LIGHTNOVELONLINE 47 - Do kids have wrinkles?
If geriatric was the most depressing department, the pediatric department was considered the most hellish. There was nothing worse than dealing with spoiled children and overprotective parents.
"This woman had a laundry list of possible ailments her son might have, and she told me an exam and check all of them," complained a resident doctor during their break.
It was good to be prepared and question doctors, but the level of distrust toward authoritative figures had led people to become misguided. People believed watching a few hours of Teebee Live and Youko was enough to form better judgment than professionals who had spent years studying and researching.
"The ones with the bigger family are the worst," the doctor complained. "One came in the other day with the uncles, aunts, grandparents, and relatives from all parts of the city just to question me about every single medicine. It's like they enjoy pretending to know more about medicine than us."
"Well, better than the family I have to deal with. They are constantly complaining that their child needs to have a private room."
"It's like that with everyone. Hopefully, now that they are allowed to have another child, they won't spoil their kids so much."
All the doctors agreed. They weren't kidding when they said all the kids were spoiled. The one-child policy had created a situation where the parents placed all their hopes and dreams on one child, resulting in spoiled behaviors and zero accountability.
Li Yun wondered why he wasn't spoiled being the only boy in the family. As a child, his mother would scream at him for watching too much television or playing pranks on the other kids.
He shrugged away the memories and continued walking down the hallway of the pediatric department. Unlike most residents, Li Yun didn't have problems with rotating into different departments but he felt bored most of the time dealing with endless reports and tests. He would rather be in the ER.
"You're really not suited for anywhere except for the ER," Chief Gao had once commented.
Not gaining any action points was painful. Fortunately, with line detection, Li Yun could use it to understand kids better. In face reading, it was not proper to perform face readings on kids.
"Do kids have wrinkles?" An Luchang asked on their way to the pediatric round.
"Of course they do, " Li Yun said as he pointed to a kid in the pen. "Just look at this brat. He has wrinkles all over his shirt. They can't go on a day without wrinkling everything."
"I mean their face."
"Even if they have premature wrinkles on their face, it's best not to use face reading on anyone under 18."
"If we can't use face reading on kids, isn't it pointless?"
"A bit," Li Yun replied. "Kids are still developing their personality and their facial features, so it's dangerous to perform face reading on them."
"Dangerous? How so?"
"Everyone knows the importance of nurturing and encouraging kids, but people often forget how easy it is to influence them. It might be okay to tell a child that their face looks like someone who will become a great artist. If the child trusts the person who compliments them, they would believe it and work hard to become one. It is like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Likewise, if you tell a child that they have the face of a criminal, the child may grow up to become one."
"So it's like gene expression? An inherited cancerous gene does not mean that a person would develop cancer. Under the right lifestyle, the gene would not trigger."
Li Yun nodded. The parents give the children the different types of crayons, but how the children want to paint the picture depends on their lifestyles, environment, and choices.
As the two arrived to the medical rounds, the attending talked to a couple about their daughter. The daughter, Yaya, was thirteen and had been experiencing chronic stomach aches for several months. Other than anxiety from school, the attending doctor was not able to find anything wrong with her.
"The blood tests are back, we can rule out stomach ulcers, iron and folic acid deficiency," the attending said. "I can prescribe you antacid for now. If the problem persists, give the nurse another call to schedule another appointment. Take regular pain medicine in moderation."
Unfortunately, there was a limit to what western doctors could do. Although antacids and medicine could suppress some of the pain, they couldn't heal the root of the problem. Almost every single type of chronic illness was incurable.
If the family went to a TCM doctor, the doctor would most likely diagnose her with liver-stomach qi stagnation and provide her with Bupleurum Liver-Soothing Powder and Left Metal Pill. Like western medicine, it could only ease away the pain. If the root cause was not resolved, she would suffer the pain again in the future.
The couple looked at each other, and then at their daughter. They only have one daughter, and it was worrying them to see her in so much pain almost every day.
"I have seen cases like this in many people," said the attending. "The majority of the time, it will go away on it's own. What grade is she in?"
"The 7th grade," the mother responded.
The attending nodded. "My daughter is just a year older then. What's your favorite subject?"
"Our daughter does very well in school," the mother responded.
While the doctor spoke to the family, Li Yun activated line detection on Yaya. He had used it on people without visible wrinkles, but he wondered if it worked with children.
Li Yun concentrated on the area near the tear-duct of the eyes, the lost love line. In an elderly person, it was easy to see the lost love line, but in a child, it was non-existent. Li Yun wanted to check if it was possible to detect the lines in a child.
There were many types of lines on a person's face. For lines such as the worry lines or the resentment lines, he could easily guess it even without using line detection.
There were three things that came up for the lost love line:
Dancing 23%
Grandma 10%
Best Friend 9%
It was important to recognize that lost love wasn't just a person, but something that a person had lost that caused some emotional trauma.
"You used to dance?" Li Yun suddenly asked.
The family members were all surprised and looked at the young resident standing by the side with the other residents.
"Ah, yes, my daughter used to take ballet, but we decided it was too much for her," the mother said.
Li Yun looked at Yaya directly in the eyes, but after her mother answered, she looked sideways.
"Dancing is therapeutic and good for the body," said Li Yun. "Since she has been dancing for a while, to make her stop, her body might not adjust well to it."
Her father nodded. "Ah, you're right, her stomach did start around the time after we made her quit."
The mother glared at the father. He wasn't meant to say it, but Yaya seemed to perk up after listening to Li Yun.
"Are you suggesting we let her do ballet again?" asked the mother in a strict tone; she didn't want her daughter to dance again.
It was likely that Yaya wanted to be a dancer in the future, but her parents wanted her to focus on school, and to consider a more stable career path. They didn't realize how important dancing was to Yaya and taking away her dream was going to leave a permanent scar in her heart.
"That's for you to decide with your daughter," Li Yun responded. He couldn't blame them, if he told his mother that he wanted to be a dancer instead of a surgeon, she would nag until his ears fell off.
Li Yun excused himself as his pager beeped, followed by An Luchang. They ran off to the ER where Doctor Hao was preparing a patient for an appendectomy.