A competent doctor can cure everything

I was so startled that I dropped my phone on the floor.

‘Ah, my phone.’

When I picked it up, I saw that the screen was cracked.

But is the phone screen important right now?

My mind was completely occupied elsewhere.

‘…….’

I slowly took off my glasses and wiped the lens roughly with the collar of my hospital duty uniform.

Then I squinted and stared at the chart on the desk again.

Hmm, it’s still a clean, blank sheet.

‘I must be so tired that I’m seeing things. Maybe I need to make some tonic or something.’

I shook my head and put my glasses back on.

And this time, I nearly screamed and jumped up for real.

Those damned letters reappeared on the chart.

I barely suppressed a gasp and looked around.

‘Is someone playing a prank?’

A new kind of hidden camera?

I looked up at the ceiling corners of the intern training room, but of course, I didn’t see any cameras.

‘So what the hell is going on?’

When I take off my glasses, I can’t see it, but when I put them on, I can?

I’ve never heard of such hallucinations.

‘…Let me read it for now.’

I stopped rubbing my temples, picked up the chart, and started looking at it.

The date on the chart was already strange.

It was dated for the next three days from tomorrow.

‘And why does the content look like this? It doesn’t make any sense!’

The patient had just been admitted today and hadn’t even been seen by the professor yet, but the chart contained details about how the morning rounds went and other events that hadn’t happened yet.

A shiver ran down my spine.

Could it be that I’m looking at a chart from the future?

In the midst of this, I noticed something else.

‘This handwriting… It’s that resident’s handwriting.’

I remember it being shockingly bad.

‘…….’

Whether it’s a dream or a hallucination, it seems like this is indeed a future chart that a third-year resident would write.

Having given up on further thoughts, I compared the golden text on the chart with the notes I had been writing.

“There’s not a huge difference, after all…”

I muttered as my gaze stopped at a particular spot.

There it was.

The diagnosis I hadn’t listed: ‘Restless Legs Syndrome.’

It’s a condition where one feels an itch or discomfort in the legs when at rest, accompanied by an urge to move the legs, usually occurring at night and causing sleep disturbances.

So, since I was writing the initial admission chart during the day and the progress chart early in the morning, the likelihood of me noticing this condition is very low.

‘I don’t know how that guy figured it out, but he probably intended to make a fuss about missing it during tomorrow’s chart inspection….’

That devious bastard.

I clicked my tongue at the resident’s sinister plan.

‘……?’

But as I flipped through the chart, I noticed something that bothered me.

‘The pain in the neck and back is improving daily, but… the pain in the dorsum of the foot remains unchanged?’

According to the future chart for the next three days, unlike other areas, the pain in the foot dorsum showed no improvement.

‘Could it be a coincidence?’

With suspicion, I opened the first page of the chart.

I need to recheck the patient’s medical history from the beginning.

According to the patient’s statement, there was no systemic pain like what they were currently experiencing before the accident.

‘So, it should be muscle and ligament damage due to the traffic accident. The onset date also matches the date of the accident…?’

“Ah, it says that the pain in the dorsum of the foot started a few days after the accident?”

The onset date is different and it improves particularly slowly?

I carefully read the part about the pain in the dorsum of the foot, pointing it out with my finger in the chart.

– Factors worsening pain: During walking, and during all ROM (Range of Motion) movements of the dorsum of the foot.

– Redness/Swelling/Heat/Pain (-/+-/-/+-)

This means that the pain worsens when weight is applied or when the foot dorsum is moved in any direction.

Redness, swelling, fever, and pain refer to the sequence of symptoms.

Swelling and pain are ambiguously present, but there is no redness or fever.

If the dorsum of the foot pain is an isolated symptom unrelated to the traffic accident, one might first consider infection….

‘But there is no redness or fever, so it’s unlikely to be an infection.’

Then what could it be?

An injury or disease that could cause pain without being related to trauma or infection?

‘…Could it be?’

A certain disease suddenly came to mind.

Although the location of the symptoms and the patient’s age are atypical, it’s not entirely out of the question.

‘To confirm this, I would need to perform a blood test again.’

It was frustrating that there were no recent test results due to the resident’s omission of basic admission tests.

‘So, should I include this diagnosis in the chart or not?’

I hesitated for a moment.

I might be overreacting.

‘If I add a diagnosis line that’s incorrect, I could be embarrassed and criticized by the resident…’

But if I’m correct?

If the patient needs treatment beyond musculoskeletal care, it should start as soon as possible.

Given the choice between the likelihood of me getting more scolded and the patient not receiving appropriate treatment in time?

‘This is an easy choice.’

Having made my decision, I added one more line to the diagnosis without hesitation.

*****

Right now, I am sitting quietly in front of the ward computer after finishing the early morning rounds and completing the patient progress chart.

Of course, I also prepared and brought the new patient chart as instructed by the third-year resident.

“What are you doing? We’re starting the briefing.”

Suddenly, a curt voice was heard in my ear.

The third-year resident approached and roughly pulled out the chair next to me before plopping down.

“Did you complete the chart as well?”

The third-year resident, with a sulky expression, read through the briefing and then quickly started reading the new patient chart.

“……!”

His eyes widened as he checked the diagnosis section. It seemed he was surprised to see the diagnosis of restless legs syndrome.

I waited quietly for the next reaction.

As expected, a moment later:

“……? Are you just writing random stuff? Is charting a joke to you?”

He began to get angry as if he had found a fault.

“I didn’t write random stuff.”

My calm response only seemed to aggravate him further.

“No, did you really write gout disease for this young patient? And don’t you know that gout symptoms usually start at the big toe joint?”

The additional diagnosis I had written was gout.

Gout disease is a condition caused by the accumulation of uric acid crystals in the joints when there is too much uric acid in the blood, leading to intense pain.

Purines, which are metabolic byproducts of high-protein, high-calorie foods, are broken down into uric acid.

It mainly occurs in middle-aged men and tends to start with uric acid accumulation in the big toe joint, which is poorly circulated.

“Typically, yes. However given the unique onset in the dorsum of the foot and the fact that the patient’s blood test from two weeks ago at another hospital showed high uric acid levels, I suspected it. Also, the patient is somewhat obese and reportedly enjoys fried foods and beer regularly.”

I omitted the part about seeing the future of the dorsum of the foot not improving and only mentioned the other reasons.

“So I think it’s necessary to conduct a blood test through a collaboration with Western medicine and consider differential diagnosis for Gout disease.”

“……!”

As I listed the reasons one by one, the resident, who had been angrily shouting, was left speechless and his mouth twitched.

At that moment, applause suddenly sounded from behind me.

Startled, I turned around to see the professor from the Department of Pain Medicine standing there.

“Wow, impressive! Considering the patient’s young age and the overlap with the traffic accident, it must have been very difficult to think of gout. Aren’t you still an intern?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“A newly arrived intern making such a diagnosis? This is a situation that even experienced doctors might easily overlook, let alone residents.”

The professor’s voice was genuinely admiring.

“That’s right, professor… The opinion letter from the other hospital’s orthopedic department didn’t mention gout disease…”

The resident, perhaps feeling awkward from the professor’s praise, mumbled excuses, which only had the opposite effect.

“Is that how you justify it? An opinion letter is just an opinion. You should make the diagnosis yourself!”

The third-year resident shrank back, hearing the professor’s scolding.

“That’s not it. If the dorsum pain doesn’t improve within a few days, I’m sure the resident would have considered it too.”

I said this while pretending to be modest.

In reality, I know that this third-year resident wouldn’t think of gout within three days.

The professor looked at me with curious eyes.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Intern Seon Joon.”

“Seon Joon, huh… I’m really impressed. I’ll be keeping an eye on you. We’ve got a remarkable talent here at our hospital. And you? Aren’t you going to write the consultation request soon?”

The professor spoke to the third-year resident as if scolding him.

The resident’s face turned red, likely from the embarrassment of being compared to an intern.

Later that day, I heard the results of the resident’s flustered consultation request…

Indeed, the symptoms were consistent with gout.

I found out the news that afternoon.

“Seon Joon, did you see the consultation results for Kim Sang-hun?”

A nurse, who was sitting at the station, called me over as I passed by.

“I haven’t checked yet.”

I immediately sat down at an empty computer in the ward and checked the response from the Western medicine professor.

‘Since it’s still early, they’ll try dietary control and recheck in three months… no medication prescribed.’

“That’s right, the symptoms are due to gout disease. Seon Joon, you’re amazing! You discovered what the third-year resident and the other hospital missed.”

The nurse’s eyes sparkled with interest.

I neither confirmed nor denied it and instead asked a question in return.

“By the way, how did you find out about that?”

The nurse burst into laughter.

“How did I find out? The whole ward’s buzzing about it now. Seon Joon, you’re a celebrity around here now.”

“…Is it really that big of a deal?”

“Oh, absolutely~. There are eyes and ears everywhere in the hospital.”

It was true that there were many other nurses around at the time.

The third-year resident, was scolded in comparison to an intern.

Such sensational news spreads quickly.

I’ll need to be more careful with my actions at the ward station from now on….

Oh, and later I learned about the restless legs syndrome from talking to the patient.

“Do you have a strong urge to move your legs, especially at night?”

“Yes, exactly! It’s okay during the day, but I feel it when I sit still. It’s especially worse at night.”

On the first day of admission, that third-year resident briefly visited the patient. At that time, the patient was experiencing symptoms after taking a nap and was rubbing his legs.

“But the attending physician asked similar questions to what you asked… why is that?”

“This is a condition called restless legs syndrome. Didn’t the attending physician mention anything?”

“No, so I thought it wasn’t anything serious and forgot about it.”

…And that was the backstory.

So, when I asked the patient while writing the initial chart if there were any specific diagnosed conditions, the patient said there was nothing.

Anyway, after a hectic day, night fell again. I was so busy all day that I hadn’t had a chance to think deeply about my glasses.

Even now, I’m in the intern education room late at night, looking over the charts of the patients assigned to us with Wonil.

“Seon Joon! Oh, I mean, Hyung!”

I was momentarily jolted back to reality by Wonil’s excited voice as I was thinking about my glasses while reviewing the charts.