A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 294

Chapter 56: The Truth (4)

“Yes, Doctor. I’ll check the chart and head over right away.”

After finishing the call with the ward nurse, Jun-hoo sat down at his desk.

He reviewed the chart of the patient who had just been transferred from the Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine ward to the Neurosurgery ward.

Cha Joo-won.

Age 27.

The moment Jun-hoo confirmed the patient’s diagnosis, his eyes widened.

It was the first time he had encountered a patient with this rare condition.

And a question arose simultaneously.

Can this disease be cured with surgery?

Feeling a sense of unease, he checked and found that Professor Hong Hoon-shik was in charge. Hoon-shik was truly an unpredictable person.

With heavy steps, Jun-hoo went to Joo-won’s room.

Joo-won’s bed was by the window.

Next to him was a guardian who appeared to be his mother, and Joo-won was staring out the window with a sullen expression.

Half of Joo-won’s face was brightly illuminated by the sunlight streaming in from outside.

Joo-won had a neat buzz cut and was extremely thin. His arms and legs were as slender as chopsticks.

“Hello. I’m Seo Jun-hoo, Joo-won’s attending physician.”

“Hello, Doctor. I’m Joo-won’s mother.”

The guardian responded with a smile to Jun-hoo’s greeting. On the other hand, Joo-won simply stared blankly at Jun-hoo with a listless expression.

His eyes lacked vitality.

“Joo-won, you should greet the doctor properly.”

At his mother’s urging, Joo-won nodded perfunctorily.

“Joo-won, it must be very difficult for you.”

“Is that even a question? No one knows how much I’m suffering. Do you think I’m faking it, Doctor?”

Joo-won asked accusingly.

Joo-won’s diagnosis was CRPS.

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, which mainly occurs after trauma, is known to be a disease of unknown cause and without a cure.

In Joo-won’s case.

He developed CRPS after falling down a hillside while serving as a staff sergeant in the military.

“I never thought that at all. Has anyone accused you of faking your illness, Joo-won?”

“I heard it so much in the military that it’s practically ingrained in my ears, and I’ve heard it at several university hospitals as well.”

“Those people were careless and insensitive. I apologize on their behalf.”

Jun-hoo took Joo-won’s side.

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome had no clearly defined diagnostic criteria.

The conclusions differed from hospital to hospital and from doctor to doctor.

So, as Joo-won experienced, he was sometimes subjected to the terrible misunderstanding that he was faking his illness.

“I heard that surgery in the neurosurgery department can improve my condition. What kind of surgery will I be getting?”

“You’ll be undergoing a procedure called a sympathetic nerve block. In short, it blocks the nerve pathways that transmit pain signals,” Jun-hoo explained.

“Is it effective?”

Jun-hoo didn’t want to give Joo-won false hope, so he revealed the truth.

“It may be effective… or it may not be.”

“What kind of bullsh*t is that?”

Joo-won’s brow furrowed.

Wrinkles formed on his forehead.

“It means that some patients have seen positive results, and some haven’t. Unfortunately, it varies depending on the patient’s individual case.”

“Ha… another round of torturous hope.”

Joo-won sighed and lowered his head.

Jun-hoo’s heart ached at Joo-won’s despondent appearance.

If it were a common disease, it might be different.

But with an incurable disease of unknown cause like CRPS, there was little Jun-hoo could do.

Perhaps that’s why.

The feeling of helplessness, which Jun-hoo had almost forgotten and wanted to avoid the most, slowly began to resurface.

“If the surgery isn’t effective, I just won’t get it. I don’t want to be in more pain.”

“Joo-won, don’t talk like that. You can overcome this.”

“No! I won’t! I can’t! How much more do I have to endure? Just send me to Switzerland [a reference to assisted suicide, which is legal in Switzerland].”

Joo-won retorted, as if crying out.

“Are you going to say things that break your mother’s heart again? How is your mother supposed to live without you?”

“My mom would be better off without me…”

“Just a moment. Please calm down and don’t argue in front of me.”

Jun-hoo intervened in the conversation.

Both of them were emotionally charged to a dangerous degree.

If the situation were left unchecked…

They would only inflict deeper wounds on each other’s hearts with their words.

Fortunately, thanks to Jun-hoo’s timely intervention, the mother and son’s conflict was diffused just before it escalated.

“Madam, would you like to go to the restroom for a moment?”

Jun-hoo suggested in a gentle voice.

The guardian, with tears welling up in her eyes, nodded and left the room.

Jun-hoo thought that when one person is sick,

their family also suffers.

“Joo-won.”

“…”

“Joo-won?”

Jun-hoo, who was about to talk to Joo-won, noticed something strange.

Joo-won’s neck had become damp with sweat. His face was contorted in pain, and he was clutching his left thigh with both hands.

“Ughhh! Doctor. It hurts so much. My leg feels like it’s on fire. Like it’s being cut with a knife.”

Joo-won grimaced and complained of pain.

A CRPS flare-up had begun.

Although it varied from patient to patient, Joo-won seemed to suffer from pain regardless of the time.

“Please give me some painkillers… the strong stuff. Please…”

“I can’t give you any more painkillers right now.”

Jun-hoo sympathized with Joo-won’s situation but drew a line.

He had already confirmed through the chart that the Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine department had already administered the maximum daily allowable dose of narcotic painkillers.

If narcotic painkillers were continuously added, Joo-won would become addicted to them.

“Ughhh. It hurts! I feel like I’m going to die! Why are university hospital doctors so incompetent?”

Jun-hoo bit his lip as he looked at the screaming Joo-won.

Jun-hoo had also writhed in pain like Joo-won.

While performing a mission for the Murim Alliance [a fictional martial arts alliance], he had been taken hostage by the Demonic Cult [a fictional evil organization] and subjected to all sorts of hardships and torture.

At that time, Jun-hoo lived with terrible screams on his lips.

He begged the Demonic Cult members to just kill him. It was then that he learned that there was pain deeper than death.

Should he close his eyes and administer another dose of narcotic painkillers for the patient’s sake?

Or should he ignore the patient’s suffering?

After seriously considering it, Jun-hoo chose a third path.

“Wait, hold on a second.”

Jun-hoo lifted the hem of Joo-won’s patient gown and performed pain-relieving acupressure.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

He completely sealed off with internal energy [a concept in martial arts novels referring to inner power] the meridians [pathways in the body through which energy flows] from the ankle to the thigh.

He blocked the meridians with condensed internal energy like a ring.

That wasn’t all.

He temporarily blocked the areas where the fibular, tibial, and sciatic nerves passed with internal energy.

“What… what is this? It feels more bearable than before.”

Joo-won tilted his head and stared at Jun-hoo.

If the initial pain level was 10, the pain level had decreased to about 6 after Jun-hoo’s touch.

It was at least bearable.

“Ughhh.”

But the relief from the reduced pain was only temporary.

The entire left leg became painful again, as if mice were gnawing at it.

Joo-won clenched his teeth and fists tightly.

Another unwinnable battle had begun.

But right then.

“Joo-won, let’s get some sleep.”

Jun-hoo supported Joo-won’s head with one hand and struck Joo-won’s neck with the other in a knife-hand strike.

Thwack!

Slowly.

Joo-won’s eyelids closed.

The arms and legs that had been full of tension went limp.

Jun-hoo supported Joo-won’s neck with a pillow and rubbed his forehead with his hand.

He had temporarily blocked the meridians and nerves with internal energy.

But the effect was unexpectedly minimal.

It was clear that using pain-relieving acupressure to deal with CRPS was like hitting a rock with an egg.

Jun-hoo looked down at the sleeping Joo-won and was lost in thought for a long time.

In the Murim world, Jun-hoo was able to escape the Demonic Cult’s torture with the help of the Murim Alliance warriors.

But Joo-won was not so fortunate.

Unless CRPS was completely cured.

He would have to be trapped in pain like torture, like a prison, for the rest of his life.

In other words, Joo-won’s situation was much harsher than Jun-hoo’s in the Murim world.

At this rate, the nerve block won’t be very effective either.

If that happens, Joo-won will be disappointed again.

Is there another effective way to help him?

Jun-hoo stroked his chin and pondered over and over again.

He desperately tried to escape the wave of helplessness that was trying to engulf him.

“Doctor. Is Joo-won asleep?”

The guardian, who had returned to the bedside, asked with red eyes and a hoarse voice.

She seemed to have been crying her eyes out in the restroom.

Jun-hoo’s heart ached doubly because he understood Joo-won’s feelings and his mother’s feelings.

“He must have been very tired.”

“I’m sorry. He wasn’t usually such a sensitive child, but his personality changed completely after the injury.”

“It’s okay. It’s hard for sick people to consider those around them. That’s why there are doctors to take care of sick people.”

“You speak so kindly, Doctor.”

“I’m still young, but I’ve been through a lot. I’ll come back later. If you have any discomfort, please contact the nurse.”

“Yes, Doctor. Thank you for your hard work.”

As he left the room, Jun-hoo steeled his resolve.

If modern medicine cannot completely cure CRPS, then the last resort is still martial arts.

* * *

“Uhhhmmm.”

Joo-won groaned and lifted his eyelids.

He remembered being attacked by a CRPS flare-up and suffering, and then the pain subsiding after Jun-hoo’s touch.

But he couldn’t remember anything after that.

It was as if it had been erased with an eraser.

It was very strange…

That the pain suddenly decreased, and that he fainted in the midst of the pain.

As Joo-won savored the unprecedented experience, he leaned back against the bedrest. He looked down at his left leg.

The damn leg was fine again now.

It was because of situations like this that Joo-won was treated as a malingerer or mentally ill patient by his military superiors and medical officers.

“Is our Joo-won awake?”

His mother, who had been nodding off like a sleepy chicken, noticed that Joo-won was awake and spoke to him.

“Mom, I’m sorry about earlier.”

“It’s okay, Mom is fine. And the attending physician said so too. That sick people can’t always think about those around them.”

“But I shouldn’t have said those things to Mom. Mom has been working so hard because of me.”

Joo-won said, avoiding his mother’s gaze.

Joo-won’s father had passed away early from lung cancer.

At that time, Joo-won was only in the fifth grade of elementary school.

His mother, who had suddenly become a widow, had done everything to raise Joo-won on her own.

She delivered newspapers in the morning and worked at a restaurant from the afternoon until late at night.

Even so, she never showed any signs of hardship.

Joo-won also worked hard, sweating and striving to become a son who was not a disappointment to his mother.

He always led a busy life, juggling studying and part-time jobs.

At least until the devilish CRPS came along.

The mother and son’s life was fairly harmonious and happy.

“I’ll get the surgery. I’ll try anything that helps with treatment.”

“That’s great. That’s great, son. Mom is praying hard, so there will definitely be good results.”

His mother said, fiddling with the cross she was wearing around her neck.

His mother had become religious after Joo-won was hospitalized.

Mom… but there is no God.

If there was a God, there’s no way I’d be living so miserably like this, right? And there’s no reason for Mom to suffer along with me.

So, God is either gone or doesn’t exist.

If there is a God, that God must be a mean, nasty bastard.

Joo-won didn’t believe in God, though he felt sorry for his mother.