Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 1073 Diseases that Western medical machines cannot detect, traditional Chinese medicine surgery (two chapters combined)
Upon hearing Li Zhengji's request, the patient immediately complied.

He offered his hand and then stuck out his tongue.

Since no patients had arrived yet, Fang Yan went over to check on them, wanting to see what kind of illness it could be.

When he saw Fang Yan coming over, Li Zhengji even moved half of his buttocks aside to indicate that Fang Yan should sit down as well.

Fang Yan waved his hand, indicating that he should just focus on the diagnosis.

The patient stuck out his tongue, and Fang Yan looked at it. The color seemed normal, but there was a small bruise on the lower edge of the tongue.

Li Zhengji also noticed this. While taking the patient's pulse, he asked the patient to stick his tongue up and looked under the tongue. The area under the tongue was quite normal, with no varicose veins.

Therefore, the body only has a slight blood stasis.

After checking the pulse in his left hand, Li Zhengji wrote down the medical record in the local dialect, but he only wrote down the important information and his guesses before starting to diagnose his right hand.

Fang Yan saw that he wrote "slow pulse", "Shangyang acupoint on the radial side of the tip of the right index finger", and "Well point of the Large Intestine Meridian".

Fang Yan understood his idea. If there are abnormalities in the right index finger, such as numbness or swelling, traditional Chinese medicine will combine the symptoms of the whole body to judge whether it is due to stagnation of qi and blood in the large intestine meridian, or related to other organs such as the lungs, because the lungs and large intestine are internally and externally related and their functions are disordered.

Besides the index finger, the other fingers are also connected to other meridians in the body.

Thumb: Lung Meridian of Hand-Taiyin (left and right).

Middle finger: Pericardium Meridian of Hand-Jueyin (left and right).

Ring finger: Hand Shaoyang Sanjiao Meridian (left and right).

Little finger: Hand Shaoyin Heart Meridian (left), Hand Taiyang Small Intestine Meridian (right).

Through the theory of meridians, traditional Chinese medicine connects the fingers with the internal organs and meridians, not only for diagnosing diseases, but also for improving bodily functions by regulating the flow of qi and blood in the meridians.

For patients like this who experience discomfort in their right index finger, Li Zhengji's approach of combining meridian theory with syndrome differentiation and treatment is also a viable strategy.

"Hiss..." Li Zhengji had just finished diagnosing the pulse in the patient's left hand when he accidentally touched the patient's index finger, causing the patient to gasp in pain.

"Oh my god!" The patient's expression was genuine; he was clutching his hand, sweating profusely from the pain.

Li Zhengji quickly apologized to her, "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Fang Yan could see very clearly that it was just a very light tap, with no force at all.

The pain was so intense that she felt like she was about to faint.

"Doctor, why don't you just cut this part of the hand off?"

"Really! I'm begging you!" The patient pleaded with Li Zhengji, his eyes reddening.

Li Zhengji was speechless.

The patient, however, excitedly held up his finger and said:

"Why don't you just pull out my fingernails? That should make things easier!"

"It's driving me crazy."

Faced with this situation, Li Zhengji could only try to calm the patient; he was in no position to calmly consider a solution. Fang Yan patted him on the shoulder and then joined in comforting the patient.

"Don't rush, put your finger down and rest. Look, your finger is fine, so we won't cut it or touch the nail right away. I know you're in pain, and anyone would be anxious if they had to suffer like this every day. But think about it, this finger has been with us for decades, how can we just cut it off like that?"

Li Zhengji also said:

"Don't get agitated. Right now, we need to find out why this finger hurts here. Otherwise, even if we cut it off, what if it moves from the cut finger to another nail?"

After the two of them gave the patient a good talking-to, the patient finally calmed down.

Only then did Li Zhengji continue writing down the pulse he had just felt on the medical record, which was also a hesitant pulse.

In other words, there is indeed some stagnation of qi and blood in the body.

Li Zhengji's priority now was to gather information, so he continued asking questions:

"How long have you been in pain? Is it like being pricked by needles, or like ants crawling on you? Did you get poked or hurt by anything before the pain started?"

The patient said:
"My hand is stinging, like someone is nailing it to my hand. And the pain started slowly. I usually just write things at work, I don't do any heavy work, and I don't get bumped or bruised."

"The pain started gradually?" Li Zhengji had caught something amiss.

The other party nodded:

"Yes, at first it was just a little uncomfortable, but it became more and more obvious later."

She continued:
“I’ve had tests done at other hospitals, but they didn’t find anything wrong. However, my fingernail is getting more and more painful every day. At first, I could bear it, but now I can’t bear it anymore. When I went to the hospital for a checkup, they said there was nothing wrong with me. They thought it was my own hallucination and said that people like us who use our brains can’t distinguish between reality and fantasy. They said I should go to a mental hospital for a checkup.”

"..." Li Zhengji was speechless. He glanced at Fang Yan and didn't know what to say for a moment.

Fang Yan stroked his chin and said with certainty:

"This is definitely not a hallucination."

Upon hearing Fang Yan's words, the patient looked up and said to Fang Yan:

"Right, doctor, you also think this isn't a hallucination, right?"

She went on to reveal:
“Actually, I had surgery done before to have my fingernails removed. After that, I no longer felt that stinging sensation. But when I told other doctors at the hospital about this, they said it was a morbid feeling that came from psychological satisfaction.”

"At first I didn't believe it, but after my fingernails grew out, it started to hurt again."

"I've even doubted whether I really have something wrong with my brain."

As she spoke, she tapped her head with her hand, and the force actually triggered the pain in her hand, making her almost faint from the pain.

Fang Yan and Li Zhengji watched in disbelief as the patient appeared to be in great pain. They stared at each other, realizing that even a breath from him could cause him pain.

"If it's a problem with the large intestine meridian, how could it hurt this much?" Li Zhengji was losing confidence at this point, so he had no choice but to ask Fang Yan for help. Although he didn't say it explicitly, he could only place his hopes on Fang Yan's memory of Chaoqun, who had read many medical cases and might have some ideas.

Fang Yan said to Li Zhengji:
"Wait a minute, I'll go borrow a flashlight."

Upon hearing the dialect spoken, the nurse standing nearby immediately said:

"I'll go!"

After saying that, he ran off to get a flashlight.

Fang Yan pushed the flashlight aside and said to the patient:

"Place your finger on this flashlight and shine it into the light."

The patient didn't know what Fang Yan was planning to do, but he obediently did as he was told. By this time, the other old men had probably finished chatting, and several of them came over. They were a little confused when they saw Fang Yan using the flashlight to "treat" someone.

When did traditional Chinese medicine start using these techniques?

Fang Yan didn't care about any of that; instead, he looked back and forth on the patient's fingers.

The flashlight beam penetrated most of the flesh, making the fingers appear semi-transparent.

Li Zhengji, who was standing to the side, seemed to understand what Fang Yan wanted to see, and he also came over to stare at the nail beds of the patient's fingernails for comparison.

He spoke to the patient in a dialect:
"Please bring up your left index finger as well, and compare them."

The patient listened and did as instructed.

“This one seems brighter, with a higher degree of light transmission,” Li Zhengji said to Fang Yan, pointing to the patient’s right hand.

Others gathered around and discovered that, indeed, the nail bed of the patient's painful hand was more transparent.

"Don't move," Fang Yan said to the patient.

Then he said to Li Zhengji:

"Senior brother, take a cotton swab, turn it upside down, and gently touch her nail bed little by little."

In the local dialect, people rarely call Li Zhengji "Brother Li" anymore; they usually call him "Brother Li" or "Old Li." It feels a bit strange to call him "Brother Li Zhengji" in this context.

However, he immediately realized that Fang Yan must have figured something out.

After he took out the cotton swabs, he asked somewhat nervously:
"You're really going to touch it?"

He said in dialect:

"Take it slowly, gently, little by little."

Then he said to the patient:
"Just tell me when you're in pain."

The patient nodded.

Then Li Zhengji began to touch the area with a cotton swab, starting at the edge, where the patient instinctively tried to pull his hand away.

"Don't move!" Fang Yan shouted.

Then the patient endured being touched by the cotton swab.

"Does it hurt?" Li Zhengji asked somewhat nervously.

The patient said:
"It doesn't hurt here."

Fang Yan said to Li Zhengji:
"See this spot where the light shines through the most? Touch here!"

Li Zhengji nodded and then bumped into her.

"Hiss!" Although it was just a light touch, the patient gasped in pain and immediately pulled his hand back.

This was after Li Zhengji had only lightly touched it.

“This is definitely not a psychological problem!” Li Zhengji said to Fang Yan with certainty.

Fang Yan nodded:

"That's right, this more translucent area should be the lesion."

Hearing their words, the patient couldn't help but remind them:

"My hand has been examined, but they couldn't find anything."

"The Western doctors already said there was nothing wrong with me at the time."

Fang Yan shook his head and said:
"Their tests aren't all-encompassing. If the fingernail is a little thicker, or the lesion is a little smaller, they won't be able to detect it."

"Do you know what this disease is?" Li Zhengji asked Fang Yan in a low voice.

"There are speculations, but we still need to confirm them," Fang Yan said.

Li Zhengji was surprised that Fang Yan had found the solution to a problem he had never been able to solve with just a flashlight, so he quickly asked:

"How to do it?"

Fang Yan looked around and said:

"Does anyone have a rope? A thin one, the kind that can be wrapped around a finger."

Upon hearing the dialect, a nurse nearby took out a piece of red hair tie from her clothes and asked:

"Dr. Fang, is this alright?"

"Okay!" Fang Yan nodded.

Then he said to the patient:
"Raise up the hand that hurts."

The patient was confused and didn't know what Fang Yan was going to do, but she did as he said. After she raised her hand, Fang Yan picked up the hair tie and started wrapping it around her index finger, wrapping it several times until it turned white.

After tying the hair tie tightly, Fang Yan said to the patient:
"Now you can put it down."

Li Zhengji looked completely bewildered and asked in a low voice:
"What is this for?"

Fang Yan said to him:
"Pick up the cotton swab."

Then he said to the patient:
"You put your hand on the flashlight."

The patient and everyone else were completely baffled, but there was no other way but to follow the instructions in the local dialect.

"Nothing's changed?" Everyone saw that the translucent part of the finger was still there.

Li Zhengji also looked at Fang Yan with a questioning expression.

Fang Yan said to Li Zhengji:
"Keep touching the original spot."

"Huh?" Li Zhengji looked at Fang Yan with slight surprise.

The patient shuddered and tried to shrink back.

He spoke to the patient in a dialect:
"do not move."

Fang Yan said to Li Zhengji:

"bump!"

Li Zhengji glanced at the patient who was about to pull his hand away at any moment. With a determined look, he gently touched the particularly shiny spot on the fingernail.

The patient's facial muscles twitched, and she was about to pull her hand away, but the next second she froze.

"Eh?"

She let out a surprised sound.

Then, somewhat surprised, he looked at the spot where he had been poked and confirmed that he had been touched.

Then, looking completely bewildered, he said to Fang Yan and Li Zhengji:

"Why...why don't I feel pain anymore?"

"It doesn't hurt anymore?" Li Zhengji was dumbfounded.

However, he quickly realized what was happening and looked at Fang Yan.

Fang Yan said to him:
"Touch the other parts of your fingernails as well."

After saying that, he emphasized to him:
"Use a little more force."

Li Zhengji nodded, and then, under everyone's gaze, poked all over his index fingernail.

The patient did not experience any discomfort.

The patient asked in dialect:

"What's going on? How come tying a hair tie to my wrist solved everything?"

Li Zhengji looked at Fang Yan and asked:
"Could it be a healing incantation?"

Fang Yan shook his head and said:
"neither."

He composed himself, thought for a moment, and then said:
"This disease is rare. In Western medicine, it is called subungual glomus tumor. It was a benign tumor in the glomus tissue that was discovered by French pathologist Pierre Masson in 1924."

“This disease occurs under the nail bed and causes severe pain that becomes increasingly painful over time. In the later stages, small blue spots will appear on the nail bed. She hasn’t reached that stage yet, but she is already in unbearable pain. You can imagine what it will be like later.”

"Western medicine doctors usually diagnose these tumors through imaging examinations or pathological biopsies, but these tumors are only the size of a sesame seed to a mung bean, and they are very likely to be missed due to the limitations of the examination accuracy. Since they are relatively rare abroad, it is normal that Western medicine doctors in China have never seen them before. They have great faith in their machines, and if they cannot detect it, they will say that it is a problem with the patient's brain, which is somewhat based on empiricism."

After hearing this, everyone suddenly understood.

Fang Yan continued:

"Our traditional Chinese medicine has a long history, and this disease is actually recorded. There is no specific disease name in ancient Chinese medicine books, but the disease has been described based on symptoms and pathogenesis. The "Orthodox Manual of Surgery" mentions "blood tumor": "purple and red, soft and hard mixed, with pain and traction." The "Golden Mirror of Medicine" also records: "blood vessels are entangled and heat stagnates to form a tumor."

"Traditional Chinese medicine, through holistic diagnosis, generally classifies the pathogenesis as related to stagnation of qi and blood and internal accumulation of fire evil."

Li Zhengji nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face. Of course, Fang Yan's words were also directed at him.

At this point, the patient asked in dialect:

"Then why is this area more translucent, and why does it stop hurting when you tie your hand up?"

Li Zhengji also looked at Fang Yan, curious about the underlying principle.

Fang Yan composed himself and said:

"This examination method was also written in a foreign scientific journal. It is called the 'translucency method' to observe the differences in the nail bed. It is a comparison because the translucency of this thing contrasts with the surrounding tissue, so the lesion area looks brighter and has a higher degree of translucency."

In fact, Fang Yan had seen what this thing looked like after surgery in his previous life. It was a semi-transparent object that did indeed amplify light when exposed to it.

However, it usually becomes more noticeable later on.

"As for why she stopped feeling pain after I tied a hair tie, it's because the pain was caused by abnormal blood vessel growth in the lesion. After blocking the blood flow, the local ischemia temporarily relieved the nerve compression symptoms, and the pain was reduced."

"This disease is actually a 'tangible knot' formed by the local stagnation of qi and blood. Ancient books believe that most of these lesions are formed by the long-term accumulation of factors such as qi stagnation and blood stasis, phlegm accumulation and dampness accumulation, and internal heat evil,"

After speaking in dialect, he loosened the hair tie wrapped around the patient's hand.

Her fingers had turned bluish-white after being tied up for only a short while, but returned to their original color immediately after being untied.

However, when the patient touched the spot again, he immediately cried out in pain.

"Why don't you just get entangled with me?" she said to Fang Yan.

“No, if it keeps getting wrapped around your fingers, they’ll be ruined.” Fang Yan shook his head.

The patient said somewhat excitedly:

"But I'd rather just cripple my fingers now!"

The pain in her hand made her lose her mind.

At this moment, an elderly man in his seventies said:

"Oh dear, young man, don't be anxious. Dr. Fang has already found the cause of the illness, so he must have a solution. Just listen to his treatment plan, right?"

Another person also said:
"That's right. Both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine practitioners can explain it clearly, so there must be a solution."

Ultimately, they all turned their attention to dialects.

He said in dialect:

"This is actually quite simple; we just need to treat both the internal and external factors."

"Internal treatment involves identifying the syndrome and prescribing a prescription to regulate qi and blood. It begins by promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis, clearing the meridians, and relieving pain. Then it clears heat, drains fire, cools the blood, and disperses blood stasis. Finally, it resolves phlegm, disperses nodules, and harmonizes qi and blood."

"External treatment uses acupuncture to regulate the meridians where the lesion is located. Acupoints on the Large Intestine Meridian of Hand Yangming are selected, such as Shangyang, Hegu, and Quchi. The reducing method is used to dredge the meridians and blood and relieve pain."

"Finally, grind rhubarb, Glauber's salt, frankincense, myrrh, and dragon's blood into powder, mix with vinegar or honey to form a paste, and apply it externally to the affected nail bed."

Fang Yan was mainly speaking to Li Zhengji, and he was practically helping Li Zhengji clarify all his thoughts.

Li Zhengji understood immediately; this disease was too strange and too rare, no wonder he had never heard of it before.

Now that the dialect provided a solution, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Just then, the patient suddenly asked:

"Is there a faster way? I really don't want to wait even a day longer."

Fang Yan looked at her like this and said:

"Of course, if the pain is unbearable and you don't want to waste any time, surgery can be performed after the location of the lesion is determined. Both Western and Chinese medicine have this surgical method. Of course, I definitely don't recommend it, since it involves removing the fingernail and digging into the flesh to find the lesion. The recovery time is much longer than the internal and external treatment I mentioned. The key is whether the lesion can be found and cleaned up properly, which is also a problem."

"Can you do it?" the patient asked in dialect.

She'd rather be stabbed than wait any longer; since Fang Yan said so, she might as well go directly to him.

In fact, Fang Yan had undergone surgery in his past life. After all, he studied both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, so surgery was not a problem for him. This nail bed surgery was not a major operation. Although he had never done it himself, he had seen others do it and could now recall all the details.

But that was all in my past life; I've never done it in this life.

Although traditional Chinese medicine also has surgical procedures, he really couldn't guarantee the success rate if he were to perform them on Fang Yan.

Because the system has not yet been enhanced with traditional Chinese medicine surgical techniques.

"Didn't the 'Orthodox Manual of Surgery' mention a method for performing surgery? Can it be done?" Li Zhengji asked Fang Yan.

He said in dialect:

"The method is recorded in the book, but I have no experience with it."

"Moreover, those surgical instruments are definitely not available now, so we can only use Western medicine tools if we want to do it."

The old man standing nearby offered a suggestion:

"How about we find a Western doctor to help with this?"

Li Zhengji scratched his head:

"Let Western doctors use Western medical instruments to perform surgery according to the standards of traditional Chinese medicine? I don't think anyone would do that, would they?"

He said in dialect:

"They definitely won't do it. Those machines couldn't even see the lesions. According to their procedures, they would never recommend surgery."

“That makes sense…” everyone suddenly realized.

Western medicine doctors cannot perform surgery based on lesions discovered by traditional Chinese medicine. Although we talk about the integration of Chinese and Western medicine every day, it is always the case that Western medicine takes the lead and Chinese medicine plays a supporting role. If it were the case that Chinese medicine took the lead and Western medicine played a supporting role, you would see how powerful they are.

At this moment, Li Zhengji thought for a moment and then suggested to the patient:
"Okay, let's try external treatment first. If the pain is significantly reduced, we won't do surgery. If not, we'll find you a specialist in traditional Chinese medicine surgery."

"Don't worry, I know an expert in this field."

Fang Yan looked at Li Zhengji, not knowing who he was talking about.

Are they available in Beijing?

Fang Yan thought for a moment, and the only person he could remember wasn't in the capital.

Among the experts in traditional Chinese medicine surgery, the only one he could think of was Shang Dejun.

This is a senior figure who was selected in September 1956 to participate in the first batch of Western medicine students to learn traditional Chinese medicine in the country. He graduated with the highest score and directly gave up Western medicine to become a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. He then worked at Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and was hired as the first postgraduate tutor of traditional Chinese medicine surgery in 1979.

He was one of the few successful cases in the movement of learning Chinese medicine from Western medicine that Fang Yaozhong and his group initiated. If you want to find him, you can definitely do so; you can contact him through Lao Fang.

But they're in Shandong...

Who is Li Zhengji referring to?
Fang Yan has read a lot of books, but not many teachers. Li Zhengji is the opposite; he hasn't read as many books as Fang Yan, but he has a whole bunch of teachers. In terms of connections, Fang Yan is slightly weaker than him.

He was thinking that maybe this time he could introduce this expert to the techniques of traditional Chinese medicine surgery.

PS: The basic chapter of 6000 words has been updated.

There will be an extra chapter later.

(End of this chapter)