother Wang, you tell the doctor over there to spray 1% lidocaine into the throat and see if it can relieve the severe throat pain." Zheng Ren said while pondering.

Wang Daoshi felt a bit embarrassed, but he didn't dare disturb Zheng Ren's thinking; he picked up his phone and went out.

""Zheng Ren, is it an illness?" Seeing Wang Daoshi leave, Director Pan asked softly.

""Director, we are doctors; we must speak scientifically." Zheng Ren's train of thought broke, but he didn't get angry or become dazed as if interrupted by Su Yun; instead he smiled and explained to Director Pan.

""Mm, you're right." Director Pan said: "You ponder your thing, don't rush."

""Everyone eat first, eat first." Zheng Ren saw nobody moving their Chopsticks, the dishes were about to get cold, so he called out.

""Chief Zheng, it's quite interesting in Di Du!" Chu Yan zhi said with a bright smile: "Life is truly fulfilling."

""Not interesting, every day I'm tired like a dog." Zheng Ren casually said.

""Don't listen to him; he doesn't even wear lead clothing now, just sits in the operating room watching Fugui'er and Old Liu do surgery." Su Yun exposed Zheng Ren's pretense: "So idle, a total jerk, runs to the Emergency Department whenever he has nothing to do."

""Really good, besides, big cities have more people, so you can see more things. All that talk about fleeing Beijing-Shanghai-Guangzhou is nonsense." Chu Yan zhi picked up her Chopsticks, eyes flashing as she looked at Director Pan: "Director, you should start eating with your Chopsticks."

Director Pan hehe-laughed and picked up the chopsticks.

Zheng Ren hastily turned the big fat-head fish head over, waiting for Director Pan to pick up a piece of meat from the fish head, and only then did everyone begin to eat.

……

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Note: Xia Hua Niang released a new book, "Run for Your Life, Author". Xia Hua Niang's imagination is still quite impressive, the previous book, Immortality, was like that, and this book's opening is also quite good.