Chapter 96 Sickness
Spring is the most vibrant season in the northern part of the city. Spring rains nourish the earth that has been dry all winter, and even the air becomes much fresher.
After Chen Yun finished her rounds with Zhan Min, the director of the Second Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, she carried her water cup to the pediatric clinic for her consultation.
The obstetrics and gynecology department is predominantly pink, while the pediatrics department has blue walls painted with various cartoon characters.
Perhaps influenced by this lovely atmosphere, Chen Yun always felt very relaxed whenever she went to the pediatrics department for her consultations.
As I walked into the corridor of the pediatric clinic, I saw Hu Yue'e and Li Huguo sitting with their backs to the corridor, and a little boy squatting on the ground drawing circles.
My biological son is hospitalized with a fever, so I'm too busy to visit him, but I'm always rushing to get my stepson medical attention.
"Dr. Chen."
"Are you here for a follow-up check-up today?"
Many of the patients in the queue were children whom Chen Yun had delivered and watched grow up; their parents trusted her for everything, from major illnesses to minor ones.
"The cough has stopped. Didn't you say last time that the child was calcium deficient? I'd like to get some calcium supplements."
"Dr. Chen, these are cherries I grew myself. I brought some for you to try."
"I also brought some eggs."
The parents quickly surrounded the clinic door. Everyone knew that Chen Yun didn't accept red envelopes or valuables, so they often brought home-grown fruits and eggs to express their gratitude.
This was the first time Li Huguo had seen Chen Yun working at the hospital in person, and he was secretly surprised and a little envious.
He watched Gao Ming and Chen Yun get married and have children, and witnessed the gap between them and himself gradually widen.
Li Huguo often thought about this in the quiet of the night.
If he had stayed at the machinery factory back then, would he and Ruanqiu have not divorced?
But as she thought about it, a surge of anger welled up inside her. If Ruanqiu could manage both work and family like Chen Yun, they wouldn't have ended up getting a divorce.
Selfish people will always blame others first, no matter what happens.
"Huguo, where's Shuai Shuai?"
Hu Yue'e's anxious voice finally brought Li Huguo back to his senses, and the two of them quickly stood up and looked around the corridor.
"Handsome brother went to pee!"
A clear, childlike voice rang out beside the stool, and Tang Hao pointed his little finger toward the end of the corridor.
The two then relaxed and continued sitting.
“We’re in the city now, so you can’t say ‘pee’ when you say you’re going to the toilet.” Hu Yue’e felt embarrassed and quickly corrected Tang Hao’s choice of words in a low voice.
The outpatient clinic doors opened, and the nurse began calling out numbers from the registration book.
Not long after, Li Shuaishuai appeared at the corner, limping. He got tired after taking only two steps and stopped to rest for a while before continuing.
The two adults were busy with their own thoughts, but only Tang Hao noticed Li Shuaishuai's unusual behavior.
"Uncle, handsome brother fell down."
Hu Yue'e glanced in that direction and quickly looked away.
She had been living under the same roof as Li Shuai for almost half a year, but the child had never called her "auntie" even once, and she was too lazy to pay attention to her stepson who was not related to her by blood.
With her son coming to live with her these past two months, she's had even less time to interact with Li Shuaishuai.
Anyway, she plans to have another child with Li Huguo, so it doesn't matter whether her stepson is close to her or not.
Where did you fall?
It's always the father who cares more about his child; Li Huguo quickly ran over and supported Li Shuaishuai's arm.
His wrist, where his sleeve was exposed, was covered in bruises, and his face was deathly pale.
"I just accidentally bumped my knee." Li Shuaishuai took a deep breath and braced himself against the wall with one hand. "I can walk by myself."
"He must have caught a cold from playing outside with Gao Nianping yesterday!"
Li Shuaishuai remained silent, stubbornly pulling his arm out of Li Huguo's grasp, and slowly moved forward while holding onto the wall.
They made it sound nice to take him to a stationery store to buy pencils, but it turned out they wanted to take Tang Hao to the hospital for a checkup first.
When disappointment accumulates to a great extent, it will eventually manifest as an emotional outburst.
Right now, Li Shuaishuai didn't even have the energy to be angry. He just felt exhausted and his head was foggy, and he just wanted to sleep.
"After your brother finishes his doctor's appointment, let Chen Yun take a look at you too," Li Huguo said with a gloomy face, then turned around with a cold snort: "Such a grown man, yet he still doesn't listen to reason."
If he hadn't been too weak, Li Shuai would have turned around and gone home the very next second after Li Huguo took him to the hospital.
After finally getting to the bench and sitting down, I suddenly felt a metallic smell rising from my nostrils.
"Brother, you're bleeding from your nose!" Tang Hao shouted.
Li Huguo hurriedly grabbed some paper and launched into another tirade against Li Shuaishuai, accusing him of eating too many spicy snacks while out.
Li Shuaishuai fell even more silent.
In the consultation room, Chen Yun took a sip of water: "Call in the last number."
The door opened quickly, and Hu Yue'e sat down with a four or five-year-old boy in her arms, giving Chen Yun a fawning smile.
Li Huguo didn't come in; I don't know if he's already gone back.
I'd been saying I'd bring my child to see a doctor for ages, but I dragged it out for three whole months before finally coming.
“I’ve been observing Hao Hao for two months and I haven’t noticed anything wrong with him.”
The little boy was rather thin, which made his head appear larger than his body. His bright black and white eyes watched curiously as Chen Yun picked up the stethoscope from the table.
"Are there any unusual things happening in your daily life?"
"There's nothing wrong! She just keeps complaining of being tired, which is probably due to a calcium deficiency."
"Besides being tired, is there anything else that's bothering you, little one?" Chen Yun leaned forward and carefully examined Tang Hao's stomach with both hands: "Does your stomach hurt anywhere?"
"My stomach doesn't hurt, it's just that running is so tiring," Tang Hao replied crisply.
Chen Yun suddenly stopped what she was doing and carefully ran her fingers along the child's midline of the collarbone.
"Take off your clothes so I can see them."
"Could there really be a problem!" Hu Yue'e asked nervously, her voice somewhat excited. The next moment, Li Huguo's figure appeared at the door of the clinic.
"Xiao Li, fill a glass halfway with tap water."
After the child took off his clothes, his thin body with protruding shoulder blades was revealed. Chen Yun poured a little water into her palm and wiped it on the child's chest.
The hospital's water pipes, which are rarely exposed to sunlight, have a water temperature several degrees lower than the indoor temperature.
Where the water had spread, a grid-like pattern of bluish spots slowly appeared on her skin, and Chen Yun's brows furrowed tightly.
Put on a stethoscope and continue examining the heart.
"..."
After a while, Chen Yun dragged his chair back to the table.
"Go get an ultrasound to check your heart condition first."
“Heart? You mean Hao Hao has a heart problem!” Hu Yue’e’s pupils dilated instantly, and even her lips trembled. “No…it’s impossible…Hao Hao was hiking with me just a few days ago, and he was perfectly fine.”
"Don't panic. I'm certain there's a heart problem, but we need to see an ultrasound to determine the severity and subsequent treatment..."
Regardless of who the patient is, Chen Yun always tries her best to calm the parents to ensure that the subsequent treatment can proceed smoothly.
"Can it be cured?" Li Huguo pressed.
“In most cases, it can be cured with surgery.” Chen Yun quickly wrote out the examination form and signed his name at the end: “The examination may have to wait until the afternoon. You can go home and have lunch first. After you get the examination results, go directly to Deputy Director Xu of the Cardiology Department. He specializes in treating congenital heart disease in children.”
After Chen Yun explained in detail, Hu Yue'e finally managed to control her fear and shakily picked up Tang Hao, intending to stand up.
Tang Hao has a heart problem... but it's treatable!
Fortunately—Hu Yue'e secretly glanced at Li Huguo and felt secretly relieved.
Fortunately, she was already married to Li Huguo; fortunately, her husband was wealthy and wouldn't care about the medical expenses; fortunately, the child really did come to Beicheng.
A sense of relief finally brought a smile to Hu Yue'e's face.
After repeatedly thanking Chen Yun, he carried the child out of the clinic.
Chen Yun packed her things and prepared to go back to the neonatal ward office for lunch, still thinking about going to the stationery store after get off work to buy pencil cases for Gao Nianping and Li Shuaishuai.
Gao Nianping had mentioned this several times since she heard that the other students in the class were using plastic pencil cases.
"Then you wait here, your aunt and I will go downstairs to pay the money."
Chen Yun was still wondering who Li Huguo was talking to, so she went out the door and looked to the side. She quickly found Li Shuaishuai curled up in a chair.
"Shuai Shuai." Chen Yun quickly went over, bent down and turned Li Shuai Shuai over: "Why are you sleeping in the hospital?"
An unnatural flush appeared on his pale face, and there was a patch of dried blood near his nostrils.
"You have a fever?"
Her forehead was burning hot, and she could feel it with her hands. Chen Yun immediately returned to the clinic to get a mercury thermometer.
Just as Chen Yun was unbuttoning her coat and preparing to put the thermometer under her armpit, she immediately noticed a sizable bruise on her shoulder.
Chen Yun's eyes sharpened, and after tucking the thermometer under her arm, she quickly began checking other areas.
As more and more bruises appeared, my heart seemed to be gripped by some emotion, and I began to have difficulty breathing.
This kind of premonition, similar to a sixth sense, hasn't happened for a long time.
Last time, she treated a pregnant woman with ankylosing spondylitis, and Chen Yun had already confirmed a bad result before the test results came out.
And this time...
"Aunt Chen... my body hurts so much, my whole body hurts." Li Shuaishuai vaguely saw Chen Yun's face, his round face fell and tears welled up: "I'm in pain!"
"Aunt Chen is a doctor; she can cure any pain, no matter where it is."
Anxiety descended upon Chen Yun like a net, leaving her feeling parched and her heart pounding as if it were about to leap out of her chest.
Holding Li Shuaishuai's hand tightly, she repeatedly tried to calm herself down.
But when the 40-degree temperature reading on the thermometer jumped into her eyes, Chen Yun's hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
"Little Li!"
"Director Chen."
Nurse Li glanced at the thermometer Chen Yun handed her and was startled: "Such a high temperature!"
“Go back to the neonatal department office and ask for half a day off for me. Then call Director Wu of the pediatrics department and tell him that my son may have acute leukemia and ask him to help arrange some tests.”
"ah?"
"If Li Shuaishuai's father comes looking for you, tell him to go to the pediatric ward and find someone."
“Go!” Chen Yun took a deep breath, put Li Shuaishuai’s arms on her shoulders and carried her on her back: “I’ll take the child to the pediatric ward right now.”
"good!"
Nurse Li immediately realized that this matter could not be delayed, and quickly ran back to the department to call Director Wu's office in the pediatrics department.
The pediatric inpatient ward is located in Inpatient Building No. 3, which is quite a distance from the outpatient building.
Li Shuaishuai on her back was burning hot, but Chen Yun was covered in cold sweat.
Pediatrics.
Upon receiving the call, Dr. Wu, the head of the pediatrics department, immediately went to the inpatient department from the break room.
Chen Yun had already confirmed what she was doing, but she still asked Director Wu to check it again. Only when Director Wu nodded with a livid face did she finally... give up.
"Let's do the tests first," Director Wu sighed.
All the symptoms actually point to one disease—acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Director Wu also carefully examined Li Shuaishuai's fingernails and teeth, and concluded that nothing had changed.
"First, draw blood for testing, then administer fever-reducing medication based on the blood count. We'll deal with the rest later!"
Li Shuaishuai was admitted to the pediatric ward as a family member of a doctor. To reduce the chance of infection, he was arranged to stay in a single room.
Chen Yun carried the child onto the hospital bed and then took off his sweater and shoes.
The ward was filled with the smell of disinfectant, and thin plastic tubes were slowly dripping medicine into the veins.
Chen Yun sat quietly for an unknown amount of time.
As the injection was administered, the flush on Li Shuaishuai's face finally subsided somewhat, and his forehead was no longer burning hot to the touch.
"Director Chen, please go eat first." A pediatric nurse gently pushed open the door and walked in, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible: "We'll keep an eye on things for you, and I'll let you know immediately if anything happens."
Since the blood test results came out, Chen Yun's panicked expression has completely disappeared.
The words "See a large number of immature cells" prominently displayed in the category completely shattered any remaining hope.
"I'll make a phone call, thank you for your help!"
Chen Yun stood up, propping himself up on his knees. His voice was hoarse, as if it had been sanded by sandpaper.
Now that it's a fact, the next thing to consider is how to treat it.
Chen Yun's first call was to her key figure, Gao Ming.
After a few seconds of silence on the phone, Gao Ming simply said the word "cure," which instantly put Chen Yun's mind at ease.
The task of relaying the message to the Li family was then handed over to Gao Ming.
As for his biological father, Li Huguo... he has long since disappeared.
Just before it got dark, Gao Ming led Li Yi and Fang Fang to the hospital.
Where is Li Huguo?
Only Chen Yun was by Li Shuaishuai's bedside in the ward. After his fever subsided, Li Shuaishuai had a better appetite and was eating porridge by himself with a spoon.
Chen Yun looked at Fang Fang.
"In the afternoon, Huguo and his wife brought Tang Hao back from the hospital. They said a friend knew a doctor at a big hospital and they wanted to take the child to see him again," Fang Fang said.
Perhaps seeing that Li Shuaishuai was able to eat by himself without any problems, Fang Fang's expression was somewhat relaxed.
However, she frowned slightly when Tang Hao's illness was mentioned, feeling quite sorry for him.
Chen Yun stared coldly, her tone icy for the first time: "He abandoned Shuai Shuai in the hospital, but he's quite attentive to his stepson!"
After saying those two sentences, his tone seemed to grow even colder: "Gao Ming, take Uncle Li and the others to Director Wu's office. They can hear about the follow-up treatment firsthand."
Gao Ming's expression was equally grim.
His hands, hanging at his sides, were already clenched into fists, his jaw was tense, and his expression was frighteningly gloomy.
"Aunt Chen, can I go home to sleep tonight?"
The four walls of the ward were all white, and the pervasive smell of disinfectant made Li Shuaishuai feel very uneasy.
"I'm afraid it won't work tonight." Chen Yun scraped the porridge from the bottom of the lunchbox onto her spoon and smiled. "Aunt Chen is with you at the hospital."
"I haven't finished my homework yet!"
"I'll write again when I'm better."
"Okay!" She forced down the last mouthful of porridge, then looked at the bandage on the back of her hand: "What disease do I have?"
Chen Yun: "..."
"So handsome!"
Just as Chen Yun was wondering how to answer, Gao Nian'an and Gao Nianping suddenly rushed in.
"Why are you here?" Chen Yun asked.
"Grandma said Shuai Shuai was sick and needed to be hospitalized, so Grandpa brought us here."
With a haircut that looked like it had been chewed by a dog, Gao Nian'an pulled several notebooks out of his bag with a sincere expression.
"..."
“We’ll help you with your homework,” Gao Nianping replied loudly.
No matter how white the ward walls were, the addition of two chattering voices instantly made it less eerie.
Chen Yun breathed a sigh of relief.
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