Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 1063 Clear Eyes, Signs of Retreating Dampness (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets: 3K Chapters)

After taking the medicine, Fang Yan and the others kept a close watch on the patient. After about forty minutes, the patient's cheeks turned slightly red, and his previously cold fingertips began to warm up.

Suddenly she curled her toes and said, "It feels like tiny bugs are crawling on the soles of my feet."

Upon hearing this, Fang Yan pressed her Taichong acupoint, and could feel a slight muscle twitching under his fingers:
"This means that the yang energy has reached the limbs."

The patient spoke to them in dialect:

"I need to go to the bathroom again."

He gestured to the nurse beside him in a dialect, while simultaneously speaking to the patient:
"Pay close attention to see if there are any changes or discomfort."

The patient nodded.

Then she went back into the toilet.

Comrade Lu asked in dialect:

What indicators do we usually look at to confirm the effectiveness of a drug?

He said in dialect:

"Besides taking her pulse, we can also observe the reduction of edema, the degree of jaundice, fluctuations in body temperature, bruising, physical and mental state, respiratory status, bleeding tendency, gastrointestinal reactions, limb sensation, urination and defecation..."

Upon hearing Fang Yan's words, Comrade Lu nodded.

At this moment, the middle-aged doctor from Chongwen Hospital outside seized the opportunity to say:

"Actually, you can also have a Western medical examination, which is the most direct way to check."

Comrade Lu glanced at him and replied:
"Thanks for reminding."

As soon as these words were spoken, the other party seized the opportunity and said to Comrade Lu:
"Although our Western medicine system is different from that of traditional Chinese medicine, we are quite good at examinations. There is no doubt that doctors with local dialects are very good at treating diseases, but to really see the treatment results for patients, we still have to do it."

"Every coin has two sides, right?"

Comrade Lu glanced at him, but did not refute him, and said:

"Now is not the time to talk about these things. You can get a physical exam anywhere."

Seeing that Comrade Lu was not responding, the other party had no choice but to give up.

Actually, they were the ones who brought this patient to Xiyuan Hospital.

Is this current indifference a sign of discarding someone after they've served their purpose? Is it a case of using someone and then discarding them?
Just then, the nurse and the patient came out of the toilet.

This time, the nurse reported in dialect:

"The color changed from light yellow to transparent, and the oily mucus that used to hang on the toilet bowl disappeared."

Fang Yan nodded after hearing this.

When the nurse helped the patient back to his bed, everyone noticed that the patient was moving on his own. Although his gait was unsteady, he no longer needed anyone to support his arm.

This condition has indeed improved quite quickly.

After the patient lay down again, Fang Yan observed that the swelling in her lower limbs had subsided considerably, which is why her movements were much more agile after she came out.

Even Comrade Lu noticed that the skin on his feet had become less transparent.

He began to carefully observe his niece's condition, following the points that had just been mentioned in the dialect.

The bruises under the skin have faded considerably, and my physical strength and mental state are much better than before; my breathing has become more stable.

"It's this jaundice... why does it seem like there's still no change?" Comrade Lu asked Fang Yan, looking at his niece's condition.

"Jaundice is caused by residual dampness stagnating in the skin, much like silt in a riverbed that needs to be gradually washed away by the current. It will subside more quickly when urine output increases and urine becomes clearer."

After speaking in dialect, he pointed to the patient's eyes and said:
“The sclera is more sensitive than the skin. If you look closely at the whites of her eyes, the yellow halo at the edges has begun to fade.”

“In the Treatise on Cold Damage, this is called ‘clear eyes,’ which is a sign that dampness is receding.”

The prescription accompanying the medicine also explained:
“Her condition is ‘yin jaundice,’ which is cold-dampness type jaundice, different from the common ‘yang jaundice.’ The prescription I had was to warm the yang and dispel dampness, using herbs such as aconite and atractylodes. This type of jaundice tends to subside slowly.”

"The urine we just observed changed from dark yellow to light yellow and then back to clear, which is already a sign of improvement, but it will take longer for the jaundice to subside."

At this moment, Chen Keji also said to Comrade Lu:
"In traditional Chinese medicine theory, the fading of jaundice involves the clearance of 'dampness': dampness will first transform into damp heat and be excreted through urine, and only then will the jaundice on the skin subside. From the perspective of pathogenesis, the internal environment should be improved first, that is, the spleen and kidney functions should be restored, and then the external symptoms, that is, the jaundice on the skin, should be resolved."

Comrade Lu seemed to understand only partially. Fang Yan thought for a moment, then pointed to the patient's eyes and feet and said:

"Look, isn't the yellow ring around the whites of her eyes less intense? It looks like watercolor paint has been blurred by water."

Comrade Lu nodded.

The dialect explanation is as follows:
"Jaundice is like mold on a wall. You have to remove the moisture from the wall first before the mold will slowly fall off."

Then he picked up the teacup on the table, poured water into it, and said:

"The medicine is now like unclogging the sewer in my body. It's almost as refreshing as plain water. It's driving the 'dampness and toxins' down into my internal organs. Jaundice is the last 'sludge' that accumulates on the surface of the skin. We have to wait until the sewer is completely cleared and the water flow is strong enough to wash away this sludge."

Fang Yan counted on her fingers and said, "At first, she couldn't urinate. The first step after treatment was to enable her to urinate and urinate clearly, which she has now achieved. The second step is to enable her spleen and stomach to absorb nutrients. The fact that she moved her feet earlier was a signal. The third step is for the jaundice to gradually subside. It's like when the leaves turn yellow in autumn; you have to wait for the nutrients in the branches to be absorbed before the leaves fall. You can't rush it."

“If it is acute jaundice, also known as yang jaundice, it is like mud being washed away by a summer downpour, and it recedes quickly; but hers is cold-damp jaundice, also known as yin jaundice. This is like frozen mud in winter. You have to use aconite and other ‘small stoves’ to melt the ice first, and then wash it away little by little. So it looks slow, but the foundation is slowly getting better, so there is no need to panic.”

Upon hearing this, Comrade Lu suddenly realized what was happening. He looked at his niece on the bed, and both of them understood the current situation.

"I understand now that Dr. Fang has said that," Comrade Lu said.

The patient standing nearby also said:

"I had heard that Dr. Fang was the top scorer in the national college entrance examination last year, with perfect scores in five subjects. Sure enough, you can tell from his words that he has a solid foundation."

Hearing that the patient was even chatting and laughing, the other TCM doctors realized that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, recovery was only a matter of time.

After a while, the patient said:
"What time is it now?"

Comrade Lu glanced at his watch and exclaimed in surprise:
"Wow, time flies, it's almost midnight. I didn't even realize it was this late."

The patient then said:
"I'm a little hungry."

Upon hearing his niece's words, Comrade Lu's eyes lit up:
"It's good that you're hungry! You haven't said you're hungry in ages!"

"What do you want to eat!?"

Since she fell ill, my niece has had little appetite, but today she actually said she was hungry, which made Comrade Lu quite excited.

The patient then looked at Fang Yan and asked:
"Dr. Fang, what can I eat now?"

He asked in dialect:

Is this the first time I've felt hungry since I got sick?

The patient nodded in surprise:
"Yes, that's right! How did you know?"

Fang Yan said to her:
"Previously you had a poor appetite, loose stools, and a feeling of hunger, which should be the initial recovery of spleen yang. So I asked you if this was the first time you had felt hungry since you got sick, mainly to confirm it."

"Oh, oh..." the patient suddenly realized.

Fang Yan said to her:
"Now that you've just regained your hunger, your diet should focus on stimulating your spleen and stomach functions, and avoid greasy and heavy foods. I recommend rice porridge or scorched rice soup."

"What's that?" The patient looked completely bewildered.

"Don't they have this kind of food in Northeast China?" Fang Yaozhong asked from the side.

Comrade Lu said somewhat uncertainly:

"Maybe...maybe it's just a different name. How are they all done?"

He said in dialect:

"Rice oil porridge is made by cooking rice water with japonica rice or millet. The thick rice oil on the top layer is taken and 3-5 shredded ginger are added and cooked together. In traditional Chinese medicine, rice oil replenishes qi and generates body fluids, while shredded ginger warms the middle and dispels dampness, which can complement the medicinal power of aconite."

"Toasted rice soup is made by dry-frying rice until it turns golden brown, then boiling it in water, filtering out the residue, and drinking it. In traditional Chinese medicine, roasted rice can enhance the spleen-strengthening and diarrhea-stopping effects, resolve residual dampness and turbidity, and improve loose stools."

"Anyway, try not to eat any other vegetables or fruits during these 24 hours. After 24 hours, you can eat some light food."

Upon hearing the dialect, the other person looked enlightened.

The patient said to Comrade Lu:
"I know what rice oil porridge is now. The older generation often calls it 'porridge oil' or 'rice oil soup,' and some even just call it 'the layer of oil on top of the porridge.' When cooking millet porridge at home in winter, the shiny, thick liquid floating on the surface when you lift the lid is what everyone calls 'rice oil.' When a child has no appetite, my grandmother will specially cook a pot of millet porridge, skim off the rice oil, add brown sugar, and feed it to him. New mothers drink millet porridge oil during their postpartum period, saying that it's 'more effective than chicken soup for nourishing the body.' In the past, the older generation in my family often said that 'a bowl of rice oil is equivalent to half an egg.' I've also heard that it's called 'the poor man's ginseng soup.'"

Comrade Lu also said:

"Yes, that kind of rice soup is also called 'fried rice water' or 'burnt rice soup' in some places, and 'roasted rice water' in others. In the past, when children in rural Northeast China had diarrhea, adults would grab a handful of rice, dry-fry it in an iron pot until it turned black and started to smoke, then boil it in water to drink. It was bitter, but very effective. I remember at my neighbor's house, the iron pot would be filled with the smell of rice being fried in it, and the old folks would say, 'Burnt rice can absorb the 'dampness' in the stomach; that must be it.'"

Fang Yan nodded, confirming their statement.

However, this is something you can only make yourself; you definitely can't buy it outside.

Of course, Comrade Lu wouldn't have to do it himself; the person from Chongwen Hospital volunteered to do it. However, Fang Yaozhong immediately said:

"Let's go eat first. We'll let the hospital cafeteria know, and they'll have it ready by the time we finish eating."

"We can just bring it back from the cafeteria then."

Comrade Lu glanced at his niece, and the patient nodded and said to him:
"Go quickly, I'm fine here. The second bowl of medicine won't be here for a while."

"Dr. Fang and the others have been busy taking care of me all morning, they must be hungry by now."

Comrade Lu nodded after hearing this:

"Okay, let's go eat! It's my treat today, let's go to a state-run restaurant."

PS: After finishing this chapter, I still owe everyone 33000 words.

That's all for today, please come early tomorrow.

Lao Feng is working hard to write tomorrow's code.

(End of this chapter)