| Her Eyes Uncovered |
| Summary: | Dr. Adair performs cataract surgery on Rose. |
| Date: | 23 Nov 2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | Hope In Sight |
| Players: |
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| Sickbay - Deck 10 - Battlestar Cerberus |
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| Being able to accommodate combat casualties requires room, and the Sickbay has it. Beds line each side of the room with privacy curtains strung up and readily available. Large vaulted lockers hold access to the supplies at the far end of the area. Nearer the front, a Petty Officer sits ready to dispense simple items like ibuprofen and aspirin. Further to the rear is an area prepped twenty-four hours a day for emergency surgery. To the side are a set of double doors that lead to the Recovery Ward where patients can recuperate. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #270 |
The surgery is, as promised, relatively minor. Enough so that they're not even going to be using the operating room for it but rather one of the exam rooms. With a nurse standing by to assist in the process, Rose and Damon are lead into the room, the former instructed to settle herself onto the table while Damon is allowed to stand by her side. Donning a pair of gloves, a surgical tray is already set to one side and covered with a sterile cloth. "Hello Rose, Damon," Cameron greets the pair informally as they come in. I'm just going to talk through the procedure with you both as I perform it, so you'll know what is happening as needed. Rose, I'm going to start with your right eye, so Damon you may stand to her left and hold her hand if you like?" Cameron smiles down at Rose, even though she can't see his expression and notes, "I've been studying this for days now, know the procedure backwards and forwards, so you're in good hands, I promise." Slipping a mask over his mouth, Cameron uncovers the tray and drops a bit gauze into the mouth of a small bottle.
Rose, doing her best to wear a brave smile, has those hospital jitters that everyone gets before a major operation. Except that, in this case, it's delicate outpatient surgery. "I understand," she says, voice a little shaky. She does as instructed, laying down on the operation table she's been guided to, and folds her hands on her midsection. Once she senses Damon near, she holds out a hand for him to take, although her cloudy eyes are staring straight up at the ceiling, beginning to moist up a bit, likely from the anxiety.
Damon looks both nervous and expectant as he enters with Rose. He's wearing his off-duty clothing, so he must've ducked out from the Deck early to be here. "Hey, Doc," he greets with a half-smile. "I'll try to stay out of your way as best I can." He settles on the left side as instructed, pulling up a chair and taking hold of Rose's hand. "He's a pro, you'll be fine and seeing again in no time, yeah?" he murmurs to her, giving her hand a squeeze. "Don't you worry none."
Wiping lightly at Rose's temple with said gauze, Cameron explains, "I'm numbing this area so I can give you an injection. It's a paralytic anesthetic, so it will both temporarily paralyze your eye muscles and numb the surrounding area. This is so we don't have to worry about you wanting to blink during the procedure. You're going to feel a little prick now," he continues as the nurse passes him the syringe and Cameron makes the injection. Putting the needle aside he picks up a small bottle and notes, "These eye drops will do the same." Sure enough while her left eye continues to blink normally, the right has stopped, which is probably a bit disturbing to witness. A few drops are placed in her right eye and the bottle passed to the nurse. "As I told you before," Cameron continues, waiting for the drops to take effect, "I'm going to make a small incision in your cornea and then we're going to insert a tiny probe and break up the cataract with high frequency sound waves. You shouldn't feel a thing. If you do feel anything, please let me know." Lightly he strokes a gloved finger tip over her eyelid and the corner of her eye asking, "Can you feel that?"
There's a faint wince as the needle comes and goes, but her discomfort is more evidenced by her beginning to chew on her lower lip. Then, once the medicine begins its work, there's actually a nervous half-giggle. "Oh, gods, that feels so… weird. Not exactly a scientific definition, but I've never had an anesthetic before. It's like I was at the dentist, but in my eye, instead. I'm rambling, aren't I?" She blinks her still-mobile eye, still staring straight up. Swallowing some of her fear, she says, "No, not really. Maybe a whisper of a sensation, but it's numbing quite quickly."
Damon tries not to look so grossed out when Cameron injects Rose with the needle. Other than that, he just keeps holding Rose's hand and watching, making sure she's all right. Even though it looks odd for her to have one eye continually open like that. He's here if she needs him, but otherwise, he's gonna stay quiet and let Cameron do his thing.
Chuckling softly, Cameron nods and concurs, "It's very much going to the dentist except in your eye and yes…. it probably does feel pretty weird. But I personally encourage rambling. Helps dispel nervousness." The doctor squeezes her shoulder gently and rumbles, "Okay, we'll wait a little bit longer then. I definitely want you good and numb before we get started." Lifting his blue eyes to Damon, Cameron offers him a smile and replies, "Relax, everything is going to be fine. It's alright to talk. You aren't going to distract me." Turning to the nurse, Cameron suggests, "How about a little music?" The woman smiles and nods before turning to a small stereo and flicking it on. The melodies that roll out are traditional songs from the Aerilon coastline, full of fiddles and mandolins and gusty voices singing about the sea and the sky and women, and not necessarily in that order. It's cheerful, good-spirited music, the sort of thing you'd want to listen to to escape the blues. Reaching down Cameron touches the same two spots again asking, "Feel anything?" And then, oh so carefully, he touches the white of Rose's eye as well. "Feel anything?"
"Nope. What should I be feeling?" Rose asks. Neither does she have visual cues, nor can she feel anything. "Other than the intense numbness, kind of feels like a weight on that side of my face," she observes. "Just… do me a favor, Doctor. Keep telling me what's going on? Also, make sure the Chief doesn't faint." A little humor indicates she's not completely spooked.
"Hey," Damon says to Rose, poking her in the side. "Me, faint? I made it through the end of the world, I think I can survive watching your operation." He grins and squeezes her hand again, scooting his chair a little bit closer by the edge of the bed. "Man, this is some crazy music. The stuff I grew up with on Tauron was nothing like this." Turning to Cameron, he gives the Doctor a nod to acknowledge his words and asks, "How long, roughly, until she starts getting her sight back after the operation, Doc? And what kind of things will she need, like, looking-after-wise?"
Chuckling again, Cameron asserts, "You will absolutely know what I'm doing. I just touched your eye, so as you can see, no pun intended, it's nicely numb now." Adjusting the light above them so he can see what he's doing clearly, Cameron takes the scalpel from the nurse and notes, "I'm going to make the incision now. It's not going to be deep, just the upper layer of the cornea, and you won't feel a thing." Glancing slyly over to Damon, Cameron instructs, "Chief, should the urge to faint overcome you, please just remember to let go of Rose's hand first. It would be quite the pity if you both ended up on the floor." To the nurse, Cameron requests, "Saline please?" the woman rinsing Rose's right eye since she can neither blink nor tear up it would seem. Taking a deep silent breath, Cameron leans down, flipping a magnifying lens between his eyes and Rose's eye before carefully making an incision. His hand is rock steady and it takes all of a second to do. "There. Now the probe which will first break up the cataract and then draw the broken pieces out." As he works with the probe Cameron chuckles again and shrugs. "It's all home for me, but I figure if nothing else it's cheerful and upbeat. Even sad songs are cheerful and upbeat. I figure cheerful and upbeat is what we all need right about now…" It's like the cataract cracks and breaks, like a dropped dish, the grey film shifting and floating apart until the start getting sucked up by the probe, slowly revealing the natural hazel of Rose's iris. "Right now, it's all going to be a bit blurry for her. But she should be able to see fairly well within about ten minutes of the completion of the operation. She'll need to take it easy at first. Keep her eyes closed whenever possible, give them plenty of rest to heal up. But within two days Rose should be able to see as well as she did before the cataracts and other than some eye drops, she won't require any special treatment…"
When Dr. Adair starts to work, Damon's hand is squeezed very tightly. Even if she can't feel the incision, nor the work that the good doctor is doing, there's still the sounds of him working, and the lightness and darkness differential of someone looming over her. Her grip is rather tight. "Andreas?" She whimpers; despite being calmed by the mild sedative issued earlier, it's clear that there's a fair amount of anxiety. "Promise me you won't make fun of me when I have to wear glasses again." She's sounding a little petulant, her voice tiny. "And they're probably going to be thick, ugly glasses, too. I mean, I was pretty blind before. I can't imagine not being able to see without a magnifying glass." And more biting her lower lip.
"Ten minutes?" Damon echoes, sounding surprised. "That's amazing. I thought it would take days or weeks." He listens to the music for a little bit, trying to make sense of it. It's just completely foreign to him, and he doesn't seem to know what to think of it. "Well, you're right about cheerful and upbeat," he agrees. "Most of the guys where I grew up listened to hip-hop. You ever heard Tauron hip-hop?" The question is addressed to both of them. "It's absolutely terrible. I wish I could listen to some right now." Rose's hand gets squeezed tightly, both his hands enveloping hers. "Only if you promise not to make fun of my ugly face when you get your sight back," he answers. "Y'know I won't make fun of you. You'd probably look smarter than you already do with glasses on."
"You'd look adorable in thick geek glasses, Cameron assures as well, darting a quick glance up at Damon before looking back and ordering, "Saline," to the nurse. "It's actually quite a simple procedure, Cameron assure them both, and once the cataract layer has been removed the other layers rather quickly cling to the new inserted lens. Nature abhors a vacuum." Pausing once the last bit of cataract has been drawn out, Cameron asks, "Rose? Would you like a little more sedative? There's no reason why you have to be afraid during this procedure. We could give you a little nitrous if you like?" Cameron snorts at the comment of Damon's 'ugly' face, noting dryly, "Oh yes Rose. Like an ogre he is. Quite hideous. You sure you want me to continue?"
Rose's lip trembles a bit, and with a little hesitance, she admits, "Yes, please. A-anything to take the edge off. Gods, I was horrible when I could see the needles and the equipment. Now that I can't, it's even worse. Just… doesn't have to be much. A little something?" Swallowing it down and trying to be brave, she lifts another shield of humor: "Well, I figure the ogre description fits, since technically he is Chief of the Knuckledraggers. Probably has a nasty underbite, fangs, and a unibrow. Like those awful monsters out of the epic poems."
"You're forgetting the warts, lazy eye, and hunchback," Damon adds with a grin. There's nervousness in his voice, though. Rose's trembling and nervousness translate themselves to him becoming tense as a result. Still holding her hand, he strokes the back of it with his other hand, trying to soothe her as best he can.
Squeezing her shoulder again, Cameron replies, "Of course. Please, always tell me if you're nervous or uncomfortable. Like I said, there's absolutely no reason that this has to be an unpleasant experience." With a nod to the nurse, the woman hands Cameron an air mask, which he places over Rose's mouth and nose. "Just take a few deep and slow breaths. When you feel better, just nod your head, alright?" It's probably going to leave her feeling quite loopy, but honestly Cameron will take loopy over frightened any day. Chuckling as they continue to heap abuse over Damon's visage, Cameron studies the man across from him as he waits, noting, "He's also missing some teeth and I'm fairly certain he has the back hair of a gorilla, not to mention the club foot," with a devilish grin. Well, at least once Rose can see again she'll discover that she caught herself a rather handsome man in the end. Alls well that ends well, as they say in the trade.
"Nitrous oxide. Also known as dinitrogen monoxide," Rose says through the mask. It's clear that medicines and chemical substances seem to hit her a bit quicker than other patients. She nods her head slightly once she's had enough, and it's clear the tension is already fading into the content haze of disassociation. "That's a little better," she admits, shifting her shoulders a little and 'getting comfortable'. "Hmm. Molar mass of nitrous oxide. Hold on, I'll figure it out…" And she starts counting, using her free hand and counting off fingers as she does her mental math. Odd, she does chemistry-related math when she's relaxed.
Damon watches Rose with a bit of an odd look, then looks up to Cameron. "Is she high on science?"
Laughing more at Damon's question than Rose's ramblings, Cameron hands back the mask and concurs. "Yes, indeed, exactly that. She's high on science." Shaking his head, charmed, Cameron notes, more for Damon's benefit at this point, "Okay, I'm going to put the new lens in now. Damon, you might like to look elsewhere for the next few minutes…" And then Cam does things with Rose's eye that Damon probably really doesn't want to watch as he gently pulls up the edge of the slit and slides in the replacement lens, carefully maneuvering it into place and sealing the layers shut by drawing out any and all excess air. Studying the work carefully he announces, "And now the stitches…. saline please?" This Damon would definitely not want to watch as Cameron uses what looks like a nearly invisible piece of incredibly fine material to put in two stitches where he made the incision.
"Forty… four! Point… something…" Rose seems to give up on the precision. She doesn't even seem to register now that she's having an artificial lens and stitches put into her eyeball. "Huh. When am I going to start seeing colors? Because I think there's a difference between gray and… well, gray!" But the ceiling of the room is probably that neutral gunmetal gray that's common throughout the battlestar. "Andreaaaas? Did you faint yet?"
Damon definitely doesn't want to watch all that medical stuff going on with Rose's eye. But he just can't look away, even as he makes faces with every poke and prod that Cameron makes. He refrains from making any noises that mirror the look on his face - although Rose is 'high on science', she can probably still hear what he says. "I didn't even know you could do stuff like this to an eye," he murmurs. Once the stitches are put in, he realizes that his entire body has gone rigid from watching Cameron work and relaxes himself as best he can. "Still here, Rose," he answers, squeezing her hand so she can feel him there. "Sorry to disappoint."
"It's not my usual area, but we can do much with eyes in general." Finishing up, Cameron lines the edge of Roses' eyelid with some antibiotic gel, gently closing her eye, placing a bandage over it and taping it into place before announcing, "Okay, everybody do-si-do, except you Rose. Change places." Cameron swaps with Damon, moving over to work on Rose's left eye while Damon now stands on her right. The procedure is the same and since Rose seems to be in no pain, and not even noticing, Cameron doesn't bother to spell out the details this time, though the nurse does occasionally have to hold the redhead still and remind her not to move about while the doctor is working.
Rose lifts her free hand to touch and prod at the gauze covering her now repaired eye. "I'm going to look funny with gauze on my face!" She protests, although when the nurse makes her sit still, she does so. Pouting. "So you're going to do the same procedure again? Just, reversed? I mean, on my other eye?" She asks. She's no longer anxious, as the nitrous has done its job. "Andreaaas," she croons again, flailing with her other hand to try and find his. She's a sloppy drunk.
It's musical chairs, except the Aerilonian music never stops and Damon brings his chair with him. So, it's not like musical chairs at all. In any case, the Chief settles down on the other side of Rose, getting himself out of Cameron's way. "I'm here, I'm here," he says in a reassuring voice, taking her other hand. "So, are you, like, completely out of it now?" he asks her curiously. "What happens if I start asking you embarrassing personal questions while you're high on science?"
"I've never had to use restraints before," Cameron muses to himself as Rose's reaction to the nitrous is a bit more than he was expecting. Next time, just two breaths should do the trick. They've more than taken the edge off, they've tipped her right over it and into la-la land. "Rose, please don’t poke your eye, unless you want to undo all the work I've just done," he chides mildly, Damon given a look that seems to say, 'stop her from doing anything stupid'. At the idea of person question, and embarrassing ones at that, Cameron blithely instructs, "Nurse, please set the player from 'play' to 'record' if you don't mind?" He's kidding of course, the nurse rolling her eyes slightly as she passes him the syringe and then the eye drops, the pair of them waiting for those to take effect before getting down to business.
"Uh-huh! But only if I get to ask stupid-I-mean-embarrassing questions in response," Rose says to Damon with a goofy grin. She's completely unmindful of the work Cameron's doing, including the eye drops - she's completely malleable, if she sits still. "You can ask first." Apparently, she seems perfectly keen about playing 'Truth or Dare: Sickbay Edition'.
Damon gives Cameron another nod when he's given that look. He reaches across and takes Rose's other hand as well, resting their two intertwined hands on her stomach. "All right, well, uh… I guess let's start with the easy, cheesy stuff?" he says with a chuckle. He has to think for a second since he didn't expect her to agree so readily. "What's the most embarrassing thing you've done in public?" A bemused glance is given to Cameron and the nurse. "Doctor-patient confidentiality applies here, right?"
One brow arches and Cameron mutters softly, "Thiiiiiis should be interesting…." and then, to the nurse, "Hold her head when I'm working, just to be safe…" He repeats the gestures before, touching and looking for a reaction rather than asking, and when there is none, Cameron nods to the nurse who rinses the unblinking left eye with saline, handing Cameron the scalpel and then gently but firmly placing her hands on either side of Rose's had to keep her from moving as Cameron makes the first incision. Glancing up after the incision is made, Cameron smirks and offers, "Maaaaaaybe?" to which the Nurse gives him a look and replies to Damon, "Of course."
Rose's mouth opens and closes several times, each time taking a breath as if she was going to say something. "Oh! I was going to talk about the time my swimsuit came off during Spring Break, but I didn't do that, it was just physics. But the most embarrassing thing I did was confuse 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylhexane for 4-isopropyl-2-methylhexane. Right in front of the Dean of Sciences. Gods, I was so embarrassed." The swimsuit was probably far more interesting a story. "My turn! Do you looove me?"
"Wh - the swimsuit - the - dammit," Damon sighs. When she asks her question, his mouth opens, then shuts right back up. He shoots a distressed look to Cameron and mouths, 'Can we sedate her more?' with a gas-her-up hand motion. "I, uh," he starts. Then stops to clear his throat. "I, I like you a lot and think that you're smart and pretty and… I mean, it's still too early to know if… love… y'know?" Was that even a sentence? He stutters and stammers through and hopefully gets his basic point across. "Why, do you… hoo boy, this was just my best idea ever, wasn't it?"
Ohhhhhhh boy. Cameron doesn't envy Damon one little bit right now. In fact, he even glances up with a hint of apology and a very male understanding of the horror that is this moment, pointing out, "If you like, after I'm done, I can give her another dose? She'd probably forget all about this conversation." And then, after a heartbeat. "Probably." This gets both men, Cameron in particular, a glare from the nurse. Another rinse of saline before she holds Rose steady again and Cameron starts to break up and remove the second cataract. "Smooth," Cameron confirms Damon's most likely rhetorical question. "Very smooth…"
"Why are men always afraid of commitment?" Comes Rose's very lucid response to Damon's obviously unsatisfactory answer. "It's not a trick question! Like that ethyl-isopropyl question. Hmph. That wasn't fair. And I bet the only way for me to get you to say it would be to surprise you with that awful nightgown I found. I swear, it's like holiday gift wrapping, but only for men's benefit. I… er… what was I saying?"
"That's all right, Doc," Damon says with a rueful grin. "I'll lie down in the grave I dug." He kisses the back of Rose's hand and strokes it with his thumb. "Well, I certainly won't discourage you from, uh, testing that… hypothesis," he says. "And don't tell me you actually kept that nightgown, Miss Give-Everything-Away. I couldn't even get you to keep the chocolates and goodies I got you from Aerilon that one time!"
TMI. Definitely Too Much Information. Whistling to himself as he works, Cameron just keeps on keeping on, removing the last of the cataract and rinsing out the eye again before carefully slipping the replacement lens in and settling it into place. "If anything, you should be glad, Rose," Cameron finally interjects on the behalf of his fellow man, "that Damon is not the sort to willy-nilly bandy about the word 'love'. His reluctance to use it means that he takes the word terribly seriously and will not lie to you about his feelings just because he thinks that is what you want to hear him say. It takes more courage and commitment to say the truth than use important words frivolously."
Rose harrumphs at Damon, her mood clearly shifting from 'giddy and bubbly' to 'moody and pouty'. "I gave those wonderful things to Lieutenant Lunair and Lieutenant Scaurus for their wedding. They were far too good for me to keep. And if their wedding hadn't happened, I would have passed them onto someone who needed cheering up or was otherwise bereft of comforts. There's things you'll have to accept about me, Mr. Damon, if you want to be my girlfriend." A pause. "No, wait, other way around. If you want me to be your girlfriend. There! That's it." Huff. Then, to Cameron, who gets a sudden grin. "You're a doctor and a poet! How wonderful. I bet you're a romantic, too." If she could flutter her lashes, she just might. Just to make Damon jealous.
"He doesn't look like an ogre, either," Damon adds with a small chuckle. "And I'd settle for being your girlfriend if that's what I had to do to be with you." Might not be what he wants to call 'love', but hey, it's something, at least. "Hey, whaddaya say we break out a little bit of that Aerilon whiskey to celebrate you being able to see again? I'd say that's worth celebrating, yeah?" A look to Cameron. "Unless she can't drink and stuff while she's recovering. In which case we'll have to save it for another night, I guess."
Chuckling softly to Rose, Cameron notes, "I am, but I'm putting those moves on someone else. Sorry, you'll just have to settle for the Chief here…" Putting the stitches into place and bandaging up Rose's eye, Cameron announces to them both. "All finished. We'll get Rose settled into one of the recovery beds for now and you can wait with her. Just to be safe, I'm going to let her rest with her eyes bandaged for an hour and you can wait with her. Then we'll take the bandages off and she'll get her first look at the new world. And as for a little celebratory drink, wellllll, I suppose a very small one won't do any harm."