Sent to the countryside, I turned the health center into a top-tier hospital.

He then carefully examined the spleen, stomach, and lung pulses, but found no obvious lesions.

The tongue is pale and dark, with a thin white coating and slightly bluish-purple veins under the tongue. These all point to qi stagnation and blood stasis, but they are not enough to explain the source of decades of stubborn chest pain.

He straightened up and flipped through the stack of examination reports on the table from beginning to end.

I've had an electrocardiogram (ECG) no less than ten times, and every report has been "generally normal".

Three echocardiograms were performed, and no organic lesions were found.

I've had two chest CT scans, and neither showed any obvious abnormalities.

Of course, an 80 or 90-year-old woman would certainly have age-related changes such as increased lung markings and aortic wall calcification, but these are not enough to explain her pain.

I've had a gastroscopy, which showed chronic superficial gastritis, completely unrelated to the chest pain.

Chen Ping put down the receipt, paced back and forth a couple of times, and frowned.

"Dr. Chen, how is it?" Old Song asked cautiously, seeing Chen Ping's expression.

"I haven't found the cause yet, I'll think of a solution," Chen Ping said truthfully.

Hearing Chen Ping say that, Old Song looked somewhat helpless.

He now has great faith in Chen Ping's medical skills. If Chen Ping can't find the cause, then it's the final verdict.

"Ugh, I told you I wasn't going to watch it. Why waste our time? Let's go home."

The old lady sighed and got up to leave.

"Mom, why are you in such a hurry? Dr. Chen is trying to find a solution, isn't he?" The man beside her pressed down on his mother, his face full of helplessness and anxiety.

Having a mother who has been ill for a long time is indeed a headache. The problem is that no matter what you do, you can't get better. Watching your mother suffer every day, the son is actually more distressed than the mother.

"Auntie, don't worry, I'm trying to think of a way..."

Chen Ping offered a word of advice, then walked up to the old lady, took her wrist, and checked her pulse again.

This time, his fingers pressed on the cunkou (a point on the cervical sac) more lightly and slowly than before, as if searching for some extremely subtle signal.

He closed his eyes, focusing all his attention on the slightest throbbing under his fingertips.

In his mind, a thread was moving through the old woman's body, forming a human anatomy.

After an unknown amount of time, Chen Ping suddenly opened his eyes and asked the old lady to take off one sleeve of her cotton-padded coat, exposing her shoulder and upper arm.

That arm was as thin as a withered twig, the skin was loose and sagging, and the biceps and triceps had atrophied to the point that they were almost undetectable.

Chen Ping pressed the muscles next to her cervical spine and the inside of her shoulders with his fingers.

When the pressure was applied to the interscalene muscles, the old lady gasped sharply and flinched to the side. The reaction was much stronger than when the pressure was applied to her chest.

Chen Ping had a plan in mind, and then carefully pressed her supraclavicular fossa and armpit, finally finding a very small hard nodule deep in the supraclavicular fossa.

It's only the size of a soybean, hidden beneath layers of muscle and fascia, and you can't find it at all without careful pressing.

"That's where it hurts, isn't it?"

The old lady nodded, a hint of surprise in her cloudy eyes.

Chen Ping helped her get dressed, straightened up, let out a long sigh, and turned to Old Song and the old lady's son: "We found out. Her chest pain isn't a heart problem, nor is it a stomach problem; it's cervical vertebrae compressing a nerve root, causing intercostal neuralgia. You see…"

Chen Ping held up the CT scan to the light and pointed to the area between the third and fourth cervical vertebrae with his finger. "The nerves that come out from here control the sensation in the front of the chest and back."

"When she was young, she did farm work and carried heavy loads. Year after year, her neck was bent over with heavy loads, which caused her intervertebral discs and bone degeneration to be much more severe than that of ordinary people. This compressed the nerve roots, and the pain radiated from her neck to her chest and back."

"This kind of radiating nerve pain is very similar to angina, so it has been treated as heart disease for so many years, which is naturally the wrong treatment."

The man slapped his thigh: "Right, right, right! The doctor in the provincial capital did mention cervical spine that year, but the X-ray didn't show anything, so we didn't think about it."

"When my mother was young, she carried manure. The carrying pole was pressed against the back of her neck, and she would carry it all day long, walking back and forth on the ridges of the fields, dozens of times a day..."

"The root of the problem lies here."

Chen Ping put down the film and said, "Auntie, your illness has lasted too long. The nerve roots have been compressed for too long, and with your advanced age, the bone degeneration is irreversible."

"A complete cure is probably unrealistic, but I can use acupuncture to help relieve your symptoms, relax the spasming muscles, and reduce pressure on the nerves."

"Prescribe some more traditional Chinese medicine to promote blood circulation, clear the meridians, dispel wind and cold, and take it when you're in pain so you can sleep soundly at night."

"I will use the mildest medicine, one that won't harm the stomach or deplete your energy and blood."

The old lady nodded, a faint smile appearing on her wrinkled face.

Old Song let out a long sigh of relief and patted Chen Ping hard on the shoulder.

"Dr. Chen, I knew you could understand it, and you didn't disappoint me." Old Song's eyes were full of expectations for Chen Ping.

The old lady's son rubbed his hands vigorously beside her, rubbing his eyes with emotion, and repeatedly said thank you.

Chen Ping had the old lady sit on the treatment bed and selected several acupoints, including the cervical spine Jiaji points, Jianjing, Tianzong, and Neiguan. He gently inserted the finest acupuncture needles with very small rotations, always using the tonifying method.

The old lady was too old and had insufficient qi and blood, so the heavy needling method could not be used; only gentle methods could be used to unblock her meridians.

While the needles were in place, he prescribed another formula, using the following herbs: kudzu root, white peony root, chuanxiong rhizome, clematis root, chicken blood vine, and earthworm.

Kudzu root relieves muscle tension and relaxes tendons, so the dosage is slightly higher. White peony root soothes the liver and relieves pain, which can alleviate neuralgia. Ligusticum chuanxiong invigorates blood and promotes qi circulation, and combined with Clematis chinensis, it dispels wind and unblocks the meridians.

Chicken blood vine nourishes and invigorates the blood, while earthworm can penetrate deep into the meridians to disperse stagnation. Adding a few slices of ginger and a few jujubes warms the middle and protects the stomach, preventing the medicinal properties from being too strong.

Old Song took the prescription to the pharmacy to get the medicine, but the man hurriedly tried to snatch it, saying, "Brother, give it to me, I'll go get it."

"Why are you trying to take it from me? You stay here with Auntie, I'll go get the medicine. It won't cost much."

After finishing his explanation, Old Song took the prescription and left the consultation room.

Chen Ping looked at the man, who had a simple and honest appearance. No one would have guessed that the man's elder brother was a former provincial official.

"Three of you, if your eldest brother wants to spend money, let him spend it. His money is always easier to earn than yours."

The old lady looked at her son and said.

"Mother, my brother earns money easily, it doesn't come from thin air, we can't always spend other people's money."

"Besides, I've made a good amount of money from leasing mountain areas, so it's not like I'm short of cash," the man said.

"Oh, your older brother has always felt guilty towards you all these years, letting you stay in your hometown and suffer." The old lady sighed.

"Mother, my elder brother has not wronged me. If he really wanted to make me an official, I wouldn't be able to do it."

"It's so good now. I contracted a mountain myself and earn a good income every year. I can also take care of my parents. If it weren't for my older brother leading the way, I would never have had the chance to contract a mountain. I understand all of this," the man said.

The old lady glanced at her son with relief, and was about to speak when Old Song returned with the medicine.