Kohl's Spine

Posted on 04 Jan 2014 @ 5:24pm by Commander Andreus Kohl & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim

1,853 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 05 - Solstice
Location: Starfleet Medical - Examination Suite C4
Timeline: MD 04 - 0900 hours

[ON]

Impassively, Andreus Kohl was stood in the corner of the functionally-decorated examination suite. He stared at the doorway with no fervour or intention behind his sapphire eyes. Kohl didn't need to look 'round to identify the whirs and the hums that were distinctive to biofunction monitors and biobeds. In the past year, he had spent nearly every waking hour surrounded by those sounds, and yet these sounds didn't feel familiar. This wasn't his ship's Sickbay - this wasn't his Sickbay.

Kohl's honey brown hair was styled pristinely, with a harsh side-swipe to the left. His face was looking gaunt these days, but he was trying to hide it behind a full beard. Although he was just as tall as he had always been, he looked smaller, standing there in a hospital gown. The gown was pale grey and it cinched respectfully in the front, like a comfortable robe. He took three steps towards the biobed in the room, and his legs moved in an awkward, lurching motion. His feet didn't lift off the floor in time with the movement of his thighs. His lower legs dragged behind, and every step involved the pads of his feet crashing into the floor in a jarring collision.

Kohl braced his hands against the padding on the biobed, and he used it as leverage to swing himself around. He sat himself on the biobed, which was just high enough to let his legs dangle. Kohl loosened the bottom of his robe enough to reach down and remove the motor assist bands that were strapped around both of his calves and thighs.

The days just following the ship's arrival was an extension of the ship as far as Allyndra was concerned. Cases needed to be evaluated and transferred or final determinations made as if there was a good chance to keep personnel or if this was the end of a ship's career. The later was the hardest not only on her but on the people she had to work with. So many of them had come into Fleet with expectations only now to be told that they would now; presuming they did not resign, serve out their days behind a desk.

It had been a terrible duty and not easy on her but as she viewed the next case the name struck her hard. Allyndra paused outside the suite and took deep breaths before putting on a smile that she did not feel in her hearts. She had reviewed the file already, and knew the prognosis.
Finally she entered.

"Well, well, good to see you again after all the chaos. When did you grow the beard?" There was no use asking something stupid like how are you feeling. She already knew how she would feel in the same circumstances.

At first, Kohl blinked at the smiling face that greeted him. Their introduction had been abrupt, but Allyndra had become his Chief Medical Officer, and he had become her Assistant Chief. Once upon a time. Kohl swallowed hard. He opened his mouth to reply, but all that came out was a prolonged, "Uhhhhhhhm." Kohl looked at the ceiling and cleared his throat, and then he said, "I suppose I've been keeping myself in the medical labs since I was discharged." He offered a gentle smile to Allyndra then. "I suppose I've been growing it for the past week or so."

Allyndra took a seat on the bed and stroked it for a moment. She smiled, "Looks good on you, should think about keeping it. Well, looks to me like you have lost weight as well. That is not such a good look. You need to keep up your proper nutrition, you should know that."

"I, well, I sit at my table a few times a day," Kohl said. He folded his hands over his abdomen, and his smile became weaker. "Every day. I replicate my meals each of those times, but I... I don't know. Sometimes I'm not hungry. I'm going to keep trying."

They were dancing around THE PROBLEM, and there was no getting past that.
She sighed slightly, "Now then looking at the readings you have a spinal cord injury to say the L4/L5 area. That is affecting the movement of the thigh, knee, and all the way to the feet."

Kohl set his jaw and his cheek quivered on the left side. "Yes," he said with a nod. He spoke with practiced impartiality. "Yes, that was Doctor Wylde's estimation as well. After I was, uhm, injured by the Borg drone. But the, uh, the swelling has been interfering with the scans." -He nodded again absently-- "Until now."

"I need to do some assessment tests to see what we are dealing with. Now then," Allyndra stood and then ran a finger down both feet. She noted the toes did not curl properly but she asked, "Can you feel my finger?"

"Yeah," Kohl blurted out, as if it were an oral pop quiz. He looked down at his leg and then over to Allyndra eagerly. "I mean, yes, I, I can feel it."

"Good sensory is there. Now then," She traced up one leg from calf to thigh and then the other. "Tell me if you can feel my finger moving and where I am."

Looking Allyndra in the eyes, Kohl watched for nothing but her reaction. He hadn't worked with her terribly long in Sickbay, but he had started to learn her body language. "Right side of my shin," Kohl said. "Back of the knee." He paused. "Uh, left side of the thigh."

Allyndra nodded. "Excellent, we have full sensory range. Now then, I am going to ask you push with your toes while I hold them." Allyndra put a little resistance against the digits. She nodded and then took each leg in turn and asked him to push and then pull, the same with flexure of the knees.

Again she took a seat on the bed. "Well I would estimate that you have D injury to the upper half, and D to C in the lower half of your legs. I think with some physical training we can get that D to pretty much normal but there will be residual in the lower part. I can re-certify you for duty if we can get past that C to maybe a D. Now there is something else I need to ask."

Allyndra was a physician but she found talking about certain things still made her feel odd. "How is your bowel and bladder movements?"

Turning his head, Kohl looked over at Allyndra beside him. If anything, her discomfort put Kohl at ease, oddly. It relaxed him, and he smiled a crooked smile. "Well, my eating habits may not be what they used to be," Kohl replied, "but my bowel movements have continued with regularity."

"Excellent, now how about sexual? I know such things may not have been on your mind obviously."

At this, Kohl considered Allyndra with a hard look in his eyes. "My... my sexual function," he said. He protruded his lower jaw in a moment of thought, and then he continued, "has been non-responsive."

Allyndra knitted her brows. She knew that she certainly would not be thinking about such things either if the situation was reversed but she was fairly certain that Kohl would know if their were 'problems'.

She nodded, "Sounds as if there has been a little damage to the Sacral region as well. Now I will say that there is still some swelling indicated there so we will hope that as that clears up things will look up."

Kohl chewed on his lower lip, and he offered a nod in response. He nodded once more, and then he spoke with conviction. "I am determined, you know," Kohl said. "Not only will I return to duty as a medical researcher, but I will practice medicine again."

Allyndra patted his arm. "Of that I have no doubt. We will do our best..."
She trailed off and pursed her lips in thought for a moment. She then looked at Kohl again and her tone and face had seriousness written on it.

"Do you have any particular plans for the extended shore leave?"

At Allyndra's question, Kohl shook his head in the negative. He shifted his posture on the biobed, and he said, "Starfleet Medical has some of the finest rehabilitation facilities in the sector. I can't pass those up for any Risian sunset."

Allyndra laughed. "I could not agree with you more. However, if you do get to a spot that you find that is not to your taste..., well I am planning a trip to my home. Four worlds that are habitable and only one with any civilization and even then few visitors. If you change your mind let me know."

Kohl's eyes lit up, and his straightened out his hunched posture. He bit his lower lip, and then he said, "I've never been to Akkadia," in a timbre of wonder.

Allyndra nodded. "As I said not many have. The Council is fairly restrictive but their are exceptions. However, first let's get you better before going alright?"

Kohl's predicament like others that had been on board the Galileo urged her ever stronger toward begging the Council to let her research into the hidden archives on how they had figured out regeneration. She did not mention it to Kohl nor anyone else for she did not want to get expectations high.

"Tell you what," she said after the pause that she had while gathering her thoughts. "Before I go I will contact you and see how you feel then. Not enough good nurse practitioners around."

"I would appreciate that, Allyndra," Kohl said fondly. He looked down at his legs. They still looked normal to him; perfectly normal. The skin was healthy and the had an athletic shape about them. The injury was still recent enough that deconditioning hadn't set in. At least not yet. He folded his robe over his legs. "I would like that very much."

"Good, now get that PT and we will talk again soon," Allyndra stood. "I will put in the orders and also something to help with the remaining swelling. Now I am supposed to head off to someplace called Philadelphia. I checked the weather and it is listed as only 7 degrees with snow! Can you imagine for someone who comes from a world where it is almost uniformly 33 and sunny? What have gotten myself into. Well I will check up in a few days time if I have not frozen to death. Wish me well Andreus."

"Oh, the climate of Argelius is much the same as your world, then," Kohl said. "Sometimes I do wonder why I ever left. Safe travels, Allyndra. Watch out for the icy patches."

"I shall try not to slip. Now, you have your task before you as well. Impress me we get back together."


[OFF]

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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