PHD #142: Pain in the Skull Bolts
Pain in the Skull Bolts
Summary: Kadena checks out Davis who is experiencing a headache; Bunny brings a gift and Doctor Byrne shows off his winning personality.
Date: 18 Jul 2041 AE
Related Logs: Bye, Bye Birdie and other related
Players:
Kadena Davis Byrne Evandreus 
Sickbay
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: #142

A little while ago, Ensign Davis Hathor checked herself in to the sickbay. The symptoms listed on the sign-in sheet: 'Headaches around skull bolts.' Somewhat flippant, but the remark was written off-the-cuff with consideration for the lack of activity in the bay. She waits, talking to the Petty Officer at the dispensary. Even in wartime, there is dish to be served.

The fairly new face of LTJG Macer comes into view as she steps around a curtained-off exam area, a file in hand which is passed over to the one sitting behind the desk to be put away. Another file is handed over which she looks at quickly, a first glance given to catch the name of the next in line. "Ensign Hathor?" Kadena looks over to the chairs, trying to suss out who it is she's to help now.

"I know, right? You should have seen her after…" Davis looks up from the PO at the sound of her name, reaching down to pat the table. "That's me," she says, waving her fingers at the dispensary clerk. She hurries up to the nurse, and despite the polite smile there are signs of fatigue. Bloodshot eyes, bags beneath, a little stutter-step as she stumbles over nothing.

All that's noticed, of course. Kadena's trained to look for anything remotely resembling 'symptoms' so every misstep and physical signs are noticed although they're left uncommented upon. "What may we help you with," she instead asks, smiling as she does. Waiting for Davis to get closer, the nurse doesn't move before she leads her to the bed, resting a hand upon the back of her shoulder to guide and support her.

Davis smiles to the Lieutenant, but waits until the curtain is closed before answering. "I don't, y'know, actually have bolts," she admits with a wan smile. The woman rubs at the left side of her shaggy hair and frowns, her brow knitting seriously. "But I do have a metal plate, and the Vitamin AK isn't even touching it." Akedram, the general purpose anti-inflammatory, called Vitamin AK by military personnel on account of the way military doctors would prescribe it for every symptom, as if it were a mineral in deficiency. "The doc said I should check in if they get worse."

"I see." Davis' file is opened and the papers within it looked at with the most recent being of particular interest to her. "Is the headache steady or does it come and go?" A pen is extracted from her pocket and clicked once, it at the ready to write down notes regarding the pilot's answer. "Sit on the bed and we'll get some vitals on you and go from there."

"It's…" Davis closes her mouth, thinking about it. Her head tilts one way, then the other. "Comes and goes? It's always, like, I've usually got a little pressure, but…" She sighs, looking down to the deck below. "Ever since I overheard what happened. With the Petrels and…" Fingers flutter in front of her face in place of words. "It's been like a drum."

Kadena jots down a few notes, her expression slightly bothered by something in the response she was given. "Yes. Stress will do that, sadly," she murmurs in a volume that is just loud enough to drown out the sound of pen scratching upon paper. It takes a moment before she puts both items down and she takes up a stethoscope. "Don't worry, Ensign," she says before listening to her heart and lungs. "Everything will work out. I promise." Bedside manner is used in hopes that she can help put Davis at ease.

Davis smiles, not entirely forced. "You know the doctor said he wanted me — uhm, the watchmaker," she notes, making a twisting motion around her ear, "not the booboo doctor." Her heartbeat is regular, though accelerated. "He wanted me to think about whether I was more afraid of people thinking I'm better than I am, or of being actually better than I think I am." Another example of fine breathing as she deflates, slumping heavily. "All I can come up with is that I couldn't have done what they did."

The stethoscope is moved to the back, this so her breath tones can be taken note of. "I really don't know what to say about that," she eventually comments once she's done with that, the stethoscope removed from her ears and hung back around her neck. "Psychology's not my forte," she then adds to try and make what she said previous to that less abrupt sounding in her own ears. "What do you think? About what he said, I mean." She waits to hear Davis' answer before taking anymore vitals.

"I think even if I'm better than I think I am, that's hardly an accomplishment," she snorts, now squeezing her temples. "Just give me a moment," Davis says, her voice quiet yet also terse. A few slow breaths later and she peers up from under her fingers. "Thermometer?" she grunts. "Not feeling talky all a sudden." The death-grip the Ensign's thumb and middle finger have on her own temples is probably a good clue why not.

"Fair enough." The rest of Davis' vitals are taken in silence, each one scribed in their proper place once taken, until there is nothing really left for Kadena to do besides prescribe some pain killers. "I don't want to give you morpha for your headaches just yet but it's clear that you need something a bit stronger than the akedram you were given earlier. Let me get that for you." There is something about how Davis is acting that strikes Kadena as being strange but for now it is simply noted mentally as 'possible personality quirk' not something serious.

Evandreus has arrived.

"Wouldn't take it if you did," Davis says sourly to the nurse with a hesitant smile. She nods as Kadena gets up, and when the nurse leaves leans over to peek out the curtain flap curiously. Before the other woman has returned, Davis is smiling again… though a thumb does come up to rub at one or the other of her temples, time to time.

Kadena is currently attending to Davis, the pair in an exam area with Davis sitting upon the bed while the nurse herself is off getting her a prescription written down. "I doubt you'd be in any condition to argue with me if you get hit with bad enough of a headache to need morpha," she intones lightly. "Take one, twice a day by mouth, with food, as needed." The emphasis on the last part is meant to point out that these are not to be taken daily but rather when Davis is experiencing pain. "And if this headache does not improve in a few days or gets worse, come in ASAP for tests." The prescription is pulled free from the rest of the pad and looked at, Kadena making sure there is not a mistake or something that might be difficult to read which might lead to a very nasty error. "Wait here, please."

Evandreus is just here to turn in his pee. After living in the s'bay with a catheter for so long, he hardly thinks it weird to toddle down here twice a day with sample cup in hand so's that the medical staff can keep tabs on him. He had the blood test with the earlier sample, so— all he has to do is turn in the cup. Evidently a trusted enough customer to be let to pee in an unmonitored head.

Byrne has arrived.

Davis dips her head in confirmation. "Right. With food, not for daily use." She leans forward to peer at the prescription, as if suddenly they'll be written in layspeak. "Hey." She reaches for Kadena's arm, so that human contact might bridge the gap better than flimsy words. "Thank you."

Turning when her arm is grabbed has her looking back at Davis, just shy of looking over her shoulder to do so. "You're very welcome," Kadena says with a bright smile, that then turned to the cup-bearing Lieutenant. "Hey," she calls out while waving to Evandreus with her other hand. "Be right with you." Winking to Davis, she mouths, 'he's a cutie, isn't he?' before heading to the dispensary.

The redhead flashes a toothy leer up at Kadena and gives her a little swat on the arm. Laughter as medicine and all. She's on her feet soon, waiting for her scrips and watching the bottle boy bustle by.

It is about this time that the door that leads into the Psychiatrists office swings up with a slow creek, and then there's a slow set of steps followed by the sound of a cane thumping against the metal floor. Another two steps and the cane. This is often the sound that alerts those who know to avoid mean ol' Dr. Byrne to scram. The shrink ambles through sickbay slowly, cane aiding him along the way as he considers a few patients, eying them with abstract curiosity. Just another day in the life of a headshrinker.

Nothing spells attractive like a fellow holding a cup of pee. Evan does turn his head toward the nurse, tipping his chin up with a grateful smile before his eyes settle on Spudly over yonder, a warm look of mingled affection and concern. He doesn't yell across to her, though. Just waits by the desk for his sample to come get processed.

The swat gets the nurse to chuckle, the sound of which follows her as she moves to another area. It isn't too long before Kadena's back, holding out a plastic bottle with fourteen pills to be found within its interior. "There you go. Think we're all done. And make sure to come back if you don't feel better in a reasonable amount of time otherwise I'll hunt you down and drag you back here. Kicking and screaming and all that, if I must." That said, she clears her throat and nods. "Let's get you checked out." The sound of the odd gait that one walks with when using a cane is caught and her attention is brought to Doctor Byrne, the man getting a cheery smile given easily to him, he waved to as well as she goes to see Davis to the desk and get Evandreus' urine sample to the lab.

"Macer," Evan greets the nurse in friendly, familiar tones. "One Evandreus special, on me," he tells her, scooting the cup across the surface of the desk for her. "I didn't think I'd have anything left after the sixteenth time I pissed today. But man, was I wrong," he offers jokingly, leaning with an elbow against the counter, then looking over his shoulder. "Hey… Doctor Byrne. How's it going?"

"Nurse." Byrne offers quietly towards the woman offering him a cheery smile. He is not cheery. Then again, the shrink isn't really known for his bedside manner. He walks with that uneasy gait off towards the Nurse and subsequently Evan as well. There's a moment of pause while the man stands there, watching the two with some modicum of interest before he speaks up again, "Good to see you awake, Lieutenant. Was it a pleasant coma?"

Kadena makes with a silent 'oh', her lips pursing and her eyes going wide in a playfully-teasing manner. "Wow. Thanks. I'll cherish this just like the others before it." As for Byrne, he doesn't really need to have anything like bedside manner - she has enough for both of them, really. "It's nice to see you again, Doctor. Always a pleasure to see your sun-shiny smile as it brightens Sickbay. It's the highlight of my shift." Poking verbally at him, she can't help but to tease the shrink even if he is known for being a bit of a…grouch.

Evandreus turns a bashful sort of smile on Byrne, "Getting to look like I'll do anything to get out of our next appointment, isn't it, Doc?" he asks the guy, dodging anything like a serious answer about how terrifyingly close to death he came. Which is probably better kept for their next session, anyhow.

"There are really only two possible options…Either you woke up and we would continue your treatment, albeit with some further restrictions on your duty due to the coma, or you didn't wake up, in which case, clearly, I would postpone treatment." Byrne sounds like some sort of robot when he says all that, almost ignoring Kadena's comments at first before looking over towards her, "I'm afraid I left my sun-shiny smile and disposition in my other labcoat, Nurse." Yes, he knows her name. No he isn't using it on purpose. For half a second it sounds like he might have been making a joke. Who knows.

Kadena wrinkles her nose before disappearing for a while, taking the specimen cup with her. It leaves the two able to set up future visits while sparing poor Byrne from having anymore of her jokes forced upon him.

"So what'll it be, Doctor Byrne? You? Me? A little al fresco cafeteria in Neopolis?" Evan goes on to ask, facetiously summoning up some calming getaway off-ship for the pair of them. "I'm in here twice a day for tests, anyhow. I won't be able to keep away from you long." He tosses a smile after Macer as she goes.

A brow lifts lightly at the woman's exit, and remains lofted as he glances towards Evandreus, "Perhaps we should start with my office, after your last set of tests in three days. I'm assuming your condition has you on restricted duty as is, but if not, I'll be asking you stay on restricted duty till I have a chance to look over your scans, bloodwork and can fully evaluate your cognitive functioning." Right, to make sure his brain didn't atrophy in a few days. Brains do that, right? A glance over his shoulder and he clears his throat a bit, "Nurse, when you have a moment, can you get me the Lieutenants records please?"

"In other words, Doctor Byrne wants to be sure to do everything he can to rain on your parade and make sure there's nothing even closely resembling fun to be had." Kadena ducks back around a partition after coming within earshot to catch a good part of their brief exchange, the trip to the laboratory taking no time at all. "I got the sample into the lab," she adds, that for Bunny's benefit. "Shall I have them get in touch with you when the results come in, sir?"

Evandreus waves a hand in a care-free gesture to Macer's summation of the Doctor's intent. "It's fine, dude," he tells her. "Yah, I'm on sim-and-gym detail until further notice," he lets Byrne know. "Three days. Sure thing. Just let me know what hour," he adds, affable enough. Then, to Macer: "If there's something wrong, lemme know. Elsewise, I'll just assume no news is good news."

"Fun isn't my concern, Nurse Macer." Byrne retorts sternly shifting his gaze between the two, leaning against his cane just a bit more than before, likely indicating an increase in pain levels from standing for an extended period of time. He does little beyond shift his weight to deal with the pain though and continues along, "Thirteen hundred should be good, Lieutenant. I'll make sure I have your latest results in time for our meeting so I can go over your status with you." He shifts once more and turns away from the bed to consider the exit from his current position. It's a long walk.

"Yes sir, Doctor." The smile remains, Kadena's mood not faltering in the least. She opens her mouth and almost says something else but with how his attention shifts to somewhere else she's left with whatever she had on the tip of her tongue staying put, her brow creasing just slightly. "Of course," she eventually says while turning to regard their former patient, her head bowed once in a faint nod. "I'll keep an eye out for them and make sure they get to you PDQ if anything turns up."

"Sweet," Evan lets a little of his years spent living on Aquaria slip, just there, his voice taking on something of the stereotypical Corinthian surfer brat. "Thanks, Macer. I'll see you bright and early with a cuppa the good stuff," he tells her, then, tipping his head to look his Doctorperson over, he steps to the guy's side to offer him an arm, if he wants it. "Need a hand, there? And sure, sounds good. You can explain me all the little numbers."

There's a slight shake of his head offered towards the Lieutenant, "I've got some paperwork I should get caught up on…" he offers quietly. Of course, that's probably code for: my office is closer. A glance is offered to the nurse, "Nurse, can you do me a favor and grab me a PRN of hydrodextrone please? 15 milligrams should be sufficient."

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