Damn Kidney Stones

Chapter 54 Damn Kidney Stones (Part 2)

Ji Xiang started trying different ways of squatting.

Like a hamster, he searched every corner of the house, looking for a good spot to relieve the pain.

The hardest thing is squatting to use the toilet.

Ji Xiang never imagined that one day he would try squatting on the toilet... in order to urinate the stones more quickly.

A few hours later.

Having found the right path, Ji Xiang felt the pain point begin to move downwards, gradually moving lower and lower.

Good that it works. Ji Xiang started to find the right position and got used to squatting on the toilet.

Fortunately, no one saw this strange posture, otherwise people would have thought that Ji Xiang was crazy.

There was actually a simpler way, but Ji Xiang couldn't bring himself to do it.

From a young age, his family required him to be cautious and self-disciplined when alone. This was a phrase his grandfather always emphasized, and it gradually became ingrained in Ji Xiang's character as he grew up.

Even though it hurt terribly, Ji Xiang still tried to squat on the toilet again and again.

Ji Xiang took the maximum dosage of the painkillers prescribed by the emergency room doctor, drank bottle after bottle of water, and fell off the toilet again and again.

Ji Xiang was very tenacious; he used every possible method to expel those two damned stones.

No one helped, not even anyone to say a word.

It seems that the "girlfriend" was angry because Ji Xiang hung up the phone, or perhaps she disliked that Ji Xiang, a grown man, was acting like a delicate girl, so she didn't send any messages or make any calls to comfort him.

Ji Xiang is working hard all by himself.

Nearly 12 hours have passed.

Ji Xiang passed blood in his urine again, but this time something seemed different; Ji Xiang vaguely heard a "thump" sound.

Then he leaned against the wall with both hands and looked down at the blood in his urine.

Another small, dark object was excreted along with the bloody urine.

It's not an illusion!

it is true!

Ji Xiang felt a warm current flowing through his limbs and bones, making him feel comfortable all over.

After tormenting itself for nearly 24 hours, the little thing was finally expelled from its body.

"Wow..." Ji Xiang breathed a sigh of relief, tears streaming down his face.

Tears streamed down Ji Xiang's face, and he knew that all his suffering had ended in that very second.

With a flicker of light and shadow, Ji Xiang returned to the system's operating room the next second.

The system NPC looked at Ji Xiang calmly, his gaze deep yet as indifferent as still water.

"Teacher, I'm back," Ji Xiang said.

The system NPC nodded.

"Why does it hurt so much?" Ji Xiang asked. "When I was an intern, I heard some patients say that kidney stones are not very painful, and that you can just bear it and it will pass. They also looked down on other patients who were in excruciating pain."

"People have different pain tolerance levels," the system NPC said. "For example, the pain of normal childbirth is extremely high, but some pregnant women give birth while working in the fields."

Ji Xiang had also heard about this, but his understanding of it back then was definitely not as profound as it is now.

If you think about it that way, being able to give birth while working is also a very impressive skill.

"What you're experiencing is a typical, above-average pain from urinary tract stones, not the most severe kind," the system NPC said. "Tell me your thoughts?"

Ji Xiang hesitated, feeling slightly ashamed.

He bit his lower lip, and after a few seconds, said in a deep voice, "Teacher, my mother has a friend who has endometriosis, and it's very painful."

The system NPC didn't speak; instead, it listened to what Ji Xiang said.

"A few years ago, my mother and her friends were having afternoon tea when Aunt Yuan suddenly started to feel pain. My mother stayed with her the whole time, but it didn't help. A day later, in front of my mother, she opened the window and jumped to her death without hesitation."

"At the time, I didn't understand what level of pain would make Aunt Yuan so determined to leave this world. But now I understand."

Ji Xiang seemed to have matured a bit, and he spoke very seriously to the system NPC.

"Endometriosis can be quite painful, but I don't want to describe it using pain scales," the system NPC said slowly. "After all, people are different, and their pain thresholds vary greatly."

Ji Xiang had a basic understanding of the system NPC's description. The sentence was simple, but if you thought about it more deeply, there should be other considerations.

"People's joys and sorrows are never shared, and neither is their pain."

"Teacher, when I first saw the patient, I thought he was being dramatic or had some other illness. It's just a kidney stone, it shouldn't be that serious. But after experiencing it myself, I realized how painful it really is."

"Good to know." The system NPC looked at Ji Xiang. "Go out and visit clinics more often. Upgrading your surgical skills is important, but interacting with clinicians and patients will change you."

"What's different?" Ji Xiang asked.

The system NPC simply shook its head slightly and didn't say anything.

"Teacher." Ji Xiang knew that some things could only be understood intuitively and not explained in words, so he didn't dwell on it. Instead, he started asking the system NPC about urinary tract stones.

The system NPC remains an omnipotent entity, providing detailed explanations of relevant knowledge and details, and even adding some case studies.

The cases included both successes and failures. Ji Xiang listened attentively, unknowingly expending 6 points of mental energy.

"That's about it." The system NPC smiled after explaining the relevant content to Ji Xiang using the partial anatomy. "You still need to practice more, otherwise no matter how much I explain, you might not understand."

Ji Xiang no longer had the pride he had when he first entered the system's operating room, and he no longer thought the system NPC was joking.

That's true; without more practical experience, one certainly wouldn't understand.

"Teacher, I'll be going now," Ji Xiang said.

"Go."

Ji Xiang knew that using the method to upgrade the circumcision technique to LV9 was like pulling up seedlings to help them grow.

Most doctors would spend their entire lives trying to reach LV7, but I surpassed them in just a few days with the help of the system.

But I lack many things. For example, when I saw that patient with urinary tract stones, I thought he had antisocial personality disorder.

Only after experiencing it firsthand did Ji Xiang understand the pain involved.

As Ji Xiang left the operating room, he heard a "ding-dong" notification sound.

System task!

Ji Xiang smiled.

I vaguely remember the system NPC saying that this system was a teaching software, created by one of his students named Zhou Congwen.

As for teaching, I've been staying in the system's operating room, which is like hiding away to cultivate immortality. That should be fine, but the system NPCs suggest that I should go to clinical practice more often.

That is, to engage with the world.

And so, the task came.

[System task: I understand.]

Task: Help a patient with urinary tract stones.

Task duration: 3 hours.

Task Reward: 3000 experience points.

It was a very ordinary little task, giving very little experience points, only 3000 points, and no surgery points, but Ji Xiang didn't care much about it.

Having just received 20 surgery points from the empathy gift, Ji Xiang quickly glanced at his own surgery points and saw that they had increased to 126.

But none of that matters.

The important thing is that when Ji Xiang felt the pain, what he hated most was not the angina or the exhaustion that was almost reaching shock, but the loneliness of having no one around.

Then there's the fact that I'm a patient with urinary tract stones, and I still have to go pay the bill. There's no one around, which is really driving me crazy.

Ji Xiang had done clinical internships and heard complaints from teachers and nurses. For patients who skipped payment, at least half of the costs were borne by the department, meaning that if someone skipped payment, all the work was for nothing and they had to pay out of their own pocket.

If everyone remained kind, there wouldn't be so many problems.

If medical care were free, there wouldn't be so many problems.

Ji Xiang is not a sociology expert, nor does he want to solve this problem at all; he just wants to help the patients.

Although the patient had a caregiver, it's still a good thing to save some time.

Ji Xiang immediately ran back to his department to change into his white coat.

Wearing white, even though he is young, he speaks with authority.

If I were in plain clothes and went up there to boss people around, I'm afraid the patients and their families might beat me half to death.

I ran into General Manager Wu in the department. He was slightly taken aback when he saw Ji Xiang.

"Hello, Mr. Wu." Ji Xiang walked over quickly and greeted Mr. Wu.

"Hey, you still know to come?" Boss Wu muttered under his breath, clearly annoyed.

If it had happened yesterday, those words would have been even harsher.

But he had personally witnessed Ji Xiang performing intravenous infusions via corpus cavernosum on burn patients. The unconventional procedures left General Wu speechless, and even if he had something to say, he could only mutter under his breath.

Ji Xiang didn't hear clearly; he was only focused on helping the patient, even if it was just to make an appointment.

Recalling how he had struggled to pay the bill while feeling empathy for the situation, and how much time and suffering he had wasted along the way, Ji Xiang felt unwell all over.

After changing into white clothes, Ji Xiang ran off again in a flash.

"Why did Ji Xiang come and go so quickly?" Lu Kai asked in surprise, watching Ji Xiang come and go in such a hurry.

"Hey." Boss Wu didn't say anything. He vaguely felt that something was wrong with Ji Xiang, and he was better off not provoking this guy and causing trouble for himself.

"Today I'll teach you percutaneous nephrolithotomy with laser lithotripsy." Mr. Wu glanced in the direction Ji Xiang had left, and smiled. "Urinary tract stones used to be a real problem. I heard from my teacher that when he was young, there were only lithotripters available, and patients couldn't even get a chance to get one."

"But there aren't many gravel crushers being made now, why, Mr. Wu?" Lu Kai asked.

Liu Yunqing looked completely bewildered, seemingly unaware of what was about to happen. In comparison, General Wu preferred Lu Kai; the boy was clever.

If it weren't for Liu Yunqing being quite pleasing to the eye...

Good looks are everything, even if it's just for a glance.

"Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) has been gradually phased out, and now only a small number of patients use it. Percutaneous nephrolithotomy with laser lithotripsy is also a method of lithotripsy, but it is more precise, and the fragmented stones are directly removed with a scope, without the patient having to pass them on their own," Mr. Wu explained.

"Some patients don't feel anything when passing stones, while others experience considerable pain. So, we stay up late into the night to perform the surgery for these patients; it's a doctor's responsibility."

"Mr. Wu, you are such a good doctor, with a heart of gold," Lu Kai said with a smile.

General Wu was already immune to this kind of talk. He was somewhat disappointed that the sleazy little fat man in front of him couldn't even get the point right when he tried to flatter him.

Emergency stone removal usually requires a series of examinations, and it's rare to do it in the middle of the night; this patient must have other underlying causes.

But Mr. Wu did not explain.

……

……

Ji Xiang rushed to the emergency room dressed in white.

No one would refuse a resident physician's help.

Although Ji Xiang wasn't very familiar with the Second Affiliated Hospital, doctors from his own hospital would be more polite to him.

After paying the fees and undergoing examinations, an ultrasound revealed urinary tract stones, and a large number of red blood cells were observed under microscopic examination of the urine.

All the tests pointed to urinary tract stones.

Ji Xiang took the patient back and reported the test results to the emergency room doctor. The patient was quickly given an intramuscular injection of symptomatic medication, and the pain symptoms were relieved.

(End of this chapter)