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    ## Chapter 14: No Adrenaline? Then It Must Be the Adrenal Glands

    Twenty minutes, neither short nor long. Especially when someone is constantly asking you questions, one after another, and you can’t kick them out… It’s truly, like living through years.

    Gretel kept one eye on the child’s throat and the other on the divine priest, gesturing and talking, his mouth practically dry. Finally, he heard someone shout, “It’s red! A big red patch!”

    He looked up, and the boy’s left forearm was smooth and flawless, without any problems. On his right forearm, the spot where he had dripped the fish meat solution, there was a large red patch. It was raised in the middle, with a clearly visible wheal. The outer edge of the redness had red streaks, long and short, that looked like insect legs.

    Redness with pseudopods and wheals…

    No doubt, it was an allergic reaction, and a severe one at that!

    Of course, the reaction being so strong could also be because the fish meat solution he had prepared was not diluted at all…

    Gretel felt a little guilty, but on the surface, he kept a confident expression, clapping his hands.

    “Confirmed! It’s the codfish that’s doing this!”

    “What next?”

    “Next…”

    Gretel was speechless.

    After the skin test, the child’s cause was confirmed, an acute laryngeal edema caused by an allergy. The emergency treatment was all too familiar to him. He could even recite the medical instructions in his sleep. In fact, by the time he finished the instructions, the experienced emergency nurses had already prepared the drugs:

    0.1% epinephrine subcutaneous injection;

    10ml physiological saline + 1mg epinephrine + 10mg dexamethasone, gargling immediately for three to five minutes;

    Followed by 20 to 40ml of physiological saline, plus 1 to 2mg of epinephrine, and another 10mg of dexamethasone for continuous nebulization.

    But what did he have in his hands?

    Nothing!

    He didn’t have epinephrine injection, dexamethasone injection, not even physiological saline. The physiological saline he had instructed people to prepare was undoubtedly inaccurate in concentration, full of impurities, and far from sterile…

    Damn!

    This was unbearable!

    Fortunately, Gretel had a contingency plan for this. He pretended to think for a moment, then calmly turned to the farmer.

    “I saw mutton soup in the kitchen. Do you still have the sheep’s innards?”

    “Yes, yes, yes!” Farmer Edmond, the old man, nodded vigorously. Gretel breathed a sigh of relief: If they weren’t available, he would have to talk to the farmhands and ask them to slaughter a sheep right there. He got up and turned towards the kitchen:

    “Bring me the innards!”

    After this series of rescue efforts, Gretel had established a considerable reputation in the farm. His request was naturally met with prompt action. Soon, a basin of bloody innards was carried in and placed in front of Gretel with a bang.

    Then, under the watchful eyes of everyone, Gretel squatted down, stretched out his hands, and without hesitation, began rummaging through the wooden basin…

    The divine priest, who had been following Gretel closely, also squatted down curiously. After watching for a while, unable to understand, he couldn’t help but ask:

    “What are you doing?”

    “Looking for an internal organ.”

    “Which one?”

    The priest stretched his neck and leaned forward. Roman, the knight who had been guarding him with a sword, finally couldn’t hold back and stepped forward, bowing to interject:

    “Your Highness, you are of noble status, please don’t…”

    “Hey!” The priest impatiently flicked his sleeve. He stretched his neck, looking left and right. Suddenly, he was overwhelmed by a bloody stench and almost fell backward. Luckily, Roman the knight caught him before he fell. Even so, his curiosity was not extinguished. Covering his nose, he kept asking:

    “Which one are you looking for? It’s just innards, just let them find it!”

    “They wouldn’t know.”

    Gretel didn’t look up, focused on his search, muttering to himself, “Kidney… kidney… found it! There’s another one…”

    “Oh, you’re looking for the lamb’s kidneys!” The priest’s head poked forward again. Gretel lifted his blood-stained palm, pretending to push him:

    “Don’t interrupt!”

    A cold snort came from the upper left. Roman the knight drew his greatsword, blocking Gretel’s hand. The cold gleam startled Gretel, and the priest’s big head retreated, muttering:

    “If you don’t want to say anything, then don’t… I was being kind and asking you to let others find it, but you don’t even appreciate it…”

    Gretel ignored him, completely engrossed in his search in the wooden basin. The sheep, having been slaughtered, had its anatomical structure completely disrupted, finding one kidney didn’t mean finding the other. He rummaged for a while, finally found both lamb kidneys, breathed a sigh of relief, took the earthen bowl containing the kidneys, and went to the table, carefully beginning to peel them.

    From the very beginning, what Gretel wanted wasn’t the kidneys, but the adrenal glands.

    Epinephrine constricts blood vessels, dexamethasone is anti-inflammatory and inhibits allergies. Dexamethasone is a chemically synthesized drug, not to be considered for now, but epinephrine… at least there’s hope.

    With this, at least he could eliminate the laryngeal edema and allow the child to breathe normally. As for the chicken bone stuck in the airway, it could naturally be pulled out faster.

    Theoretically speaking, epinephrine is a protein hormone and cannot be taken orally, as it would be hydrolyzed by pepsin. However, there were historical examples of people taking epinephrine orally. Gretel remembered reading about it in his previous life:

    In the autumn of 1893, George Oliver, the British doctor who invented the sphygmomanometer, discovered that when subjects swallowed substances extracted from the adrenal glands of goats, the sphygmomanometer detected the constriction of the radial artery in the subjects.

    In the future, this experiment would be considered the first significant evidence that adrenal extracts could raise blood pressure. But for Gretel at this moment, it signified something even more important:

    Epinephrine, or adrenal extracts, could indeed be effective when taken orally!

    Of course, the patient couldn’t swallow now. But Gretel had another hope: Among the epinephrine family, epinephrine and norepinephrine cannot be taken sublingually, but isoproterenol can be!

    So… adrenal extract… to be precise, the adrenal gland crushed and mixed with water… maybe, it might have some effect… right?

    Gretel was so nervous he couldn’t even speak, carefully peeling the membrane surrounding the lamb kidney under the dim light. Cutting, pulling, blunt separation… the rough iron scissors flashed in his hand, almost playing with the dexterity of surgical scissors.

    The adrenal gland was small, tightly attached to the top of the kidney, together wrapped in the renal fascia. The human adrenal gland weighs only 5-7 grams, and the goat’s adrenal gland wouldn’t be much different. He had to be very careful to peel the adrenal gland off completely without breaking it.

    He didn’t know how much active ingredient was in the two adrenal glands, and even less how much could be absorbed sublingually. He… should be careful, try not to waste any…

    Gretel focused all his attention, his hands moving cautiously and gently. The aura he exuded during his work unknowingly infected everyone, even the talkative priest fell silent, leaning on the table and looking on, not saying a word. The knight beside him coughed, trying to say something, but was waved away.

    It wasn’t until Gretel completely peeled off the two adrenal glands, placed them in a clean empty bowl, chopped and ground them, added water for the child to gargle, that the priest finally took a deep breath, jumped up and asked:

    “Is that enough? Is it alright now?”

    “Let’s wait and see…”

    Gretel stared intently at the boy’s neck, always on guard against the chicken bone shifting. Thankfully, the child gargled for a minute, two minutes, five minutes… the chicken bone remained in place, but the edema in his throat gradually subsided, and the sound of air passing through his vocal cords became clearer.

    “Wow! It worked! It really worked!”

    “Yes, it really worked.” Gretel wiped away a bead of sweat, pulled out the chicken bone, and smiled tiredly at the priest.

    “Next, please lend me a hand to heal his wound…”

    “No problem! Watch me!”

    The priest rubbed his hands together and rushed forward. A child’s illness, going back and forth all night, finally he could be of use. His healing technique was particularly clean and efficient. After healing the wound, he adjusted his robe, stood up tall and straight, and extended his right hand to Gretel:

    “Hello, young Healer.”

    ******

    I spent 20 minutes researching various British goats… goat weights… to write about adrenal extract…

    Romney sheep, adult weight 80kg for rams, 41kg for ewes

    Lincoln sheep, adult ram weight 73-93kg, adult ewe weight 55-70kg

    Southdown sheep, ram weight 80-88kg, ewe weight 60-88kg

    etc…

    Thanks to everyone for your rewards!

    This book has already reached 85th place on the New Book Overall Ranking and 12th place on the Light Novel Ranking, making it to the homepage of the Light Novel Secondary Page!

    We gained 40 new subscriptions yesterday!

    Thanks to @折纸丶Zzheart for rewarding 1500 Qidian Coins and a monthly ticket

    Thanks to @嘿嘿哈哈帆帆、@冰中雪蕊、@一寸寒 for rewarding 500 Qidian Coins

    Thanks to @孟婆买汤不卖药 for rewarding 100 Qidian Coins

    (End of Chapter)

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