Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Do sign the informed consent form. After this, we will be giving you a colon cleanse.” Ma Yanlin brought an informed consent form over and passed it to the patient, Dou Shan so that he could read it. He then asked, “Where’re your family members?”
“They’re in the ward.” Dou Shan was lying on his back, and he spoke a little arduously.
Ma Yanlin looked around and saw that there were still patients queueing up. “Then, go ahead and sign the form first. I’ll inform your family members later. It’s just a minor surgery, anyway.”
“Can’t I go without it? I’m just having a bit of a headache and feeling a little weak. I got caught in the rain yesterday, so I have a fever…” Dou Shan was merely an honest farmer in Bazhaixiang, and he reared a few sows on the side so that he could make money out of the piglets they gave birth to. He did not have medical insurance, and he had no faith in hospitals either. His brain was shutting down at the sound of the word “surgery”.
Ma Yanlin knew what was on Dou Shan’s mind just by looking at his expression.
Even though Ma Yanlin was considered an inexperienced doctor in the Ling Treatment Group, if you were to factor in his internship, he had been a doctor for six years. Along with his years as a medical student, he had been in the field of medicine for over ten years. If he were in another profession, he would be part of the backbone of the company already. But in the hospital, he was nothing but a junior resident doctor.
Dou Shan was an inexperienced patient. After he took the informed consent form, he looked like he wanted to sign it but was too afraid to.
When Ma Yanlin saw this, he had no choice but to explain, “We’re mainly cleaning your colon right now, with the purpose of looking at the condition of your colon…”
Ma Yanlin spent some time explaining things to Dou Shan, and even though Dou Shan did not really understand anything, because of how amicable and patient Ma Yanlin was, he could feel less of a gap between them. So, he ended up signing the informed consent form.
Ma Yanlin took the informed consent form from him and turned to pass it to Qi Zao, the medical intern who was standing guard beside Ma Yanlin and seemed a little dumb. “keep this. All informed consent forms have to be filed.”
“Okay.” Qi Zao took the form and subconsciously glanced at it. She suddenly burst out laughing.
“What’s the matter?” Ma Yanlin furrowed his eyebrows. ‘How can she laugh in the patient’s face?’
Qi Zao realized that she had made a mistake too. She immediately stopped laughing. While she was at it, she pointed at the emergency contact column on the form for Ma Yanlin to see.
Ma Yanlin looked at it and saw that to the right of the subheading “relationship with the other party”, which was under the heading “emergency contact”, Dou Shan had written two words—pretty good.
“Pfft…”
Ma Yanlin swallowed his laughter and snorted instead.
A doctor must have been in the field of medicine for ten years to be able to swallow his laughter in such a natural manner by making a sound that did not sound like laughter at all.
“Ask him to fill in a new form.” Ma Yanlin did not turn as he was worried that he would not be able to hold back his laughter. A doctor must have been in the field of medicine for fifteen years to be able to hold back laughter while looking at the patient’s face.
Qi Zao held back her laughter so hard that her eyes turned red. She lowered her head and hummed in acknowledgment. She pretended to be rummaging for the informed consent form, but she was actually laughing to her heart’s content. Only when she was done laughing did she emerge. This time, she went to look for the patient’s family member so that the family member could sign the informed consent form together with the patient.
The patient ingested polyethylene glycol-electrolyte solution.
He then emptied his bowels.
His feces was sent for a pathological examination.
When all the preparations were done, Yu Yuan, who had just completed her tasks at hand, happened to pass by the examination room and saw that Ma Yanlin was preparing to carry out a colonoscopy.
Ling Ran, too, walked into the examination room at about the same time.
“You have not gotten started yet?” Ling Ran glanced at Ma Yanlin.
“I’ll immediately do it…” Ma Yanlin looked to the right a little diffidently.
It was only then that Ling Ran noticed that Yu Yuan was there. He asked, “How’s the situation regarding infection control?”
“There are quite a lot of problems, but because Yunli Medical Company helped transport some patients away, there are fewer patients in the hospital now. I feel that right now, we should put our main focus on categorizing patients,” Yu Yuan quickly answered.
Ling Ran nodded. The scope of infection control was specific but large, and it was something that a person would need to investigate personally before he had the right to speak. Ling Ran had no time for it right then, so he had no choice but to recognize Yu Yuan’s work.
After all, the Ling Treatment Group had been executing infection control in Yun Hua Hospital for a long time, so its members were pretty experienced in it already. Yu Yuan had enough knowledge to handle the infection control of a village hospital.
Even if Ling Ran were to join Yu Yuan in her efforts, the infection control would not necessarily be better. Moreover, with the Bazhaixiang hospital branch’s situation right now, the quality of infection control that could be achieved did not really depend on the doctors’ skills.
It was just like the categorization of patients. If they did not receive help from Yunli Medical Company, they would not have been able to carry it out this well.
From what Ling Ran could see right then, it was considered quite a feat to be able to achieve all this in the span of one day.
“Since Yu Yuan is here, both of you can carry out the colonoscopy together.” Ling Ran stood aside with his hands clasped behind his back.
Internationally, colonoscopes that only needed to be operated by one person were more commonly used. However, as the Bazhaixiang hospital branch was not equipped with the newest technology, they were still using the traditional kind of colonoscopes that had to be operated by two people.
Ling Ran did not like to carry out colonoscopies, anyway. Since Yu Yuan was around, he let her do it.
Yu Yuan immediately laughed out loud, and she did not bother to put on a polite front and say no. She took the position of the chief surgeon and ordered Ma Yanlin, “Intramuscular injection of 654-2.”
She sounded so forceful that it was as if a four-feet-seven canon was being fired.
“Intramuscular injection of 654-2,” Ma Yanlin repeated. He did not mind giving up the position of the chief surgeon, as Yu Yuan was a lot more experienced than him. She was basically his senior.
Next, a tube full of raceanisodamine was injected.
Yu Yuan then placed a cotton ball that was sterilized using 1% lidocaine into a steel tube. Two or three minutes later, she excitedly got started.
The patient was lying on the examination bed, and he did not look like he cared about anything anymore.
Everyone who was going through a colonoscopy, especially the men, basically had the same expression. It was as if they had practiced it beforehand in an acting class catered for people who were going to receive a colonoscopy.
Yu Yuan glanced at his wrinkly face and saw that the changes in his facial expression were normal. She then focused on his anus.
Ling Ran looked at the screen too.
The patient had been experiencing anemia and fatigue for a long time, and the first impression a doctor would get from these symptoms was that the patient was suffering from gastrointestinal bleeding. If the doctor were to make further deductions from there, the diagnosis would not really be an optimistic one.
On the other hand, the patient’s abdomen was soft, without any tenderness or rebound tenderness. His abdominal muscles were not tensed either.
From the information he had at that moment, Ling Ran could not really give an exact diagnosis.
However, surgeons had always been very hands-on when it came to making diagnoses. They were not like internists who would think long and hard before making a diagnosis. Instead, they would carry out all kinds of tests and examinations and use them as the basis for their diagnosis.
Ling Ran’s main weapon when it came to making diagnoses was physical examination. He would then add on to the information obtained by sending his patients for medical imaging.
He became renowned courtesy of his surgical skills. Hence, even though he had been providing consultations, most of the patients who sought him out were those who had an idea of what ailments they were suffering from. Hence, Ling Ran rarely had to make diagnoses from scratch.
Therefore, to Ling Ran, this patient was quite a breath of fresh air.
“Wait a moment, I think I saw something just now.” Ling Ran furrowed his eyebrows when he saw a yellow lump flashing past the screen.
Yu Yuan adjusted the lens in a flurry.
She was not that experienced in colonoscopy, and she was not familiar with the colonoscope used in the Bazhaixiang hospital branch either. Of course, it was mainly because she was not good with her hands.
“It seems normal.” Yu Yuan paid attention to the structures inside the colon. After it was cleared, the interior of the colon was pretty clean. It was basically just full of flesh-colored cylindrical structures that were covered in capillaries. An ordinary person would not be creeped out by the sight if they did not think much about it.
By now, Yu Yuan was already inspecting the middle section of the ascending colon. She did not detect any problem such as bleeding. She was quite confident when it came to her knowledge regarding the anatomy of the colon.
Ling Ran shook his head gently. “Continue to push the lens inwards.”
For colonoscopes that needed to be operated by two people, the chief surgeon would be responsible for moving the lens up and down as well as to the left and to the right. Meanwhile, the assistant would be pushing the lens inwards and pulling the lens outwards.
The patient groaned as Ma Yanlin pushed the lens inwards.
“There’s no abnormalities…” Even though Yu Yuan was trying her best to steady the lens, the lens was still shaking violently.
“Let me do it.” Ling Ran had been standing guard beside them, and he took over Yu Yuan’s position. He placed his left hand on the button that controlled the lens’ upwards and downwards movement and slowly moved the colonoscope with his right hand. The surgical field immediately widened.
“Push the lens inwards,” Ling Ran ordered.
Ma Yanlin immediately got to work. Yu Yuan had no choice but to stand obediently behind them. She pouted, and this made her look like a radical symbol being squashed flat.
Compared with Yu Yuan, the view on the screen was a lot more stable and clearer when Ling Ran operated the colonoscope. The surgical field was also easier on the eyes. The angle at which the lens was placed was also what doctors were more familiar with.
Ma Yanlin was learning how to use a colonoscope as he pushed the lens inwards. The yellow lump appeared on the screen again.
“That’s not a pile of shit…” It only took one glance for Yu Yuan to recognize what it was.
Ling Ran hummed in acknowledgment and said, “Can you push the lens inwards a little faster?”
When he heard that, Ma Yanlin upped his speed a little. Ling Ran adjusted the angle of the lens as well as the direction of the light that was shining on the surgical field, which gave them a clearer view of the yellow lump.
It was a yellow and flat object in the shape of a worm.
It was folded together, and it was much flatter and wider to the worms people usually saw in the wild.
From what could be seen in the surgical field, it was around 15 to 19 inches long. Besides, half of the worm-shaped object was attached to the colon wall, and it was sliding around the colon like a long and wide boat.
It was sliding quickly around the colon, and it looked so comfortable that it was as if it was in its natural habitat. A person could easily relate this sight to a teenage boy on a skateboard who was sliding up and down a tunnel.
Youthful, enthusiastic, yellow, and parasitic…
