I run a clinic in the United States

Chapter 334: Rare diseases superimpose and hide rare diseases

Blue Sun Clinic.

Dr. Rachel Dion called Akon's mother: "Mrs. Mendes, how is Akon's condition? Why haven't you come to my place for a follow-up checkup in a long time? Remember to come for follow-up."

Aken's mother curled her lips, but she was still a little angry. She said that she should have listened to Mrs. O'Connor's advice and went to the Iris Clinic earlier. You are really unreliable here.

It almost delayed my son's condition.

However, the person on the phone still said politely: "I'm sorry, we have transferred her to the Iris Clinic. Well, I may not go anywhere else in the future."

"Ah?" Dr. Rachel Dion was a little confused. Why is it the Iris Clinic again?

Since the rise of Iris Clinic, the business of surrounding clinics has dropped significantly, not to mention the Red-billed Gull Clinic that closed down before.

"Mrs. Mendes, what did I do that wasn't good enough?" Dr. Rachel Dion said with great frustration.

When did a doctor have to be so humble?

It wasn't like this before. In the United States, doctors have a very high status.

But there is no way, the customer loss is too severe. Compared with its peak, the number of patients at Blue Sun Clinic has dropped by 50% to 60%.

Fewer patients means less revenue.

No matter how arrogant a doctor is, he still has to bow before money.

Aken's mother thought for a while, briefly mentioned the diagnosis results of Iris Clinic, and then hung up the phone.

Humph, I, the Mendez family, are already kind enough if I don’t bother you.

Dr. Rachel Dion: "..."

Holding the phone, I couldn't calm down for a long time. What's all this?

Previously, the little prince of Mr. and Mrs. O'Connor's family treated a minor illness as a serious illness. But when he came to Mrs. Mendez's family, it was good. He treated a serious illness as a minor illness. What a wrong step!

Needless to say, Mrs. Mendes and her family will definitely become loyal customers of Iris Clinic in the future.

In fact, not only Blue Sun Clinic, but also some other clinics around Iris Clinic are considering whether to relocate?

Because Iris Clinic is a monster, if you get too close to them, your business will be siphoned away, and nothing can be done to stop it.

Nothing can compete with others.

Moreover, Iris Clinic doesn't follow any rules. It can treat both major and minor illnesses, and it can be solved in one go. Other clinics often only treat minor illnesses, so how can this compare.

The city of San Francisco is only so big, so some clinic owners are considering simply relocating to a slightly more remote place in the Bay Area, where the number of patients may not be less than in the city of San Francisco.

Because the Bay Area is a super metropolis with millions of people, so there is still a lot to be done.

……

"Is this the Iris Clinic?"

At the nurse's station, Jin Jizhen quickly said to the patient consulting on the other end of the phone: "Yes, who are you? Do you want to make an appointment?"

"My name is Georgie Beasley. I heard that Dr. Zhou here is very good at treating rare diseases." The man on the other end of the phone had a weak and breathless voice. Although he sounded young, he still revealed a certain A heavy feeling of twilight.

Jin Jizhen said: "Yes, Dr. Zhou has superb medical skills. If you have any complicated diseases, you can come here for treatment."

"Is Dr. Zhou free tomorrow afternoon?"

"I'll check, wait a moment."

Jin Jizhen quickly looked through Zhou Qiao's schedule, and then said to Georgie Beasley very apologetically: "Unfortunately, Dr. Zhou has surgery scheduled these days. He will be at 9 o'clock in the morning on Friday - I’m free at 10 o’clock, can you think of it?”

"Friday..." Georgie Beasley was silent for a moment, and then said, "Okay, I'll arrive on time at 9 o'clock on Friday morning, thank you."

"Okay, let me register for you first. I hope everything is fine with you." Jin Jizhen felt that the other party was in a low mood, so she sent her sincere blessings.

"Thank you."

Georgie Beasley hung up the phone, lay on the sofa, took a long breath, and murmured: "I hope you have good luck this time! I don't know if Dr. Zhou is as amazing as the legend says."

"After so many years, there is no rush for these two or three days."

"I'm such an unlucky person."

Georgie Beasley was depressed and stared out the window in a daze.

He is only twenty-seven years old, but he has been fighting the disease for more than twenty years.

It seemed that he had been devastated by the disease for as long as he could remember.

Over the years, I have had the idea of ​​committing suicide many times. I was discovered by my family several times and attempted suicide several times.

It's not that he wants to commit suicide, but he really feels that this life is not worth it!

What are you doing in this world? Can you endure the pain? Might as well leave early!

However, the ant still lives an ignoble existence. Many times, he still wants to survive.

Fighting against the disease requires endless courage and struggle. When he wanted to commit suicide, his courage was exhausted and his mind collapsed. But every time before he died, the will to fight grew again from the desperate place, and the idea of ​​​​survival ignited in his heart. .

His disease is very rare. His mother said that when he was born, he was found to have coffee-milk-colored plaques all over his body. When he was nine years old, he went to the hospital because of a large number of tumors all over his body and was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type I.

这是一种由NF1基因突变引起的罕见疾病，患病率仅为1/4000～1/2000。

This disease, characterized by cafe-au-lait spots and multiple neurofibromas, usually develops in childhood.

In the following years, he underwent multiple chemotherapy and surgeries, and underwent fibroid resection in many parts of his left calf, left and right retroperitoneum, lower back, etc., and endured unimaginable pain for ordinary people.

The only thing worth mentioning and thankfully is that every postoperative pathological examination showed benign fibroma.

If it was malignant, it would have been dead long ago.

But the strange thing is that patients with this disease are not cured or their condition is under control, but their condition keeps recurring and is difficult to control.

Because of this disease, families who were not already wealthy have become even worse.

Not long ago, he suddenly developed symptoms such as blurred vision in both eyes and vision loss, accompanied by fatigue, numbness in both lower limbs, and abnormal bowel movements.

I went to many well-known hospitals, including the University of California, San Francisco Hospital and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, but the treatment effect was not obvious.

A friend recommended him to Iris Clinic, so he called and made an appointment with the intention of giving it a try.

"Oh, I hope I can gain something this time. Otherwise, I really can't bear it anymore!" Georgie Beasley sighed softly.

He is twenty-seven years old. Because of this disease, he has accomplished nothing and cannot go out to work. He is still dependent on his parents and has become a joke in the eyes of relatives, friends and neighbors.

In fact, this is due to his inferiority complex. No one laughed at him at all. There is only sympathy and pity for him.

It's understandable if you have a serious illness and are not independent or go out to work.

In the evening, when his parents came back from get off work, he told them about this.

His father: "OK, I'll drive you there on Friday morning."

His mother also said: "I have also heard about this Iris Clinic. Let's go there as a family!" Georgie Beasley pursed his lips, nodded, and went back to the room.

Lying on the bed, tears rolled down my face. He felt that his parents were really good to him and had always supported him over the years, but he himself had nothing to repay.

In the living room, Mrs. Beasley glanced at her husband: "Henry, do you think this Iris Clinic has hope?"

Henry Beasley shrugged: "I don't know. I heard that they are all young doctors, and I don't know if it will work."

"Yeah, I've heard that too, and it seems to be a Chinese clinic. Can Chinese doctors really surpass us American doctors?"

"Just go and try it and you will know, for the sake of your son's condition!"

"Well, for the sake of her son's condition." Mrs. Beasley thought for a moment and made the sign of the cross on her chest. "If this disease can be solved this time, I will buy a box of good red wine and celebrate it."

Not only Georgie Beasley, but as parents, they were also tortured unbearably by this disease.

Without this disease, the son might have been married or even had several children. What a wonderful life that would be.

They live in a rural area in the United States. Other families in the village are prosperous, but their family, with their three big cats and kittens, is deserted every Christmas and New Year.

At nine o'clock on Friday morning, Georgie Beasley and his family drove to the Iris Clinic.

"Good morning." Jin Jizhen greeted at the nurse's station with a smile.

"Hello, nurse."

After a while of greetings, Jin Jizhen took them to fill in the medical information and then came to Murphy's clinic.

Zhou Qiao and Murphy are inside.

"This is Dr. Zhou, and this is Dr. Murphy." Jin Jizhen introduced.

"This is Mr. and Mrs. Beasley, and their son Georgi."

"Good morning, please sit down, please sit down."

"Thank you. Here are some reports from my son's previous medical treatment, as well as the medications he used." Mr. Beasley was already prepared.

Zhou Qiao took it and read it with Murphy.

While watching, Zhou Qiao asked about the previous medical history, and then Zhou Qiao stepped forward to conduct a physical examination on Georgi.

After half an hour, Zhou Qiao said to the patient's family: "Georgi's condition is very complicated and special. We need to have a meeting to discuss it. How about you go to the rest area to have a cup of coffee and wait patiently for a while?" "

"no problem."

The Beasley family walked out. Zhou Qiao asked Jin Jizhen to make drinks for them, and then asked Elena to call Stephanie and Chiba Nanako over.

The reason for such a big battle was, firstly, because the patient's condition was really complicated, and secondly, Zhou Qiao felt that the patient's condition was very interesting and a very rare opportunity, so he asked Stephanie and Chiba Nanako to participate.

Let’s learn together and make progress together.

Regarding Georgi's disease, Zhou Qiao actually has a direction and ideas. Now the "consultation" is mainly for everyone to experience and improve together.

In the rest area, the Beasley family sat drinking coffee and eating snacks.

Although Georgi has been suffering from illness, Americans have no taboo about talking about it. Moreover, coffee is a common drink in the United States, and Georgi often drinks it.

"Henry, why do I always feel unreliable? Just now Dr. Zhou said he wanted a consultation. I thought he was asking for an expert, but instead I called two little girls in."

Mr. Beasley said: "This clinic is like this. I checked the information on the Internet. Don't underestimate these young people. They seem to be famous doctors in California."

Georgi added: "They took the top three places in the National Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery Competition the year before last. Although there was also a surgery competition last fall, some media commented that last year's event was not interesting, and the top three were far inferior to the third place. The top three in the competition are amazing!”

Because, in last year's surgery competition, the top three were all defeated by Zhou Qiao and the others the year before.

After Zhou Qiao and others won the championship, they naturally lost interest in the next tournament, and then they took advantage of others.

They can't win the championship every time they compete, right? That's too bullying, isn't it? Always give some opportunities to others.

Then, suddenly, the Beasley family fell silent.

Because, what the hell is that event about? heart surgery!

It has nothing to do with Georgi's condition.

Now, even Georgi felt a little less confident.

Not long after, Elena came over to call them and said, "Dr. Zhou and the others have finished their consultation and will arrange a series of examinations for Georgi. If everything goes well, the real truth will be revealed soon."

The Beasley family was stunned for a moment. What's the truth? It's like solving a crime.

Could it be that there are still variables in Georgi's condition? Isn’t it the same neurofibromatosis type I?

They guessed it right!

When they passed by, Zhou Qiao told them that Georgi probably suffered from another rare disease. The two rare diseases were superimposed, so this one was "hidden" or "ignored".

However, a series of examinations are still needed to confirm the diagnosis, and we hope they will cooperate.

The Beasley family was surprised and happy. What was horrifying was, why is there still a rare disease?

God, a rare disease has tortured their whole family for so many years. The whole family is about to collapse. How can they survive another rare disease?

Fortunately, if it is true, then the truth has been discovered. Perhaps, it could not be cured before because the two diseases interacted with each other, causing the disease to be delayed.

Doesn’t that mean that it is possible to get rid of the disease?

In any case, the whole family was in high spirits and cooperated very well to go for the check-up.

Zhou Qiao's service was very attentive and he asked Ava to take him with him.

Because Ava is familiar with the people in the testing center and the various procedures are clear, with her leadership, the efficiency will be doubled.

Of course, there is a charge for a nurse to accompany you.

This is what it should be, and the Beasley family happily accepted it after discussing it. They had not been to that testing center before.

MRI of the head, eyes, and spinal cord, cerebrospinal fluid examination, serum NMO-IgG, neuro-ophthalmology examination...

Cumbersome inspections are hard work, but they are also worth it. Zhou Qiao did not arrange unnecessary inspections. These are very necessary.

After the report came out, Zhou Qiao once again led the Iris Group to conduct a detailed analysis of the test data, and finally confirmed the diagnosis.

The disease they are targeting is: "neuromyelitis optica spectrum disease."

This is a rare disease, not just rare, but even rarer in Westerners.

In other words, the proportion of this disease in European and American countries, especially among Caucasians, is low and far lower than that of other races.

In the past, when Georgi went to see a doctor and filled out the information, he would fill in the form of white. Their family was originally a typical white family.

This is also one of the reasons why so many hospitals did not make keen discoveries before.

Therefore, filling in the race category is a double-edged sword. It may help doctors diagnose and prescribe medication most of the time, but in special circumstances, it may cause missed diagnosis.

Zhou Qiao is Chinese, and Chiba Nanako is Japanese. When looking at diseases, they may be more considerate and more tolerant.

(End of this chapter)