It was Monday again, which meant the start of a busy week.
Yan Feifan first went to the Plastic Surgery Center to conduct a detailed examination of Yuanyuan, the younger of the twin sisters, along with Director Wang Chuan and Mrs. Yu.
To their great relief, an analysis of her recent lab results showed no signs of transplant rejection in Yuanyuan.
This indicated that Yuanyuan’s own immune system had fully accepted the transplanted hand, face, left ear, and left cheek.
As long as there were no issues in this regard, Yuanyuan just needed to focus on a slow and steady recovery.
Yan Feifan, Wang Chuan, and Chen Yu found that Yuanyuan’s physical recovery was satisfactory and that she had no signs of inflammation. They unanimously decided that she could be moved out of the ICU immediately and transferred to a general ward to recuperate.
The ICU cost nearly twelve thousand yuan a day, a sum that most families truly couldn’t afford.
Even though the Dawn Charity Foundation was covering the full cost, they still had to save money wherever possible.
Besides, the ICU bed needed to be freed up for critically ill patients who needed it more.
The various wards in the Affiliated Hospital were always in high demand.
In fact, the Plastic Surgery Center’s single ICU room was rarely used by its own patients. Most of the time, it was occupied by critically ill patients or major surgery patients from other departments.
The nurses and the patient’s family were busy handling the transfer.
Yan Feifan and Chen Yu then rushed back to the Trauma Surgery Department to meet up with Qin Ying and Yu Suye. They were about to perform an important test and examination on the "little white mouse."
After nearly three weeks of recovery, the little white mouse’s penis had healed well enough for Yan Feifan and the others to put it through its paces.
Today’s agenda was the corpus cavernosum engorgement and expansion test.
Yan Feifan had taken the corpus cavernosum remaining at the base of the little white mouse’s penis and transplanted it to the glans.
Whether it could successfully expand was one of the indicators of the surgery’s success and a key sign of whether this artificial penis could function normally.
Yan Feifan felt a little nervous.
He, after all, had been the lead surgeon for this part of the transplant.
Since nerve recovery is the slowest process, they couldn’t use external stimulation to induce a natural erection.
So, Yan Feifan resorted to a simple and crude method: directly injecting a medicated saline solution into the artery at the base of the penis.
Given the high pressure in an artery, a drip infusion like the kind used for veins wasn’t possible. Yan Feifan had to use a bolus injection.
He picked up the fine Puncture Needle and cleanly pierced the artery at the base of the little white mouse’s penis.
Seeing bright red blood flow back from the Puncture Needle into the attached tubing, Yan Feifan quickly connected a syringe filled with one hundred milliliters of the mixture and began to slowly inject it by hand.
He had only pushed the plunger a few times when the little white mouse started crying out.
"It hurts... hurts... hurts..."
Yan Feifan advised with little sympathy, "This is the first test after surgery. It’s bound to pull on some of the incisions."
"As a man, you have to bear the pain."
As he spoke, Yan Feifan noticed the tip of the penis begin to sway.
Then, the entire penis became rounder and tilted slightly upward.
In the span of a few blinks, the glans had transformed into a cylinder about three centimeters long and at least twice its original girth.
It made the whole thing look like a stick grenade, which was a rather strange sight.
However, this result was exactly what Yan Feifan, Chen Yu, and the others had hoped to see.
The scene brought satisfied smiles to all of their faces.
The only thing marring the scene was the little white mouse’s tearful cries of pain.
Cries of pain or not, the necessary examinations had to be done.
They took photos, measured various values, tested its firmness, and checked the posture and stress state of the implanted penile "bone" during expansion.
They also took the opportunity to simulate the in-and-out motion from different positions to observe the penis’s possible shapes and deformations.
The only regrettable thing was that they couldn’t perform any large-scale destructive testing on it.
As for its performance in a real-world scenario, they would just have to wait for the little white mouse to fully recover and listen to his feedback.
Yan Feifan, Chen Yu, and the others were quite satisfied with the results of their tests and examinations.
It was just tough on the little white mouse.
He had been put through so much that he was drenched in sweat, with only enough strength left to gasp for air.
As soon as they left the ward, Chen Yu said excitedly, "Feifan, you should organize today’s test and examination data when you get back. You can finish the paper and get it published."
Yan Feifan grunted in agreement, and Chen Yu continued, "This experimental surgery has been proven successful, both in theory and in practice."
"As for any potential issues with the penile ’bone’ during real-world use, we can identify and solve them as they arise."
Chen Yu added, her voice full of eagerness, "Feifan, while you’re getting the paper published, I’ll start applying for project funding. I’ll focus on research grants from some foreign social organizations..."
Just then, Qin Ying suddenly cleared her throat twice.
Interrupted, Chen Yu shot her a look and said bluntly, "If you have something to say, just say it. Don’t play these games."
Qin Ying snorted lightly. "Don’t you all forget why this project was started in the first place."