"What do you look like, Forlì, can't you eat ice cream?"

"Damn, I didn't want this flavor if I knew I would."

"What the hell are you going to tell me?"

"About my illness."

There was no sound in the room.

No one spoke, and Belus quietly ate vanilla-flavored ice cream, all the comfort of which was meaningless.

He is a doctor, and he understands that a calm analysis of the condition is far more important than saying something to soothe feelings, not to mention that feelings are never soothed by words, let alone that they are facing a bad and auspicious disease.

"This disease is not going to kill for the time being." Representative Foley's voice broke the silence, and he had thought of something to begin with, but until the pouring out really began, all his previous imagination did not come true, and he was as calm as he was talking about someone else's business.

"Hmm." Berus's voice came from his throat.

"The tumor in the spine is said to be a genetic disease. And it's the worst one, in a position that doesn't go up or down, sticking to the spinal nerves, so..."

"You're going to be quadriplegic."

"That's right."

"It's not a big deal."

Belus glanced up at Forley on the couch, his ice cream had been placed on the table, gradually flowing into an irregular round puddle on the white tabletop.

"Even if you have no limbs, you can put on a prosthesis, and it's exactly the same as the real thing."

"These devices have not yet reached the general public."

"Maybe it's just that you don't know yet."

Belus wanted to say more, but soon he realized that the problem was a little different from what he had originally thought.

His spinal nerves will face irreversible damage unless they jump over the spinal nerves and control the limbs directly from the brain.

But is it possible to give up the original hands and feet and replace them with prostheses so that the limbs can be used normally?

It's a joke.

"Mazor, one of your collaborators."

"UC Irvine Medical Center has been using and seeking ways to improve the efficacy of robotic spinal cord surgery, with great success over the years.

Three years ago, they succeeded in getting a spinal cord injury patient to rely on the transmission of information between the brain and the electrodes implanted in the legs, so that they could walk on both legs completely with brain awareness.

Unfortunately, there has not been enough funding for this project. I don't think your results will be too bad, if you can make it through the surgery and get rid of that horrible tumor first. ”

Speaking of which, the more Belus spoke, the more confident he became, but thinking of the new calculation results of the data machine last night, he was worried about whether he should tell Forley or not, and if he did, would it be a good thing for him.

People are often annoyed by knowing too much, especially when a lot of information is not necessarily true, and Belus is in this hesitation.

Human beings will believe that information has long been inflated to the point that the whole universe sighs for it, and the human brain is unable to process ubiquitous information, so there is a high-level emotional mechanism called "believing", and people can only use this kind of thing that is obviously contrary to "reason" to keep themselves from getting lost and crazy in the ocean of information.

He knows how people who can't process information fall into mania, and how people who are numb to everything around them can get out of their own troubles.

"My doctor gave me a suggestion, and it was really related to the University of California Medical Center, and he suggested that I go there for an operation, a clinical trial."

"What experiment?"

"Spinal Cord Nerve Replacement."

"Sounds like magic."

"Law Three: No technique, as long as it is advanced enough, can be distinguished from magic."

"What?"

"Ah, a great science fiction writer said."

Foley thought of Ephia, and if she were, she would have laughed and praised herself, and she never skimped on her praise for Foley, just as she would never be reluctant to add more sugar to his coffee.

"So your doctor told you that you have a chance that you won't have to experience paralysis at all after surgery, and you won't need to rely on an external walking bone or a built-in electrode receiver to control your limbs?"

"That's what it means."

"So what are you worried about? Isn't that good news? ”

"Okay?"

"Of course, if you ask me for advice, I'd say it sounds fantastic, like a simple minor surgery."

Representative Foley leans to his left and rests his legs on the couch, lying on his back, his eyes staring at the orange light bulb above the couch.

"If this tumor is caused by VonHippel-Lindau, then it is likely to happen again, and it is not known where it happened."

"Foley, it sounds like you're going to be dealing with hospitals all the time in your life."

"Who's to say it isn't."

"How do you calculate medical expenses?"

"Do you mean the medical expenses this time?"

Belus nodded.

"I haven't calculated it yet, and to be honest, I'm a little worried."

"There have been no successful cases of using connected spinal nerves, but as far as I know, Hokkaido University has succeeded in replacing mouse nerves, in which nerves cultured from stem cells are connected to the damaged nerves by graphene nanoribbons.

As reliable as it sounds, it is possible that the new nerve and the original nerve will gradually accept each other and regenerate with adequate nutrition. ”

"You don't even know that..."

"Haha, I've studied a few."

Belux not only studied some, but after his three fingers and half of his palm could not be controlled by the brain's mind, he spent half a year visiting laboratories around the world, undergoing 6 rehabilitation surgeries and 5 plastic surgeries, including all the latest technologies such as highly sensitive electronic skin.

They are flawless, more perfect than a normal hand. Belus remembered this past and seemed to remember it vividly.

"It's not a big deal to access the nerves. It's just that the spinal nerves are a little more terrifying for us, but robots can do these things, and their accuracy is incomparable. ”

"I don't like robotic surgery, damn it."

"You're the one who built the robotic surgical arm yourself, Foley, that's prejudice."

The yogurt ice cream churned in his stomach, and Representative felt a burning sensation from below his chest.

"Is it because of your mother?"

Belus also seemed to sense something, and the two had been avoiding something in their conversation, which still lingered around them, no matter how many successful experiments and advanced theoretical support there were.

"Your mother's medical malpractice, that's exactly what I want to tell you."

"Why did you find out about my mother's case?"

"If I don't explain this first, how to say it, I don't know how to explain it at all, and I don't know what my purpose is."

He took out the spiraled data from the right pocket of his pants and placed it next to the ice cream box.

Then he turned to look at the curtains, and when he saw that they were doing their duty tightly, he turned around and lowered his voice.