Chapter 99: Human CT

Chapter 99: Chapter 99: Human CT

It was Monday again, the start of a new week.

As always, Yan Feifan woke up at six a.m. sharp, got out of bed, washed up, and did his morning workout.

Then he went to the entrance of his residential complex and, depending on his mood, picked a small shop for breakfast.

At a little before ten to seven, Yan Feifan rode his bike to the Affiliated Hospital to start his day.

Today, he was back in the plastic surgery center, studying techniques for nose surgery under Director Wang Chuan...

Yan Feifan also learned from Wang Chuan that the two students from Binhai Film Academy, Zhao Xiaoting and Qin Yue, had been discharged the previous afternoon.

As for the A-list celebrity Jin Bo, he had woken up and quietly left the plastic surgery center in the early morning hours after his surgery.

This meant the entertainment reporters and new media personalities who had been waiting so patiently for a scoop had wasted their time...

Around ten o’clock that morning, the welfare home sent two more children to the plastic surgery center for detailed physical examinations.

One of the two children was Jingjing, a girl with a malformed right hand whom Yu Suye had selected.

The other was Qiqi, a nine-year-old girl with a deformed nose, whom Yan Feifan had selected as his next surgical case.

Qiqi had an upturned nose; not only was the bridge underdeveloped and short, but she also had an extremely rare single-nostril nose.

Yan Feifan and Yu Suye would use the data from the children’s detailed examinations to formulate a surgical plan for each of them...

Since they had a class with their instructor, Qin Ying, that morning, Yan Feifan and Yu Suye could only use their lunch break to meet with the two children for a direct physical examination and to speak with them...

Around one p.m., the two of them hurried back to the emergency department for their practical training...

At around 3:30 in the afternoon, just as they were catching their breath after a busy period, a nurse called both Yan Feifan and Yu Suye into an examination room.

There, Yan Feifan saw a pregnant woman in her early thirties lying on the examination bed. Her face was pale, her forehead was beaded with sweat, and her belly was swollen.

Standing beside the bed and holding her hand was an anxious-looking man in his thirties with a crew cut.

On the other side of the bed stood Wan Yuming, the director of the emergency department.

Just then, two relatively young attending physicians, Gao Jin and Li Hao, also entered the room.

"Patient Lv Qiujuan, thirty-one years old, twenty-one weeks pregnant. According to the patient’s own account, she began to feel a dull pain in her abdomen at eleven a.m. yesterday."

Mr. Wan personally began the case presentation. "After a night’s rest, the dull pain subsided."

"However, at two o’clock this afternoon, she suddenly developed severe abdominal pain, accompanied by nausea and vomiting."

"A preliminary check shows a normal fetal heart rate, and the fetus appears to be fine."

"The mother’s basic vital signs are also within the normal range."

"We’re still waiting on the results from the blood and urine tests..."

At this, Mr. Wan’s gaze swept over Yan Feifan, Yu Suye, Gao Jin, and Li Hao. He continued, "Because of the pregnancy, and at the patient’s firm insistence, we can’t perform any imaging tests like ultrasounds, CT scans, X-rays, or MRIs."

"So..."

Mr. Wan paused, then said, "So, while we wait for the lab results, I’ve called the four of you, my best and brightest, over here to diagnose the patient."

"A lot of people say..."

Mr. Wan scoffed. "that without the help of our machines and equipment, we doctors are no different from ordinary people."

"So, you four, show me what you’ve got..."

Hearing this, Yan Feifan, Yu Suye, Gao Jin, and Li Hao exchanged glances, their expressions a mix of emotions.

’The potential causes of abdominal pain were endless.’

’For example, there were surgical emergencies presenting as an acute abdomen, like acute appendicitis, cholecystitis, kidney stones, intestinal obstruction, bowel perforation, or laceration or corrosion from a foreign object.’

’Then there were digestive tract diseases, such as acute gastroenteritis, gastritis, gastric ulcers, and duodenal ulcers...’

’Basically, any inflammation, obstruction, bleeding, stones, or tumors in the abdominal organs—the stomach, liver, gallbladder, duodenum, pancreas, bladder, and so on—could cause abdominal pain.’

’On top of that, there were rarer conditions involving abdominal nerves, blood vessels, lymphatics, and the autonomic nervous system.’

Adding to the complexity, the patient was pregnant.

A fetus at twenty-one weeks was large enough to put pressure on the abdominal organs, causing them to shift. This could displace the location of the pain, making diagnosis even more difficult.

And of course, issues with the mother or the fetus themselves could also trigger unexplained abdominal pain...

’All these factors were tangled together in a complex knot. Without the aid of diagnostic equipment, it was incredibly difficult to rule out many diseases based on experience alone.’

’For example, a CT scan could check for tumors, an abdominal ultrasound could reveal changes in the pancreas, and an abdominal X-ray could detect free air under the diaphragm to rule out a bowel perforation...’

When Mr. Wan saw Gao Jin and Li Hao, who should have been stepping forward, deferring to one another with no one taking the lead, his expression soured.

"Are you all really useless without your machines?"

Mr. Wan said angrily, "Let me tell you, my own teacher, the now-retired Dr. Zhang Zhicang, was nicknamed the ’Human CT Scanner.’"

"’With nothing but his own two hands, he could detect tumors in the abdominal organs larger than one centimeter in diameter...’"

Seeing that Mr. Wan was genuinely angry, Yan Feifan felt that, as his student, it was his responsibility to step up.

He took a step forward and said, "Sir, let me give it a try."

Mr. Wan nodded, pleased.

Yan Feifan took a new pair of thin rubber gloves from his white coat pocket, put them on, and walked over to the bed.

"What have you eaten yesterday and today—"

Before Yan Feifan could even finish his question, the husband beside him held out a piece of paper.

"We had a diet plan created by a prenatal nutritionist. We follow it strictly every week."

The husband added, "All our rice, flour, oil, meat, vegetables, eggs, and fruit are certified organic, non-GMO, and carefully selected."

"The water she drinks is imported natural mineral water, too."

Hearing this, Yan Feifan couldn’t help but think, ’They certainly live a meticulous and carefully managed life.’

He glanced at the diet plan and saw that it mostly consisted of simple, home-cooked meals: two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, a soup, and a piece of fruit for every meal.

The husband’s voice chimed in again. "My wife has a bowel movement first thing every morning."

"She said this morning’s was normal, and there was nothing unusual about the color..."

"And her temperature—we measure it every day. She hasn’t had a fever..."

As the husband continued his litany of details, Yan Feifan placed his hands on the pregnant woman’s abdomen.

He said to the woman, "I’m going to press on your abdomen to examine it. If you feel any pain or discomfort, please let me know."

The woman nodded. "Go ahead, Doctor."

Under the watchful eyes of Mr. Wan, Yu Suye, Gao Jin, and Li Hao, Yan Feifan began to palpate the woman’s abdomen, pressing down inch by inch.

The pregnancy had stretched the skin of her abdomen taut, so Yan Feifan had to apply a bit more pressure to feel for the organs displaced by the fetus...

When Yan Feifan’s fingers probed the area just inside her right hip bone, the woman suddenly cried out.

"It hurts! It hurts! Doctor, that hurts!"

Yan Feifan eased the pressure slightly while carefully examining the area all around the source of the pain...

At the same time, a three-dimensional stereoscopic image began to form in Yan Feifan’s mind, sharpening from a blurry, rough outline into a clear picture...