"Dr. Liu, are the results in?" the patient asked.
"Wait a minute, we haven’t finished scanning the surrounding area yet," Liu Banxia said.
"Ah... you’re all so quiet, I can’t help but feel sothing’s wrong. I wasn’t shy about letting you examine , so you must tell the truth," the patient said.
"Rest assured, we will definitely tell you the truth," Liu Banxia replied.
"However, because I’m not a urologist, I need to have soone co for a consultation regarding your condition. Afterward, we’ll decide what to do next."
"Doctor Li, does... does that an one has to be removed? It can’t be that the whole thing has to go, right?" Anxiety crept into the patient’s voice.
"Alright, the examination is over. Let’s go back to the ward to talk. There are other patients waiting to be examined here," Liu Banxia said.
The patient wiped off the couplant, his expression tense.
The less Liu Banxia said, the more the patient worried it was sothing serious.
"Dr. Liu, please just tell . When the doctor you called earlier cos, he’ll have to tell anyway, right?" the patient said after they returned to the ward.
"According to the current color Doppler ultrasound results, you have a testicular non-seminoma. Moreover, when we perford the ultrasound, we also examined the surrounding lymph nodes and saw no signs of enlargent," Liu Banxia said.
"This is good news for us; the chance of the tumor spreading is very low. Just as you said, removing one will be enough, and it won’t affect your fertility."
"This tumor is likely the cause of your nightmares and sleepwalking. It has a common na: teratoma. It’s congenital, but it hadn’t developed before, which is why you didn’t show any abnormalities."
"There should be brain tissue in this teratoma, and your immune system has identified it as an enemy. Then, when your immune system also targets your brain and attacks it, you experience nightmares and sleepwalking."
"The reason the symptoms manifest at night might be because these are early signs of its developnt. It’s good that you didn’t just wait at ho; you’ve bought yourself precious ti for treatnt."
"Remove it. It has to be removed," the patient nodded and said seriously.
The interns were all astonished. This was about removing a testicle; how could he agree so readily, without a second thought? He had made this decision even before the consulting doctor arrived.
Liu Banxia patted his shoulder. "I’ll wait with you. If possible, we’ll do the surgery today. Li Hao, help him with the blood draw for pre-operative preparation."
"This is my first ti visiting your ergency center. Where is the report?"
At this mont, Wu Wenlin, the associate director of the urology departnt, walked in from outside.
"Associate Director Wu, they’re all here. Please take a look," Liu Banxia quickly handed over the reports.
"The patient was admitted due to nightmares and sleepwalking. We conducted a full round of examinations before we finally thought to check this. Yesterday’s blood tests and blood chemistry were all normal."
Wu Wenlin nodded and began to examine them carefully.
"Have you spoken to the patient?" Wu Wenlin asked after a mont.
"He told . Remove it. I agree to the removal," the patient said hurriedly.
Wu Wenlin looked at him in surprise. "Of all the patients I’ve encountered, you’re the first to be this proactive."
The patient shook his head with a bitter smile. "I trust Dr. Liu. I’ve seen several doctors, and they all just told to go ho and sleep. Remove it. Otherwise, I can’t go on living like this."
"Dr. Liu also said that even after removing one, I can still have children. Although having only one left might make it harder to find a partner in the future, at least I need to survive first."
"I can’t sleep every day, just living in constant fear. I feel like I’ll go mad if this goes on for a few more days. This is no way to live; it’s too difficult."
Wu Wenlin nodded. "Alright, since the examinations are complete, let’s schedule the surgery for one o’clock this afternoon. Will he stay here, or should we take him back to our departnt?"
"Here, right here! I only trust Dr. Liu!"
Before Liu Banxia could speak, the patient interjected hastily.
"Can he stay here with us?" Liu Banxia asked.
Wu Wenlin thought for a mont and nodded. "Normally, it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s a fairly standard surgical procedure, not much different from others. I’ll co over to check on him tomorrow morning and the morning after."
"Thank you so much, Associate Director Wu. This will also give our nurses here so valuable experience," Liu Banxia said quickly.
"I’ll speak to the nurses later and send a couple of them to your departnt to learn the specifics from you. This will also help us build experience for our future urology departnt. There’s always a lot to learn about procedures we don’t perform often."
"Alright, then you can prepare the operating room. I’ll be there at 1:00 PM," Wu Wenlin said with a smile and a nod.
"Huang Bo, you’ll be in charge of coordinating with Dr. Wu," Liu Banxia said.
"Dr. Wu, I need to take so leave this afternoon. Huang Bo is very familiar with the operating room and its procedures. If you need anything, just ask for him."
"In that case, I’ll send soone over shortly to explain the surgical procedure and coordinate with young Huang as well," Wu Wenlin said, then turned to the patient.
"Although the pathology report will take a few days, based on my experience, our intervention has been very tily; no tastasis has occurred. However, to be safe, so nearby lymph nodes will also need to be cleared out."
"Thank you, Doctor. Please, do whatever is necessary. What else do I need to prepare now?" the patient asked quickly.
Wu Wenlin chuckled. "Dr. Liu will arrange the necessary pre-operative examinations for you shortly. We’ll see each other this afternoon. Tonight, you’ll be able to sleep soundly."
Liu Banxia personally saw Wu Wenlin out. Even though Liu Banxia casually called him ’Dr. Wu’, Wu Wenlin was a legitimate associate director. It was just that using his full title, ’Associate Director Wu’, was a bit of a mouthful, so ’Dr. Wu’ was simpler.
"You seem much more relaxed now, which is good. Try to maintain this positive state. Do you need to contact your family?" Liu Banxia asked after returning to the ward.
"I’ll call my family in a bit, but they probably won’t be able to make it this afternoon. It’s alright, though; the surgery has to be done," the patient said.
"Huang Bo, you’ll help coordinate things. I’ll also arrange for so nurses to observe and learn the post-operative care procedures," Liu Banxia nodded.
My mood is pretty good now too. Losing a testicle is a significant loss, of course. But considering the patient’s condition, this is truly a blessing in disguise.
If he’d waited another ten days or even half a month, the cancer might have tastasized.
It’s because teratoma-type testicular cancers are usually malignant, and his symptoms had progressed so quickly.
"Let’s summarize this case. Does anyone have anything to say?" Liu Banxia asked after returning to the ground floor lobby.
"Teacher Liu, I believe our diagnostic process wasn’t flawed. Although there was so delay, it still t the diagnostic criteria," Li Hao said after so thought.
Liu Banxia nodded. "Actually, I was hoping you would point out my mistakes. When suspecting a teratoma, I shouldn’t have ordered a CT scan directly. I should have started with an ultrasound."
"In that respect, I deviated from protocol sowhat; examinations should proceed from the basic to the more complex. I was too certain at the ti that it was a sacrococcygeal teratoma."
"But I won’t make this mistake again. We’ve now encountered teratomas in both female and male patients. In the future, if we suspect it, we can order the tests directly."
"However, I must also remind you that teratomas have a higher chance of occurring in the ovaries and testicles. They can still appear in other parts of the body. We were just lucky this ti."
"I was sowhat guilty of making assumptions this ti. Although the diagnostic direction was correct, the final diagnosis was wrong. When one makes a mistake, one has to accept the penalty."
Hearing this, the interns instantly beca animated. However, their excitent was laced with a hopeful thrill.
A penalty? That sounds great! Chicken drumsticks or pig trotters, it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s food! Even though we get chicken drumsticks often, everyone’s still growing; more from Teacher Liu would always be welco.
"Starting tomorrow, you’ll take turns. Each of you will buy a chicken drumstick for lunch every day," Liu Banxia said with a straight face.
The interns were dumbfounded. Why do *we* have to buy them?
"Teacher Liu, why are we being penalized?" Xu Yino asked, her face falling.
"Because throughout the entire diagnostic process, none of you reminded ," Liu Banxia said.
"Although you’re interns, you’re all quite capable now. You are perfectly capable of independently diagnosing the patient’s condition, but you didn’t think carefully enough, and that allowed to make this mistake."
"Hey, don’t go yet! I’m not finished. Honestly, you have no discipline! Attend to the patients properly. I’ll be watching you." As he spoke, Liu Banxia pointed to his own eyes.
"Looks like you’re getting your marriage registration soon, and you’re in an exceptionally good mood, huh?" Shi Lei remarked with a smile.
"Hehe, I’m quite happy, I suppose. After all, I’m officially a family man now," Liu Banxia said, grinning.
"Why didn’t you buy a couple more outfits yesterday? Qiaoqiao was pretty upset with you. Though you look a bit more presentable now, so it’s passable."
"My goodness, Qiaoqiao’s taste... Could the clothes she picks possibly be cheap? The money I worked so hard to save was nearly all gone!" Shi Lei said with a wry smile.
"Ah, money isn’t everything. I’ll assign more surgeries to you this month; just make sure to take the interns. It’s best if they all get so hands-on practice to gain more experience," Liu Banxia said.
"Easy for you to say. Who has as much energy as you do?" Shi Lei retorted.
"Things are picking up. After the New Year, the number of patients has slowly increased. We just had a myocardial infarction case; they’ve already been taken to the OR. He got into an argunt with soone while buying breakfast this morning. People seem to have such short fuses these days."
"It’s really not worth it. Breakfast only costs a little money," Liu Banxia sighed.
Anger really does harm the body. This is just another example.
Actually, his own temper used to be quite short, but it had llowed considerably with experience.
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