A competent doctor can cure everything

Clink, clink.

The sound of chopsticks clinking against dishes is cheerful.

I am currently enjoying a delicious dinner at a samgyeopsal restaurant.

My grandmother is looking at me sympathetically from across the table.

“Joon, eat slowly and eat a lot. You usually don’t have much of an appetite… Does that hospital not even give you meals?”

“No, the meals are actually quite good, but I don’t have time to eat.”

I stopped using my chopsticks and answered somewhat glumly.

“Still, it’s so nice that you suddenly got a day off and came out. You should be really grateful to that patient.”

“It’s usually the case that we can’t see anything outside the hospital for a whole month. I’m told that I’m the first intern to get a day off during the intern keep period.”

The professor personally called the chief resident to give me a day off.

Thanks to that, I could leave work today while receiving envious glances from my fellow interns.

To reassure my grandmother, I intentionally emphasized that I was doing well at the hospital.

“Yes, that’s right. Well done. Finish your meal.”

I smiled and put a piece of meat in my mouth.

While chewing the meat, I noticed my phone lying on the table.

I dropped by the service center right after work today and got it fixed.

‘With the screen replaced, it feels like a brand-new phone.’

I was full and had my phone fixed.

At this moment, there was nothing to envy.

I left the samgyeopsal restaurant feeling good with my grandmother.

“Grandma, shall we go for a walk there? The weather is nice.”

“Shall we?”

My grandmother agreed readily to my spontaneous suggestion.

The time was approaching 7 PM.

The evening weather in mid-May was pleasantly warm.

We headed towards a modest mountain in downtown Seoul.

It takes about 30 minutes to reach the summit, and the view of the city is popular as a walking course.

“Grandma, but wasn’t there originally no wooden deck like this here?”

“Yes, it was newly installed while you were in public service. With the new railings and stairs, it’s much more convenient, isn’t it?”

Chatting casually with my grandmother, we slowly walked until we reached the summit.

At the top, not only we but also other people were enjoying the view.

It was sunset time.

I stood silently with my grandmother, looking down at the city of Seoul bathed in the glow of the sunset.

The orange sky was dotted with a few golden clouds.

Beneath them, high-rise buildings of varying heights lined up.

“……”

I stared intently at a particular spot in the city.

That hospital should be around there, I thought.

Noticing where I was looking, my grandmother cautiously spoke up.

“Joon, what are you looking at?”

“You know.”

Hearing my stiff tone, my grandmother sighed deeply.

“I understand that you’re upset, but it’s time to forget about it. It’s all in the past now.”

“Past? The effort to reclaim my father’s hospital is just beginning.”

“Oh, dear. How are you going to get that hospital back now? It’s not just a neighborhood shop; it’s grown so large.”

I regretted bringing it up.

I closed my mouth in regret.

Seeing my tight-lipped expression, my grandmother stopped speaking.

‘Just wait. I will reclaim the hospital that holds my father’s life’s work.’

I repeated the same words in my mind, as I had a thousand times before.

By then, the sky had slowly changed from orange to deep blue.

The city’s buildings began to turn on their lights one by one.

“Let’s head down now.”

Looking around, I saw that everyone else had already left.

My grandmother and I began to retrace our steps.

As we descended the wooden deck, I noticed a young woman walking a bit ahead of us.

Somehow, we ended up going down the wooden stairs in the order of the woman, then me, then my grandmother.

While walking quietly through the stillness of the forest.

“Ah!”

The woman in front staggered and fell.

“Ouch…”

Tears were welling up in the eyes of the woman who looked to be in her early to mid-thirties.

The ankle was already visibly swollen and seemed to be severely twisted.

“Would you like me to take a look?”

I knelt down on one knee and asked the woman.

The woman looked puzzled.

“But what can you do in this mountain…”

“My grandchild is an Oriental medicine doctor.”

My grandmother, who had approached, said proudly.

“I’ll examine your ankle.”

Ottawa Ankle Rule.

This is a simple test to check for ankle fractures.

If you cannot bear weight and take more than four steps.

If there is severe pain when pressing on the inside and outside of the ankle malleolus for about 6 cm.

Or if there is severe pain when pressing on the base of the navicular bone or the fifth metatarsal bone.

Then, it’s strongly suspected that there is an ankle fracture, and an X-ray is needed.

As soon as I touched the woman’s ankle for the examination…

“Ugh.”

I stopped what I was doing, breathing heavily.

‘This is just like with Dong-soo.’

I vividly imagined the various scenarios the woman might experience.

Noticing that the woman was looking at me strangely as I paused.

‘…Focus on the task at hand.’

I pressed and palpated several areas of the woman’s ankle.

There was no sharp reaction indicating severe pain.

‘It doesn’t seem to be a fracture.’

I was thinking of asking the woman to walk, but—

“It doesn’t seem to be a fracture. I think I can walk slowly.”

The woman said this while already holding onto the railing and taking a few steps.

‘Is she someone who works at a hospital?’

After hesitating for a moment, I asked her.

“Should I call 119 for you?”

“No, that’s not necessary. What would 119 do in a place like this?”

“Then should I help you down?”

I didn’t dare suggest carrying her.

Even if she were an adult, I wouldn’t feel confident carrying someone down the mountain.

“That’s also fine. I’ll go down slowly on my own.”

The woman declined the offer as well.

The situation was starting to resemble the vision I had just seen.

“Miss, would you like to try acupuncture? I know it sounds strange, but my grandchild is very skilled at it.”

“Here? In the middle of the mountain? Are you joking?”

The woman laughed in disbelief at my grandmother’s suggestion.

However, my grandmother’s voice was serious.

“No, I’m serious. I saw on the news that one acupuncturist even treated an emergency patient on a plane.”

She then looked at me, as if seeking confirmation.

“Joon, you always carry needles with you, right?”

“Yes, I do.”

As my grandmother mentioned, I always carry several acupuncture needles and individually packaged alcohol swabs wherever I go.

Just like with the traffic accident patient Kim Sang-hoon, I felt that my intervention could change the outcome.

‘I was thinking about offering acupuncture anyway.’

But the woman’s unexpected response made me doubt my ears for a moment.

“I don’t do acupuncture or anything like that.”

“‘Anything like that’?”

Her tone and expression clearly indicated disdain.

“I’ve never had it before, and I don’t think I’ll ever need it.”

“Why is that?”

I asked, trying to control my frustration.

However, her face clearly showed a sneer.

“I just don’t think it’s effective.”

Sigh… What kind of situation is this?

In the vision I saw, the woman refused help and fell again while trying to descend alone.

‘I don’t think a sprained ankle will be the only issue.’

After falling, her face was covered in blood, and her arm seemed to be broken.

In the end, she was taken to the emergency room, where I saw her getting stitches on her head and casts on her arms and legs.

“What? Effectiveness? Look, miss, thanks to marrying into a family of acupuncturists, I’ve stayed healthy all these years. Joon, let’s go.”

My grandmother, clearly offended, grabbed my arm and began pulling me away.

“Wait? Are we just leaving her?”

“Exactly. She doesn’t want 119, she doesn’t want acupuncture—what can we do?”

Of course, I felt bad too.

Still, I couldn’t just leave knowing that the woman might get hurt even more.

“Grandma, she’s in pain. I’ll try suggesting it just one more time.”

“Ah, I see. It must be a family trait to not pass by someone in pain without helping.”

Despite her displeasure, my grandmother let me go back to the woman.

The woman was almost hanging onto the railing as she walked.

“Excuse me.”

The woman looked at me.

Before I could say anything more, she spoke first.

“…Does acupuncture really help?”

It seemed she was struggling after trying to walk a bit further alone.

She was too proud to ask for help directly.

“It will definitely be much more comfortable.”

“…Then I’ll give it a try.”

The woman pouted.

‘Even if she’s being difficult, I’ll make sure to help her.’

The woman adjusted her position, sat down, and extended her ankle, while I started to apply pressure to various points on it.

The pain was severe when I pressed on the **guheoryeol** (the area below the outer ankle bone).

This is where the **anterior talofibular ligament** passes.

I simulated the situation by bending the foot towards the sole to stretch the anterior talofibular ligament.

“Ah!”

The woman winced. It was indeed damage to the anterior talofibular ligament.

As with most ankle sprains, it was an **inversion sprain**, where the ankle is twisted inward, damaging the ligaments on the outside of the ankle.

‘Should I check the muscles too?’

The muscle often injured in such cases is the **fibularis** muscle in the calf.

To check for muscle or tendon damage, a resistance test is necessary.

“Push your foot towards the sole as hard as you can.”

I instructed her while pushing her foot towards the dorsum.

The patient contracts the muscle being tested, and the doctor applies force in the opposite direction.

‘If there’s pain but strength is fine, it’s a muscle issue; if there’s both pain and weakness, it’s a tendon issue.’

Fortunately, her strength to resist my force was not bad.

It seemed she had not injured the tendons.

‘I can use acupoints around the anterior talofibular ligament and fibularis muscle.’

I inserted needles at the **guheoryeol** point on the ankle, the **gonryun** point, the **yangnyeongcheon** point on the calf, the **hyeonjong** point, and the **gwangmyeong** point.

“I’ll remove the needles in 15 minutes.”

It would be nice to have an **electroacupuncture machine** (a device that sends a weak current through the needles).

While waiting for the acupuncture to take effect, I rotated and stimulated the needles to enhance their effect.

“Why are you doing that?”

“It’s a method to increase blood flow and stimulate the nerve fibers to enhance the effects of the acupuncture.”

In the meantime, the allotted time had passed, so I removed all the needles.

The woman cautiously moved her ankle.

Then she slowly stood up and took a step.

“How does it feel?”

“It seems like my ankle is a bit lighter. Maybe it’s just my imagination.”

She still had a bit of a sharp tone.

But since it’s better, I decided to let it go.

“Apply a cold compress when you get home, be careful with your ankle for a while, and get a few more sessions of acupuncture.”

“Thank you.”

The woman muttered softly and then quickly turned and walked away.

The woman’s walking looked much more natural now.

At this rate, she probably wouldn’t fall again.

“How come you take after this too?”

While watching the woman’s retreating figure, my grandmother suddenly spoke in a nostalgic tone.

“What do you mean?”

“Your acupuncture technique. Your father was also very fast and precise with it.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course. That’s why word spread, and our neighborhood clinic grew into a full-fledged hospital.”

I was silent for a moment before speaking.

“Grandma, let’s walk a bit slower.”

“Why, Joon? Are you trying to make sure she gets home safely from behind?”

Grandma laughed as if she couldn’t be dissuaded.

I smiled and replied.

“No, I just want to enjoy a leisurely walk with you.”

I thought we’d part ways and never meet again, but unexpectedly, I encountered her once more.

And it was in a completely unexpected place, and in an unexpected way.