Breath Easy PART 1

Posted on Fri Aug 4th, 2017 @ 1:59am by Dixoho Saa (*) & Leiddem Kea (*)
Edited on on Sun Aug 6th, 2017 @ 1:28am

Mission: Mission 4 - Combustion
Location: Deck 7 - Main Sickbay
Timeline: Back post
1924 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

For all that Bettina needed to use inculcation to find her way around the ship, Sickbay was a completely different issue. Even though she was a field medic, and her primary work location was out and about, Sickbay was the 'base', where she would spend a good deal of her time when there wasn't some sort of crisis, or she wasn't out checking first aid kits or-other emergency medical equipment that was stashed around.

Of course, she'd just been on the Mary Rose as short time, so she wasn't sure what was where, and that was why she was starting here, in Sickbay. And because it (being any sickbay) was a 'safe' and familiar place for her, she pretty much only needed to rummage through the cabinets and drawers a couple of times to remember where things were.

Having been though everything once, she was on her second go, sitting cross-legged on the floor, her head in one of the lower cabinets where the lesser-used, non-urgent supplies were kept, making sure she didn't miss anything, as she recited the items in a silly little song that she was composing on the spot.

Dixoho walked into the sickbay looking around hopefully for Mott or even the rude Caden, she recongnised the woman sat on the floor but she wasn't someone she had spoken to. "Hi... Is anyone else around?" She wondered her breathing a little wheezy.

The noise didn't quite startle her, since the muted 'swish' of the door opening had alerted Bettina that someone had come in and she was just starting to turn when the young woman spoke.

"Oh, um, hi...welcome to Sickbay!" Giving the Trill a friendly smile, Bettina stood, brushing out the purple mid-calf skirt she was wearing. "No, there's just me...sorry..." She stuck out her hand, her smile widening. "I'm Bettina, Medic...I can see if I can help you...or I can call someone." It was obvious that the woman was having some trouble with her breathing, and indeed, that was something Bettina could help with, to a degree, but she hadn't even formally met the ship's doctor and wasn't sure what she could and couldn't specifically do.

The redhead smiled weakly and held out her hand. "Dixoho Saa, I am your Chief Navigator." She admitted pulling her hand back before it would be grasped to cough. "So sorry... no you will do if you can help." She said once the coughing fit ended. "I seem to be having a little problem again." She knew the woman wouldn't have read her file yet but she guess if Gregnol employed her she must know her job.

"Oh, well, have a seat," Bettina motioned to a bio-bed with a reassuring smile, "and I'll see what I can do." The young woman was able to speak a few words between her breaths, a positive sign, so she chatted as she hooked her up to the monitors, going over Trill A&P in her head as she did.

"Navigator, huh? I love the stars and constellations, but I have absolutely no aptitude for navigation!" She'd have to pull up Dixoho's records when she got a chance.

"I grew up in space so it... is second..." She indicated her hand that she was struggling a little more. She sighed sitting back on the bio bed looking around at the sickbay and how much it had changed since Talon had been in charge.

"Oh, um...that's all right, you don't need to answer silly questions." Bettina smiled as she looked over the readouts. "Your oxygen levels are low and pulse high..." Even without the monitors, the slight fading of color and drooping of antenna indicated that Dixoho was not doing well, and that Trills could quickly 'crash' without aggressive treatment.

"I'm going to get some oxygen on you, all right?" Bettina knew that most people in respiratory distress wanted to sit up, so she didn't try to lay her down. "I'm going to call for the doctor, then get you something...what do they give you?" While she knew the standard treatments, folks knew their own bodies and reactions, and knowing what Dixoho was accustomed to would help her sort the options. "Albuterol, Solu-Medro, Aminophylline..."

Then something occurred to her. "You weren't by chance bitten by anything, were you?"

The woman shook her head. "They haven't given me anything before. I normally do an old fashioned remedy." She admitted knowing that Mott would scould her like she was a six year old to say the least. "Can't... you... just deal?" She coughed out struggling to speak again.

"Deal? Like, don't call the doctor?" Bettina wasn't sure why she'd request that, but the situation wasn't dire yet. "Um, sure, but...I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean by 'old fashioned'? We can try breathing steam with eucalyptus oil?" Because of her upbringing, she did know some of herbal and holistic medicine, at least in relation to Human physiology, but Trills were something else.

She nodded at the woman understanding what she meant about not calling the Doctor or Caden. It would do no good for either of them being called to help just a lot of yelling. "I've been using steam... no oil... previous Doctor suggested" She whispered leaning over trying to catch her breath. She gripped the biobed hard trying to focus but it was hard when it felt like she was drowning.

"Yes, all right." Steam was a simple enough treatment, although if Dixoho's condition didn't improve, she'd have to resort to proper medications.

It was a simple matter of ordering a bowl of very hot water from the replicator that she carefully carried over and set on a portable table. "There you are, and you can use this as a tent." She handed the woman a towel that she could drape over her head to direct the steam so she could breathe in a larger amount and hopefully open up her lungs.

Dixoho nodded a thank you at the woman as she tied up her hair. "Thank... you." She breathed grabbing the towel leaning over the hot water breathing in deeply trying to get her chest to loosen up. After ten minutes of trying to sat up wiping the steam from her face and shook her head. "It isn't working." She admitted.

"We tried..." Bettina shrugged sympathetically, setting the bowl of water aside as she looked at the readouts of the woman's vitals. "I don't know..." If something didn't work quickly, the doctor was going to have to be notified. "We can try a mustard poultice, onion and honey tea, St. John's Wort...or the regular medications..."

"I think you need to do regular medication." Dixoho was all for trying other options but it was becoming hard to breathe like she was underwater and she felt hot. "I feel..." She fanned her face to show that she hot especially as she was only in a vest top.

"Computer, lower the temperature in the room by ten degrees," Bettina ordered as she grabbed a nebulizer and added bronchodilators to it. "We'll try this first, before steroids, and maybe you should think about letting me call the doctor. I know he's a bit...eccentric," an understatement! "...but, well, think about it, all right?"

The computer beeped to acknowledge that it was carrying out its order even if it was a slow process to cool the compartment. Dixoho nodded, she would think about it and desperately hoped that it would work, the longer they took to call him the more angry he would be eventually when he was.

"Here we go..." Bettina put the mask with the mist of medication on Dixoho, wondering how far she should let this go, torn between doing what was sensible (calling the doctor) or what the patient wanted (not calling the doctor). But the patient was 'always right', right? Well, not really, but sometimes...

"That should open things up pretty quickly," she commented, "then we'll have to see if it lasts."

Kea walked in and surveyed the scene quickly. "Dix... what you doing here?" The Nurse said taking the woman's shoulders looking at her eyes. "Have you called Mott?" He demanded looking at Bettina.

"No, sir, not yet." Bettina glanced at her patient then at Kea. "We were trying to deal with it...I was going to wait and see if the medications worked." Hopefully! Otherwise, she was pretty sure that she was going to be in trouble, even if she had been respecting the patient's wishes, not that she was going to bring that up.

"Don't sir me." Kea said in a stern voice but a stupid grin on his face which caused the Navigator to cough badly from trying to laugh.

"Um...all right." Bettina offered an uncertain smile, then hastily explained, "I don't know you is all, sir...um...anyway, I just find it safer to assume that everyone is...above me in rank...I mean, I know this isn't a military ship, but there's still ranks, right? A nurse is more than a medic and a doctor is more than a nurse, right?" She took a breath. "So, it's fairly safe to assume you are a 'sir'..." Bett logic at its best!

Her rambling stopped as she remembered that she had a patient, and she glanced at Dixoho. "Is that working for you?" If not, she was relieved that there was someone here who could help...well, provided her 'sir' was a fellow medical person?

"I am calling Mott... You Saa are in so much trouble again." Kea muttered as he pushed the red head back onto the biobed properly. He shook his head at the Chief Navigator breathing heavily. "Mott when you have a moment we have a red headed problem in sickbay." The telepath said into the nearest communication console.

As all Bolians knew, redheads were always trouble. As a people, they'd learned their lesson well. There was once a redheaded Flaxian who caused no end of trouble on Bolarus IX, a person whose very gender had been scrubbed from the record. The whole thing was a very secretive matter, jealously guarded by Bolians across the galaxy, but a few things were known...

First, that the trouble had been beyond a shadow of a doubt tied to the color of the Flaxian's hair. Again, redheads were always trouble. Second, that everything had culminated at the Battle of Bruxa Bay. And, lastly, that the Redheaded Menace had brought the Bolian people to the edge of extinction. Since then, they were seen as a source of mischief and universally distrusted. That one of the devils was presently terrorizing his Sickbay was no surprise to him at all.

"This is Dr. Olsam," he said into the nearest wall-mounted control panel. "And I'm only coming because I took an oath."

Kea laughed a little. He found the Bolian his biggest source of amusement on the ship and why he spent more time in sickbay then in secuirty or anywhere else. "He is going to be bringing his dinner by the sounds of it."

Oh, well, that would be interesting, Bettina thought as she glanced toward the doors, hoping that whatever the odd doctor considered 'dinner' didn't stink or move!

OFF::

Dixaho Saa
Chief Navigator
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)

Leiddem Kea
Weapons Master
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)

Bettina Davies
Field Medic
SS Mary Rose

Olsam Mott, M.D.
Ship's Doctor
SS Mary Rose