Dr. Ke'er used a stethoscope to carefully listen to Tang Songfa's heart before finally preparing for surgery.
Tang had bathed just the day before, but that wasn't important—the focus was on local disinfection.
As he lay on the operating table, I suddenly recalled the zombie on the surgical bed from earlier. Ugh, stop thinking about that! This one is alive!
"The wound is deep. Lumbar anesthesia is necessary. Mix the medication like this." Dr. Ke'er demonstrated meticulously for me. Honestly, I felt like I learned nothing—such advanced techniques couldn't be mastered just by watching once!
"Sister Duo, please help the patient turn sideways. Patient, pull your legs to your chest and arch your lower back as much as possible! Listen carefully—don't move later! Ruowang, assist the patient." Dr. Ke'er's familiar instructions sent a chill down my spine. Again?!"Assist" really meant "restrain"!
Ruowang and I held Tang Songfa's body from front and back. Dr. Ke'er picked up an extremely thick syringe with a massive needle! During my own lumbar anesthesia, I'd faced away and couldn't see the needle. Now I understood why it hurt so much—the needle was huge and long!
Dr. Ke'er palpated Tang's lower back, found the gap between vertebrae, and injected the anesthesia. Poor Tang screamed in agony again…
I tightly gripped Little Tang's arms. He endured without struggling, though his body trembled violently from pain and tension—a feeling all too familiar to me…
Whew!The lumbar anesthesia was finally done! I helped Tang lie flat and placed his legs on the supports of the operating table.
Dr. Ke'er expertly hooked Tang up to an IV drip. "Barbiturates can calm the patient and ease tension," she explained. "After surgery, he'll need antibiotics and painkillers. When the anesthesia wears off, he'll really suffer!"
She wheeled over a device that was already powered on. "An electrocautery knife can cut and coagulate simultaneously," she said.
The surgery lasted a full hour. A hole the size of a duck egg now gaped on Little Tang's buttock—Dr. Ke'er had cut away a lot of necrotic tissue!
Finally, she packed the terrifying hole with Vaseline gauze. "This is for drainage. He'll need daily dressing changes and at least a month to recover! It depends on how fast his tissue regenerates," Dr. Ke'er summarized.
For convenience in changing dressings and administering IVs, the examination room became Tang's ward. After lumbar anesthesia, patients must lie flat for six hours. Now he could only lie still on the temporary hospital bed, his forehead beaded with sweat. "Does it hurt?" I couldn't help asking. "The anesthesia numbed the pain, but I'm nervous," Tang replied. He looked exhausted! "Sleep," I said, wiping his sweat and tucking him in. He closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
Ruowang helped Dr. Ke'er clean the operating room, while I stepped outside. A-Qiang and Ting-Ting had been waiting for a while.
"Tang Songfa needs time to recover. His wound is deep—you likely won't be able to move for half a month. Why not stay longer? We have enough supplies to host you all," I said.
A-Qiang and Ting-Ting looked anxious but firmly replied, "We'll wait! We leave when Little Tang recovers! That's final!"
Dr. Ke'er's residence was arranged in the room opposite the compound's medical clinic. Two units on the same floor were entirely allocated to her.
Dr. Ke'er kept her home impeccably clean. When I delivered supplies, I saw her organizing her wardrobe and noticed most of her clothes were white—the color of immortals! With her slender figure, Dr. Ke'er in white resembled the ethereal "Little Dragon Girl," while I… I also liked dressing elegantly, but my slightly robust build made me hesitant to wear white. I'd look less like an immortal and more like a certain adorable Arctic creature (or its Antarctic counterpart—don't ask, I'll never tell.
I brought Dr. Ke'er plenty of food. The compound's residents would rely on this expert—we had to treat her well!
After the anesthesia wore off, Tang Songfa cried out in pain. Dr. Ke'er had no choice but to inject him with Dolantin for relief. Thanks to her, we'd brought back a lot from the hospital pharmacy. Under normal circumstances, doctors wouldn't easily use Dolantin for pain management! But these were特殊世道 (special times), and Tang was fortunate.
Tang Songfa faced his first post-surgery challenge: dressing change!
Dr. Ke'er insisted I assist. I really didn't want to continue learning from her—watching a gaping hole being carved into a buttock had reached my psychological limit! But she said wound care was a crucial skill now. Changing dressings was essentially wound management. Fine, I'd learn…
Tang Songfa had to lie on his side, exposing the wound. The Vaseline gauze packed post-surgery was saturated with pus. Dr. Ke'er slowly pulled out the gauze with medical forceps. Little Tang whimpered softly—whether from fear or real pain, I couldn't tell.
Dr. Ke'er said, "Does it really hurt? It shouldn't! At most, you'll feel some pressure."
How could such a huge hole not hurt?!I thought. Dr. Ke'er is truly iron-hearted!
After removing the large gauze and discarding it, Dr. Ke'er used forceps to hold saline-soaked cotton and began cleaning pus from the terrifying hole. "This might sting a bit," she said.
When Dr. Ke'er said "might sting," it usually meant "will hurt terribly"!
Because Little Tang instantly let out a blood-curdling scream! I was holding the tool tray and nearly dropped it on his head!
Thankfully, the process wasn't prolonged! Otherwise, I might have fainted before Tang did! After cleaning the wound, Dr. Ke'er carefully repacked it with gauze for drainage, wrapped it securely, and sealed it with medical tape. Finished, she lightly patted Tang's buttock and said the most comforting words he'd ever hear: "Done! All over!"
Tang was now tearful, gasping for air as if he'd survived a life-and-death ordeal!
Tang's second challenge was: bowel movement on the same day! I was shocked—how could he possibly use the bathroom with such a severely wounded buttock?
Dr. Ke'er explained that if he didn't defecate soon, stool would harden and risk tearing the wound during elimination, making recovery harder. He had to go today! That day's stool would be soft and minimal, unlikely to affect the wound—though it would indeed be painful!
So, the poor guy was forced by Dr. Ke'er into the bathroom, where he silently struggled!
We waited outside the door, offering a mix of encouragement and threats.
"Doctor! I want to go, but it hurts too much at the exit! I keep clenching back. This back-and-forth is worse than death!" Tang cried pitifully from the bathroom, his voice tearful.
"Push through! You have to let it out! No matter how much it hurts, you must finish! Don't worry—your butt won't split open. The wound is elastic. Passing stool now won't tear it. If you delay, it won't just be pain! Do you want your butt to bloom like a flower?" Dr. Ke'er's scare tactics were both terrifying and darkly humorous. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry…
Hearing this, Tang wept internally. Pushing hurt unbearably, but he had to push harder! It was like marching into tiger territory—no risk, no reward! With a虎虎生威 (tiger's might), he roared!
We all fell silent, stunned!
Soon, Tang's weak voice came from the bathroom: "Mission accomplished, Commander! Requesting cleaning, meds, and comfort…"
If he could overcome these two hurdles, he'd improve day by day, waiting only to recover!
A-Qiang and Ting-Ting didn't want to stay long, but they were loyal and refused to abandon any teammate. Everyone was waiting for Tang's recovery, even though delaying increased the risk—zombie numbers grew exponentially. Even a fool could calculate: one zombie turned one victim, then two zombies turned two more, then four turned eight… Anyone who'd heard of pyramid schemes could imagine the spread. With zombies' relentless enthusiasm, they'd reach "diamond director" or whatever in days—the top of the pyramid! If the streets were filled with diamond-tier zombies, travel would become extremely difficult.
So, we deeply admired A-Qiang's team's loyalty to their comrades—not abandoning anyone! Perhaps this was the real reason their team was so strong!
Human unity in this chaotic era represented survival capability. Against zombies' overwhelming numbers and strength, even the strongest humans couldn't survive alone!
Thanks to his youth, Tang Songfa's wound healed quickly. In under a month, his skin had closed.
But Dr. Ke'er said the tissue underneath hadn't fully regenerated, so she used small scissors to cut open the epidermis. The sound like paper-cutting made my heart race, but Tang was already accustomed to Dr. Ke'er's "torture therapy." He didn't make a sound during the cutting. Later, I asked if he'd become numb to the pain. He said compared to the first dressing change, cutting the epidermis was nothing.
How is an iron will forged? Survive an anal surgery, and you'll laugh proudly in the martial world hereafter!