I Became a Plague Doctor in a Romance Fantasy Novel

Episode 54. Pain Threshold (2)

Episode 54. Pain Threshold (2)

Isteena rushed into the ward.

One priest lying in a hospital bed as a patient. One priest who brought the patient. One nurse, Hedwig watching, and me.

“Professor! I brought the restraints!”

All eyes in the ward turned to me.

I awkwardly scratched my head. Hey, restraints might be needed for treatment, right?

The priest and Hedwig stared at me with narrowed eyes. I tied the patient with the restraints. It wasn’t difficult since he was unconscious.

“Isteena. You can hold the patient, right?”

“Yes. But why?”

I pulled out a naloxone spray from my pocket. The patient was still unconscious. But this would certainly wake him up.

What comes after is the problem though.

“Prepare to hold the patient.”

“He’s just lying there?”

“He’ll start thrashing when the medicine takes effect.”

“Why…?”

Why, you ask? Because it’ll hurt like hell, that’s why.

I sprayed the naloxone into the patient’s nose. If the dose is right, he’ll start to go wild. He might just writhe in pain by himself, or he might really start jumping around and causing a ruckus.

It’s best to take as many safety precautions as possible.

Istina was staring at me, like, ‘What are you still doing?’ I checked the time.

Two minutes? He should react in about two minutes.

“aaaGH!”

The patient started thrashing on the bed. Well, writhing, more like, since he was tied down. Lucky we got his arms secured.

‘Healing.’

‘Calming.’

The priest next to me was fidgeting, using magic with his staff. There’s really no need, he’ll be okay in a few minutes.

I doubt the magic will even help. I folded my arms and stepped back a bit.

“Professor! Do we have any sedatives or pain killers?!”

“Can’t use them on this patient.”

“Why not?”

Istina’s face was even more confused. I wanted to explain right away, but… Because of the patient’s colleague, the priest, it’s hard to explain.

“Hey, priest. You’re the patient’s companion, right? If you could step away for a bit, I’ll explain.”

“I haven’t done anything wrong?”

“Yeah. Anyway… just step away for a bit.”

The priest who’d brought the patient muttered something and left the room. Istina, clueless, and Hedwig just stood there, awkwardly.

The patient was a male priest in his twenties. The priest who’d brought him, a colleague, seemed to be in a similar state.

Of course, the caretaker hadn’t introduced himself.

“What the hell happened?”

“Drugs. Opioid addiction.”

Hedwig took a step back from the bed. I looked at Istina.

“There are many reasons a patient could collapse. Could be a myocardial infarction or a stroke, but given his age, that’s unlikely. What reason would a guy in his twenties have to just collapse suddenly?”

“Trauma?”

“It’s not trauma. You have to look at the pupils.”

Exposure to opioids causes the pupils to constrict. This patient’s pupils were almost pinpricks when he came into the hospital.

“Long story short, an opioid overdose causes all kinds of physical changes. Heart rate and breathing slow down, pupils constrict.”

“Oh, right.”

“That’s why I told his colleague to leave. I could have told him later. There’s a lot to think about.”

The priest had sent him out for the patient’s sake. He probably doesn’t know yet that his friend collapsed after stealing and taking opium.

He needs time to think, maybe talk to the patient too. Opioid addiction is surprisingly treatable, medically.

Something to think about later though.

“Where would they get opium?”

“Probably use it as medicine at the temple.”

“Opium is a painkiller, so why does it make you sick when you take it?”

A bit of a complicated issue. To put it simply…

“Opium is a drug that eliminates pain. The problem is, if you keep taking opium when you’re not even in pain, your pain threshold gets lowered.”

Naloxone is an opioid receptor antagonist. If you suddenly negate the effects of opium with it, the pain you were avoiding all comes crashing down at once.

It’s difficult to use painkillers or sedatives on that pain. The patient’s pain threshold is already messed up, and giving painkillers to someone who collapsed from a painkiller overdose is just crazy.

“Is that so?”

“If you suddenly nullify the effects of opium like before, their breathing and heart rate will return to normal, but because their pain threshold has been lowered, they’ll suddenly feel horrific pain.”

That’s why I told you to grab the restraints first.

Estina tilted her head, confused.

“When did you realize, professor?”

“When I heard it was a 20-something patient working at the temple. I figured they must’ve collapsed from taking opium used for medicine.”

Estina nodded, looking incredibly amazed. Well, whatever. We need to move on to the next treatment for the patient.

“U-um, professor.”

The priest seems to have finally come to his senses. We turned our heads towards the priest lying down.

“Could you… maybe untie these ropes?”

Right, of course.

The patient had improved a little and was now sitting up in bed. I can finally do a proper interview.

“What is your name, patient?”

“Tyriel.”

“You took opium, right?”

“No.”

“We already know you took opium. That’s why I dismissed your colleague, to talk about this.”

“Um… what should I do…”

It’s a bit frustrating, but let’s try to be patient a little longer. The conclusion feels near.

“Patient, do they only use powdered opium for pain relief at the temple? No, right?”

“No, they don’t.”

As I expected.

This patient is in an environment where exposure to opium is unavoidable. Even if he hadn’t collapsed, something had to be done, but now that he has…

More than that, it seems there’s a lot of opium at the temple?

And they give it so freely to patients, and the fact that this priest took it until he collapsed and nobody noticed.

“As you know, patient. You collapsed because of opium. You need to stop.”

“Aigo.”

“Change jobs. It’s best for you to go somewhere where they use less opium.”

I felt a little bad for him.

It didn’t seem like he wanted to be exposed to opium. Just bad luck. Above all, if this were a modern hospital, there would be so many things we could try.

I can’t think of a solution.

“Follow me to the examination room. Hedwig and Istina… you two, do your thing.”

Dismissed.

The patient followed me.

Screeeak. The clinic door shut with an ominous sound today. The patient sat in the examining room, staring at me with vacant eyes.

“It doesn’t feel like someone else’s problem.”

“Excuse me?”

Tiriel, was it?

On the surface, he might seem like a messed-up piece of garbage, stealing opium while working at the temple, but on the other hand.

He could be a healer who worked the hardest, saw the most suffering patients. Maybe that’s why he was exposed to more opium than average. I can’t jump to conclusions.

“First of all, willpower is important. Try this. Say, ‘I don’t want to do drugs, I want to live as a normal person!’ Go on, say it.”

The patient coughed a bit.

“Uh, I don’t want to do drugs, I want to live as a normal person…!”

“Yes. Good.”

“Is that it?”

“No, wait a bit. Your will is the most important thing. Not that drug addiction can be solved with willpower alone, though.”

“Yes. I understand.”

“This is a drug called Naltrexone. If you take this, you won’t crave drugs and you won’t feel the pleasant effects even if you take them.”

I placed a glass bottle on the desk. The patient reached out to take it, but I pulled it back a little.

“Wait a moment.”

“Yes.”

“There are some side effects. This drug will make you not think about opium and you’ll barely feel its effects. But if you take opium after taking this, there’s a high chance you will die.”

Tiriel’s brow furrowed.

“Why?”

“Actually, a lot of patients die from continuously taking opium because they can’t feel its effects. If a patient lacks willpower, if they’re not confident they can avoid taking opium, it’s better not to give it to them.”

The priest sighed.

“Nothing’s free, huh.”

“Sometimes life offers things for free. Not this, though. This comes with a price.”

It’s a matter of life and death.

“I failed the test God gave me once, but He gave me another chance. Isn’t it my duty to seize it?”

I placed the glass bottle on the desk.

Ah, no, that’s not right. I don’t need to give it to him.

“You’re going to be hospitalized for a while anyway. Now that I think about it, there’s no reason to give you the medicine.”

The priest stared at me like I was a strange person. Still, I was right. He’s going to be hospitalized anyway, what would he do with a glass bottle?

“No…”

“Pick it up when you’re discharged.”

He’ll be hospitalized for about a week, I reckon.

Hedwig clocked out.

I took Istina back to the lab. Thankfully, there was less work than usual.

Istina was scribbling something in her notebook with a pen.

“What happened with that priest?”

“I’m having him hospitalized for about a week.”

“Do you think that’ll help?”

I don’t know about that. This is a mental problem, and it’s also a matter of will.

It’s not like it’ll be cured just by taking medicine properly.

“Istina. A student I know had their birthday a few days ago, what kind of gift would be good?”

“Are you talking about the Princess?”

I nodded.

Istina tilted her head, puzzled.

“If it was just a normal student, I could give you advice. But since it’s the Princess, I don’t know what she’d want?”