Chapter 2360: What They Want Is Reassurance
When ordinary people go to the hospital, it’s usually because they feel there’s something abnormal about their own body or a family member’s. Even if, after examination, the doctor judges that the patient is healthy and "normal," that doesn’t mean the patient and their family can go home completely at ease.
As long as the symptoms haven’t gone away, there will always be a knot in the patient’s and the family’s hearts.
This is where a paradox forms. Why is it called "no illness," but there are still abnormal symptoms? Some "abnormal" signs are only what the patient and family see as abnormal when they notice the body looks different from other people’s, but in fact they don’t have the doctor’s breadth of experience. Doctors have seen all kinds of patients in clinical work and know that these so‑called "abnormal" symptoms are not really abnormal; they’re just signs that are relatively uncommon in the general population. In theory, after such a proper medical explanation, the patient and family should be able to understand and accept that this "abnormality" is actually normal.
That line of thinking is too simple. To accept that an "abnormality" is normal, to coexist with this "abnormality," is a huge test of a person’s psyche. Psychologists say only time can heal everything, and in this context that saying fits perfectly.
"Mom, if you’re still worried, you and my sister‑in‑law and my brother can take the kid to another hospital for more tests. Do you want to bring the child to Shou’er for an exam?"
"It doesn’t really seem necessary. It’s just, you have to understand, it bothers me to look at it."
So what exactly was abnormal about this child? It turned out to be a birthmark, something very commonly seen on kids.
"Mom, the doctor said we should observe first, and talk about it again if it grows or changes in other ways. Birthmarks fade away gradually. You’ve raised two sons, how could you not know that?"
"I don’t remember you or your brother having such a big birthmark."
"You must be remembering wrong," said Wei Shangquan. After crawling and rolling around in clinical internships, he now had a certain feel for how family members exaggerate. What do you mean, such a big birthmark—never seen one? Impossible. If it really were that big, the doctor would have said something was wrong the moment the child went in for a checkup.
Smack! Mother Wei slammed the phone on her younger son: this youngest boy actually dared to say his own mother remembered wrong.
Student Wei stared blankly at the suddenly cut‑off call on his phone, and suddenly realized that the people hardest to communicate with might not be strangers, but one’s own family.
Families pin their hopes on their children studying medicine mostly so that, once the kids finish medical school, it’ll be more convenient to look after the family’s health. What they never expected was that, after seeing so much in the clinic, the child would become just as "cold and unfeeling" as the doctors in the hospital.
What do you mean "normal"! What they want is your reassurance, they want you to tell them you take the patient’s condition very seriously. Instead you keep telling me it’s normal, and even accuse me of remembering it wrong, caring even less about my concerns than the hospital doctors do. — Mother Wei was probably so angry on the other end that she couldn’t even speak.
Student Wei scratched the back of his head as he walked back, and when he reached the kitchen he stopped and his eyes lit up, "Hey, Yingying, you’re making flowers?"
Mm. There happened to be some ribbons on the table, so she could make a small bouquet for Senior Cao, Xie Wanying thought. And attach a thank‑you card for Senior Cao. Looking back over all the care she’d received from him over the past year, she felt more and more that, just as her mother had said, one must remember to be grateful.
Inside, Student Wei was secretly delighted: the hard work he and the others had put in today had been worth it.
They had to hurry and take the cake to Senior Cao’s home, and outside the sky was already dark.
Winter wasn’t over yet, and the wind and cold outdoors hadn’t let up.
The driver wasn’t around, so Student Wei, who had a license, ran to the garage to drive out the family’s small car, so that Student Xie wouldn’t be left out in the cold.
Standing on the front steps waiting for the car, Xie Wanying had both hands tucked into the pockets of her padded coat, and let her gaze casually wander over the surroundings.