The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

Hwang Sang-hoon was suddenly struck with fear.

Reducing work days to five a week? Had the revenue on days he worked alone dropped significantly?

Fortunately, Han Yeowon reassured him that wasn’t the case at all, saying why would they need a Deputy Director if he performed as well as the director?

‘It’s not like I have anything to do at home alone anyway.’

Apart from the PT sessions Han Yeowon had arranged, he spent his days off reviewing consultations or studying.

He felt more at ease working and studying in bits while at the clinic.

Wouldn’t it be more burdensome to suddenly reduce working days while maintaining the same salary?

‘Above all, it means one less day working together.’

Currently, out of six days a week, they worked three days together and three days alone. Reducing to five days would mean one less day working together.

‘I don’t like that.’

Luckily, it was Han Yeowon’s suggestion out of consideration for him, and she readily accepted his wish to maintain the current working conditions.

She also agreed to introduce ultrasound.

It couldn’t have been easy to change the system, but she even made and put up posters, which made him feel incredibly proud.

Moreover, Han Yeowon wanted to learn and use it too.

They agreed to stay for two hours after work to study together.

‘I hope I can be helpful.’

Hwang Sang-hoon waited for the end of consultation hours, trying to calm his racing heart.

◆◇◆◇◆

“This is the normal state, and this is inflammation.”

Hwang Sang-hoon said.

“…? They look the same.”

“It’s always like that at first, but you get used to it as you look more.”

Han Yeowon looked completely clueless.

He too had been confused about what he was looking at when he first picked up an ultrasound, but after scanning 100, 1000 people, he developed an intuition.

“I got it! Is this the anterior talofibular ligament?”

“No? This looks like the lateral epicondyle. Try flexing 10 degrees more.”

“Argh! I can’t understand the ankle at all!”

Han Yeowon clutched her head.

I thought she was good at everything, but there’s something she doesn’t know?

…Cute.

“Small joints are generally harder to distinguish. Knees or shoulders should be easier.”

“Then let’s skip the ankle and look at the shoulder!”

Han Yeowon wiped off the gel from the ankle. She kept grumbling about how to interpret this.

“Shoulder? For the shoulder…”

You have to take off your top, don’t you?

Of course, at the hospital, they just took it off, but.

“Just a moment.”

Hwang Sang-hoon turned around, unbuttoned a few buttons, and lowered his clothes to expose just his shoulder.

“Oh, the PT is working! You’ve built some muscle, haven’t you?”

“…Thanks.”

He blushed slightly.

Splash!

Han Yeowon sprayed the cold gel on Hwang Sang-hoon’s shoulder.

Soon after, the ultrasound probe made contact.

“Ah, the shoulder blade is a bit easier to recognize. This must be the scapular spine, so above it should be the supraspinatus.”

“That’s right. You’re finding it well.”

“Uh…? But why does it look like this? Is this a tear? Your shoulder looks fine though?”

“Hmm?”

Han Yeowon was taken aback.

Of course, Hwang Sang-hoon’s shoulder was fine, but.

The screen showed what looked like a scratch suggesting a partial tear.

“That’s air getting in, making it look unclear. In cases like this, you need to tilt it slightly and reposition.”

“…How do you distinguish?”

“You kind of get a feel for it as you do it more?”

“Argh!”

The shoulder wasn’t as easy as she thought, and Han Yeowon spent a long time frowning as she tried to distinguish between muscles and ligaments.

“The white is bone, and the black is… the black is fluid… I don’t know…”

The first day’s two hours flew by in an instant.

Han Yeowon thanked him for teaching her well, but he felt awkward, thinking he hadn’t been much help.

But Han Yeowon didn’t give up.

Whenever she had a moment, she would beg employees to let her scan their ankles.

Once she could distinguish to some extent, she started bringing the machine to friendly patients, saying she wanted to check their progress. Of course, she had Hwang Sang-hoon supervise in case she misinterpreted anything.

“This is where your gastrocnemius was torn. It’s improving, but it’s still a bit different from other muscle fibers.”

“Yes. It’s fine when walking, but it’s definitely not fully recovered. As you said, Director, I should complete the treatment thoroughly.”

She scanned calves too.

“There’s calcification in your shoulder. If the pain isn’t severe, we could wait for natural dissolution while just managing inflammation, but if it were me, I’d try extracorporeal shock wave therapy to break it up.”

“Ah, I’ll do that! Thank you for letting me know!”

With practice, she became able to diagnose shoulder lesions too.

“Your toe isn’t healing? Let me see, it looks fine… Ah, there’s inflammation in the proximal phalanx too! Sometimes the actual site of inflammation and where it hurts can be different like this. Let’s treat the proximal phalanx as well!”

At first, she struggled with ankles, saying they were frustrating.

But with persistent practice, it wasn’t long before she could diagnose even finger and toe joints.

“Thank you, oppa! It was so good to bring this in. Thanks to you, it’s become much easier to convince patients of the need for treatment while showing them!”

She naturally incorporated ultrasound diagnosis into her system.

Except for the first few days, patient wait times didn’t increase much, and patients were pleased to see the needle going into the exact ligament where inflammation was present.

“Haha, you’re picking it up quickly. I guess it’s because you have good sense and dexterity.”

“No way, it’s because you taught me the know-how so well.”

He had learned through a lot of scolding from his seniors, but she picked it up so quickly that he felt a bit upset.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Director, what should I do? It’s not getting better at all!”

While what he had to teach ran out quickly.

There was no end to what needed to be learned.

The name of this patient sobbing that she wasn’t getting better at all was Lee A-jung.

She was the daughter-in-law of Grandma Son Chun-ja, who was very fond of Hwang Sang-hoon.

She came in with pain in her lower back and sacrum, and it had been two weeks since treatment started.

He thought treating the erector spinae muscles where there was tenderness would help her improve, but there was no improvement at all, which was troubling.

Every time she came in so depressed about not getting better, it was becoming stressful.

‘Is it because she’s too thin? I can’t tell her to build muscle. Should I try supportive therapy?’

Acupuncture treatment basically helps by loosening knots or creating small wounds to aid recovery. There were limits to strengthening what was weak.

Of course, there were complementary methods like thread-embedding therapy, but that required additional materials and thus more cost.

‘Or is it that the sacroiliac joint inflammation isn’t subsiding? Should I suggest long needle pharmacopuncture instead?’

Hwang Sang-hoon lacked confidence.

What if he recommended expensive non-covered treatment and it failed?

He felt he couldn’t face either A-jung or Grandma Son Chun-ja who had referred her to him.

“Yeowon, I have a patient I’d like to discuss. Is that okay?”

Hwang Sang-hoon finally went to Han Yeowon again.

“Who is it?”

Han Yeowon’s eyes lit up, saying he could ask anytime. She showed no signs of being bothered.

“It’s Lee A-jung.”

“Eh, it’s not a very long-standing case. No triggering incident, pain for 5 weeks, and you’ve been treating for 2 weeks?”

“Yeah.”

“She doesn’t do any strenuous activities? What’s her job? Doesn’t exercise?”

“Just an office job. She’s a very thin patient, and she said she recently started swimming… but it doesn’t seem frequent enough to be a problem.”

“Hmm.”

Han Yeowon pondered as she scrolled through the chart.

“Could it be a disc problem after all? Should we tell her it’ll take time and keep treating steadily? Or should we strongly recommend non-covered treatment or proper exercise?”

Han Yeowon shook her head at Hwang Sang-hoon’s words.

She had been looking at the screen with her arms folded, and now she spoke.

“Where exactly hurts the most? Is it the sacrum or the ischium?”

“The sacrum. She pointed here saying her tailbone hurts. The erector spinae was the most painful when pressed.”

“Well, that could stiffen separately from sitting for long periods in an office job… No numbness, right? SLR (Straight Leg Raise test; a physical examination to check for lumbar nerve root pathology, disc problems) was negative?”

“Yeah. All that was fine.”

“And you’ve tried acupuncture on the lower back, tailbone, and ischium.”

Hwang Sang-hoon nodded.

Having treated consistently for two weeks, it could be said that needles had been applied to all potentially problematic areas.

“In my experience, this is a sacral fracture.”

“Huh? A fracture?”

But Han Yeowon said something he hadn’t considered at all.

“Have you seen fracture patients before? But she said she had an X-ray at an orthopedic clinic before coming to us.”

“Hmm, as it happens, I have! Tiny cracks sometimes don’t show up on X-rays. They’d be visible on CT, MRI, or ultrasound. Thanks to you buying that expensive ultrasound, we can see the spine well too.”

“But there’s no factor that could have caused a fracture…”

“Maybe she doesn’t remember because the timing doesn’t match when it started hurting? Ask about what happened a few weeks before in detail, and offer to do an ultrasound.”

It wasn’t a difficult task.

It was much easier to suggest an ultrasound examination than to recommend thread-embedding therapy without knowing what the problem was and whether it needed support.

The patient agreed.

Between physical therapy and acupuncture, Hwang Sang-hoon called her to the examination room to perform an ultrasound.

Even if it wasn’t a fracture, he intended to look for any ligaments with particularly severe inflammation in the sacroiliac joint.

‘…?!’

But just as Han Yeowon had said, a microfracture was visible.

How did she know this?

“There’s a slight crack here. Are you sure you haven’t bumped into anything? It’s not easy for compression fractures to occur in daily life unless you’re very elderly with severe osteoporosis.”

Hwang Sang-hoon spoke calmly, trying not to show his surprise.

Elderly patients rarely develop spinal compression fractures even from the impact of sneezing. But for a woman in her 40s to have such a crack in her sacrum without trauma?

How on earth did Han Yeowon know?

“A fracture?!”

Lee A-jung was shocked too.

“Yes. Since you said you hadn’t been injured, I didn’t really consider a fracture, but sometimes small cracks like this don’t show up on X-rays.”

“Ah…! Actually… I did get hurt.”

“Pardon?”

“Hahaha, I came with my mother-in-law for the initial consultation, right? The truth is, a colleague told me I fell on my bottom after drinking too much at a company dinner. I was embarrassed to say that in front of my mother-in-law. I’m sorry! I thought it couldn’t be a fracture since it didn’t show up on the X-ray!”

Come to think of it, Son Chun-ja had accompanied her.

She had glossed over how she got hurt without telling the truth?

Not knowing that possibility, he had completely ruled out a fracture. If he had recommended thread-embedding or pharmacopuncture treatment, and a fracture was discovered later at another hospital… It was chilling. He would have been called a quack.

“I… see. That can happen. Please stop all exercise including swimming for now, and rest in bed. Bones ultimately need to heal on their own, so let’s continue treatment focusing on pain control. It will take longer than the initial prognosis I gave you.”

“Yes, yes, I will. Oh my goodness! I wondered why it hurt so much. How hard did I fall? I should quit drinking!”

Lee A-jung bowed her head, looking very embarrassed.

“Yeowon, there really was a fracture like you said.”

He showed Han Yeowon the ultrasound image.

“Ah, right? I guess she remembered getting hurt?”

“Yeah. She said she couldn’t say it in front of her mother-in-law.”

“Haha, that happens sometimes. They forget, or deliberately hide things. What patients say isn’t always that objective.”

“I learned something new… I’m glad I asked you.”

“What are you saying! It’s fortunate we brought in the ultrasound! Otherwise, we might have had to send her to another hospital unnecessarily! It’s so good to have the machine!”

They praised each other.

“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have even tried the ultrasound,” “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t understand what I’m looking at,” they exchanged compliments, laughing warmly.

And so, the new system settled into Seongsu Korean Medicine Clinic.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Oh, Park Seon-yun-nim. It’s been a while. Have you been well?”

“Yes. Have you all been well too?”

“We’re always the same!”

“Please share these. I bought them on a business trip. Oh… you’ve increased your staff?”

“Yes! We’re open seven days a week now!”

“As expected, you’re amazing. I hope your business prospers.”

The sound of Seol Yu-hee and Park Seon-yun chatting at the reception desk could be heard.

Park Seon-yun? It’s been a while.

Since our conversation at the fine dining restaurant, his visits had drastically decreased, and lately he hadn’t been coming at all.

So he went on a business trip?

“Doctor~ It’s Swiss chocolate!”

A moment later, Seol Yu-hee brought it over on a plate.

Seol Yu-hee and Gong Na-ri, who was in the treatment room, ate the chocolate with great delight.

“Tell the patient thank you.”

Hwang Sang-hoon looked a bit glum. Does he not like chocolate? He does look like someone who might dislike sweet things.

After waiting for the physical therapy to end, I went to Park Seon-yun.

“How has your back been? We’ve newly brought in an ultrasound, should I take a look?”

“No, it’s fine. Thanks to you, Doctor, my back is perfectly fine. My shoulder is a bit stiff. Is the ultrasound newly purchased?”

Park Seon-yun declined the examination but showed interest in the machine.

Ah, doesn’t their group have a medical equipment company too? They’re a conglomerate after all.

“I didn’t buy it. We hired a Deputy Director, and he brought it.”

“I see… Do you need anything else? How about a blood testing machine?”

“Haha, maybe next time.”

No soliciting, you rascal.

I’ll place an order if I need it!

“Hmm… Ah!”

Park Seon-yun’s sensitive skin was unlikely to have changed much in a few months.

He still flinched and trembled while receiving acupuncture.

“By the way, Doctor, have you heard from Se-sun-Nuna?”

“Park Se-sun-nim? Not particularly.”

I tilted my head.

I still exchanged messages with Park Se-sun occasionally even after she returned to Seoul.

She had settled at her target weight without yo-yo effect, thanks to our weekly consultations that had made us quite close.

But it was just everyday chat, nothing special.

“She still hasn’t confessed to you? I heard her friend took some of the herbal pills you prescribed and had quite a hard time.”

“What…?”

Why did her friend take that!

I clutched the back of my neck.

Medicine is medicine, after all. Couldn’t she at least have asked before giving it away?