The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

I was about to start Chuna on Myung Jun-sik when I turned my head. I could feel Chu Mi-young’s intense gaze from the corner of the consultation room.

‘Why does she look like that?’

Shock? Worry? The emotion was ambiguous, but anyone could see it was an odd expression.

“Uh, wait a moment…”

Myung Jun-sik suddenly stammered, following my gaze to Chu Mi-young’s face.

Unlike Chu Mi-young, the meaning of his expression was clear.

Fear.

There was nothing new to be afraid of, but he was terrified by Chu Mi-young’s reaction.

I finally realized why Chu Mi-young was shocked.

She thought I was going to perform the techniques I had taught her over the weekend.

‘No, that was just to teach you the principles, I exaggerated a bit!’

I was dumbfounded.

This isn’t Murim with only wooden beds, why would I use such techniques on a patient lying on a 2 million won Chuna bed we’d just purchased?

No matter how effective it is, if I actually did that, everyone would run away. There’s no way I’d perform Chuna on a patient using such primitive methods.

“It’s okay. It won’t hurt at all.”

“Ah…”

“I’ll loosen you up very gently, so don’t worry.”

I reassured Myung Jun-sik and signaled to Chu Mi-young with my eyes.

Fundamentals are just fundamentals. Now it was time to show the modern standard technique that’s highly effective without causing pain, applying those basics.

“Okay.”

Fortunately, Myung Jun-sik believed my words and nodded.

But there was still tension in his body, making it difficult to perform corrections.

“I’ll loosen your muscles first.”

It’s fine. I was planning to start with rolfing, that is, massaging for muscle relaxation anyway.

I had Myung Jun-sik lie on his side, then applied lotion to my forearm.

Lowering my posture, I made contact with his quadratus lumborum.

Then, traversing his lower back horizontally, I stretched out my arm.

“Ugh!”

As I gently massaged the muscle, Myung Jun-sik’s back arched and a pleasurable groan escaped.

“Relax. Feels good, doesn’t it?”

“Ah, yes!”

“This area is very stiff.”

“Huk!”

Since I applied pressure focusing on the knotted points, Myung Jun-sik nodded while crying out. He looked quite relieved.

Chu Mi-young, who had approached right next to us, observed the patient and me alternately with great curiosity.

“It doesn’t hurt, right?”

“Ah, it does hurt… but it feels good!”

“I’ll move down to the gluteal muscles.”

“Ooh!”

I loosened the buttock muscles in the same way. I knew the moment my hands touched. While his back was quite tense, it was nothing compared to his gluteal muscles.

Typical of an office worker who sits for long periods, his buttock muscles were incredibly stiff.

“Let’s turn over to the other side.”

I loosened the quadratus lumborum and gluteus medius on the left side in the same manner.

“I’m going to correct your pelvis now. Don’t be surprised when the bed rises.”

Now that the tension had sufficiently eased.

It was time for the correction.

Clunk!

The bed supporting his back rose up.

First, I had Myung Jun-sik lie face down properly, then checked the form of his tilted pelvis.

“Your left leg is slightly shorter. It’s not that the leg itself is congenitally shorter. Your left pelvis is raised and posteriorly displaced. I’m going to push it down.”

Myung Jun-sik glanced at his feet and nodded.

“Is that why the nerve was more compressed on the left side? My left lower back usually hurts a bit more.”

“Yes, that’s usually the case. Of course, it’s not 100% as some people feel more pain on the opposite side if they strain by standing on their longer leg, but generally.”

“Ah, I see.”

“I’ll align it right now. You might be a bit surprised.”

As soon as the warning ended, I placed both hands on him.

My left hand contacted the posterior superior iliac spine to directly push down the pelvis, while my right hand lightly touched the ischium. I applied pressure with my left hand.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

It was much lighter and more nimble than what I had done to Chu Mi-young before, but combined with the bed’s drop, it was no less effective.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes! It feels like my pelvis is snapping into place!”

“Your leg lengths have evened out too.”

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

While at it, I corrected the sacral displacement and applied drops to his flat back. Above all, having opened up his pelvis that had stiffened in posterior displacement, Myung Jun-sik felt a noticeable difference.

“It really feels like my back has opened up. It’s like everything that was misaligned is falling into place.”

“All done. Try standing up.”

“Okay.”

As soon as he answered, Myung Jun-sik hopped off the bed.

Unlike when he had entered the consultation room with an awkward gait, his standing posture was different. He must feel considerably lighter at this point.

“Ah… The tingling sensation is almost gone!”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. My left lower back feels refreshed, and the area you loosened up earlier feels much softer. And… even though you didn’t touch that area, the dull pain and tingling there have subsided a lot.”

It was as I had expected.

Just by loosening his back muscles a bit, Myung Jun-sik felt much more comfortable.

“I’m glad there’s an immediate response. If this much improvement comes from one Chuna session, your pain radiating to the testicles should improve significantly within 10 treatments.”

“Ah, really?”

“But you need to continue treating your back. How could you neglect it for 10 years?”

“Yes…”

Seeming a bit embarrassed, he lowered his head and scratched it.

I instructed Myung Jun-sik on the future treatment schedule.

“Come consistently for acupuncture at least three times a week. I’ll also prescribe Yukmijihwang-hwan pills covered by insurance. Apart from the immediate muscle tension, there’s an underlying weakness.”

Myung Jun-sik, who had momentarily shrunk at the mention of medicine, nodded when he heard the low out-of-pocket cost of less than 10,000 won.

Having been freed from a considerable amount of pain in one go, he willingly gave a positive response to the instruction to come for frequent treatments.

“Yes. I’ll do that. Thank you.”

“Then let’s go to the treatment room. They’ll start with physical therapy.”

Myung Jun-sik left the consultation room, deeply moved.

They say you enter and leave the bathroom differently? It felt exactly like that.

He had entered awkwardly and struggled to mention his pain area, but now he walked out with his back straight and a dignified gait.

Now, the area that had been causing him pain for so long would feel considerably lighter.

No, maybe ‘lighter’ isn’t quite right.

Should I say it lost its presence?

…Let’s just say it feels comfortable.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Doctor, you’re amazing!”

As soon as the patient closed the door, Chu Mi-young clapped her hands.

“It’s nothing.”

“I had no idea you would treat him like this. If it were me, I would have been dumbfounded at the mention of testicular pain and said something like, ‘Uh, let’s try putting some needles in the area…'”

“That’s right.”

“Pardon?”

“You should treat it that way. You can’t just put needles in the inguinal area, so you would have put them in the buttocks and lower back too, right?”

“I… guess so?”

Probably anyone with a Korean medicine doctor’s license would at least try putting needles in the surrounding area, right? Unless they’re fixated on a specific acupuncture method and experimenting to see if it can cure all diseases.

“I did Chuna because he looked very uncomfortable and I wanted to help him feel better as soon as possible, and also to demonstrate for you. Actually, loosening the muscles at the beginning was much more important than the performance of matching leg lengths.”

“Ah…”

Perhaps recalling her own treatment, Chu Mi-young put her hand on her chin. Certainly, when I fixed her temporomandibular joint, I had only performed seemingly insignificant movements.

“When you encounter an unfamiliar condition, just speak confidently. Say that while the exact cause is unknown, we’ll treat all areas where nerves might be compressed and observe the progress. What’s there to be afraid of? The urology medication wasn’t working anyway, right?”

“That’s true.”

“Of course, you need to know about emergency conditions that require immediate referral. Since patients don’t come based on specialties, you also need to study unfamiliar diseases that were only briefly mentioned in textbooks.”

“Yes!”

Chu Mi-young nodded, burning with determination.

Although it seems she had forgotten everything she learned in school while seeing mostly similar diet and acne patients at Haneul Korean Medicine Clinic and prescribing formulas without knowing their composition…

If I inject knowledge quickly, what’s buried somewhere in her brain should come back to life.

Chu Mi-young wrote down what she had just seen in her notebook, and I neatly organized the hastily written consultation notes in the chart.

“Ah, did you give the Yukmijihwang insurance medication at the end for profitability?”

Suddenly, as if she had just remembered, Chu Mi-young asked.

I forgot to explain that.

“Of course not. What profit is there in insurance medication, not even a decoction? I gave it because it’s necessary.”

“Eh? Didn’t you say earlier that acupuncture would work?”

“Loosening the back will relieve the pain. But isn’t chronic lower back pain in that age group fundamentally coming from kidney deficiency?”

“Kidney deficiency back pain?”

Kidney deficiency back pain.

In Korean medicine, the kidney is not just the physical organ, the Kidney, but also the organ that stores essence.

Overwork, excessive sexual activity, or chronic illness can deplete kidney essence, causing symptoms like lower back aches, cold sweats, and extreme fatigue. Around the age of 50 or 60, unless you’re a martial arts practitioner, kidney function naturally weakens even without any particular illness.

In this case, acupuncture helps by loosening muscles and activating circulation to allow qi and blood to flow to the lower back, but ultimately, you need to replenish what’s lacking.

Unless you’re an unusual doctor like me who can directly infuse energy, you need to give medicine.

“Actually, he should be taking deer antler. But looking at him, it’s clear he didn’t come prepared to get a prescription, right?”

“Right. It felt like he just came on the off chance.”

“If you tell someone like that to take deer antler, they’ll run away immediately. So I gave him the insurance-covered Yukmijihwang as a compromise. When he sees the effects in various ways, he’ll ask for a prescription on his own.”

“Ooh.”

Chu Mi-young nodded. It was an exaggerated gesture, as if she had gained some great insight.

I chuckled and was about to pat her head but stopped, realizing the age difference.

◆◇◆◇◆

Ten days later.

Myung Jun-sik felt the full effects of the treatment. His lower back pain and testicular pain were improving day by day.

He could now focus on his work without being constantly aware of the body part that had been demanding his attention.

His back also felt better than it had in who knows how long, allowing him to sit for extended periods without much discomfort.

“Manager Myung, this proposal is excellent. How about you present it yourself at next week’s meeting?”

“Of course!”

Perhaps as a result, his work efficiency increased significantly, and somehow things were going well at work.

“Manager, have you started exercising? You used to always walk hunched over, but somehow your back looks straighter now.”

The subordinate who had worried about his health a few days ago noticed the change.

“Haha. I’ve been getting treatment at the Korean medicine clinic that Deputy Cha recommended.”

“Oh? Is it that good?”

“Yes. …I went because of stomach pain, but I’m fixing my back while I’m at it.”

“Ohhh! I’m glad you got better so quickly!”

“Indeed.”

But what was even more encouraging was that the misunderstanding with his wife had been cleared up.

“Honey, I’m home~. Ah, you made mackerel stew, my favorite? Thank you.”

“Oh my, how sappy! It’s nothing to thank me for!”

Myung Jun-sik had thought that the ridiculous STD suspicion was the only reason his wife suspected an affair, but there was actually one more reason.

When he lay still, that area was so uncomfortable that he would unconsciously curl up and turn his back to his wife every night.

“Oh dear, I can’t believe I didn’t realize you were in pain.”

Unintentionally coinciding with his recent busy period at work, turning his back to her every night allowed his wife’s imagination to run wild.

She had been thinking he might have had an affair and couldn’t bear to look at her face, and when she heard about his testicular pain, her suspicion naturally turned into conviction.

To think he had hurt her all this time over such a thing! How inconsiderate had he been?

But now it was all in the past.

When Myung Jun-sik became able to sleep comfortably lying straight, the misunderstanding between them was completely resolved through conversation.

‘Now I have nothing to worry about. I’m glad I received all the recommended treatments.’

Moreover, Myung Jun-sik even became healthier.

The medicine prescribed together was said to nourish the kidneys, and perhaps because of that, he felt more energetic, whether he realized it or not.

He hadn’t expected such changes in just ten days, but he fell asleep a little faster, and his joint coldness and residual urine sensation lessened.

And above all.

“By the way, honey, do you know what day it is today?”

“Hmm? What day is it?”

“Ta-da.”

“A bouquet? What’s this, after 20 years…”

He gained confidence.

“Our daughter will be studying late at the library today too, right?”

“Well, I suppose so, but…?”

Confidence that his wife still loved him.

And physical confidence stemming from his improved lower body health.

Myung Jun-sik offered the bouquet to his wife with a suggestive smile.

“It’s our 20th wedding anniversary… Shall we spend it intimately, just the two of us?”