Posted by Lieutenant Benjamin Grey (Chief Medical Officer) in Sickbay- Faye’s Follow-up

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Sickbay- Faye’s Follow-up

Posted by Lieutenant Benjamin Grey (Chief Medical Officer) in Sickbay- Faye’s Follow-up
Posted by… suppressed (20) by the Post Ghost! 👻
It was a with a somewhat grudging attitude that Faye stepped back into Sickbay, this time sans feline. Her reluctance had nothing to do with Dr. Grey though, and everything to do with the fact that she knew some of her neurotransmitters would be off and that would be a thing. But stress and such would dp that to a person, so she sucked it up and arrive on time after getting the reminder from the computer. She was in her duty uniform, her Intelligence department colours a noticeable difference around the ship, if expected after Stark being there for all those years before her.

Without preamble, Calloway spied Grey and said, “Hey,” as she hopped up onto the nearest biodbed.

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Ben was deep in thought staring at a dark blue hypospray vial when Faye addressed him, so deep in thought in fact that he jumped half a foot forward “eugh” he grunted turning around “What’s it with the Intel officers on this ship and sneaking up on me” He huffed then smiled sheepishly “Sorry about that Commander, I can usually tell when someone approaches” He tapped his nose and chuckled “Anywhoo, How can I be of service”

Doctor Grey
CMO

Her brows quirked upwards. “See, the difference is I don’t try to be sneaky. I just pretend to be for effect. There’s a difference.” Calloway waved her comments away. “The computer reminded me I had that follow-up with you. And before we get to any scans, yes, I’m probably showing signs of sleep issues and some stress.”

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Ben gave the intelligence officer a flat look “There’s never an excuse for lack of sleep” He scolded her albeit lightheartedly. He pulled his medical tricorder from his pocket, grabbed the wand, flipped the device open, and then started the scan procedure. “So how have you been Faye?” He used her first name to set the mood for a more informal conversation, something he suspected would work better with her.

Doctor Grey
CMO

“Stressed,” she deadpanned before Faye sighed. “I’m doing alright, all things considered. I knew transferring to the Athena would be an adjustment but there has been a lot going on and that is just in my personal life, let alone work.”

Ben nodded as he listened. Faye was, as far as he could tell, open with him about her stress and life which was helpful for his duties.

The scan indeed showed higher cortisol levels, as well as other signs of stress. Her neurotransmitters were being controlled through her medication, but it was hard to say if it was enough right now. Additionally, there were increased signs of neural activity. It would require deeper scans to analyze but it looked like her brain processing on a higher level than usual.

~Faye Calloway, CIO

As always, well almost always, Benjamin gave no visual reaction to his scans. He pocketed the scanner and walked to the side of the bed “Lie down please” He asked as he prepped the biobed sensors to do a deep neurological scan. He opened a small drawer and grabbed a neurocortical monitor and placed it just under the intelligence officers ear “I’m going to do a deeper brain scan, you have increased signs of neural activity that I’d like to check out.

Doctor Grey
CMO

“Okay,” Faye said with a slight frown as she laid back on the biobed. She forced herself to breathe evenly and ignore the anxiety that always spiked when she was lying prone on a medical bed.

The scans of course showed this spike in cortisol and adrenaline but Faye’s breathing seemed to bring it quickly under control.

The neurological scan showed some interesting details. There seemed to be higher than usual activity in Faye’s memory centres, as it they were processing higher than average input, even with her just here in Sickbay, though it wasn’t quite obvious what was causing it.

“I suppose now would be a good time to tell you I’ve bene having a weird… issue. I’m not sure if it’s a new manifestation of my dissociation, but it feels different. Sometimes I just… blank out. I’m not triggered and then feel out of my body or even unaware of what I’m doing or what’s happening around me. It just… happens. A good example is that I was wokring through something, so yeah, maybe a little triggered, but I went to the holodeck to sit in a program of my garden from the Manhattan and Daggum came looking for me. But 3 hours had passed and I wasn’t aware.”

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Ben frowned as he looked over the readings and listened to Faye’s story. “This is odd, it’s like you’ve been having greater activity here” He pointed on the relevant part of the brain scan “Your temporal lobe, your memory centre if you will. It’s very active, unusually so. During those three hours were you alone?” He asked

Doctor Grey
CMO

Faye gave a tiny nod. “As far as I know. There was no sign of anyone on the holodeck with me. And then of course, Daggum came to find me.” She blew out a breath. “I told Dr. Kingston about it, thinking it was more of my dissociation issues and she chided me for not seeing you about it as well. In any case, I know I’m more stressed from the changes and that recent time nonsense where Dag went missing for awhile, but it just feels different. I can’t qualify it for you more than that.”

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Ben quirked an eybrow, Janna chiding you was not a pleasant experience he imagined. “Have you checked the sensor readings from the holodeck, seen if there was anything visual that occurred during those few hours?”

Doctor Grey
CMO

She nodded. “It was clear. I mean, I could have gone all paranoid and picked apart the program code to make sure there wasn’t anything inserted that shouldn’t be there, but others might think that excessive.” The tiniest smirk tugged at the her lips.

Faye turned her head to look at Ben. “I… never know how to talk about them, but I have noticed that I’ve had less of the mind dumps lately. I mean, I can generally control them, but when I’m stressed, I usually get ones that slip through my control and hit harder than I would like. But that’s not really been the case. I might call that odd, but since the whole mind dump thing is weird and difficult to analyze to begin with, who knows what’s supposed to be typical with them. I can’t exactly go ask the Tal Shiar.”

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Ben tapped a finger on the console as he considered “Do the mind dumps usually result in lost time? And if so how long does it usually last?”

Doctor Grey
CMO

She shook her head. “At their best, it’s painful, like I’ve been slammed with a book to the head, while my brain processing images at a speed I can barely focus on. At their worst, I am told it looks like I’m having a seizure and it’s hard to breathe. I have passed out before but it’s rare. At most they last a couple minutes, which is why the not being able to breath part is problematic, but so far not really life threatening. Just.. awkward and exhausting. But I never just… blank out like that.”

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Benjamin nodded “That is concerning, we’ll need to consider having you monitored until we can figure out the underlying cause. I’ll have to see if the cause is medical and you’ll have to meet with Janna to see if its psychological instead. Have there been any changes recently, added stressors or a new diet that you would attribute this to?” He asked still considering, the question came out naturally from training as he focused most of his mental acuity on the problem at hand

Doctor Grey
CMO

“Janna knows about it and I can’t hink of any particular change other than being on a new ship with a new job. There were things in my personal life that have been stressing me out but part of that is resolved nad I still have these weird moments. I just don’t want it to happen when I’m on duty. So far it hasn’t, but because I don’t know what the trigger is, I’m struggling to figure it out.” Faye sighed.

~Faye Calloway, CIO

There weren’t that many options when it came to discovering triggers as far as Ben was aware but he wasn’t the ship’s counsellor “You might want to consider letting me place a neural monitor on a semi-permanent basis so we could have some readings for whenever you have an episode again” He approached the issue as gently as he could, he knew how Faye felt about being treated like an experiment.

Doctor Grey
CMO

Faye sucked in a breath and rubbed her hands. She gave a brief grimace but then shrugged. “You know what? I hate the idea, but it’s probably a good idea. It won’t be forever either, so… sure? I just wish it was a bit less obvious, but at least I can restyle my hair to hide it a bit.”

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Ben blinked at that in surprise having honestly not considered the aspect of not wanting to walk around with a big metal circle on your head. He scratched his head considering “Well They’ve made them a little smaller than compared to when I was in med school if that makes you feel better” He opened a cabinet and brought out the small metallic box that contained the cortical monitor. He tapped a short rhythm on the box “Let me just link this up” He opened the box revealing the circular device then tapped a few commands on the biobed syncing the two systems then held up the device “This goes just under your ear, you can choose whichever side you prefer.

Doctor Grey
CMO

It was a strange thing to consider, because it really shouldn’t matter. But everyone had their mannerisms and quirks: Faye’s was that she tucked her hair behind her ear, but usually on the right. So she tapped her left side. “I won’t accidentally bang it with my hand this way.”

Ben nodded and carefully placed the device on her left side then tapped it a few times, the tapping served no purpose it was simply what he always did.

Calloway eye the doctor. “I suppose it would be useful to try and trigger an episode huh?” Even though she said she didn’t know what the triggers were, she had some idea what might contribute. Possibly.

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Benjamin nodded absentmindedly as he tapped on the computer confirming the connection to the Cortical Monitor “Well that is the next logical step” He froze for a moment and looked at Faye and cocked his head “Well it’s risky, a real experiment and you shouldn’t do it alone or at least without no one knowing, unless of course if part of it is being alone then that’s what we’d have to do”

Doctor Grey
CMO

“I mean, I’m not entirely sure, but so far the… blank times have happened on my own. I’m not even sure what I would do to trigger it, but I will let my husband, you, or Dr. Kingston know before I do, just in case.” Faye blew out a breath and shook her head. “Just what I need right now,” she said dryly. “But it wouldn’t be my life without a bit of drama.” At that comment, she gave a tiny smirk.

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Ben cocked his head at her last statement and eyed her curiously “I suppose I have no evidence to refute that” He said with a wan smile “Well in any case Faye, yer free to go, no more poking or prodding”

Doctor Grey
CMO

She gave him a nod. “Thanks. I’ll keep you in the loop, but either way, I guess you’ll know when something is up,” Faye said, pointing to the monitor.

Slipping off the biobed, Calloway gave him a cheeky salute and left.

~Faye Calloway, CIO