'How could I have forgotten so many useful clues?'
Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes the importance of identifying the primary symptoms.
The boy might have AIDS and a cryptococcal infection, but those were just the "branches."
The true "root" of the problem lay in the patient's completely collapsed spleen and kidney functions.
It lay in the long-term, misdiagnosed, and mistreated malnutrition.
The viruses were an external factor. The depletion of his own vital energy was the fundamental reason his condition had deteriorated so rapidly and why conventional anti-infective treatments were ineffective.
It was like a fortress. The city walls (his immunity) had already crumbled, and the supply lines (his nutrition) were cut off.
If you only focused on driving out the invading enemies (the viruses) without repairing the walls or bringing in supplies, the fortress was doomed to fall sooner or later.
Lin Guorui's mind was racing.
