"Director Feng, the patient's temperature is still rising, it's already 39 degrees."
"Even after using antipyretics, it's still like this?"
"Yes, there was a brief drop in temperature after taking the dicine, but it rises again at night."
"The patient's diarrhea and ulcers are worsening, right? Then let's examine it from multiple angles like diarrhea and ulcers, and rule out infectious causes such as viruses, bacteria, tuberculosis, parasites, immune deficiencies, as well as non-infectious causes like inflammatory bowel disease and eosinophilic gastroenteritis one by one."
"Okay, I'll go notify the family now."
...
"How is it?"
"Director Feng, all the results are out. We've ruled out viruses, bacteria, parasites, and immune deficiency infections. The patient indeed has inflammation, but it's in the eyes, and there are also ulcers in the mouth and genitals, diarrhea, and unexplained fever. We still don't know the cause yet."
"For the past three days, the patient's temperature has been fluctuating unpredictably?"
"Yes, it's fine during the day, but it rises at night, reaching 40 degrees at its highest."
"Diarrhea, fever... mouth ulcers, genital... wait, could it be Behçet's disease!?"
"Behçet's disease?"
The reason Feng Yuan suspected Behçet's disease was because the patient's current symptoms matched exactly the information he had seen before.
Behçet's disease, also known as Behçet's syndro, is characterized by recurrent oral ulcers, genital ulcers, and eye inflammation. It can also involve multiple organs such as the digestive system, cardiovascular system, and nervous system, and is a chronic systemic vasculitis with variability.
The cause is currently unknown, possibly related to genetic factors.
In Feng Yuan's mory, this disease typically appears in the north and is extrely rare.
dically, there seem to be no cases of this disease being cured.
Moreover, since it is a chronic illness, many patients only begin to show symptoms after years or even longer, making it hard to detect in the early stages.
"Give the examination report."
After saying this, Feng Yuan went to his office.
He carefully checked Behçet's disease and then compared it with the examination results.
Sure enough, the patient indeed had Behçet's disease.
Knock knock knock!
At that mont, the door to Feng Yuan's office was knocked on, and Wang Kun, standing at the doorway, walked right in.
"Director Feng, I heard from Dr. Qin that we have a Behçet's disease patient in our departnt?"
Feng Yuan put down the examination report, leaned back, and reclined on the chair, "Yes, even I didn't expect our hospital to encounter such a patient. The symptoms are too complex, oral ulcers, genital ulcers, skin lesions, inflammation in the eyes, digestive tract, nervous system, cardiovascular, and even arthritis."
"Except for oral ulcers, all these symptoms are notoriously hard to deal with, and they're all concentrated in one person. By the way, the patient frequently has fever episodes that can't be reduced with dication."
Wang Kun took the examination report, and after reading it, he also frowned, "I recall that Behçet's disease can only be treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and immunosuppressants currently, right?"
Feng Yuan said, "These drugs have quite significant side effects, with irreversible damage to the liver, kidneys, and the blood system."
Wang Kun said, "Well, which drug doesn't have side effects? As long as it can control the disease and prevent it from worsening, it's okay."
Feng Yuan shook his head, "I just checked the latest papers on Behçet's disease, and neither hormone therapy nor immunosuppressive intervention has had significant efficacy on Behçet's disease, with particularly high disability and mortality rates. In that paper, none of the 51 Behçet's disease patients had their condition effectively controlled."
Wang Kun frowned, "Then what should we do? Do we directly tell the patient's family that this disease is incurable?"
Feng Yuan said, "We can prescribe the dication, but we have to explain it clearly, we can't knowingly let the patient spend more money when it's incurable."
Wang Kun sighed, "I'm just afraid the patient's family won't leave even after hearing that. You know, these days, many people co to the hospital for consolation even knowing it's incurable."
Feng Yuan stood up, "It's up to the patient's family to decide, let's go."
The two then left the office together.
Soon, they, along with another doctor and a nurse, headed towards the ward of the Behçet's disease patient.
This was a sixty-year-old woman, currently lying on the hospital bed looking particularly haggard, with her son-in-law and daughter sitting beside her.
The lady was from the Northeast and it was her first ti coming to Jianghan.
Because her daughter had married far away, she hadn't returned to the Northeast in seven or eight years.
This year, the lady missed her daughter especially, so she thought of coming to Jianghan to celebrate the New Year.
Little did she know, just a few days after arriving in Jianghan, she started feeling extrely unwell, and after she couldn't endure it anymore, her son-in-law sent her to the hospital.
"Xiao Liu, go to the ward and call out her son-in-law." When they reached the ward door, Feng Yuan instructed the nurse to go inside.
The nurse went in and called him out. When the son-in-law saw Feng Yuan and the others, he imdiately greeted them, "Director Feng, Director Wang, Dr. Qin."
Feng Yuan nodded to indicate, then said, "After these days of examination, we have a preliminary judgnt on your mother's condition. I'll be direct here, this disease is called Behçet's disease, characterized by the triad of oral, ocular, and genital involvent. It is a very rare chronic disease worldwide, basically with no possibility of cure."
"Even with dication, control of the condition is limited. We called you out because we don't want your mother to hear this, but as doctors, we must clarify things to you, and we hope you understand."
Xu Lang was a bit dumbfounded.
He didn't expect the first thing he'd hear after coming out was that his mother-in-law had a terminal illness.
"No, Director Feng, this Behçet's disease you're talking about, I don't understand it at all. Why can't it be cured?" Xu Lang's breathing beca a bit rapid.
Wang Kun imdiately added, "Let explain it like this, Behçet's disease is similar to diabetes, requiring lifelong dication, but controlling Behçet's disease is more complex than diabetes. Even with dication, it may not relieve the patient's pain. Do you understand?"
Xu Lang paused, and then said, "But taking dicine should be able to cure it, right?"
Feng Yuan said, "It can certainly be treated, but the efficacy is minimal. If you're determined, we can prescribe dication, but we can't guarantee its effectiveness, or even predict how long the condition will take to worsen, because this disease is so rare, it's the first ti I've encountered it in my career."
"Moreover, our hospital's dical resources are limited, perhaps there might be a solution in a larger hospital, after the New Year, you can go to the provincial big hospi... ah, may I ask, do you believe in traditional Chinese dicine?"
"If you do, I can recomnd you to see a Chinese dicine practitioner, he might have a way!"
Chinese dicine?
Xu Lang looked at Feng Yuan, a hint of confusion mixed with a bit of doubt in his bewildered eyes...
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