Chapter 288: All the rheumatism diseases

Daolang's concert in Chasu City began on Wednesday. This concert was the talk of the town in Chasu City for the past week, even if not everybody knew about it. It was quite incredible for a Chinese singer from inland China to sing songs in the style of the border province and conquer the hearts of the older folk here!

Shao Hua originally hadn't wanted to go, but Vice President Chen had given them four VIP tickets, so she felt like not going was a waste of the tickets. Thus, she brought Jia Suyue along with her parents. Zhang Fan couldn't go, as he didn't have the time.

The concert venue was absolutely packed to the brim! Daolang was able to ignite the passion in northwestern Chinese folk's hearts even though they were typically more introverted. Jia Suyue and Shao Hua shouted along to his singing so much that their throats became hoarse.

Concerts were typically quite rare in smaller Chinese cities. Famous singers wouldn't come because it wouldn't be worth it to them. Unknown singers also wouldn't come, because it wouldn't be worth it to them, either! Finally, a famous singer had come to Chasu City, so everyone was really excited and passionate!

Everyone waved glowing sticks as they screamed and roared. While Zhang Fan didn't know about what else might have happened at the concert, he heard from his policeman friend Zhu Bing that more than 300 people had lost their cell phones at the concert that night! More than 10 children had gotten lost as well!

It was easy to imagine just how chaotic the scene must have been. In fact, the military police had to get involved! Maybe this was because the residents of a small city like Chasu City had never been to a concert before. Maybe this was also why super large cities kept increasing in size, while smaller cities kept getting smaller!

Daily life would still need to continue like normal after the moment of passion. On the next day, many people began their lives and jobs like normal with hoarse throats!

The rheumatology department also became quite busy. The weather was pretending to be warm when it was still cool, yet beer, barbequed meat, and so on were all becoming popular again! People were already beginning to eat lots of meat and drink lots of alcohol out on the streets at night after staying in all winter. After waking up from their alcohol on the second day, all of the fatter individuals gathered at the rheumatology department.

They would stand while preferring one leg—the other leg hurt—when they gathered at the rheumatology department.

"Doctor! It hurts so much!"

"Doctor, I'll never drink alcohol again!"

"Bro! I'll be a turtle if I ever eat meat again!" a fatty claimed.

Gout had been a relatively rare disease several decades ago in China. Only people who were fatter would typically get gout. But recently, as the standard of living went up, maybe people started eating a lot more due to the pressures of life, so average weight had gone up significantly.

The most evident problem from having too much uric acid would be that the uric acid would gather in the metatarsophalangeal joints in your toes and cause inflammation and pain. This pain would be really sore, in a way that was different from stabbing or pricking pain. It was a type of swollen pain that you wouldn't be able to touch.

Today, Zhang Fan was performing outpatient services, while the director was in a meeting. Originally, Hu Jun was on duty for outpatient services today, but he had been single for far too long, causing the head nurse to drag him to marriage meetings. That was why Zhang Fan was performing outpatient services today instead of Hu Jun.

The patients for rheumatology were two different extremes. They were typically either incredibly skinny, just like a twig, or so fat that they would need to walk sideways to get in through the door of the rheumatology department.

This was no exaggeration. The skinny patients would seem like monkeys wearing clothes, while the fat patients would make the chairs creak with their weight!

"Doctor, do I have rheumatism!? My knee joints feel ice cold, and they also hurt a little." Zhang Fan received a teenaged girl patient who was quite pretty! She had white skin, a short and pink down-filled jacket, a black leather miniskirt, and light gray stockings along with brown snow boots.

Her large eyes were teary, while her parents behind her had anxious expressions.

"Here, hop on the bed first. I'll perform a checkup on you!"

Zhang Fan performed a simple physical examination on the girl and found nothing wrong.

However, he wouldn't be allowed to directly tell the patient and her family members that she was fine. Nowadays, hospitals placed a great deal of importance on checkups. If a doctor dared to say to a patient that they were perfectly fine with only a basic examination when more detailed laboratory examinations hadn't been done yet, it was likely that the hospital administration would sue the doctor.

"Let's do the four checkups for rheumatology first!" Zhang Fan said as he filled out the necessary lab examination paperwork.

"Doctor, you should do a total physical examination instead! My daughter's still just a child!" said the teenaged girl's mother.

"I don't think there's any need!" Zhang Fan told her.

"It's fine. My workplace will pay for it. All you have to do is write my name down!"

"Oh!" Zhang Fan broke out in a sweat. "First, have her do a blood test, and then take an X-ray of her knees!"

Some time later, the teenaged girl returned with the laboratory examination results for the blood test and the X-ray. Zhang Fan took a look and found that everything was normal.

"It's alright. There's no problem with you at all," Zhang Fan told the girl.

"Oh! It's good that there's no problem then. Does she need any medicine?" asked the girl's mother.

"No need. Make sure to stay warm after you go back," Zhang Fan answered.

The teenaged girl came alive when she heard that she was fine! Pouting, she retorted, "I'm wearing plenty!"

Zhang Fan was currently writing the medical report. When he heard the girl's naïve words, he really wanted to add the sentence "Wear long pants" to the medical report!

"You should wear some thicker pants!" Zhang Fan told her.

"I told you that you weren't wearing enough. You're so stubborn. See, even the doctor is telling you that you're not wearing enough clothes, you foolish child, giving me nothing but trouble every day," said the mother.

Zhang Fan helplessly shook his head as he watched this family.

"Doctor, then what exactly is rheumatic inflammation like?" The girl's mother felt that she would be losing out after coming to visit the doctor if she didn't at least ask something, since her daughter was fine!

Zhang Fan looked at her, and then explained, "To explain with the knee joint as an example, rheumatic inflammation usually has symmetrical swelling, but the internal structure of the knee joint won't change. After that, a problem will appear with the heart valves. This is a classical example of affecting the joints and then attacking the heart. Your knee joint will hurt, but the problem will also affect your heart."

"What about rheumatoid arthritis? Is that the same~?"

"No." Since this patient had made an appointment, and there were no other patients afterwards, Zhang Fan decided to explain. "Rheumatoid arthritis's main symptom is symmetrical stiffness in the hands in the morning. It's especially damaging to the joints."

"Oh! Alright, thanks! Your attitude is so nice." Zhang Fan was praised for being nice! The family left rather happily.

Rheumatism was quite difficult to deal with. Some people wouldn't pay attention and would keep using cold water. It really would make a big difference to use warm water instead!

When touching cold water, especially if it was already cold, the blood vessels would start to contract, followed by many powerful immune factor reactions. Maybe you would feel that your skin had been tough and fine for your whole life, but the moment that factors changed and rheumatic factors appeared for the first time, it would be over! Rheumatic factors would be impossible to cure! There was no effective medicine.

Although this wasn't an absolute cause of rheumatism, this was a fairly evident cause. It was common for people who had worked as dishwashers for many years to get rheumatism!

Just as Zhang Fan was about to get off work after lunch, someone familiar came to visit him! The fat hotel manager from a hotel in Kuake City came to see Zhang Fan, who was really surprised at the meeting.

"Haha, Doctor Zhang! Long time no see! I really missed you!" The fatty swiftly walked over with a limp and grabbed Zhang Fan's hands for a strong handshake!

"Haha, what's going on?" Zhang Fan could guess from a glance.

"Hah! It's my gout. My uric acid is about to explode with how much pain it's giving me! I had to come to the hospital. Doctor Zhang, directly let me be hospitalized! Honestly, it's hurting so much that my waist is trembling. Putting on socks in the morning is the equivalent of torture!"

Although the fatty hotel manager was saying that he really hurt, his meaty face and smiling expression made him seem comical!

"Alright, then you can be hospitalized! I'll start the paperwork for you!"

"Okay, let's drink two glasses together when I'm better!" said the fatty manager as he held onto Zhang Fan's hand.

"Oh! Alright, you won't be getting better!"

"Oh, oh, oh, right, right, right, I can't drink alcohol, I can't drink any alcohol, haha!"

For this morning, Zhang Fan saw approximately 30 patients. He took two patients, one for gout and one for ankylosing spondylitis.

Ankylosing spondylitis was quite famous in China, not because of the disease itself, but because some famous people had gotten this disease before.

Over this morning that Zhang Fan worked outpatient services, he saw all of the main diseases in rheumatology, including rheumatism, gout, ankylosing spondylitis, lupus, and so on.