The next day, Tian Cai went up the mountain again. She had seen a lot of medicinal herbs in the mountains yesterday. She thought that she would not be able to pick them when the weather got colder, so she might as well pick more now while the weather was good.
Tian Cai took a small medicine hoe and picked any herbs she knew and put them in her backpack. Within an hour, the basket was full. She pressed it hard and put some more in before going down the mountain.
This time she collected common medicines. She should prepare more of the medicines for treating colds, such as Bupleurum, Platycodon, and Chuanxiong. Colds will become more frequent when the weather gets cold, and it will be bad if there are not enough medicines. She also collected some analgesics and anti-inflammatory medicines.
Moreover, she planned to add dew to all the pills this time, so that if there were not enough medicinal materials, she could make up for it with quality.
Last night, when the production team meeting ended, Zhang Defa came to see her. The busy farming season was about to begin, so he asked her to check on the villagers before the busy season, treat the sick, and not delay the harvest in a few days. In at most half a month, the millet and corn in the fields could be harvested.
Tian Cai collected some medicinal herbs that mainly promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis. She has to prepare and grind them in the next two days. It is quite a big job.
She placed several bamboo screens in the backyard and front yard of her house. The supports below were made from the cut bamboo. She simply washed the medicinal materials and dried them separately on the bamboo screens. She turned them over every once in a while during the strong sunlight at noon.
While she was sorting through the medicinal herbs, Carpenter Chen and his son came over on a flatbed cart, delivering her a medicine cabinet and desk.
The two men helped Tian Cai carry it into the house and placed it in the place she specified.
As soon as the cabinet was put in, the whole room immediately looked different. When she customized the medicine cabinet, she told Carpenter Chen that it didn't need any patterns, just a handle on each small drawer that could be pulled open. There was no need to label the names of the herbs on the outside, as she could remember as many as she wanted with her good memory.
Tian Cai measured the medicine cabinet and desk himself, and now the two pieces of furniture fill up one wall, giving the place more and more of the feel of an old pharmacy.
Carpenter Chen saw the coffee table and benches made by Tian Cai in the main room and asked her, "Did you make them yourself?"
Tian Cai felt a little embarrassed and nodded.
"I have a plane. Come and get it if you need it. All the burrs on the board need to be cleaned up." Carpenter Chen couldn't help but say a few more words when he saw someone skilled at it. "First, plane the burrs off the board and make sure it's flat before nailing it together."
When Tian Cai heard that he was willing to lend her his carpentry tools, she hurriedly grinned and thanked him. She had been thinking that if she had a plane, she would be able to do it herself. Since she happened to be in need of a diagnosis bed, she decided to try it herself.
Tian Cai simply followed Carpenter Chen and his son back home and borrowed all the tools she thought could be used. The Chen family didn't only have this set of tools, and the ones lent to Tian Cai were all used when he was just starting out.
Tian Cai turned the medicinal herbs over, didn't even bother to eat, and went up the mountain with a saw to find suitable wood.
By the time Tian Cai came back with a bundle of wood as thick as his calf, only half an hour had passed.
She moved all the herbs to the backyard, spread out the tools on the ground, and began to immerse herself in the ocean of wood.
In the afternoon, Luo Xiuyan came to play with Tian Cai. Seeing that she wanted to make a medical bed by herself, she took the initiative to stay and help. Luo Xiuyan felt bored at home alone, so her mother and aunt took Bingbing to the county.
The two of them gestured and spent half an afternoon making the rough outline of the examination bed. The remaining details could be worked out later.
Although the bed was a little shaky, it was my first time doing it, so it was normal to have some flaws.
There were already a lot of wood shavings on the ground. Tian Cai asked her to take some back home, "Go back and dry them first. They are very useful for starting fires."
She put the examination bed in the yard to dry in the sun and remove the moisture from the wood. In fact, the wood should be dried before use, but she was impatient and could not wait.
Tian Cai went to the backyard to check on the medicinal herbs and found that they were almost dry after being exposed to the sun for most of the day. Only the Platycodon grandiflorum was still a little damp, so he put it away and continued to dry it tomorrow.
After dinner in the evening, Tian Cai continued to deal with medicinal herbs. Some needed to be steamed, some needed to be fried, and then the medicinal herbs that only needed to be dried were ground into powder, and dew was added when they were ready to be made into ointment.
The next day, I repeated the same process as the previous day. I went up the mountain to collect herbs, then came back to dry and prepare them. After a few days, I had accumulated a full cloth bag of each kind.
It started raining after breakfast that day. Tian Cai could not go up the mountain, and the production team members could not go to the fields to work. So Zhang Defa asked Tian Cai to move the commonly used medicines to the brigade headquarters, and everyone took turns to come to see the doctor.
"You have bloodshot eyes, tinnitus, ear swelling, and sometimes nosebleeds," Tian Cai briefly felt his pulse and asked about his symptoms, then prescribed the right medicine. "Sir, you're suffering from internal heat. Try to be more positive about everything. Just boil some dandelion and drink it. I won't prescribe any medicine for you."
"You have back and leg pain, which you didn't have before. Auntie, you are tired. Whether it's housework or farm work, let others share some of the work. Don't exhaust yourself. You don't need to take medicine, just rest more and you will be fine."
"You feel dizzy, your head is not clear, you are short of breath and cough easily. Auntie, you have too much dampness. I will prescribe some dampness-removing medicine for you. Go home and boil the medicine and take it for a few days and see how it goes."
…
"Oh, Dr. Oda is amazing! I've had this problem for years!"
"That's right! I didn't even realize what was wrong with me, but Doctor Oda saw it with just two sentences. We're so lucky!"
…
For several days, there was a constant stream of people coming to the brigade headquarters for treatment. Everyone was impressed by Tian Cai's medical skills. Sometimes, they would even find symptoms that they hadn't noticed, but Dr. Tian would immediately point them out! Only then did they realize that this was really the case. It turned out that the details they hadn't noticed were actually symptoms of the disease.
Those who originally thought they were not sick and were unwilling to come also gathered around. Those who were sick came to see the doctor, and those who were not sick could only feel at ease after receiving Tian Cai's affirmation.
After seeing off Grandpa Chen, who always had stomachache, Tian Cai stretched her head to look outside. Seeing that there was no one there, she breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed her shoulders. She thought, "Oh, she has been so tired these days that her voice is hoarse from talking."
Looking at the medicinal materials that had been basically cleared out, Tian Cai felt a little headache. He still owed medicine to several families, and he had to go up the mountain when the weather cleared up.
After these few days of practical experience, she has benefited a lot. Many of the pulse cases that she had only seen in medical books have been verified by her. However, there are still some things she is not sure about, so she will go back to look through the medical books and then go to her home to check.
At least there are no difficult or complicated diseases. Life is hard for people in the countryside nowadays. These are all relatively common diseases, either caused by fatigue or malnutrition. She has never heard of anyone suffering from high blood pressure, high blood lipids, cerebral infarction, etc.
After saying hello to Chen Defa, Tian Cai went home in the drizzle. It had been raining for three days in a row, but it had never been heavy. The team leader said that after a few days of sunny weather, it would be time to start harvesting.
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