Mayday, Mayday!

Posted on 14 Jan 2013 @ 9:52pm by Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D.
Edited on on 14 Jan 2013 @ 10:44pm

3,151 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo - Sickbay
Timeline: MD15 1300 hours

[ON]

Frowning as she read over the results in her hands, Pola let out an almighty curse as her hand moved up to hit her comm badge.

=^=Doctor Ni Dhuinn to Lieutenant Panne; Could you please report to sickbay?=^=

Awaiting a response, Pola couldn't believe that Kohl could leave out of the blue and not have brought this to her attention, she understood that something happened, he'd had to leave in a hurry but something as important as this...It was careless and irresponsible of the man. She'd come to expect more of him.

"Panne here, what seems to be the problem?" she asked, stopping everything she was doing. She garnered a few suspicious looks of operations and science officers; they were in the middle of loading fresh supplies for the sensor arrays and navigational deflectors, crates and the like sprawled about the floor of the cargo bay as they sorted all the incoming inventory. When Maenad stopped checking her list of supplies and held up her hand to stop the science officer who'd been speaking to her, her face went a ghastly white.

Listening to the woman's voice coming across the speaker, Pola frowned as she felt her temper flair. Had the woman not heard the urgency in her voice. Yet again people were questioning who she was as a Doctor and how to do her job. Surely a call from sickbay showed that the matter was important.

=^=I need to speak with you Lieutenant. I do not think that a comm link is the appropriate place in which to speak regarding medical concerns. Report to sickbay. Ni Dhuinn out.=^=

Maenad blinked. She wasn't sure whether to be mad or scared. Report to sickbay? She opened her mouth, half stunned, and looked at Mister Petrov for support, but he took that as a queue to resume his talking.

"My recommendation is that we use the redundant starboard power relay in section Seven Gamma to distrib--"

"Did you not hear any of that?" Maenad asked him impatiently. "I need to go to sickbay."

He frowned his blue eyes and scratched at the side of his head, fingers ruffling his blonde hair. "But, sir, my recommendations, I think, are well-suited. If only you will consider--"

"I did not say that I wouldn't consider them!" she snapped. "Take over," she said to him. "I will be back as soon as I can."

Petrov looked suddenly concerned. Somebody had to be, he thought. "Are you all right?" he asked, his worry apparent.

"Yes, of course I am!" she raised her voice to him. She didn't like thinking about her health, much less having others thinking about it. Why did the doctor have to call her so publicly like that? Why didn't she send her a text message? Now people would be wondering about her, thinking she might be unwell or unable to perform her best. She could't tolerate being thought of as any less than the best, and now she would be. Sick people weren't at their best. People who went to sickbay for undisclosed reasons were not at their best.

In the turbolift to deck four, Maenad felt a little guilty for shouting at Mister Petrov. She knew that she had hollered because she was scared more than she was angry at him, but she could never tell him that. She emerged in sickbay with her hands at her sides, looking for the red-haired Doctor Ni Dhuinn. She spotted her quickly and approached her, looking rather deflated and worried. If Ni Dhuinn couldn't tell her whatever it was she had on her mind over the comm, it had to be bad news, and that frightened her.

Tapping a PADD against her leg, Pola was getting impatient waiting for Maenad to arrive. Hadn't the woman understood the urgency of her request. Why didn't she understand the importance of this. Her anger fluctuated between the scientist and her old ACMO, both at fault as far as the CMO was concerned.

Finally turning her focus back to the sickbay she stood in, Pola noticed the woman walked toward her, "Lieutenant. Follow me please." Turning on her heel, she walked across to her office, still radiating anger.

Maenad watched the doctor with concerned eyes as she gave her the impression that she had done something wrong. Heightening her worry further, Maenad had been summoned to sickbay without any notice at all. The shroud of secrecy implied, to Maenad, that she was about to receive the worst news of her life. Perhaps the last news of her life. After Ni Dhuinn, she couldn't think of her as Pola in this state - and they had only exchanged small talk at Kiri's lunch and while at the beach. But, she did as she was told and followed the doctor into her office, trying to calm her pounding heart with deeper breaths than usual.

As she lowered herself to the seat behind her desk, Pola let the PADD in her hand fall with a clatter just caused her to jump slightly. The sound seemed to wake her out of her temper as her expression turned to one of exhaustion as she rubbed her hands across her face. "Maenad...I'm sorry to have called you here like this. I hope I haven't scared you..."

The sight of the doctor worried her greatly. Everyone reacted t death differently; it probably wasn't every day that Doctor Ni Dhuinn had to inform patients of their impending and ultimate demise. And that the end was so pointless, so unnecessary, and in this time of incredible medical knowledge, a slow, long, drawn-out and agonisingly painful death to some obscure disease. Maenad knew that one day her travels to all those planets would have gotten her killed just when she had established herself. "No," she finally stammered. "No, doctor, it is quite all right. You have a difficult job, one that I do not envy," Maenad closed her eyes and swallowed, ready for the culmination of her life to be brought to a humiliating end.

Not catching the woman's discomfort, Pola rubbed a knuckle over her eyes as she pulled the PADD closer. "When you first came onboard you had your medical with Kohl and he advised at the time that he was sending some blood tests to the lab to just ensure that everything was ok. I know he left very suddenly but did he follow up with you at any point?

"No," Maenad said, like whatever had happened wasn't her fault.

"Ok...." Pola hunched her back over as she crossed her arms on the desk surface, her concentration on the PADD infront of her. "As you are already aware, you suffer from a very mild form of anemia which occasionally requires treatment of extra iron to make up for lack of absorption which can occasionally occur in your body."

Maenad nodded. "Yes, that's true; I do take iron supplements."

Turning the PADD around, Pola brought up the recent results of the woman's blood tests, finally looking up at her. "Your recent blood tests have shown up an anomaly which is a concern. It seems that your blood is suffering from an occurrence in which the red blood cells have started to spontaneously rupture, causing a release of cytoplasm into your blood stream."

Using her fingers, Pola ran them across the face of the PADD as she brought up a diagram of the blood structure within Maenad's body. "In your case it is actually happening extravascular, confined specifically to the area around your spleen."

If her face could have whitened any more than it already had, Maenad might have started radiating light. Her eyes were wide and her pulse was throbbing. Spontaneously rupturing? She didn't like the sound of that. "Am I going to be all right?" Why the spleen? That was something people could live without, she thought. She was sure she had heard that somewhere before.

Nodding her head, Pola moved her hand back across her hair. "I'm going to start treatment now for the condition, haemolytic anaemia. Because you are still in the early stages, the initial treatment is going to be a daily dose of Prophylactic folic acid which can be administered easily through a hypospray. I'm going to give you a 3 day supply to start with and run some more tests after this to see if it is helping. We caught it in it's early stages so you are lucky."

Maenad still didn't breathe that sigh of relief that she had wanted. Other doctors had told her might one day develop that. "How early? How do you know that it isn't much worse?" Maenad asked. "I've been feeling quite tired lately. What if it were much worse, what could happen to me?"

Shaking her head, Pola sat back into her chair as she absent-mindedly tapped her fingers against the arm of her chair. "Tiredness is attributed to anaemia on it's own. The initial signs of haemolytic anaemia progressively getting worse is that you start suddenly fainting for no apparent reason, you start to experience chest pains and a sensation of progressive breathlessness. From what I know of you, have observed today and in the time I've known you, none of these seem to be an issue."

Recalling the episodes with Athlen and then Kiri, how she had almost passed out both times, made her ignore that it was from the amount of blood she saw. Did she have chest pains? Maybe. "What would have happened, though, if you didn't learn about this?" she swallowed.

"Um...well anything really. Um...Are you sure you want me to go through this? We've caught it ontime and it will be monitored now." Last thing Pola wanted was the woman to wind herself up. Sometimes it was best to tell a patient the answers to their questions, rather then they tried to find out themselves and make themselves worse.

That was a good question. Did she really want to know? Maenad was a scientist and so it was in her nature to ask questions, big questions. Often she would stop at nothing to get to the bottom of things she found interesting, but when it came to her own health she was usually very reluctant to learn about her insides. But then again, she could imagine herself sitting around terrifying herself about it, losing many hours of much-loved sleep.

"I think you should," she said, after a long moment of thought.

Studying the woman a moment more, Pola controlled her voice so it remained calm and soft. "Untreated cases of this form of anemia have ultimately resulting in jaundice, closely followed by the formation of gallstones and than an increase in your blood pressure leading to pulmonary hypertention. All equally treatable, they would just delay your ultimate recovery."

Maenad now breathed more easily. Not fatal. "Well, thank you doctor," she said with a pleased smile.

Analysing the smile for the moment, Pola finally accepted it as true before smiling back herself. "Let's get you sorted with the medication and hypospray. I need you to administer it through your internal jugular vein so I'll also show you how to do this easily."

Maenad let herself become more relaxed and manipulable so the doctor could show her what to do. She felt a little pathetic for having become so afraid at such an easy fix, but her sense of relief was stronger. "All right," she said quietly.

Pushing herself up from her desk, Pola indicated for Maenad to follow her. "Did you have any further questions you wished to ask?"

"No," Maenad shook her head once before rising from the chair and trailed her. In some ways, she was looking forward to this mini lesson. In most ways, though, Maenad felt upset about the whole thing. More humiliated than upset; she saw herself as one of the best people alive, but she was stuck to her troublesome health. A troublesome health that would probably kill her some day. She hated it.

Noticing how the woman had suddenly become very quiet, Pola left her in her own thoughts for a few moments as she replicated the required solution and retrieved a spare hypo from storage. "Ok...I assume you know how to use these?"

"I do," Maenad said back to her. It seemed easy enough; she wished that she didn't have to do it, but such was life.

"Ok...if you could give me your hand for a moment..." Waiting until Maenad held out her hand, Pola took the woman's first and middle fingers before using her own free hand to slightly tilt Maenad's head back. "...Feel the vein your fingers are pressed against? That's where I need to to administer the medication. It will dustribute it to your body the fastest, helping for a quicker response."

"All right," she said, allowing herself to become malleable. The doctor moved her hand and pulled up middle and forefinger as she tilted her head to the side ever so gently. Maenad couldn't help but think that these same hands had held Cyrus. She thought a sigh. She did feel the pulse the doctor was talking about, though, and she began thinking how it had slowed down since a moment ago, when she thought she was on death's door.

As she released Maenad's hand, Pola picked up the hypo and pressed it against the area she had just pointed out to the woman before defusing the solution into her vein. "And that's all it takes. If you could try to take it the same time every day, it'll help regulate the solution in your blood stream and make the treatment more efficient."

Maenad took the hypospray and looked it over with studious frown. She paid careful attention to exactly how the doctor had injected her; the last thing she wanted was to botch her own medication. "How long will I have to do this?" she asked, hoping that this wouldn't be for the rest of her life. A few weeks, fine. A few months, maybe. And what if she missed a day or two?

"It all depends on how well your body reacts to the treatment. As I mentioned earlier, this initial supply I'm giving you.."Pola picked up the vials she'd left on the tray and offered them to Maenad, "...will last for three days and then I will have you back for further tests."

"Right, sorry," Maenad shook her head. She was too frazzled before to pay attention to that. "I hope it works," she said rather meekly. The prospect of further tests had her on edge, but not anywhere near like she had been earlier.

"If...and that is a very big if, this doesn't work than I have a few other treatments we can try until we find the one which suits you. Either way, we will get you fixed up." Pola smiled slightly as she tried to reassure the woman.

Maenad looked away neutrally, pushing any prospect of complications away from her thoughts. "I hope I'll be fine," she said blankly. "I am sure that I will be," she corrected, her voice more confident.

"I'll get one of the nurses to contact you in relation to a follow up appointment, in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me at anytime, day or night, if you've any questions or concerns." Pola had picked back up her PADD in order to update Maenad's file.

"Thank you, doctor," Maenad said with a loose smile.

After a moment, Pola realised that Maenad was still standing there. "Is everything ok Maenad?"

Is everything okay; three words that Maenad hated being asked more than anything else. Nothing was okay. Nothing was ever okay, and she hated constantly having to be reminded of it. And she hated having to constantly lie about it too. "Yes," she lied. "I am fine, doctor. I'm just coping with what might have happened if you hadn't found this in time. But, since I have nothing to worry about, I will be just fine," she gave her a reassuring smile.

Pola put the PADD back down on the desk as she studied the woman carefully. "You need to focus on the positive here Maenad. We caught this at a very early point and treatment will be simplistic, you can even continue on full duty. Worrying about the what ifs will just stress you out."

"I know," Maenad sighed. "You're right. I will be fine," she said as confidently as she could. "Thank you, again."

Pola watched the woman as she tried to figure out if there was anything more. Only managing to come up with one more thing, she gently placed her hand against the woman's arm. "If ever you want someone to talk to, please just contact me."

Maenad handled the hypospray. "Thank you," she said. "Really, though, there is nothing for you to worry about."

Squeezing Maenad's arm once more, Pola smiled softly. "Well see its my job to worry. That's why I get the title of medical Doctor you realize." Pola was careful to specify Medical Doctor given she knew that Maenad was a doctor of science and might otherwise take it up wrong.

Maenad looked at the doctor's hand on her arm, feeling the pinch. What did she want from her? It seemed like she wanted Maenad to tell her things that didn't exist; she was nervous as hell about her illness, was that so uncommon? She could have died; death and disease were two of Maenad's biggest fears. She didn't want to confess her phobias, and the doctor already knew her medical history and test results, so what else could she do? "I..." Maenad began, catching herself before becoming upset. Pola was only trying to her job, and she got the impression that she was good at it, for which she was grateful. "I understand that, doctor," she said quietly. "I appreciate your efforts, but my fears are my own, however irrational they might be. I promise that I will come see you if I have any questions or any new symptoms," she gave her a faint smile, hoping that finally she had convinced her. "If you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do."

Watching as Maenad walked out of sickbay, Pola let out the breath she realised that she'd been holding. Rubbing her hand across her forehead, she was starting to realise that that woman may need a close eye kept on her as she could end up being another referral to the counselling team.

[OFF]

Lieutenant Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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