Chapter 99: A Divine Physician Descends Upon the Slums [2] The physician who introduced himself as Dongpa had been in the middle of decocting medicine.
That was why the medicinal smell had spread through the whole neighborhood, and sharp-eyed Yeoju immediately recognized the ingredients he was boiling like a ghost.
"Young master, it's almost all licorice. As for the others… I can spot gobon. The rest are hardly fit to be called medicinal ingredients."
"Hmm. Licorice."
He had no intention of criticizing someone just for using a lot of licorice.
Other physicians also threw in astonishing amounts of it.
Why else would there be the saying, "the licorice of the apothecary"?[2]
That doesn't mean it's a good thing.
Why did they use so much licorice?
Because its effects were exceptional, and the secret lay in one of its components: glycyrrhizin.
If he had to list glycyrrhizin's effects roughly, they were as follows.
First, it had an excellent detoxifying effect, especially against snake venom.
It also had a decent effect on reducing swelling, and its ability as an anti-inflammatory analgesic was quite good as well.
But where there were benefits, there were always drawbacks too.
If you consume too much glycyrrhizin, the steroids in the body don't get cleared out.
Of course, it was not easy to eat enough licorice for severe side effects to appear.
Usually, abnormal findings only showed up after eating more than 50 grams of licorice every day.
But if someone was also taking extra steroids, then the problem became quite serious.
Especially judging by the appearance of the patient lying there waiting his turn, this physician called Dongpa clearly seemed to have major problems with his prescriptions.
Round face, thin skin. Thin limbs…
On top of that, looking at his clothes, he was shabby beyond words. He was clearly one of the poor from around here.
That meant it would be difficult for his face to become that moon-round from food alone.
It definitely looked like a side effect caused by steroids.
"Hmm. Excuse me, but may I ask what medicine you prescribed for this patient?"
After some thought, Kanghyeok decided to speak down to him.
First, there was no way the physician in front of him was a nobleman, and second, he did not seem skilled enough to warrant respectful speech anyway.
"That is difficult to reveal, as it is my own secret method."
The physician refused flatly, and the patient lying there defended him.
"That… Physician Dongpa's prescriptions are truly marvelous. My whole body used to ache, and there wasn't a single place that didn't hurt… but after receiving his prescription, all of that disappeared completely. I feel bursting with strength too."
Seeing that moonlike face bobbing right in front of him made Kanghyeok deeply uneasy.
The symptoms and effects the patient mentioned were exactly the sort of things one could see after stuffing someone full of steroids.
Good grief… He's completely soaked in steroids. Totally soaked.
Kanghyeok recalled his time at the university hospital.
Well… there sure had been a lot of talk about steroids in Korea too.
The effect was simply too good, which made them hard not to use.
That was especially true for private clinics.
The clinics that used them drew in patients immediately because people felt better right away, while the ones that did not were bound to struggle by comparison.
Moreover, prescribing a small amount for a short period to the right type of patient did not cause problems at all.
That was why there had even been an open saying in private practice that the secret to becoming a famous doctor was steroids.
Even so, once all the academic societies started bringing up the side effects, it did decrease a lot.
There were still some older doctors who kept shoveling steroids into patients.
But younger doctors who had recently become specialists at least had some awareness of the dangers of steroids.
As for the physician in front of him, however, it was hard to expect that.
He was someone who regarded the effects of steroid overprescription as his own "secret prescription."
"How long have you been taking this medicine?"
At Kanghyeok's sudden question, the patient fell silent for a moment.
In that gap, Kanghyeok carefully examined the patient's appearance once more.
Fat clinging around the trapezius, a belly jutting out, thin limbs.
No matter how he looked at it, it was still a side effect of steroids.
The so-called Cushing syndrome[3]—moon face and the other accompanying symptoms caused by steroid overuse.
"Hmm… it's been about half a year now."
"Half a year. Quite a long time. So… how does your body really feel?"
"My body? If I take the medicine, I feel like I could fly."
"And if you don't take it? Don't you feel weak?"
"Ah… yes, that's true. But if I take the medicine, it all gets better."
"Mm."
Kanghyeok nodded with a bitter expression, and Dongpa looked at him with clear displeasure.
He did not dare openly challenge him, though, because he was cowed by the presence of Makbong and Yeoni standing to either side.
Otherwise, he probably would have said something.
Kanghyeok kept nodding, then lowered his gaze toward the patient's lower half.
Right. In Joseon, if a man is a man, there's no way he wouldn't care about that.
At least so far, he had never seen a single exception.
High status or low, they all showed extraordinary concern about their cocks.
"Hey, you. Has that been working properly lately?"
"What?"
"I'm asking after your lower half. Is it working or not?"
At Kanghyeok's sudden, direct question, the patient could not open his mouth right away.
Kanghyeok tilted his head and observed the patient's reaction.
The man's shoulders were trembling with shame and anxiety, plain to see at a glance.
So it's not working.
Not everything had to be spoken aloud to be understood.
Sometimes, like now, nonverbal communication was much faster and more accurate.
Sure enough, after trembling for quite a while, the patient nodded.
"Yes. It's not working well…"[4]
His tone was almost tearful, and he also kept watching Kanghyeok's face as though wondering whether there might be some way to fix it.
"I thought so. Mm. It started failing after you began taking this physician Dongpa's medicine, didn't it?"
"W-what? What are you saying?"
Dongpa immediately snapped back.
To claim that he had caused erectile dysfunction—how could he possibly let that slide?
But with a single gesture from Kanghyeok, his futile resistance was crushed.
More precisely, it was because Makbong shoved him the instant Kanghyeok raised his hand.
"Be quiet, you bastard. An elder is speaking."
"No… to hit someone like this…"
"Oh? Want me to hit you for real?"
"N-no. No, sir."
Kanghyeok took his eyes off the instantly subdued Dongpa and looked at the patient again.
"You still haven't answered my question. Wasn't that how it was?"
"Ah… yes. It did definitely start after I began taking the medicine."
"I thought so. Mm. How much of it were you prescribed originally?"
Now Kanghyeok sat in front of the patient as though Dongpa had already been shoved far off into the distance.
The patient, as befitted someone who had been regularly taking the medicine for six months, knew the rough amount.
"The batch he's decocting now is about ten days' worth."
"Ten days."
Kanghyeok looked at the medicine boiling vigorously.
Even at a rough estimate, there seemed to be over 20 grams of licorice, and the amount of gobon added with it was also not small.
Licorice alone isn't enough to cause Cushing. Looks like among the other herbs mixed in, there are some that contain a lot of steroid-like substances.
But there was no way to know which herbs they were in, or how much.
If he knew that, it would have made things much easier.
Smacking his lips, Kanghyeok spoke.
"All right, now you need to cut down on the medicine. Then that ugly body of yours will gradually return to normal, and… mm. That thing will stand again too."
"Really?"
The patient did not seem to care much what happened to his body.
But he showed tremendous concern over the problem with his lower half.
"I'm telling you, really. For now, cut it in half. Where do you live?"
"Well… it's not really one place. I just stay around here and there nearby."
"What kind of answer is that? 'Here and there'?"
"It means I don't have a home. I do odd jobs and sleep in whatever house takes me in."
In other words, he was a beggar.
"And in that situation, you still come here for medicine?"
"If I don't take it, I feel like I'll just die, so what else can I do…"
"Ah, forget it. Just take half for now."
"Then my whole body will ache and hurt."
The patient was rather dramatic.
But it was not hard to understand.
Once someone had been taking steroids, other medicines often barely registered at all.
Kanghyeok had no choice but to pull out an anti-inflammatory from his house-call bag and hand it over.
"Use this instead. Come again tomorrow. If you don't give up, you can be cured."
"Ah… yes, sir."
The patient really took only half of the prepared medicine and disappeared outside.
Now Kanghyeok's gaze turned toward Dongpa.
"Well then, sorry about that. But it would be best for that patient to follow my treatment."
"For one physician to slander another for no reason and steal away his patient—what kind of law is that?"
"It's because you're a quack."
"A quack? Even if you are a nobleman, your words are too much."
"It's the truth, so there's nothing I can do. In any case, I'll be seeing that patient from now on, so understand that. And as for this medicine… stop prescribing it."
"Don't go making this and that comment about another man's secret prescription."
This physician called Dongpa had quite a bit of spirit.
Considering that he had just been shoved by Makbong and was still saying everything he wanted.
For a moment, Kanghyeok thought about rolling him up in a mat, then gave it up.
It was still his first day here. He could not exactly go around beating people.
He was, after all, supposedly here to do volunteer work.
Still, he did not want to let the man keep babbling like this.
He was noisy, and it was irritating.
"Ah, you really talk too much."
"What? What do you mean by—"
Dongpa looked extremely flustered at the way Kanghyeok's tone had suddenly turned like that of a thug.
Kanghyeok waved his hand lazily at him.
"Makbong, Dolseok. Move this fellow into the next room."
"Yes, young master."
With grunts, the two of them lifted Dongpa up and tossed him into the next room.
"Oof!"
A dull cry rang out briefly, then fell silent.
Probably one of the two had threatened him.
Something like, Make a sound and you die.
"It's done."
Makbong reappeared, brushing off his hands.
Every time Kanghyeok looked at him, he was the very picture of a mountain bandit, and always reassuring.
"Good. Well done. Shall we start seeing patients?"
"Yes. Shall I let the people outside know we're ready?"
"Yeah. Tell them. Since we came, we should at least see some patients."
And if there was anyone who looked about to die, admit them.
And if they died… call Heo Jun immediately.
Everything was falling into place perfectly.
"The patients are coming."
Makbong chattered at the doorway together with the wart-faced man.
A rough glance outside showed that there were quite a lot of people who looked like patients.
Since someone on Baek Kanghyeok's level was treating patients in the slum, they had all flocked over.
And on top of that, it was free.
Compared with Dongpa's treatment, where he had been pocketing money through all sorts of backdoor means, it was attractive in every way.
"All right, then let's get started. I'll examine them first, and I'll pass the mild cases on to you lot."
At Kanghyeok's words, Dolseok and Yeoni both nodded at once.
They seemed to have gained confidence lately, thanks to how much their skills had improved from sitting in on Kanghyeok's Royal Medical Office lectures.[5]
With a satisfied smile, Kanghyeok began seeing patients.
Mm.
Contrary to expectations, there were not that many critically ill patients.
Just as he began thinking he had come here for nothing, a scream rang out from somewhere.
"Aigoo!"
It was an extremely urgent voice, but surprisingly, the source was Dongpa's consultation room.
"What is it?"
At Kanghyeok's shout, Makbong flung the door open.
"The patient over there who was being treated suddenly says he can't see. And he must be in terrible pain too, because he's rolling around all over the floor."
"Really? What about Dongpa?"
"He's needling him, but it's no use."
"Of course it isn't. That quack bastard. Got it. I'm going over there."
"Yes, young master."
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