Chapter 13 Black Jaundice
"Keep your voice down, we're coming back." Someone quietly nodded towards the village entrance.
Not far away, I saw an old man with a dark and skinny body pulling a flatbed cart. On the cart was a torn straw mat, with a human-shaped cotton mat sticking out of it.
"He's here from his aunt's house. Is he feeling better?"
"What did the doctor say?"
Although they knew the result, they still asked questions with concern. Cui Laowu responded numbly with red and swollen eyes, like an old ox that was extremely tired.
Instead, Qin Lai Di took two steps forward and looked at the woman on the flatbed cart. Her face was so thin that only bones were left, and her pair of bulging yellow eyeballs were staring blankly at the sky.
According to the villagers, Aunt Cui Wu was suffering from jaundice, which was not uncommon in rural areas with poor sanitation and medical conditions. But the strange thing was that Aunt Cui Wu's face was not yellow, not orange or smoky, but dark blue with a hint of yellow.
The villagers glanced at each other: their faces have turned black, it's probably just a matter of a few days.
In order to see it more carefully, Lai Di moved two inches closer and found that she was indeed not mistaken.
Even though she had seen many strange diseases, she was still shocked. The jaundice turning black was a very rare manifestation of malignancy!
"Is it scary? Go home quickly." Cui Laowu lowered his head numbly and pulled the cart quickly. It seemed that he was afraid of shocking his wife, so he slowed down. When he encountered an uneven ground, he slowed down even more and waited for the wheels to roll over slowly one tooth at a time.
It was obvious that he was a very considerate man. Qin Lai Di immediately had a better impression of him and chased after him to ask, "Uncle Wu, Aunt Wu's illness looks like jaundice to me. Didn't the hospital tell you how to treat it?"
"The doctor said it was jaundice at first. We drew blood and took me to the city hospital for an ultrasound. They all said it was jaundice. I also took a lot of medicine for jaundice, but it didn't cure the disease, but it made me worse." Cui Laowu wiped away his tears. It is said that men don't shed tears easily, but he has endured for so many years and he really can't bear it any longer.
The greatest pain in this world is to watch your loved ones slowly dying and be unable to do anything about it.
Lai Di thought, if I had gone for a checkup earlier and treated it as jaundice, it would definitely be effective. But now it has developed into black jaundice, wouldn’t it be futile to treat it as jaundice? In recent years, Chinese medicine has been criticized as "four old things". Many Chinese medicine doctors in hospitals have either been sent to remote areas or learned Western medicine. Not many can recognize black jaundice, so the treatment opportunity was delayed.
The Cui family now has four children. The oldest has already started a family, and the youngest is only four years old. If their mother were gone, they would be so miserable. So they couldn't help but say, "Uncle Wu, I studied medicine with Doctor He for a few years. Do you remember Doctor He?"
Cui Laowu stopped walking and said woodenly, "I asked him to see your aunt last year, and she got better for a few days, but your aunt was stingy with money and felt reluctant to buy more medicine after she got better. This..."
Qin Lai Di heaved a sigh of relief and mumbled with her eyes closed: "I remember this. Before he passed away, he was always concerned about my aunt's illness and even taught me how to treat it."
Cui Laowu was stunned. "Really?"
"It's true. Let me check your aunt's pulse. You'll know if my opinion is the same as hers. I'm not lying to you."
At this time, the women at the entrance of the village also gathered around curiously. Most of them still thought that she had the temper of a child. After all, this girl had done a lot of trouble. Although she seemed to be much more stable after getting married recently, they were still worried.
"Laidi, treating a human being is different from treating an animal. Don't be silly."
"That's right. If you fail to cure the animals, you will at most lose some money. But human life is not something to be trifled with."
Cui Laowu actually had given up hope for this disease a long time ago. Today, the doctor's original words were to let her pull back and eat whatever she wanted. But after all, she was a close relative, and he couldn't bear to let go of the last glimmer of hope. Even if it was probably a joke, he wanted to give it a try, "Okay, then you see."
Aunt Cui Wu closed her eyes, as if she was asleep. Lai Di gently held her hand and first measured her left hand for half a minute, then switched to her right hand. Not to mention, her frowning and thoughtful look was really a bit like Doctor He. The person who thought she was making a fuss just now was a little unsure for a moment.
"Uncle Wu, did my aunt's illness break out four years ago, right after she gave birth?"
“Oh, yes.” In fact, the yellow complexion only started in the last three years, but the child’s mother said that she felt unwell four years ago. At that time, everyone laughed at them because they were an old clam carrying a pearl. He was too embarrassed to tell others that his wife got sick because of giving birth to a baby. Few people in the village knew about this. Cui Laowu was surprised how a little girl knew about it.
"So when she first became ill, did her stool smell particularly bad?"
"Hey, kid! People eat all kinds of grains, so whose shit doesn't stink?" Widow Liu came to watch the fun without knowing when.
As a doctor, Qin Lai Di particularly hates it when someone irrelevant interrupts her when she is asking about a patient's condition. "I didn't ask you."
Although there was no anger on her face, her words were intimidating without even being angry. Add to that Cui Laowu's cold look and Widow Liu could only shut up in embarrassment.
"Yes, it stinks. The toilet she used was still smelly when I went in half an hour later."
Qin Lai Di nodded, "Was the stool black in the second year?"
"yes."
"After taking the medicine prescribed by Dr. He, my stool turned yellow, right?"
"right."
"Has Auntie Wu not had a bowel movement for seven or eight days?"
If what she heard before was told to her by Doctor He, then how did she know that the mother had not defecated for seven days?
It must be taking the pulse!
Cui Laowu was immediately excited. He had not met such an accurate doctor for a long time. They didn't say anything, but she could see it at once.
"Yes, yes, yes, it's been seven days. She's always had a bloated stomach and she can't relieve herself even if I bring her a basin." She was so sick that she didn't even have the strength to get off the kang and had to relieve herself on it.
Qin Lai Di nodded, knowing that she was right. This was typical black jaundice. The most feared thing about black jaundice is that it cannot be cured for a long time and develops into swelling, ascites, cirrhosis and even liver cancer. She quickly reached into the quilt and palpated the patient, focusing on the liver and gallbladder area, not missing a single spot.
Five minutes later, she breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, nothing had grown that shouldn't have. But this was just a preliminary diagnosis, and she would have to wait for an examination to know the details.
Unconsciously, Cui Laowu also breathed a sigh of relief and asked cautiously, "Laidi, tell me the truth, how many days do you have left?"
Everyone couldn't help but hold their breath.
Qin Lai Di frowned.
Cui Laowu misunderstood, and his eyes immediately turned red, with turbid tears streaming down the grooves on his face. "It's okay, just tell me what you want to say, uncle can bear it. The doctor at the hospital said that if I give him something nutritious, he may be able to last four or five days." But the family was penniless, where could he get nutritious food?
Thinking about how his wife had suffered all her life and couldn't even get a bite of meat to eat before her death, he was suddenly overwhelmed with grief. He squatted down and buried his head in his knees.
Everyone could only see his shaking shoulders but could not hear any crying, which was even more distressing than if he had cried loudly.
"Auntie Lao Wu's illness can still be cured."
“Wow!”
"Little Pepper, what are you talking about? This kind of thing is not something you can joke about!"
"That's right. The doctors in the city said that he only has four or five days to live. How can a young girl like you know better than others? Be careful that the Cui family will beat you up."
Everyone was talking at once, but Qin Lai Di didn't look at them. She only looked at Cui Lao Wu who was in shock. "Uncle Lao Wu, believe me, Aunt Lao Wu hasn't developed liver cancer yet. She still has a glimmer of hope."
At first, Cui Laowu thought she was talking nonsense, but he heard the word "liver cancer" from the director of the city hospital. Everyone found it strange. It was obviously not developed to the extent of liver cancer, so why was the patient's condition getting worse day by day? Lai Di knew that the mother had not developed liver cancer. Isn't this diagnosis the same as the director's! In connection with the result of the pulse just now, they didn't say a word during the whole process. All the symptoms were diagnosed by her own pulse... Lai Di might really have some skills!
"How do we cure it? Quick, give me a prescription. I'll go to the city to get the medicine tomorrow."
"What are you waiting for? Let's go tomorrow. Take our bike." Wang Lifen also came and waved her hand. When it came to a matter involving human lives, she didn't value her bike much.
But Qin Lai Di shook her head and said, "No need to go into the city, we have medicine in the mountains."
Everyone was stunned, "What medicine?"
"We have life-saving medicine in the mountains, how come I don't know about it?"
"I heard that ginseng can save lives, but we don't have it in the mountains..."
"Motherwort." Lai Di said lightly.
The crowd was excited again, "We are eating that wild vegetable in the spring?"
"Wild vegetables can cure diseases, don't be bragging!"
"This is the first time I've heard of this in my life. Lai Di, don't be..." Widow Liu pinched her throat.
"Shut up!" Cui Laowu glared at her fiercely and motioned Lai Di to continue.
Qin Lai Di's memory improved a lot after her rebirth. The prescriptions and medicinal properties she had memorized before were like engraved in her mind. "The scientific name of dandelion is dandelion, which enters the liver meridian and has the effects of clearing away heat and detoxifying, protecting the liver and promoting bile secretion... Wait, Old Fifth Aunt will be able to defecate in less than half an hour."
You can tell whether it is effective or not at a glance.
Cui Laowu's eyes lit up. Yes, the doctor said today that the mother's bowel movement might last for two or three days. Since the effect can be seen in half an hour, why not give it a try?
"Big brother, hurry up!"
The two sons of the Cui family, who were originally nearby, hurriedly asked Lai Di what kind of dandelions she wanted, old or young, those with flowers, and whether they needed roots... They wrote down Lai Di's request and ran up the mountain. For the first time in their lives, they saw light in their father's eyes. Perhaps there was still hope for their family.
Qin Lai Di wanted to go home very much. After all, it was getting late. An 18-year-old would either be hungry or on her way to being hungry. But everyone surrounded her and asked her questions, and she could hardly get anything to say. Even Wang Lifen pulled her along, asking for medical advice for some minor ailments. She really couldn't leave for a while.
Soon, the dandelions were dug up. The dandelions were very old at this time of year and could not be eaten for cooking. They boiled the leaves and roots into a pot of dark green soup and fed it to Auntie Wu. Everyone was even more reluctant to go home. Even though it was already dark, they still gathered at Cui's house and asked the members wearing watches, "What time is it now?"
"We just fed it to her. Lai Di said it would take effect in half an hour. Do you really believe her?" Ever since Liu Sanhu was arrested, Widow Liu has become even more weird.
Wang Lifen scolded her, "If you don't believe me, go home. What are you doing here?"
“I’m not…” I’m curious too.
For the first time, the members of Wulitun felt that time passed so slowly. It was as if every second felt like a year. They looked at their watches, asked the time, and some even couldn't help asking Cui's daughter-in-law who was serving them in the inner room, "How is it?"
"Is your mother-in-law here?"
Lai Di was not in a hurry. She looked carefully at the Cui family's yard. The Cui family used to have some wealth. The old house was very large and spacious, with two entrances and sixteen rooms. Unfortunately, they had spent all their savings on medical treatment in the past few years. Everything that could be sold or exchanged at home became medicine money. They didn't even have a bench.
"I'm sorry, but I don't have anything good to offer you. How about..." Before Cui Laowu finished speaking, he suddenly heard his daughter-in-law stuttering and shouting, "Hurry up, my mom needs to poop!"
Rural people don’t care about this.
"Donkey, look, what time is it now?"
"Exactly 28 minutes, less than half an hour!"
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