The Enhanced Doctor-Chapter 557 Intolerable headache

After enjoying the congratulations, it was time to return to normal life.

As some labor-intensive enterprises resumed operations, the number of trauma patients also increased. Fortunately, the interns significantly eased the workload for Liu Banxia and the others.

"Teacher Liu, why don’t people take better precautions when they know their work is dangerous? Even if his thumb is successfully reattached, it will still impact his life, won’t it?" Xu Yino asked during lunch.

Liu Banxia nodded. "It certainly will. The human body is miraculous, especially when it comes to nerves. However, it’s not always that they don’t want to take precautions; sometimes they simply can’t."

"When I was in the inpatient department, I encountered a patient who worked in a slaughterhouse. However, he had enteritis, not a severed finger."

"Most factories now pay by piecework, and the cutting machines they use require operators to wear steel-mesh gloves for protection."

"Imagine working with steel-mesh gloves for three hours—what kind of efficiency would that be? You wouldn’t expect to earn much that month." 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"It’s also a kind of helplessness. Then there are those who think they’re skilled workers and that nothing will go wrong. But they forget the saying, ’even the best swimmers can drown.’ A moment of carelessness or a lapse in concentration can lead to danger."

"Our emergency center has treated many industrial accidents; some are due to poor factory management, and others to worker negligence."

"Cases like theirs are somewhat better; they usually have workers’ compensation insurance. The temporary workers on construction sites, however, face a lot of disputes when accidents happen. These are difficult conflicts to resolve, and sometimes it’s truly hard to say who is right or wrong."

The interns nodded. There was even a patient in the ward with a broken leg who hadn’t yet settled compensation with his company.

"How did you feel about the surgery with the director this morning?" Liu Banxia then asked.

"It was great, I’d love to assist in more," Liu Yiqing answered.

"Ungrateful bunch! It’s just a partial hepatectomy. Haven’t I taken you through that before? I even let you operate," Liu Banxia said, sounding a bit sour.

"She was praised by the director," Su Wenhao chuckled.

"The director praised you too, commending your genuine effort in teaching us, saying we wouldn’t understand the surgery so thoroughly otherwise."

Hearing this, Liu Banxia was indeed very pleased and ate his pork trotters with renewed vigor.

The interns watched, speechless. Was this the same President Liu everyone had been praising today? He was acting like a child.

Having had a satisfying lunch, Liu Banxia had just returned to the lobby of the emergency center when Zhang Xiao immediately dragged him away.

"Brother Zhang, let’s talk this out. No need to get physical, alright?" Liu Banxia quipped.

"Help! We need you for a consult, quickly!" Zhang Xiao said.

"The patient is 64 years old with a five-year history of headaches. She’s been to many hospitals before but hasn’t received a diagnosis. Cranial imaging and tests at other hospitals were all negative."

"Our emergency center has been quite prominent lately, so she came here to try her luck. But I’ve done a cranial MRI, lumbar puncture, and pelvic CT, and they’re all negative."

Liu Banxia frowned. "This is a bit complex. What kind of headache is it?"

"It’s constant, severe pain. Level seven or higher. I don’t know how the patient has managed to endure it for the past five years," Zhang Xiao said.

Liu Banxia was taken aback. Occasional bouts of such pain might be tolerable, but constant pain like this could drive a person mad.

"Logically, a headache like this usually indicates an organic brain lesion, perhaps a space-occupying lesion causing compression?" Liu Banxia asked.

"That’s what I thought. We checked her intracranial pressure during the lumbar puncture, and it was normal. That also ruled out encephalitis and teratoma," Zhang Xiao replied.

"Here are the patient’s lab reports and MRI scans. Take a look. When she was admitted, her husband privately told me that, likely due to the torment of this illness, the patient has attempted suicide twice."

"Fortunately, they were discovered in time, so no serious harm resulted. Especially in the last two years, her emotional instability has made life at home almost unbearable."

Liu Banxia sighed. Anyone tormented by such constant pain wouldn’t be in a good mental state. He recalled a patient he’d taken over from orthopedics who only had chest pain; this patient’s headache would have an even greater impact.

Although Liu Banxia carefully reviewed the lab reports and MRI scans, they offered no help.

DING! Task Issued: Severe Headache Patient.

Open Task: Respond to Neurosurgeon Dr. Zhang Xiao’s consultation request. The patient has a multi-year history of headaches, negative MRI and lumbar puncture results. The host is required to provide a further diagnosis. Task reward will be issued based on the diagnostic result.

"Doctor Peng, any ideas?" Liu Banxia asked Peng Bo, an attending physician from Neurology.

Peng Bo shook his head. "Zhang Xiao and I have been puzzling over this for a long time. The patient and her husband went to eat, but neither of us has any appetite."

"My gut feeling is neuralgia, but the EEG showed nothing unusual. Considering these recent test results, you’re the only one we could think of."

"Work another little miracle. Help diagnose the patient, and tonight, you can have as many pork trotters as you want—Zhang Xiao and I will treat you. Otherwise, I’m worried this patient might attempt suicide again."

Liu Banxia gave a wry smile. This is a heavy responsibility; I’m not sure I can handle it.

Both Zhang Xiao and Peng Bo are highly skilled attending physicians. If they couldn’t figure it out after consulting all morning, can I?

Frowning, Liu Banxia took out his phone and summoned all his interns.

"Alright, here’s the deal. The situation is urgent and the task is critical. We need to brainstorm together," Liu Banxia said after explaining the situation.

"Think about all possibilities, no matter how outlandish they seem. It might help us break out of our conventional thinking and look at the symptoms from a new perspective."

"Oh, and Dr. Zhang and Doctor Peng said that whoever makes a significant contribution will get pork trotters. There will also be opportunities to observe surgeries in Neurosurgery or Neurology. That’s quite generous of them."

"Teacher Liu, can we go see the patient?" Xu Yino asked, full of fighting spirit.

Liu Banxia looked at Zhang Xiao.

Zhang Xiao thought for a moment, then nodded. "Let’s wait a bit, until they return from their meal. But try not to move around too much; people walking back and forth might irritate the patient."

"Did you hear that? Start thinking now. Especially you three; you have surgery with the director this afternoon, so you don’t have much time," Liu Banxia said.

The interns all nodded and then began discussing it among themselves, one contributing an idea after another.

However, their discussion so far hadn’t ventured beyond the scope of what Zhang Xiao and Peng Bo had already considered. After about ten minutes of discussion, the interns concluded it might be schizophrenia.

Although it seemed a bit far-fetched, it was a possibility. After all, the manifestations of schizophrenia can vary significantly.

Zhang Xiao glanced outside and said, "The patient is back. Everyone, please step aside. I’ll bring her in."

Liu Banxia glanced outside and sighed inwardly.

The patient had a dazed expression. Considering her previous suicide attempts, she likely has some degree of depression. An illness like this can easily complicate the diagnostic process.

The patient might not answer questions fully, finding conversation irritating and making communication difficult.

"This is Dr. Liu Banxia from our emergency center. I invited him to help with the consultation," Zhang Xiao said.

The patient’s husband nodded. "Are more tests needed? We’ll cooperate fully. We just want her to get well. Life is unbearable like this right now."

Liu Banxia noticed the patient’s husband spoke very softly, likely afraid of upsetting the patient.

"How long has this condition been present? Was it like this from the very first onset? Has the pain level remained consistent?" Liu Banxia also lowered his voice.

"It started shortly after she retired. Initially, it wasn’t this painful. We thought it was migraines back then, and medication helped," the patient’s husband said.

"After less than a year, the medication stopped working, and the pain became constant. Since then, she’s been staying at home, unable to bear the noise outside—cars, crowds, everything."

"We saw doctors at that time and got prescriptions, but nothing worked. Even painkillers only offered temporary relief. We stopped giving them to her later because we heard they could be addictive."

Liu Banxia nodded. "Does she exhibit any other unusual behaviors in her daily life?"

The patient’s husband shook his head. "She just gets irritable easily. My children and I understand. Look how thin she’s become. She can’t even eat properly; the pain is so intense."

"She only sleeps about four to five hours a day in total. She’ll sleep for a bit, then the pain wakes her. When she’s utterly exhausted, she might doze off again for a short while."

"Look at her now; she wasn’t like this before. She used to work in the labor union at her factory. After retiring, she’d go square dancing every day. She was supposed to be enjoying her retirement, but then she got this illness."

Listening to the patient’s husband, the interns’ expressions grew solemn.

Even without any other underlying conditions, pain this severe could probably trigger other health problems.

Liu Banxia was also deeply troubled now, as he had no idea what tests to order for the patient next.

The young patient he treated previously had superior semicircular canal dehiscence syndrome, but her situation was completely different. Her brain discomfort was triggered by sound, whereas this patient suffered from constant headaches.

Actually, even before the patient arrived, he had suspected her condition was very poor, but he hadn’t anticipated it would be this severe. If they truly couldn’t make a diagnosis, the subsequent course of events would be very uncertain.