Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 534: Chapter 534: An Accurate Diagnosis, An Effective Treatment

’How could I have forgotten so many useful clues?’

Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes the importance of identifying the primary symptoms.

The boy might have AIDS and a cryptococcal infection, but those were just the "branches."

The true "root" of the problem lay in the patient’s completely collapsed spleen and kidney functions.

It lay in the long-term, misdiagnosed, and mistreated malnutrition.

The viruses were an external factor. The depletion of his own vital energy was the fundamental reason his condition had deteriorated so rapidly and why conventional anti-infective treatments were ineffective.

It was like a fortress. The city walls (his immunity) had already crumbled, and the supply lines (his nutrition) were cut off.

If you only focused on driving out the invading enemies (the viruses) without repairing the walls or bringing in supplies, the fortress was doomed to fall sooner or later.

Lin Guorui’s mind was racing.

’There are many types of malnutrition syndrome: heart, liver, spleen, lung, and kidney malnutrition.’

’Which specific type did the patient have?’

’If the diagnosis is wrong and the medicine doesn’t match the syndrome, the child might really not survive.’

He was uncertain, so he turned to Li Xu for help. "Doctor Li, in your opinion... which organ’s malnutrition syndrome is this?"

Li Xu didn’t stand on ceremony. He stepped forward, pointed to several of the child’s key physical signs, and said:

"Look. The patient has bleeding gums and foul breath; this is stomach fire flaring upwards and kidney-deficiency fire. His feet are cold as ice; this is a decline of kidney yang and the fire of the life gate. The abdominal pain and diarrhea point to an unstable kidney gate and pre-dawn diarrhea. His incessant crying is due to fear causing a downward flow of qi, damaging the kidney’s resolve."

"Add to that his enlarged head, emaciated limbs, and delayed teething."

Li Xu said, enunciating each word, "This is... Kidney Malnutrition."

So-called "Kidney Malnutrition" is when the malnutrition syndrome has progressed to an extremely deep and severe stage, leading to a serious depletion of kidney essence and even kidney qi failure.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the kidneys store essence and govern growth and development.

In the five elements, the kidney belongs to water. It is the yin within yin, corresponds to the bones, opens into the ears and the two lower orifices, and its condition manifests in the hair.

The child’s enlarged head, emaciated limbs, delayed teething, and delayed walking were all clear signs of extreme kidney qi deficiency and obstructed bone development.

Furthermore, his dark, sallow complexion (the color associated with the kidneys), bleeding gums, foul breath, ice-cold feet, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and incessant crying were all critical signs of kidney qi failure and a deficiency of both yin and yang.

This was also why the Western antiviral treatments had been ineffective—the child’s very "root" was about to break.

Lin Guorui and the others had a sudden realization, as if a veil had been lifted.

"So that’s how it is. That’s how it is."

"No wonder the antibiotics weren’t working. This isn’t a simple infection at all; the body’s entire foundation has collapsed."

The next step was simple: prescribe the medicine.

Now that they had clearly identified it as Kidney Malnutrition, they needed an extremely specific formula designed for this condition of "extreme deficiency combined with stagnation."

Li Xu picked up a pen and quickly wrote out a prescription:

"Dried toad (five, eviscerated and charred to preserve its properties), Picrorhiza and Huang Lian (10g each), carpesium fruit (6g), roasted nutmeg, bark of chinaberry root, omphalia, raw Aloe Vera, and elm seed cake (10g each)."

After writing, he handed the prescription to Lin Guorui, his expression solemn. "Director Lin, take this to the Chinese pharmacy yourself. Supervise the pharmacist. Have them prepare it overnight. It must be administered tonight."

"Remember, it needs to be made into pills. Grind the ingredients into an extremely fine powder, use flour paste to form them into pills the size of a mung bean, and coat them with realgar. The dose is fifteen pills each time, and they must be taken with millet porridge."

"You are personally responsible for this. There can be no mistakes at this stage."

Lin Guorui took the prescription, glanced at it, and was taken aback.

Most of the herbs in this formula were potent medicines that were bitter, cold, antiparasitic, and purgative. It even included a toxic substance like dried toad.

"Doctor Li, what is this formula?" Lin Guorui asked.

’This was an ancient formula provided by the system’s intelligence, a secret recipe specifically for treating "Kidney Malnutrition following acute convulsions."’

’It didn’t have a recorded name.’

After a moment of contemplation, Li Xu said, "It’s nameless. Since we’re using dried toad as the monarch ingredient, let’s call it... the Golden Toad Pill."

"But just killing parasites and clearing stagnation isn’t enough. The child is too weak. He needs to be strengthened."

Li Xu wrote another prescription. "One hour after taking the Golden Toad Pill each day, give him this additional medicine."

"The Nine-Flavor Rehmannia Pill."

"Rehmannia Glutinosa and Cornelian Cherry flesh (15g each), red Poria Cocos, alisma, peony root bark, dry-fried Mountain Yam, Danggui, Sichuan chinaberry fruit, and Rangoon creeper fruit flesh (9g each)."

This was based on the Six-Flavor Rehmannia Pill, with the addition of Danggui to nourish the blood, Sichuan chinaberry fruit to move qi and stop pain, and Rangoon creeper to kill parasites and clear stagnation.

It was a two-pronged approach, reinforcing the kidney qi while also clearing out residual toxins.

"Okay, I’ll go prepare it now."

Lin Guorui knew what was at stake. Without another word, he took the prescriptions and ran.

"Doctor Li, you can go about your business. I’ll keep an eye on things here," the doctor on duty said.

Li Xu shook his head. "No, I’m staying. The first dose is the most critical. I need to monitor the child’s reaction."

...

「That night」

The lights in the hospital room stayed on.

Lin Guorui personally walked in carrying a small bowl of black, mung-bean-sized pills and a bowl of thick millet porridge.

With trembling hands, Zhao Chunxiang followed Li Xu’s instructions, mixing the pills into the millet porridge and feeding it to the child, little by little.

The child was still whimpering, but perhaps due to the aroma of the porridge or the fact that the pills didn’t have a strong, strange taste, he obediently ate it all.

An hour later, the decoction of the Nine-Flavor Rehmannia Pill was also administered.

Then came the wait.

A long wait.

In the middle of the night, the child’s persistent low-grade fever miraculously began to drop.

It fell from 38.5 degrees to 37.2 degrees Celsius.

What was even more surprising was that for the entire night, the child didn’t cry incessantly as he usually did. Instead, he fell into a deep sleep.

Although his breathing was still a bit rapid, it was far steadier than the death-like gasps from before.

「The next morning.」

Zhao Chunxiang was delighted to discover that her son had a bowel movement.

Although it was still foul-smelling and unformed, it was mixed with a lot of mucus that looked like snot, as well as some hard, black lumps.

Li Xu took a look and nodded. "This is a sign of the stagnation being expelled. That’s impacted stool and toxins from the intestines. Continue the medicine."

On the third day, the child’s spirits had noticeably improved.

He was no longer in a stupor with his eyes always closed. When he woke up, he would even call out for his "Mama." Though his voice was weak, a spark had finally returned to his eyes.

Most importantly, he was starting to show a real appetite. It wasn’t the false hunger of "eating then vomiting" anymore; he could now drink a small, full bowl of millet porridge without throwing up.

This was a sign that his digestive function was recovering.

With his digestive function restored, his body could absorb the medicine and take in nutrients.

He got better day by day.

「A week later.」

When Li Xu entered the hospital room again, the sight before him brought a gratified smile to his face.

On the bed, the little boy who had once been as thin as a skeleton was still frail, and his head still seemed a bit large, but the deathly pallor on his dark, sallow face had finally receded, replaced by a faint, healthy blush.

His once-shriveled skin had regained a bit of luster and elasticity, no longer resembling dry tree bark.

He was now sitting up in bed, holding a toy car. Though his movements were still slow, he could already play by himself.

Seeing Li Xu enter, Zhao Chunxiang dropped to her knees with a THUD, but Li Xu quickly caught her and helped her up.

"Divine Physician Li, you’re a true savior!"

Zhao Chunxiang was in tears. "My baby’s alive. He’s really alive."

Li Xu gently patted the child’s head. The boy actually grinned at him, revealing his sparse little teeth.

"I’m glad he’s alive," Li Xu said softly.

Although the AIDS was still there and the cryptococcus still required antifungal treatment, the boy’s life had been thoroughly snatched back from the hands of King Yama.

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