This Doctor Is Too Wealthy

After finishing his meal, Du Heng returned to his office.

Looking at the invitation on the table, Du Heng felt a little happier.

After checking the date for the Baby Steps, Du Heng put the invitation away. He could skip other banquets, but this particular Baby Steps was a must-attend.

To put it shamelessly, he felt he deserved a large part of the credit for this child’s existence.

Originally, the first Baby Steps should have been for Xu Pinglin’s child, but both Xu Pinglin’s mother and mother-in-law had agreed not to hold a Baby Steps, opting for a Hundred Days Banquet directly.

Therefore, Yang Wei’s child became the first Baby Steps Du Heng would attend.

Later that afternoon, after work, Du Heng went to see the patient with brucellosis.

After two and a half days of treatment, the patient could get out of bed and walk, no longer gasping for air from simply going to the toilet.

”How has your appetite been these past two days?” Du Heng sat by the bed, checking the patient’s pulse while softly inquiring about his condition.

The man appeared to be in good spirits, though his voice was still a bit weak, sounding as if he lacked vigor. Hearing Du Heng’s question, he smiled and said, ”Yesterday, I couldn’t eat much; I only had a few bites of noodles and felt full. But today at noon, I actually felt hungry and ate nearly half a bowl.”

”It’s a good sign that you’re hungry. Eat less salt and oil, and avoid spicy foods. When you’re hungry, just eat,” Du Heng said, switching to the patient’s other hand to take his pulse.

After completing the pulse diagnosis, Du Heng checked the patient’s general edema. It was recovering well, having subsided by seventy to eighty percent. ”Has the swelling in your testicles gone down?”

Hearing Du Heng’s straightforward question, the man looked a little embarrassed. ”It has gone down.”

”How small is it now?”

The man’s embarrassment was palpable, but seeing Du Heng’s sincere and calm expression, he could only say in a small voice, ”About the size of a ping-pong ball.”

”Not bad. It should be completely gone in another day.”

Du Heng patted his own thigh and stood up. ”You’ve passed the critical period, and your overall recovery is very good. But I must emphasize, you cannot catch a cold. You’re still in the sweating phase. Your body’s channels are open from the inside out, and you’re still expelling evil qi, so it’s very easy to catch a cold at this time. If you catch another cold, with your already weakened heart and liver, you won’t be able to handle it. If it happens again, there’ll be nothing more I can do.”

The patient nodded hurriedly. Having narrowly escaped the Gates of Hell, he was now more afraid of death than anyone.

”When you want to move around, just walk about in your hospital room. Don’t go wandering aimlessly in the hallway. If you really must go out, no matter for how few minutes, make sure you’re wrapped up warm and tight. Understand?”

”I’ll remember. I’ll just stay in bed and not go anywhere.”

Du Heng nodded. ”By the way, how were your family’s sheep dealt with?”

”A comprehensive test was done. The infected ones were taken away by the Quarantine Station, and the rest are fine,” the patient said, becoming a little excited as he spoke of this.

He had been terrified that his one or two hundred sheep would all be culled. He hadn’t expected the Township Government to be so supportive, accompanying them throughout the entire inspection process and putting in many good words for them. Otherwise, those sheep might not have been spared.

”Alright. From now on, disinfect the sheep pens more often and have regular biosecurity check-ups. Don’t be stingy with the quarantine fees. Think about your several hundred sheep—which is more cost-effective in the long run?”

”Yes, yes, that’s what the Quarantine Station said too. This time, after the inspection, all the fees only cost a little over a thousand yuan. However, sixteen infected sheep were found, meaning a loss of at least 20,000 yuan. And eight of them were ewes, so the loss is even greater.”

The man looked visibly pained and full of regret. He had truly learned the hard way what it means to be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

”Consider the money spent a lesson learned. You’ll have experience now, and things will definitely get better.” After saying this, Du Heng told the patient to rest well and then left the hospital room.

In the consultation room, Du Heng revised the patient’s prescription. He removed ephedra and other diaphoretic drugs from the original formula and reduced the aconite dosage from one hundred grams to thirty grams.

Once the prescription was written, Wu Buwei was about to prepare the medicine the patient needed for the afternoon when Du Heng, looking at the newly written prescription, called out to him, ”Buwei, I have a question for you.”

Wu Buwei stopped. ”Please ask, Senior Brother.”

”What is the key to treating this patient?” Du Heng asked seriously.

Wu Buwei thought for a moment and said, ”It must be the efficacy of aconite in covering yang and rescuing counterflow that played the most significant role.”

Du Heng shook his head gently. ”The Eight Methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine are perspiration, vomiting, purgation, harmonization, warming, cooling, dissipation, and tonification. No matter the medication, treating diseases in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Internal Medicine Department will always involve these methods. Even if you say aconite was effective, to which method does it belong?”

Faced with this question, Wu Buwei was a little stunned.

It felt as if he had returned to July of last year, to that state of knowing what was happening but not understanding why.

However, seeing Du Heng’s expectant gaze, Wu Buwei lowered his head and began to think seriously. After a good while, he looked at Du Heng with hesitation. ”Is it a combination of the harmonization and tonification methods? The patient’s heart, liver, and kidneys are damaged, so we use the harmonization method to regulate visceral function, and then the tonification method to enhance physical fitness, tonifying qi, nourishing blood, and strengthening cardiac function?”

Du Heng shook his head. ”It’s the perspiration method. The patient was in critical condition. While there was damage to the heart, liver, and kidneys, the primary cause was the invasion of cold evil. This exacerbated the burden on these organs, leading to the false appearance that the patient’s heart was overwhelmed. As long as we induce sweating to relieve the exterior syndrome, allowing the cold evil to disperse, and then use aconite for covering yang and rescuing counterflow and to ensure heart fire maintenance, the patient can be brought out of danger. If you don’t induce sweating, even a ton of aconite wouldn’t save the patient’s life.”