Chapter 2145: 2071 Mirror Pain (Monthly Ticket 73,500 Bonus Chapter ×147)

"Two minutes ago they said it was done, the patient is heading back." Zhou Litao said, "I urged that side to hurry and upload the images; Boss Zheng, please take a look."

Zheng Ren took the patient's data from Zhou Litao's hands and began to look through it bit by bit.

Just as Zhou Litao had said, the patient's signs and reported pain contradict each other; the X-ray AP view and the ultrasound also contradict each other.

Su Yun's brows furrowed; it seemed he also wasn't clear why this situation had arisen.

The patient's overall situation is somewhat strange.

If signs and symptoms contradict each other, that's still fairly common clinically. But can objective examinations also be wrong?

Ordinary junior doctors tend to put great faith in objective tests, yet sometimes those objective tests contradict each other.

"Let's look at the CT." Zheng Ren quickly skimmed the patient's report, then strode toward Zhou Litao's duty room.

Here, it had become Boss Zheng's office in the Emergency Department.

The computer was on; Zhou Litao located the patient's CT images and moved aside.

The CT images supported the ultrasound's finding, showing right‑sided hydronephrosis with a stone shadow lodged in the proximal ureter.

Zheng Ren was also puzzled; he inserted the upright plain X‑ray film into the viewer and began comparing it with the CT images.

"Strange, the X‑ray images look perfectly normal." Su Yun's brows furrowed even tighter.

They look normal, yet they contradict each other; such a situation is not common in clinical practice.

Zheng Ren said nothing, propped his chin on his hand, kept turning his head left and right, mentally reconstructing the scene.

"Let's go see the patient." After nearly ten minutes of silence, Zheng Ren spoke in a low voice.

Zhou Litao handed over two white coats; Zheng Ren and Su Yun put them on and left the duty room.

The patient had returned after finishing the examination; the painkiller's effect had worn off, and he hurt even more.

He wasn't on the hospital bed but curled up on the stretcher, desperately gripping his lover's hand, looking especially pitiful.

Urinary‑tract pain, when it flares up…… no matter what kind of pain, when it flares up it can be deadly. Zheng Ren approached the patient and said softly, "Where does it hurt?"

The patient's family was impatient, but when faced with the doctor's questioning they could only repeat the same answer over and over.

"The left side of the abdomen hurts." Although the family member was still somewhat cooperative, they were already growing impatient.

"Doctor, this side hurts." The patient said, covering his left abdomen with his hand. His lover's hand rested on his waist, trying to raise the temperature a bit, perhaps that would ease his pain.

Sure enough, it was left‑sided pain. Zheng Ren then tried to turn the patient to the normal side for a physical exam, but the patient, like a startled bird, panicked and said, "Doctor, don't tap my waist—each tap feels like I'm dying."

"……" Zheng Ren looked at his expression; it didn't seem feigned, and he was at a loss for words.

He was afraid of the pain.

"All right." Zheng Ren glanced at his system panel and gave a slight nod.

The system panel's diagnosis matched the CT and ultrasound, opposite to the patient's reported symptoms—right‑sided urinary‑tract stone with right‑sided hydronephrosis.

Zheng Ren dug up a lot of related information, pondering it while he watched the system panel.

"Doctor, what exactly is wrong with me?" the patient asked pitifully, curled up on the bed.

At that moment he looked utterly helpless, his face pallid, cold sweat beading on his forehead and temples from the pain.

Even his clothes were soaked through, truly pitiful.

This is still the better side; many burly men lie on the stretcher bellowing like pigs being slaughtered—a scene Zheng Ren has witnessed countless times at Haicheng City First Hospital.

"It's fine, it's fine." Zheng Ren smiled, soothed the patient, "Just a minor issue; we'll look into it and get you pain‑free as soon as possible."

His smile seemed to carry some unknown power, and the patient felt his pain ease a little.

Only the patient's family was irritable, glaring venomously at this bunch of "useless" doctors as they left.

Back in the duty room, Zheng Ren said in a low voice, "Let's admit him."

"……" Manager Yu was speechless; he hadn't expected Boss Zheng to put it that way.

Admitting him—he himself knew it, and really didn't need Boss Zheng's approval.

"Boss Zheng, what condition are you considering?" Manager Yu asked cautiously.

"Right‑sided hydronephrosis, right‑sided ureteral stone. We need to act fast to break the stone; if the hydronephrosis worsens, we might lose the kidney." Zheng Ren said.

"And the left side? The patient reports left‑sided pain." Su Yun asked.

"We're considering mirror pain." Zheng Ren said.

Mirror pain?

This term rarely appears in clinical medicine.

Zhou Litao looked bewildered, while Manager Yu had some experience but wasn't sure whether his guess was right or wrong: "Boss Zheng, is it the kind of mirror pain where a right‑sided stone causes left‑sided pain?"

"Hmm." Zheng Ren, still looking at the images, nodded.

"Usually mirror pain is bilateral." Su Yun offered a different opinion.

"On examination, Manager Zhou's exam found bilateral pain, while the patient reports left‑sided; I don't think that matters." Zheng Ren said.

"Zheng… Yun Ge'er, what is mirror pain?" Zhou Litao, having never encountered it, felt a bit lost.

"When one side of the body is injured, they feel pain in the same spot on the opposite side; this line of research began on a large scale after WWII and still has no definitive conclusion." Su Yun said, "A more bizarre scenario is when injury to nerves on one side leads to corresponding nerve damage on the opposite side."

"……"

"Is this science, or just idle talk? If it weren't for Yun Ge'er and Boss Zheng saying so, Zhou Litao would have already stood up and shouted at them."

"One side's nerves get damaged and the other side also gets damaged—that's simply too idealistic to believe."

"Actually, focused research began after WWII; similar studies started even after the American Civil War." Zheng Ren propped his chin, continued viewing the images, and said, "The neurologist Dr. Oakland of Massachusetts General Hospital studied this, and she coined the term 'mirror pain'."

"Boss, mirror pain shows up more often in cases of herpes zoster infection; it's rare in the urinary system, right?" Su Yun also wondered.

"Rare, but it does happen."

Zhou Litao looked as miserable as if he were suffering from kidney stones, gazing pitifully at Su Yun, waiting for Yun Ge'er to explain.

"It's commonly seen with herpes zoster. A reasonable explanation is that the virus enters the spinal cord and spreads to the opposite side of the body." Su Yun said, "But wounded soldiers in war also develop pain on the intact side due to loss of a limb on the injured side."

Zhou Litao suddenly recalled that he had indeed seen similar patients in the Emergency Department, but the unaffected limb hadn't been injured, he hadn't paid attention, and just thought it was a hysterical condition.

I never expected that there really is such a thing as Mirror Pain.

……

……

Note: I made a mistake in this single chapter; while sneaking a look at this chapter during a busy workday, I was startled, and even thought I had missed so much without noticing. As a matter of fact, just like those six words 'the first case in Asia', Zao Lao tou zi can't count. Here I apologize, Jiu Gong. Monthly ticket extra chapter, officially repaid, can still give Alliance Leader extra chapter~~~

Also, please give a thumbs-up oh, on mobile end - book details page - the character list near the bottom of the page - click the little 'thumbs-up' hand next to the character name, you can click once per day, it's best to click all six characters oh～~~~