Behçet's Disease

"Sigh, then I won't drink it."

The old woman nodded with great regret.

After 55 minutes, the Qi had circulated through the body once, and Su Ziyang removed the needles from the old woman's body.

"Alright, ma'am. Go get the medicine."

Su Ziyang gestured for the old woman to go get her medicine, and she left with regret.

"This is the Wine Fairy Granny."

Su Ziyang watched the old woman's retreating figure and sighed silently.

"Doctor."

The old woman had just come downstairs when a middle-aged woman came in. The woman's voice sounded strange, as if she had something in her mouth.

"Hello, please have a seat."

Su Ziyang asked the middle-aged woman to sit down. After she sat down, a child who looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old entered through the door.

"Doctor, hello."

The child greeted Su Ziyang, and Su Ziyang nodded.

This is my son.

The middle-aged woman pointed to the child standing behind her and said softly.

"Where do you feel unwell?"

From the moment the middle-aged woman entered the room, Su Ziyang had been observing her expression.

The person's complexion was a bit dark red, as if from sun exposure, but not quite; in any case, their skin tone looked somewhat unnatural.

So Su Ziyang asked first, without rushing to take the pulse or say anything else.

My mother has Behcet's disease.

The middle-aged woman didn't speak, but her son offered a simple explanation.

As he spoke, the young man took out a stack of diagnostic reports directly from his backpack.

The final diagnosis was given by a well-known Western hospital.

Behcet's disease is also known as Behcet's syndrome.

Its main manifestations include recurrent oral ulcers, genital ulcers, conjunctivitis, and skin lesions.

The cause of this disease is currently unclear, but it is believed to be related to genetics or living environment.

Only then did Su Ziyang realize why the woman was speaking so fast; she probably had many mouth ulcers.

Su Ziyang silently reviewed the diagnostic reports from various hospitals. In any case, the results were largely the same, and in the end, it was confirmed that it was indeed Behcet's disease.

Western medicine considers this disease to be an autoimmune disorder and mostly treats the symptoms, without any specific and effective treatment methods.

"You have ulcers in your throat too?"

Seeing that the woman was having difficulty speaking, Su Ziyang asked her directly about her son.

Her son nodded in agreement.

This ulcer may start in the mouth, but it is not limited to the mouth; it can appear all over the digestive tract, from the anus to the vulva.

"Hmm. Let me take a look."

Su Ziyang gestured for the woman to open her mouth so he could see. After the woman opened her mouth...

The woman developed many round ulcers on her lips, tongue, and the walls of her mouth.

"Ah!--."

"Ah!"

When Su Ziyang shone his flashlight on the woman, he found that, sure enough, she also had four or five round ulcers in her throat.

What medication are you taking now?

After Su Ziyang sat down, he prepared to ask a couple more questions.

When Su Ziyang asked, the young man took out several medicine boxes from his backpack.

A box of thalidomide, a box of colchicine, a box of ibuprofen, and a box of azathioprine.

All of them were Western medicines. To Su Ziyang's surprise, the young man who accompanied his mother to the doctor had actually prepared the instruction manual for each box.

When he handed the instruction manual to Su Ziyang, Su Ziyang felt a little emotional.

How old are you?

After taking the instruction manual, Su Ziyang casually asked...

"He's 17."

The young man spoke with great maturity.

"Why aren't you in school?"

Su Ziyang asked again.

"I've been studying lately, so I took some time off to accompany my mother to the doctor's appointment."

The young man's maturity and attentiveness are rare for children his age.

"Okay, that's filial piety. Just because of your filial piety, your mother's illness will get better."

Su Ziyang comforted the young man while also speaking to the patient. Such indirect words were more effective in alleviating the patient's psychological burden.

"Doctor, my mother took Chinese medicine for a while before, but it wasn't very effective. We tried several different treatments, and now she's back to taking herbal decoctions."

The young man carefully put away the medicine box and instruction manual that Su Ziyang had returned, and looked at Su Ziyang very seriously as he spoke.

The middle-aged woman patted the young man's hand on her shoulder and said softly, "Doctor, it's just a child's talk. Don't take it to heart. We didn't mean to say that traditional Chinese medicine doesn't work."

"Mom, it's okay." The young man patted his mother's shoulder. "I've looked it up online. We need to tell the doctor about our treatment experience so they can prescribe the right medicine for us."

Upon hearing the young man's words, Su Ziyang chuckled, "Yes, yes, the young man is right. That's exactly it. You don't need to overthink it. He's right. Do you remember what medicine you took before?"

"The doctor didn't give us a prescription, and we didn't recognize the herbs. But I recognized a few of them; I think there was a chrysanthemum, a bamboo leaf, and something that looked like a perilla leaf. Those were the only three I recognized."

As the young man spoke, he took out his phone and started searching. Getting a little frustrated, he said, "Ugh, I remember I specifically took a picture of it, and I deleted it? No way!"

"Doctor, please wait a moment. Let me find the herbs the doctor prescribed; I've taken a picture."

Su Ziyang waited for the young man for a while, but still couldn't find him, and the young man became somewhat embarrassed.

Su Ziyang quickly offered words of comfort.

"It's alright, don't bother looking for it anymore, that's not important. You mentioned three herbs, and I already know what the doctor was thinking. That's not important anymore, let me take your mother's pulse."

From the three herbs the young man mentioned, Su Ziyang roughly understood the traditional Chinese medicine doctor's treatment approach—"clearing heat and detoxifying."

The doctor must have thought this was a case of "heat" in the body, so he prescribed some medicines to clear heat, detoxify, and promote urination.

After the middle-aged woman placed her wrist on the pulse diagnosis kit, Su Ziyang placed his fingers on it and found that the pulse was slightly floating, and could be felt with a light touch, which was very obvious.

What's interesting is that this person's pulse wasn't just floating, but also very long, extending upwards and downwards...

A faint pulse surged up the cun pulse, almost reaching the thenar eminence, and the chi pulse also surged down to a tiny point, exceeding the normal pulse characteristics.

However, this pulse is very deep and weak, not the kind of strong and powerful pulse.

Su Ziyang was puzzled and silently recorded the pulse reading in his notebook.

Do you usually seem a bit listless?

Based on the pulse diagnosis, Su Ziyang asked a question in a low voice.

"Um..."

The middle-aged woman remained silent for a while, then suddenly spoke, her throat suddenly aching.