"Other than the headaches, confusion, and sleepiness, do you have any other symptoms?" Liu Banxia continued to ask.
The girl shook her head. "No, just these three have been tornting . I thought it was just a cold at first, but it’s been quite a few days now."
"Alright, let’s take your blood pressure first, and then get a blood test done," Liu Banxia nodded.
There was no other way to treat such symptoms. The only option was to conduct a careful examination, step by step.
The girl’s blood pressure was indeed sowhat high, which could be an external manifestation of her condition. However, it wasn’t ridiculously high. After all, she had just been berated by her mother, and it was understandable that her blood pressure might spike due to emotional upset.
"Doctor, how is it?" The girl’s mother approached as soon as the blood sample collection was over.
"Her blood pressure is a bit high. We’re going to get her blood tested now to see what’s going on," Liu Banxia responded.
"See, I told you! This is what happens when you consu so many snacks and junk food. All that fried food, what’s so good about it? Look at yourself, you have high blood pressure now," the patient’s mother started criticizing again.
"I only had it a few tis! Typically, I’m drinking the soup you make all the ti. My mouth has no flavor from it," the girl retorted.
"So that justifies your consumption of all that junk food? There’s plenty of good food at ho that you don’t eat. Have you started drinking alcohol too?" the mother retorted back.
The girl mumbled sothing incoherent, not backing down.
However, after she finished speaking, both Liu Banxia and her mother were taken aback.
"What were you trying to say just now?" Liu Banxia asked anxiously.
"I... I said I want to go ho," the girl replied.
"Doctor, what’s going on?" The girl’s mother beca even more anxious.
Her daughter’s words earlier had sounded like a foreign language, but they definitely weren’t. They were also nothing close to "I want to go ho."
"Miao Rui, take this patient for an urgent brain CT scan," Liu Banxia ordered.
"Doctor... Doctor, please say sothing." The girl’s mother grabbed Liu Banxia’s arm.
"Your daughter just exhibited a language impairnt. Combining that with her headache, confusion, sleepiness, and high blood pressure, it might indicate a cerebral issue," Liu Banxia replied patiently.
Miao Rui rushed in at that mont and, along with a nurse, pushed the gurney towards the CT room. The patient’s condition was still unclear; it could be a stroke, so they didn’t dare let her walk on her own.
"Oh my god! I don’t know if the girl was just upset by her mother’s scolding, but now my own head is throbbing," Liu Banxia muttered, massaging his eyebrows.
"Every mother is different. This one is clearly a stark contrast to the mother of our Clostridium difficile patient from earlier today," comnted Shi Lei.
"Yeah, I understand a mother’s concern for her child, but so of her words can be too harsh and deeply upsetting for the child," Liu Banxia responded.
At this ti, Wang Chao stepped out of the elevator, looking utterly fatigued.
"Go grab sothing to eat first and then take a good rest. Dr. Shi and I will keep an eye on things here," Liu Banxia suggested.
"Do we have a plan for the follow-up treatnt?" Wang Chao asked.
Liu Banxia shook his head. "We can only follow the original plan, mainly focusing on control and adjustnt. Clostridium difficile is too aggressive. It’s going to be tough in the later stages."
Wang Chao nodded but didn’t say anything else.
He was disheartened. Liu Banxia’s aning was clear: basically, they had to wait. Wait for what? The next relapse, of course. When that happened, there would be pretty much nothing they could do.
Liu Banxia patted his shoulder. This was his patient, yet Wang Chao had sohow gotten involved too.
"I’ll go eat first. Call if anything cos up," said Wang Chao before heading off to eat with Huang Bo and Qing Kewa.
"Boss, do you think I should ntion the fecal microbiota transplant plan to the patient’s parents?" Liu Banxia asked hesitantly.
"I think they’re quite rational. If we bring it up now, they will at least be ntally prepared. By the ti the third relapse occurs, they might be able to make a quicker decision."
"Alright, you can communicate this to them. Be objective, though; don’t let the patient’s parents think that this will definitely work," Shi Lei cautioned.
"Don’t worry, I hold myself and my interns to very high standards when it cos to this," Liu Banxia assured him.
And he wasn’t just paying lip service; he genuinely cared a great deal about this matter.
Upon reaching the ward on the second floor, he found the young man’s parents sitting dejectedly by the bed.
"Dr. Liu." The patient’s father stood up as Liu Banxia entered the room.
Liu Banxia nodded. "His condition aligns with our predictions, aning he will likely need to be continually on an IV drip. However, while reviewing so data, we did co across an experintal treatnt."
"Don’t get excited yet. This experintal treatnt is still in the experintal stage. There have been successful cases, but far more failures."
"The treatnt involves a healthy fecal transplant, hoping that the transplanted healthy feces can help adjust the balance of the gut microbiota and restore equilibrium."
"There are more risks and uncertainties involved because feces contain nurous types of bacteria. If even one type of harmful bacteria takes hold, it could be life-threatening."
"The reason I’m telling you about this experintal therapy now is so you have ample ti to consider it. During this period, you can also search for related information online," Liu Banxia explained.
"Dr. Liu, do you an we should keep it in mind for future use?" asked the patient’s father.
Liu Banxia nodded. "That’s more or less it. This experintal therapy can only be considered a last resort, akin to gambling with his life."
"Alright, I need to return downstairs now; the CT scan results for another patient should be out soon. Actually, I probably shouldn’t have told you this now. However, it’s better for you to be able to think about this rationally than to panic when you’re inford suddenly later on."
"Thank you, Dr. Liu. We’ll look into it," said the patient’s father gratefully.
After leaving the ward, Liu Banxia didn’t feel much lighter, primarily because of the patient’s father’s gratitude. He felt he hadn’t really done much; after all, they could have found this experintal therapy with a simple online search.
He wasn’t even sure if he was doing the right thing, but perhaps he had at least given the patient’s family so hope.
After returning downstairs and waiting a little longer, the young girl’s CT results ca out. It wasn’t a stroke, but hydrocephalus.
Ding! Consultation complete.
Gained 100 experience points, Diagnostics skill proficiency 50 points.
"Call a doctor from Neurosurgery for a consultation," Liu Banxia said.
"Doctor, is it very serious?" asked the patient’s mother.
"Please don’t worry yet. I’ve already invited a neurosurgeon to co and see how to proceed," Liu Banxia said.
The patient’s mother opened her mouth but said nothing.
"President Liu, hydrocephalus?" asked Zhang Xiao, who had rushed over.
"You take a look at the scan first." Liu Banxia turned the monitor towards him.
Zhang Xiao glanced at it. "It’s already pressing on the speech center. We’ll need to do a craniotomy for drainage. dication likely won’t be very effective and could even pose a danger to the patient."
"Book an operating room. We can administer so mannitol temporarily to control the intracranial pressure and prevent brain herniation. Arrange the preoperative examinations, will you?"
Liu Banxia nodded. "Alright, you go and get ready. We’ll arrange the rest here."
"Doctor, is a craniotomy very dangerous? Is there any way to avoid it?" asked the girl’s mother.
"You heard him just now. The edema is quite severe, and what we need to do now is drain the fluid from the brain," Liu Banxia said.
"Otherwise, when the accumulated fluid reaches a certain volu, it will compress the brain. To put it bluntly, it will squeeze the brain out of shape. Do you understand that?"
The girl’s mother nodded.
"There will definitely be risks with the surgery. All surgeries have risks, let alone brain surgery. Shortly, I will have soone explain all the potential risks to you in detail, and we will give you ti to consider."
"However, this ti won’t be very long. It’s already pressing on the speech center. Even if a brain herniation doesn’t occur, it could still cause permanent damage to the speech center."
He considered himself a fairly eloquent person, but he was outmatched by this girl’s mother. Besides, explaining surgical risks was sothing the interns could handle. This would be a good high-difficulty communication test for them. If they could handle her, they could probably handle most patients’ families.
"All taken care of?" asked Shi Lei, who had just finished his consultation with a patient.
Liu Banxia stretched lazily. "That girl from earlier has cerebral edema and has been transferred to Neurosurgery. I also spoke with the young man’s parents. They expressed great gratitude to ."
"But the more polite they are, the more uneasy I feel. I think I’ve done my best, but I wasn’t able to help their son at all."
"That’s sothing you have to figure out on your own. No one else can..."
"Dr. Liu, co quickly! This patient has fainted!" Before Shi Lei could finish, Zhou Qian yelled urgently.
Liu Banxia rushed over and saw the girl with hydrocephalus lying on the floor.
"Quick, call Zhang Xiao! Carefully move her onto a gurney and connect her to a monitor!" Liu Banxia ordered while examining the girl’s pupils.
"Doctor, what on earth is going on?" the patient’s mother cried, grabbing Liu Banxia’s arm.
"She’s developed a brain herniation! Please step aside and don’t delay our rescue efforts!" Liu Banxia’s voice also grew louder.
"Brain herniation?" Zhang Xiao arrived at that mont.
"Her right pupil is already dilated! What do we do?" Liu Banxia asked, his expression grave.
"Your hands are steady, and you have good feel. You could try to use a needle to insert it at the edge of the eyeball and aspirate the accumulated fluid from the herniation site. I don’t have the confidence for that, and the departnt chiefs are all in surgery," Zhang Xiao said.
Liu Banxia was startled; he had no idea such an ergency procedure existed.
"Is there no other way?" Liu Banxia asked.
Zhang Xiao shook his head. "At best, she only has a few minutes. We don’t even have ti to get to the operating room. Bring up her CT scan!"
Without further hesitation, Liu Banxia directly exchanged points for a bottle of Potent Neuro-Stabilizing Compound.
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