The Apothecary Diaries - Volume 15 - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Before the Surgery

The procedure would begin at noon.

"Bandages, check! Salve, check!"

Maomao ticked off the supplies on her fingers for the umpteenth time.

They'd ground the medicine from the finest possible ingredients, making everything carefully to ensure there were no impurities. The bandages had been made from new cloth, torn into uniform pieces and boiled to disinfect them.

Maomao was doing the final checks with Auntie Liu, as well as making sure the place was clean.

The Emperor's resting chamber was likewise ready and waiting. The room where he would be after the surgery was, needless to say, a special place. It was no ordinary bedchamber, but had another room specially built adjacent to it. There would be a physician in attendance there at all times. If anything unusual occurred, day or night, they would be able to see to His Majesty immediately.

The room was almost entirely white, furnishings kept to a minimum and purely aesthetic decorations avoided. This would minimize the number of places dust could collect and make the place easy to clean.

The bed itself had been the object of particular care. It was stocked with pillows of the perfect firmness, not too soft and not too hard, in deference to the fact that the Emperor would not be able to turn very much in his sleep. The pillows were even stacked to support his body.

The most unusual thing was that there were two beds right next to each other. Why would they do that? It was because they would change the sheets every single day. Sweat and skin excretions could give rise to mold and insects. Bedding probably would have been fine for a few days at a time, but this was the Emperor they were talking about. To make sure he got the best rest possible, the sheets would be changed even if they were merely damp with sweat. Each time they were changed, the staff would have His Majesty moved to the other bed.

I wonder how much a super-luxurious bed costs.

The beds were not lavishly accessorized, but Maomao wondered how many silk outfits could be made from even one of those canopies.

Initially, there had been a suggestion that there should be two entirely separate rooms, and that the Emperor should move between them while the sheets were changed and the cleaning done, but others objected that moving him was a risk, so this was the solution they had come to. In addition, ample attention would be paid to ventilation while cleaning, and care would be taken not to stir up too much dust.

Whatever happened, they would make sure the Emperor survived. That was the culmination of the resolution of the palace physicians.

The surgical suite was adjacent to the bedchamber so that the Emperor could be moved immediately once the procedure was over. No expense had been spared if it would improve the odds of the surgery succeeding. Thanks to this arrangement, Maomao could see the Emperor lying there from where she was.

They had requested His Majesty to take no meals starting the day before, and already had him lying on the surgical table. They'd administered the anesthetic already, not long ago, and also planned to use needles to dull the pain.

Choosing the right anesthetic was sure difficult.

They'd settled on a concoction focused on hemp, which had some addictive qualities but would not present issues as long as it wasn't used long-term. Maomao wasn't sure how much it would lessen the pain, but they would just have to ask the Emperor to endure what remained.

As far as Maomao could tell, the Emperor seemed calm.

Maybe Lady Ah-Duo was able to talk him around.

She didn't know what kind of will he had left, but she was determined that it wouldn't be necessary.

Something nagged at her, though.

Isn't he a little too calm?

The Emperor looked oddly at peace, despite the fact that he had no makeup concealing his pallor.

"Everything look normal?" Maomao asked the physician checking the effect of the anesthetic.

"Yeah, pretty good." The doctor seemed relieved, but Maomao was still unsettled.
Dr. Liu and Luomen were having their last discussion. They'd spoken to the Emperor briefly before the anesthetic had been administered.

He still looked like he was in pain then.

So the anesthetic was doing its job. That was good. But Maomao thought it had worked a little too quickly.

This seems oddly familiar.

She was almost sure she'd seen something written somewhere about when appendicitis pain abruptly receded.

I'm pretty sure it said ...

"What's the matter?" Auntie Liu asked Maomao.

"I'm sorry. I need to go back to the medical office. Is that all right?"

"Yes, it's fine. We're just about set here."

"Thank you."

Maomao hurried to the medical office. The post-surgical team was there, and looked startled when she burst in, out of breath.

"What's going on?" asked Tall Senior.

"Wh ... Where's Kada's Book?" Maomao gasped out.

"Over here." One of the physicians took her to a room in back. Ordinarily it was kept locked, so only authorized personnel could get in.

Maomao sank her proverbial teeth into the book.

"Hey! Not so rough, you'll tear it!"

Maomao ignored the voice, looking desperately through the pages.

Not here ... Not here either.

Where was it? Finally her eyes alighted on the sentence.

"When the appendix ruptures, pain may temporarily subside."

"This is it!" she said, holding up the book triumphantly.

"I said, be gentle with that!" the physician cried, but Maomao showed him the page.

"I'm concerned about what is says here. Read this."

"Easy for you to say ... " The physician squinted at the characters, which were written in an unfamiliar style. "Hm? Something about the pain subsiding? We gave him the anesthetic. The pain shouldn't be a problem."

"I know. But don't you think it should have taken a little longer for His Majesty's pain to go away?" Maomao looked for the materials on the anesthesia experiments but couldn't find them. "The anesthetic should take a little more time to kick in."

The physician paused. "Maybe we should report it to Dr. Liu, just in case."

Maomao and the others hustled to the room where Dr. Liu was conversing with Luomen.

Dr. Liu was clearly displeased to be interrupted in the middle of his conversation. Luomen and all the other physicians present looked distressed by the intrusion of Maomao and her party.

"What in the world is going on?" Dr. Liu demanded.

"We're concerned about His Majesty's status," Tall Senior said.

"Cut to the chase."

From the moment he heard the words His Majesty, Dr. Liu was ready to listen. He knew very well that it was impossible to predict how an illness might progress, and where the clue that it had might come from-it could be in the smallest change.

"The anesthetic was administered only a short while ago, but he already says he feels no pain," Maomao said, showing Dr. Liu Kada's Book.

Dr. Liu and Luomen peered at it, their faces grim. "All right, this conference is over. I want you all to get ready as quickly as you can and get to your posts," Dr. Liu said, and then he proceeded toward the surgical room at a brisk trot. "Tell me how he's looking."

"I think Maomao would be best placed ... " Tall Senior said, giving her the lead. Dr. Liu tapped Tall Senior on the shoulder and jerked a thumb in Luomen's direction. An instruction to help Luomen to the operating room.

"Maomao. Situation?" Dr. Liu asked.

"Yes, sir." Maomao had to jog to keep up with the doctor's long strides. "His Majesty was experiencing stomach pain when you and Dr. Kan examined him an hour ago."

"That's right."

"The anesthetic was administered about thirty minutes ago, I believe. When the physician asked His Majesty how he was feeling shortly after, His Majesty reported that there was no pain."

"Shortly after?"

Dr. Liu's strides became even longer. Luomen walked behind them, supported by Tall Senior. Dr. Liu stopped in front of the operating room and took a deep breath.

"Dr. Liu," said the physician who had examined the Emperor. "Aren't you a bit early?"

"What's His Majesty's status?"

"Sir? He's stable. The anesthetic seems to be working brilliantly, and ____"

A glare from Dr. Liu stopped the explanation in its tracks.

"Liu, you can't go giving people that look," Luomen admonished him as he and Tall Senior arrived.

He and Dr. Liu went into the operating room. Maomao and Tall Senior prepared to wait outside, but Dr. Liu turned and said, "I want you both in here."

Is that all right? Maomao wondered, checking her outfit to make sure there were no stains or dirt.

"What is it?" the Emperor asked as they entered. His eyes were unfocused.

The anesthetic is working.

"How are you feeling? Any nausea or pain?" Dr. Liu asked.

"I feel very calm. Your medicine must be working. Why didn't you give this stuff to me ages ago?"

"Because it won't help nearly so much if you overuse it, sir. And it can create dependency."

The difference between an anesthetic and a narcotic was in how you used it.

"I'd like to perform a physical examination. All right?"

“Sure."

Dr. Liu touched the lower-right of the Emperor's abdomen. "How does that feel?"

"No pain," the Emperor replied.

Dr. Liu looked less than thrilled. "I'll be back in a moment."

He left the operating room, and practically no sooner was he through the door than he stamped on the ground like a child throwing a tantrum. Auntie Liu, still cleaning nearby, gave him a worried look.

"Of all the times!" Pressing on the site had convinced him. "I think it just ruptured."

"Well, that's no good," Auntie Liu said.

"You're blasted right it's no good!"

It was hard to blame Dr. Liu for being upset. The whole point of moving as fast as they could to do surgery was to fix the problem before the appendix ruptured. If it spread filth throughout the body, other illnesses could follow.

"Is something the matter, sir?" asked the doctors of the surgical team, who had just arrived.

"We're moving the surgery up. Get ready," Dr. Liu said.

"Yes sir," the others answered. Realizing this was an emergency, they hopped to their tasks, readying equipment and changing into surgical garments.

Maomao prepared extra gauze. They had plenty already, but there would never be any harm in having more. They would probably use scads of it cleaning out the filth.

"Yikes!"

"Whoa, what are you doing ?! "

"Sorry ... "

A doctor in a surgical gown had nearly fallen, rescued only by the other physicians holding him up. The doctors might act cool, but the panic was starting to show.

And that's going to invite mistakes.

Maomao took a deep breath, telling herself to calm down.

In the operating room, they were placing the needles in the Emperor's honored body. With other patients, the needles and the drugs had been shown to help with pain when administered at the right moment, but Maomao worried how the effect might change on an accelerated schedule.

In the middle of it all was one man who looked totally unperturbed -who, in fact, seemed excited.

"Hm-hmmm!"

It was Tianyu, so at ease that he even had it in him to be humming! He was like a child enjoying a special trip.

There might be endless questions about his humanity, but in moments like this he was completely calm, so there was no need to worry about him. He almost seemed to be enjoying the danger.

"Well, now I'm glad I ate my meal early," said Auntie Liu, methodically and soberly getting ready.

"We certainly won't have any chance to eat now," Maomao agreed.

"Yes, and who wants to do surgery on an empty stomach?" Auntie Liu smiled. She went to where the members of the post-surgical team were waiting and tapped them on the shoulders. "All right, you lot. If you don't have anything to do, grab a light meal. There won't be time for it once the procedure is over."

Now, that's mental fortitude!

She hadn't lived such a long life for nothing. No wonder Dr. Liu had brought her along.