Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 533: Chapter 533: Re-diagnosis

Faced with a classic set of symptoms.

Everyone had been so focused on killing the virus that they’d forgotten to inquire about the child himself, the one being tormented to within an inch of his life.

The patient’s current symptoms—extreme emaciation, separated cranial sutures, diarrhea, undigested food in his stool—were they truly all caused by the Cryptococcus infection?

Or was this merely a trigger, while the true root of the problem was that the child’s own organ functions had completely collapsed?

Lin Guorui began to reflect deeply.

Just as Li Xu had reminded him, had he overlooked the most crucial point of all—the most fundamental respect for the patient and the illness?

’Have I ignored the timeless principle that a diagnosis must be comprehensive, using all four methods in concert, never favoring one or abandoning another?’

’And what about me?’

’Had I done that?’

"Let’s go. To the ward."

Lin Guorui shot to his feet. "We’re going to re-examine him."

「...」

The large group proceeded to the patient’s room.

Pushing open the door, they saw Zhao Chunxiang in the middle of feeding her son.

The small bedside table was laden with food—a veritable feast.

There was beef stewed until meltingly tender, a large bowl of glistening chicken soup, and a carton of expensive pure milk.

After all, the little boy was far too thin.

As a mother, Zhao Chunxiang would even borrow money to try and get her child to eat a little more, eat a little better, thinking it would help him put on weight.

"Here, sweetie, have another sip of chicken soup. It’ll build up your strength," Zhao Chunxiang coaxed.

The boy managed a small sip but immediately gagged, clearly in discomfort.

Seeing this, a flash of insight struck Lin Guorui.

He hurried over, stopping the hand Zhao Chunxiang was using to offer the boy some milk. "Ma’am, let me ask you something. When he was a baby, besides breast milk, what did he normally eat?"

Zhao Chunxiang paused, setting down the bowl and chopsticks. "Director Lin, actually... my son has eaten very well ever since he was little."

"We may live in a village, and our family isn’t well-off, but... when it comes to our child, we’ve never been stingy."

"He’s never gone without eggs, meat, goat’s milk, or cow’s milk. As long as he wanted to eat something, we’d get it for him, even if we had to go without."

"The thing is, he’s been a bit thin since he was born, and I didn’t produce much milk, so we were so afraid he wasn’t getting enough. We did our best to give him the very best food."

"Plus, he has a heavy palate and loves fatty meat, so we’d get him more of it to eat."

"We were so scared he would be too skinny."

Zhao Chunxiang sighed. "But... after he turned two, he just wouldn’t gain weight no matter how much he ate. It was so strange. He wasn’t growing taller, either. We were very worried."

"So, when it comes to food, we really didn’t shortchange him. He probably ate even better than kids in the city."

When Lin Guorui heard this, he was stunned as if struck by lightning.

He turned to Li Xu, his eyes filled with admiration.

’Doctor Li is truly incredible.’

’He saw right to the heart of the problem in a single glance.’

Based on the mother’s description, combined with the child’s typical signs of being "emaciated to the bone, with a drum-like abdomen and separated cranial sutures," Lin Guorui finally recalled an extremely classic pediatric illness in Traditional Chinese Medicine—

Gan syndrome.

It was also known colloquially as "infantile wasting disease."

This wasn’t simple malnutrition at all, but "food stagnation and accumulation leading to Gan syndrome," caused by "improper feeding."

The child’s spleen and stomach were already weak, and with his low immunity from AIDS, his parents, in their eagerness to dote on him, had been feeding him large amounts of rich, sweet, and greasy foods for a long time.

It was like frantically pouring jet fuel into a broken-down car with a bad engine.

There could only be one outcome—the engine would completely blow out.

The transport and transformation functions of the spleen and stomach were completely paralyzed. The food accumulated in the body, turning into damp-heat and pathogenic toxins. Not only could no nutrients be absorbed, but the food itself became a poison that consumed the body.

That was why the more the child ate, the thinner he became; the more "nutrition" he was given, the weaker he grew.

This was the direct culprit behind the child’s current condition.

The Cryptococcus was merely an accomplice that took advantage of his weakened state.

「...」

Some of the other doctors were also starting to understand.

They began discussing it in low voices.

Li Xu also recalled the information he had researched over the past two days.

Pediatric Gan accumulation. This illness might have been common in the old days, but in today’s era of material abundance, especially in cities, it was rarely seen.

Its typical features included listlessness, a sallow and gaunt complexion, brittle and dry hair, a distended abdomen with prominent veins, poor appetite, and loose stools.

It was most common in children between the ages of one and five.

Its root cause was just as the ancient texts stated: "The root of the illness is damage to the spleen from milk and food."

An improper diet—especially overfeeding or improper feeding, such as premature and excessive intake of rich, sweet, and greasy foods—damages the delicate spleen and stomach, causing them to fail in their transport and transformation functions.

Nutrients are not only not absorbed but instead turn into waste inside the body, obstructing the generation of qi, blood, and vital essence. Ultimately, the organs are left unnourished and gradually become depleted.

However, looking at the little boy on the hospital bed, who was no longer just "sallow and gaunt" but had reached the stage of being "emaciated to the bone, with separated cranial sutures," Li Xu knew this was clearly not a simple case of Gan accumulation.

A passage from the *Medical Golden Mirror: Pediatrics Heart Method Essentials* surfaced in his mind:

"In adults it is ’consumption’; in children, ’Gan.’ The root is damage to the spleen from milk and food. Unrestrained sweet and rich foods generate accumulative heat, which simmers away the qi, blood, and bodily fluids. Initial signs are murky urine and afternoon fevers. In time, blue veins appear on a large, hard abdomen; the face turns sallow-green and muscles waste away; skin and hair become withered, and the eyes grow listless."

What did this passage mean?

It meant that if an adult over fifteen developed this kind of wasting illness, it was called a "consumptive disease" (lao bing), like tuberculosis. For a child under fifteen, however, it was called "Gan syndrome."

The reason is that a child is born with weak qi and blood and delicate organs, yet due to being overfed milk and food, or from a long-term, unrestrained diet of fatty meats and sweets, food stagnates in the stomach, unable to be digested.

Over time, this stagnation transforms into heat. This internal heat acts like a slow fire, constantly simmering away the child’s qi, blood, and bodily fluids.

In the early stages of Gan syndrome, the most typical symptoms are urine as murky as rice-washing water and a low-grade fever in the afternoon.

If not treated at this stage, it will eventually lead to a large, hard abdomen with prominent blue veins, a sallow-green complexion, extreme muscle emaciation, dry and withered skin and hair, and sunken, lifeless eyes...

This was the manifestation of full-blown "Gan syndrome."

Evidently, Lin Guorui had thought of this as well.

He asked urgently, "Ma’am, when the child was three or four, right when he started getting thin, was his urine often very murky? Like rice-washing water? And were his stools always unformed?"

Hearing this, Zhao Chunxiang nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, that’s right! Director Lin, you’re incredible!"

"During that time, his urine was always white, and sometimes it was yellow and thick. We took him to the local clinic, and the doctor said it was a urinary disorder, maybe a UTI, and gave him some anti-inflammatory drugs. But they didn’t really work; it just kept coming back."

As Lin Guorui listened, he couldn’t help but smack himself on the forehead in frustration.

SMACK!

The crisp sound startled everyone.

"I’ve been so foolish, so stupid, and so careless," Lin Guorui reproached himself.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!