Chapter 188
"No more drinking from now on. No strong liquor, especially no beer. If you really crave it, limit yourself to a small glass of wine per day."
After the chubby guy’s blood pressure returned to normal and he slowly woke up, he dared not question Garrett Nordmark’s words anymore. Garrett went on to list instructions one by one, and the chubby guy nodded along obediently, the folds of fat on his belly bunching up:
"Yes, yes."
"Avoid seafood. Cut down on oysters, clams, and all shellfish."
"What... but we live by the sea, we can’t eat seafood... Alright, alright, yes, yes."
"Reduce your intake of beef and lamb."
"Then... what can I eat, Reverend?"
"Chicken, duck, pork are all fine. But no foie gras! Actually, avoid all animal organs!"
The chubby guy frowned and rubbed his belly. Garrett sternly warned him, "Your illness is caused by your diet! Even if I remove the ailnt for you today, if you continue overeating and drinking, harmful substances will continue to accumulate in your body, and you’ll still suffer! Have you seen the stones in your stomach? Later on, your kidneys, bladder, everywhere will be filled with stones, and going to the bathroom will be as painful as being sliced with a knife!"
The chubby guy’s face trembled with concern, not from the pain, but from the thought of wasting money:
So far today, despite spending a lot of money, it was still bearable. A spell to alleviate pain, a level two divine magic, two magic detections, a level zero divine magic, a mage hand, a level zero divine magic, a spell to heal minor injuries, another level zero divine magic (Garrett decided to cast it to prevent urinary tract infections after removing the stones)—all of it added up to less than a thousand gold coins.
But removing the illness was a level three divine magic, which would cost several thousand gold coins just to start! He had shipped a boatload of goods from the mainland to Nevis, with calm seas and no losses, earning him just a few thousand gold coins! This one episode was a complete waste...
And it wouldn’t even cure him completely! He’d have another attack after a few more days of indulgence!
"So... how can I be completely cured?"
Even if it took two, three, or even four! If he could get rid of the ailnt with four spells, he would pay the money! With all these restrictions on what he could eat, life was becoming unbearable!
Hmm... completely curing this kind of thing was impossible with modern dicine anyway. Garrett stroked his chin. Before he crossed over, the academic community didn’t have a clear understanding of the causes and chanisms of gout. As for treatnt thods, they advocated for dietary control, reducing uric acid, anti-inflammatory asures, pain relief, and, if necessary, surgical removal of gout stones—
But as for a cure?
The level six skill, dical Art, was said to be able to eliminate all diseases and injuries, but it was unknown if it was effective. If not, they might have to try sothing like the Grand Wish Art...
The chubby guy continued to stare at him expectantly. Garrett thought for a mont, then started making things up:
"You got this illness because there are too many harmful substances in your blood. If we completely drain your blood to purify it, filter out these substances, and then transfuse it back into your body, it should work. But how to purify it, and how to save your life after the blood is drained, I don’t know..."
To be honest, sothing like dialysis could be beneficial in reducing uric acid. As for drastic asures, it’s generally not necessary in clinical practice. Well, he couldn’t perform dialysis here anyway, so he was just talking nonsense.
Garrett shrugged. The chubby guy’s face went from pale to green, then yellow, cold sweat oozing out. He bent over again, wanting to leave in a hurry, but Garrett stopped him:
"What’s the rush! I haven’t finished speaking yet! Rember to drink at least four large glasses of water every day, exercise moderately, but don’t overdo it; eat more fruits and vegetables; oh, and absolutely avoid asparagus!"
"Then what can I eat at all—"
The chubby guy wailed miserably. Garrett crossed his arms, unmoved.
He had seen many people like this. They promised to follow instructions nicely, indeed avoided certain foods for a couple of days, maybe a week at most, then forgot about it; then, after anywhere from a month to half a year, they would crawl into the hospital, begging the doctors to save them.
Fortunately, gout wasn’t the kind of disease that required ergency surgery. Apart from when they had to perform surgery and found high uric acid levels, it was mostly just the next-door departnt’s colleagues complaining:
"That old patient is here again..."
After giving instructions and dication, explaining how many tis a day to take them, Garrett waved his hand to dismiss the chubby guy. The chubby guy cradled a small box of white pills with care, hunching his back, clutching his neck, walking forward as if he were holding a precious gemstone, but then he suddenly turned back:
"Reverend, you’re amazing! Everything you said is spot on! I have several friends just like , I’ll make sure they all co to see you!"
Garrett: "......???"
All with gout?
"No, no, I don’t know the Alleviate Pain spell yet, and I haven’t quite mastered Ultrasound magic for stone fragntation. The accuracy is very limited. Even if I insert a catheter, I haven’t found a suitable vine... I’ll have to ask Reverend Matthew for help later..."
"You’ve introduced
to a bunch of gout patients, but my ability to help them is seriously limited!"
Garrett Nordmark returned to his seat full of anxiety. Reverend Matthew was standing by his desk. Without waiting for him to speak, Garrett rushed up and grabbed him:
"What dicine did you give him?"
"Daffodil powder—mixed with so starch, honey, kneaded into a ball—"
"Powder? Just powder? How much powder to how much starch? Is it mixed evenly? How did you mix it?"
"Shake it, mix it..."
Garrett rubbed his forehead. Daffodil, brother, that stuff is poisonous! Just shaking and mixing it, what if there’s a bit more or less sowhere? This isn’t like making pancakes, where if the salt isn’t evenly spread, you’ll just get a salty bite. This could kill soone!
And even if the daffodil powder was really mixed evenly, is the alkaloid content the sa in different plants, different parts of the daffodil? It’s impossible to imagine...
What if, unluckily, you happen to encounter a part with a high content, or the powder wasn’t mixed evenly, and you ingest a bead that’s ten or twenty tis the average dose?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Garrett pursed his lips. He could overlook it if he hadn’t noticed before, but now that he had, there’s no way he could ignore it. He looked up at the ceiling:
"Reverend Matthew, is there daffodil powder in the alchemy room? Can I use it?"
"You can! It’s on the second floor. Go ahead if you want to use it!"
"Alright!"
Garrett dashed upstairs. He had searched through his mories before and actually found several papers asuring the alkaloid content of daffodil. Anyway, by dry weight, the average content was about 0.30%. So it’s simple, I’ll make it myself!
Garrett rolled up his sleeves and got to work. One by one, setting up the balance, test tubes, square beakers... One gram of daffodil powder contains 0.3 milligrams of alkaloids. The adult dose is 0.5-1 milligram every 1-2 hours, not exceeding 6 milligrams per day. 6 divided by 0.3 equals 20, so... that’s how I’ll make the dicine!
asured out 20 grams of daffodil powder, divided it evenly into 5 portions, placed them in conical flasks, and added 100 milliliters of alcohol to each. Fixed them on the shaker and vigorously shook them for 15 minutes—Garrett shook the shaker so hard that his hand was about to break, and he seriously doubted whether he had reached the shaking frequency. But who cares, that’s it!
Filtered, settled, then added evaporated alcohol to obtain crude daffodil alkaloid extract. Whatever strange things were in there, I won’t worry about it. Anyway, dissolve the crude extract in a little water, weigh out 12 grams of starch, and mix with water. Knead and knead, knead into a dough, roll it into a long strip, cut it into 12 pieces, perfect!
Each pill contains 0.5 milligrams, and this batch is the dose for one day. Maybe the content isn’t perfectly uniform, but it’s definitely more even than mixing the powder directly into the pills. Next ti, if conditions allow, rember to asure the content. Hmm, how do you set up a UV spectrophototer...
Garrett pushed aside long-term goals, satisfactorily packed up the pills in a small bottle. He was about to find a rabbit or sothing to try them on when he heard soone shouting below:
"Reverend, I’ve brought a patient for you to see!"
Oh no...
Already?
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