My Medical Skills Give Me Experience Points

She ultimately chose to use imported medicine.

Director Jia wrote a prescription and related medical advice for her.

Clutching the payment slip, she left.

Many patients harbor the same hope as this girl, yearning for an early development of a definitive cure.

After sending her off, Director Jia continued to treat another patient.

"Director Jia, please take a look for me. This is the stomach endoscopy report from the local People's Hospital."

The patient was a woman in her forties, accompanied by her husband.

Both of their skins were darkly tanned, with simple clothes and rough hands bearing thick calluses.

They were a farmer couple.

Zhou Can secretly observed and deduced their identities from the sidelines.

"Ah, there's a depression in the stomach!"

Upon viewing the endoscopy image, Director Jia let out a sigh of lament.

It was as if someone had cut into his own flesh, crying out in pain.

The heart of a physician is akin to that of a parent.

Sometimes, upon seeing the severity of certain diseases in patients, doctors often express such sighs.

"Doctor, is my wife's condition serious? She just feels a bit of heartburn and bloating recently, no other ailments! And we both do farm work, we are very healthy, seldom even catching a cold."

The man asked nervously.

"The outcome of this endoscopy isn't good; the problem might be significant."

Director Jia shook his head and sighed.

"When did the heartburn and bloating start?"

"About two or three months ago! Sometimes she's really hungry, but feels full after just a few bites. The stomach occasionally feels bloated and painful," the woman described her symptoms.

...

After a series of questions and a physical examination, Director Jia looked up at Zhou Can beside him.

"Zhou Can, can you make anything of it?"

"From the results of the endoscopy and her symptom descriptions, it looks very much like early-stage stomach cancer. If the biopsy confirms it, timely surgery should still be possible."

Zhou Can realized that Digestive Surgery had a lot of overlap with General Surgery.

As Tuya Hospital expanded, departments were split into finer distinctions.

Previously, there was no dedicated Digestive Surgery.

Almost every surgical disease was treated by General Surgery.

Only in recent years was Digestive Surgery established, focusing mainly on surgical diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

With the department's development needs, there might even be a further subdivision to establish a Liver and Gallbladder Surgery.

To put it bluntly, to establish a department, the hospital needs not only to apply and obtain approval from the health authorities above but most importantly must have renowned experts in that field to lead.

Take Director Jia, for example, who had already retired but was rehired by the hospital as a treasured asset.

Not for any other reason but because he could hold up half the sky for Digestive Surgery.

Tuya Hospital isn't short of general physicians, but experts in specialized fields are scarce.

This is why, after Zhou Can showed considerable talent, the hospital's investment in his training far exceeded that of ordinary masters and PhDs.

Those trained could hopefully become the backbone of the various departments.

But a super talent like Zhou Can had the potential to become the leader of a department.

Since ancient times, there has been a saying: "A thousand troops are easy to get, one general is hard to find."

Zhou Can is seen as general material; how could the hospital not cultivate him strongly?

"You also think it's stomach cancer? The doctors at the local People's Hospital said after seeing the results that it might be a malignant gastric disease and recommended a biopsy. We were afraid that small hospitals wouldn't have good technology, so we hurried to Tuya Hospital."

Women's mouths can't hold secrets.

They let everything slip.

"I also suggest you do a biopsy. If it's confirmed, then you should be admitted for surgery immediately. This disease can't be delayed; it becomes hard to treat if it metastasizes."

Director Jia spoke these words very seriously.

Throughout his years of practice, he had perhaps seen too many patients who lost the chance for surgery due to procrastination.

"How much will it cost to treat this disease? If it's too expensive, I won't treat it. My son isn't married yet, and I'm already of an age; there's no need to burden the family."

The female patient appeared to be just over forty years old—in a modern society where the average lifespan exceeds eighty, forty is considered the prime of life.

It was hard to imagine she would have such thoughts.

A woman, after marrying into her husband's family, in addition to doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, and various other chores, had to follow her husband into the fields to farm. Then she was also expected to bear and raise children for his family.

Now that she was seriously ill, her first worry was about spending all the money, leaving her son unable to afford a bride.

Zhou Can truly felt that women had it particularly tough.

His gaze shifted to the husband of the female patient, and saw that the man hesitated for a moment before saying to his wife, "Ah Fen, let's listen to what the doctor has to say first."

Good grief, this man was utterly heartless and selfish.

His meaning couldn't be clearer—if the treatment wasn't too expensive, he would choose to treat his wife's illness. If it was costly, he would likely be preparing for her funeral.

This was the true nature of humanity.

"The treatment cost is hard to say right now; it might be a little over twenty thousand if it's on the lower end. Even if it's more, because the disease was discovered early, it shouldn't exceed one hundred thousand."

Director Jia was old and cunning; how could he not hear the subtext in the man's words?

Therefore, he suggested the lowest possible cost.

Once the surgery got underway, the man would have no choice but to reluctantly pay up, even if he was unwilling.

Doctors, in fact, often try to uphold fairness and justice as much as they can within their power.

"We can come up with twenty thousand!"

Upon hearing it was only twenty thousand, the woman immediately showed an expression of joy as if she were given a new lease on life.

"Husband, do you think this is okay?"

The control over the family's finances probably lay in the man's hands.

She was seeking her husband's opinion.

"Twenty thousand isn't a small amount either; it's almost the same as the price of two cows! Doctor, can't it be any less?"

The man was actually treating this like a market, haggling with the doctor over the price.

Director Jia and others couldn't help but alternate between laughter and tears.

"The specific cost of treatment has a set fee for each item, which is not decided by us. It's the fixed charging standards set by higher authorities. Plus, you have the new rural cooperative medical care; you should be able to get quite a bit reimbursed."

Qiu Hong, being a woman after all, sided with the female patient in this situation, doing everything possible to get the man to agree to treat his wife.

"Husband, I promise to work hard for the family once I get better, and we'll earn back the money we spend."

The woman was making nice with the man.

Who would give up on life easily if there was even the slightest chance of survival?

Zhou Can felt deep sympathy for this woman.

Who married a man lacking in compassion.

"Alright, alright, we'll treat you! I don't know what's going on, why are other people's wives all fine, and you just had to get sick!"

The man's tone was full of complaints.

This also directly overturned Zhou Can's idealized image of the honest old farmer.

Upon seeing that the man agreed, the woman showed a happy smile.

As for the man's disparaging remarks, she didn't care.

She was probably used to it by now.

In many remote rural areas, women's status is particularly low. Those stubborn, feudal thoughts of male superiority over females still prevail.

In some rural areas, if a woman fails to bear a son after marrying into a family, she could be outright abandoned by the man.

Director Jia issued an application for a pathological test for the woman, and the couple left.

"How can there be such a man, I was getting angry just watching them."

Qiu Hong, once the couple had left, could not help but curse.

"That's nothing, I've seen much worse! There was a woman who also had cancer, and after the man heard about it, he left without even looking back." Director Jia, well-experienced, had seen all sorts of people.

"As long as they come back to me for a pathological test, this woman could be saved. Otherwise, the fate of this female patient is up in the air. That's why I say, my female comrades, you must be financially independent, never think of relying on anyone."

Director Jia's last statement was a lesson for Qiu Hong to take to heart.

"I've long since realized that men can't be relied upon, which is why I fought tooth and nail to get into university when I was studying. Later, when I started working and my family called me to go back and get married, I didn't agree."

She was probably approaching thirty years old.

Though beautiful, beauty fades; at her age, it was time to consider marriage.