My daily work as a doctor: My treatment value is increasing.

Chapter 102 Two Schools of Thought

After being subjected to this repeated ordeal several times, Lu Renxin's already fair face became even paler.

His legs went weak, and he sat limply on the toilet, a pained expression on his face. He clutched his churning stomach tightly with both hands, lost in thought:

Why did I have to eat at Wahaha for dinner? Why did I have to be greedy for small gains!

Unfortunately, there's no going back in life, and the technological and grueling work he'd ingested wouldn't be metabolized anytime soon.

He could only toss and turn in bed, running back and forth between the toilet and the bedroom, essentially "taking a physical education class" in the middle of the night. His body was completely drained, and he was on the verge of collapse.

His stomach finally calmed down around 3 a.m., and he finally passed out.

Even so, Lu Renxin did not choose to take medicine. Instead, he forced himself to drink more electrolyte water and eat more bananas the next day. He endured the diarrhea for another day, and his gastrointestinal function gradually recovered before it stopped.

Someone like him is a typical example of someone who stubbornly resists.

Another school of thought is the doubling of the initial dose, which is a special drug administration strategy in medicine.

Normally, oral medications require 3-5 doses to reach a stable and effective therapeutic level in the blood.

"Double the first dose" means taking twice the amount the first time, forcing the drug concentration to reach an effective level from the start, shortening the onset time, and killing the virus or bacteria as quickly as possible.

(Non-medical professionals should not imitate this, and under no circumstances should they double the dosage!)

This faction chooses to double the dosage when taking the medicine for the first time, in order to recover as quickly as possible after getting sick.

For example, Wang Xin and Wu Siyi came to the office as soon as they fell ill, told the doctor they were familiar with what medicine they needed, and took the medicine to relieve their symptoms after they got it.

Building on this, some people have a deep understanding of the combined approach of traditional Chinese and Western medicine and have upgraded it by choosing to first tough it out and then double the initial dose, such as Liu Yichen.

He had been coughing and had a runny nose in the office since the day before yesterday, and he stubbornly refused to take medicine until today when he could no longer bear it and finally accepted Lu Renxin's suggestion.

In addition, Liu Yichen is a staunch advocate of original research drugs.

Lu Renxin, who was standing in front of the payment machine, called him: "Brother Liu, are you done opening it?"

"Alright, alright." Liu Yichen's hoarse, slightly bubbly voice came through the receiver. Although he was trying his best to squeeze the words out of his throat, he still couldn't shake his talkative nature, rambling on and on, "I got some antibiotics, ibuprofen, and expectorants—"

Liu Yichen determined that he had the flu, also known as influenza, which is an acute respiratory infectious disease caused by the influenza virus.

In addition to common cold symptoms such as runny nose and sore throat, high fever, headache and muscle aches may also occur.

For treatment, the first thing to do is drink plenty of water.

Although some people jokingly say they are annoyed when they hear "drink more hot water" when they are sick, drinking more warm water actually helps to metabolize viruses and lower body temperature, and helps to maintain fluid balance.

In addition to drinking water, a light diet is also needed, as well as symptomatic treatments such as antiviral therapy, fever reduction, and expectoration.

The medication he prescribed for himself had these effects.

"Who knew that the hospital was out of original drugs at the beginning of the month! We can only choose generic ones." Lu Renxin could hear the helplessness in his voice through the receiver.

He wasn't being superstitious about imported goods or believing that the grass is always greener on the other side—that's just being a Western-worshipper.

The difference lies in the research and development costs, manufacturing process details, and the amount of accumulated clinical data between original drugs and generic drugs.

After all, the money spent and the costs invested are completely different. Original drugs are the original drugs developed by pharmaceutical companies, and they generally need to undergo ten to fifteen years of screening and rigorous Phase 1 to 3 clinical trials.

The high research and development costs are obvious, and the high selling price is also evident.

Generic drugs, on the other hand, are produced by replicating the core ingredients of the original drug after its patent expires, thus saving huge research and development costs.

However, since we can only refer to the information published by the pharmaceutical companies that conduct research, even if we know the ingredients clearly, the processes and excipients will still be different.

Just like a cooking tutorial, even if someone teaches you step by step how to cook a dish, the final taste may still be different.

In the context of medicine, this translates to differences in efficacy.

However, this doesn't mean that generic drugs are completely useless. They also have their own advantages: they are cheaper and can achieve most of the therapeutic effects.

For patients who need treatment but are short of money, this is a great deal that is both affordable and beneficial.

The choice between original research and generic drugs depends on individual preferences and needs.

However, under current policy requirements, hospitals have reduced their purchases of original drugs and switched to mostly generic drugs.

Anyuan County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital is one of them. It only has the original drug in stock at the beginning of the month, and by the end of the month, or even before the end of the month, there is no stock left.

After hanging up the phone, Lu Renxin quickly went to the payment counter to queue up.

What? Someone said that working in a hospital and seeing a doctor doesn't cost money? How could that be? Of course, you have to pay and wait in line honestly.

After paying, he continued to queue at the pharmacy window. His bag was overflowing with goods. Lu Renxin looked at it from left to right and said, "That's quite a lot."

He carried the bag of medicine back home. There was a distance between the outpatient building and the inpatient building, but there was a shortcut through several departments, including the radiology department.

As Lu Renxin passed by the radiology department, he saw many patients queuing outside to have their X-rays taken.

In the bustling crowd, he spotted two familiar figures at a glance: his uncle Li Aijun and his aunt, who was supporting him with one hand and scrolling through her phone watching short dramas while occasionally chuckling.

Because her voice was so loud, a group of people around her gave her disgusted looks, but she didn't care at all and continued to immerse herself in the short drama.

Compared to a few months ago, Li Aijun's complexion is now sallow, his eyes are sunken, and he looks listless and dejected.

She's lost weight, but her beer belly, which she used to have, hasn't shrunk at all.

"His condition has probably progressed, but I don't know what the doctors in the hepatology department say about it, or what stage his condition has reached."

Lu Renxin secretly made plans in his heart.

He didn't want to have anything to do with those two anymore; if he ran into them, they would definitely argue, which would be a complete waste of his time.

Lu Renxin stopped, intending to turn back and take another route, but before he could do so, Li Aijun saw him. Li Aijun nudged his aunt, who was looking down at her phone.

"What are you doing?" Auntie scolded impatiently, her mood disturbed.

Li Aijun pointed at Lu Renxin's departing figure and said, "Look, isn't that Lu Renxin?"

Aunt rubbed her dry eyes from staring at her phone for too long, then squinted to make sure she could see clearly: "Oh, it really does look like him."

"It's not unusual to run into him here. He mentioned last time that he works at the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital."