Perhaps Du Heng’s words about letting her take care of the child had touched her heart, and she was no longer pessimistic.
As for Du Heng, he was able to continue the examination.
Upon checking her lower limbs, Du Heng noted warmth to the touch, and the swelling had significantly reduced; the shin bones were now visible. Combined with a pulse rate that had slowed to approximately 80 beats per minute, it indicated that the danger of stubborn heart failure and respiratory failure had been averted.
Sweating indicates the exterior is open, allowing for the dissemination of lung qi, the discharge of concealed cold, and the distribution of true Yang.
"Auntie, how was your al?"
"It was okay. I could eat about half a bowl. It’s just that I sweat a lot while eating."
"That’s normal. The dicine you’re drinking is ant to induce sweating. It would be abnormal if you didn’t sweat. Is there a lot of phlegm?"
"Plenty, and there are streaks of blood in it."
"Don’t worry, that’s all normal."
With the surface qi unblocked and construction and defense harmonized, eating will not be a problem.
Expectorating phlegm signifies the recovery of the body’s righteous qi, creating an opportunity for the damp phlegm and dead blood lodged in the lung collaterals to be expelled.
Li Qiuhua’s eldest son continued, "Doctor Du, my mother keeps complaining about chest pain. When the pain gets severe, her entire back hurts too, and she experiences extre chest tightness. What’s going on?"
Du Heng’s brow twitched. "Does it hurt all the ti?"
"No, she had pain once last night, once this morning, and then again this afternoon after drinking the dicine at noon, after you all left."
"Why didn’t you tell at the ti?"
"The pain only lasted a short while, so I didn’t want to bother you."
Du Heng felt a twinge of annoyance.
Li Qiuhua has phlegm, so it’s a broken phlegm nest. But she also has pain. Considering the timing of this pain, it must be that the dead blood stagnation is difficult to resolve; where there’s blockage, there’s pain.
Du Heng crossed his arms and frowned, deep in thought for a long ti, continuously arranging and combining suitable prescriptions and dicine Ingredients in his mind.
"You two, co down with . I’ll write a prescription. There are so dicine Ingredients in it that you’ll have to find yourselves."
"Don’t you have them here at the Health Clinic?"
"No." Du Heng pursed his lips. This dicine is a bit special. "Co downstairs first; we’ll talk in my office."
In the office, Du Heng swiftly wrote three prescriptions and showed them to the brothers. "These are the prescriptions we’ll need. So of the ingredients will be tricky for you to get, so are quite expensive, and they’re used in large quantities. Take a look and see if this is manageable for you."
The two brothers looked them over. They recognized many of the characters but had no idea what the items were.
They pushed the prescriptions towards Du Heng. "Doctor Du, we agree. Please go ahead with the treatnt; don’t worry about us."
"That’s good. We have most of what’s needed here. What we don’t have can be found at other hospitals. It’s just this whole placenta that you’ll have to find yourselves."
"Whole placenta? Is that a placenta?" The two brothers were a bit confused. What is this? Is it different from a regular placenta?
"Yes, this ingredient is also called placenta hominis."
"What is it used for?" They knew traditional Chinese dicine used strange ingredients, but eating a placenta wasn’t sothing a normal person would do.
Du Heng organized his thoughts before explaining, "Placenta hominis is sweet and salty, and warm in nature. It is associated with the lung, liver, and kidney ridians and has the effects of enriching essence, nourishing blood, and benefiting qi. Your mother’s illness is in her lungs, with dead blood stagnation. It’s necessary to enrich her essence and nourish her blood to expel the congealed blood."
The two brothers nodded, looking as though they partly understood.
"Doctor Du, where should we go to find it?"
"Go to the Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, to the Obstetrics and Gynecology Departnt. Buy it directly from a woman in childbirth. Explain clearly what you need it for; otherwise, they might not sell it to you."
The two brothers nodded again, but their eyes showed so confusion. Do we really have to buy this from a woman who just gave birth?
It was hard to say if the two brothers were lucky or just willing to spend money. Early the next morning, they were standing at Du Heng’s door, holding a black plastic bag.
"You found it so quickly?" Du Heng glanced at the plastic bag in the eldest son’s hand.
To be honest, although Du Heng had prescribed it, this was the first ti he was seeing this item himself, and he felt a bit curious.
"We went straight to the Provincial Won and Children’s Hospital; there are many births there. But we weren’t the only ones looking. Several other people were also waiting to buy placentas," the younger brother, who was more talkative and outgoing than the elder, explained.
"Many people wouldn’t sell, or they’d already given them to the hospital for disposal. It was very hard to find. We finally found soone willing to sell, but then a couple of others started bidding up the price. It was infuriating!"
Du Heng’s eyes kept darting to the bag as he asked, "How much did you pay for it?"
"I had originally agreed on 800 yuan, but two blockheads interfered, and we ended up buying it for 3,200 yuan."
That was a bit steep.
The eldest son handed the plastic bag to Du Heng, who then passed it to Wu Buwei, who had just walked over.
Wu Buwei, unaware of its contents, took it and asked, "Senior Brother, what is this?" He thought the two brothers were bringing Doctor Du a gift.
"Placenta Hominis."
"Placenta Hominis?" Wu Buwei’s hand trembled, and the bag dropped to the floor.
Wu Buwei quickly picked up the bag and said awkwardly, "My hand slipped; I didn’t have a firm grip."
Du Heng wanted to look, but he also felt a bit squeamish. He thought for a mont and then said to Wu Buwei, "Take this and process it. We’ll need it when we prepare the decoction later."
"Process it? Is it fresh?" Wu Buwei’s Adam’s apple bobbed violently.
"What, were you thinking of stir-frying it or steaming it?"
"Senior Brother, my mistake. I’ll go now. GAG~~"
Wu Buwei left with the bag. Du Heng was also made queasy by Wu Buwei’s gagging sounds, his own throat tightening.
"Doctor Du, can this thing really be stir-fried?" Li Qiuhua’s younger son asked dumbly.
"GAG~~~" Du Heng couldn’t hold it back anymore.
He was a doctor, and he had prescribed it, but that didn’t an he could stomach the idea of stir-frying or steaming it.
"Don’t even think about it. If eaten alone, regardless of the cooking thod, it’s no different from a piece of at. To be effective, it must be combined with other dicine Ingredients. If eating it alone were effective, you’d need to consu about five kilograms at once for any result."
"GULP..." The elder brother couldn’t stand it anymore. Seeing his younger brother still wanted to ask, he quickly pulled him back.
"Alright, you two can go back now. I’ll bring the dicine up later."
Only after the two had walked away did Du Heng manage to catch his breath.
He felt he should take a mont and do sothing else. Otherwise, if he went to prepare the dicine right away, he might not be able to suppress his nausea.
It’s strange, it’s already past clock-in ti, but Old Song still isn’t here. This is very out of character for the usually punctual Old Song.
And Ma Zichen, that young fellow, hasn’t co to work either.
Just then, Wang Zhenzhen ca over, holding a few sheets of paper.
"What’s up, Sister Zhenzhen?"
"I see you issued another dical order last night?"
"Yeah, what’s wrong?"
Wang Zhenzhen waved the papers in her hand. "Nothing much, it’s just that Li Qiuhua has an outstanding balance."
Du Heng had never asked about this. He took the bill and glanced at it, surprised to see that with last night’s dication, the total cost had reached 40,000 yuan.
Fees for treatnt, oxygen, the bed, and nursing were only a small portion; most of the cost was for the dicine Ingredients. Du Heng estimated that musk likely accounted for almost half of that.
However, there was no other choice. After all, it was a life-or-death situation, not just for recuperation. Only natural musk would do.
"Stop looking at it. Give the bill to the family and have them settle the paynt soon."
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