Posted by Commander Brad Walker (Chief Of Staff/Second Officer) in Primary Sickbay- Private Consultations

Posted by Captain Dira Myqian (Commanding Officer) in Primary Sickbay- Private Consultations

Posted by Commander Brad Walker (Chief Of Staff/Second Officer) in Primary Sickbay- Private Consultations
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<snip>
Meanwhile, Dira folded her uniform jacket and set it to the side, along with her boots and slipped up onto the biobed, sitting cross-legged. Visually she seemed fine, and her vitals were once again stable and as they were before in the exam room. Her gaze was unfixed and she held her hands loosely in her lap, one thumb tracing a line up and down the other.

Captain Myqian, CO

There was a notable pause before a reply came through. =/\= Understood, Doctor. Is she going to be alright? /\=

Cmdr. Royal Sinclair, XO

=/\=She should be,=/\= Brad replied quickly, before briefly pausing himself. =/\=It’s just a precaution, but better safe than sorry. I’ll let you know if I need to keep her for more than today.=/\=

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

=/\= Understood. Command codes transferred temporarily. And this makes you XO, by the way. Don’t redecorate the office, please. Sinclair out. =/\= The reply sounded obviously relieved, but even with the change being temporary, there were things all the officers knew had to be done immediately.

Cmdr. Royal Sinclair, XO

“Little danger of that, since I don’t intend to set a foot in it,” Brad said to himself with a chuckle, rising and deactivating the privacy mode before heading for the exam room.

“Settling in, Captain?” he asked Dira, before giving a check to her vitals. There was a medical mystery to solve, and those were always some of the funnest puzzles to put together.

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

She gave a half shrug and she cast her hands out to the sides. “Felt like the thing to do. Not much else I can do, yes?” She was still mostly in uniform but unless they had a good reason, she didn’t feel the need to change into something else. But then again, she was the patient and would do as she was told (within reason). Still, as much as she appreciated all their efforts, the situation was starting to grate on her nerves, even if just slightly.

Dira cast her gaze to the readings and sighed. They were ‘normal’, or as normal as they were going to be right now given her current issues. “Where did you want to go from here?”

Captain Myqian, CO

As Zoi stepped into the main sickbay, she was glad to see no one was running around in a panic. She quickly moved through the space to find the private room where Dira sat seemingly unaffected. Mentally, she let out a breath she had been holding in. Externally she smiled softly, glad to know Dira was curious about whatever was going on. Her glance around lingered on the medical instruments readouts, showing fairly normal in her limited experience. All good signs. “First, I’ll just join you here, shall I?”

Dira broke into a smile at the sight of Zoi. “That would be nice,” she said softly.

She stepped forward and leaned in to kiss Dira’s forehead. “Hello my dearest.” She said in a voice only this tender when she was genuinely showing love, care, and concern. “What do we have here?”

Haven, CoS

“I was here as a followup to some tests. We reached a point where they didn’t need me to stay and as I was passing reception I got dizzy.” Dira sighed again. “I passed out. So yay me, I get to stay now.” She was miffed but it wasn’t at any on person. She was doing her best to keep going and not panic over anything but she was starting to feel overwhelmed by the prospects.

“But I feel fine again, or at least as fine as I’ve been lately.”

Captain Myqian, CO

“So this is something that has been increasing in intensity?” Brad asked. “How long since you first noticed any symptoms?”

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

She drew in a slow and measured breath. “A little while after the whole incident with Franks and I took Command. At first it was just fatigue, which made sense. I was working really hard and I had just been through a difficult situation. I wasn’t always getting as much sleep as I would have like due to intermittent insomnia. And so when the brain fog kicked in, I figured it was more of the same. At first I was willing to admit that maybe it was psychological, that the ordeal with Franks was affecting me in ways I wasn’t willing to admit, but my gut feeling is that it isn’t that. I’m in therapy and I’ve conquered some major fears from it all.”

Dira shook her head and sighed. “When exercise started to make me feel overheated, even if it was a light workout, I started to think something else was going on. Then I got the dizziness in the shower and that’s when I had my consult with Dr. Solal. Just before I passed out, I could feel my heart skip a beat, and we have seen the arrhythmia on the monitors. And I’ve lost weight and not on purpose.” It was easy to just lay out all these simple symptoms, but when combined with the tests results, it was hard to ignore the fact that something was definitely going on in her body. “I should also add that I feel the symptoms whether I use the headband that blocks my telepathy or not, so that’s not a variable.”

Captain Myqian, CO

Brad nodded, hand coming up to his chin in a thinking pose.

John stood, out of the way at the edge of the room listening intently with his arms folded. He had nothing useful to add so stayed silent. If you had nothing to say, better to say nothing at all.

McCandless, Head Nurse

“You don’t think it’s something psychosomatic?” he asked.

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

Dira sucked in a breath and didn’t answer for a moment. Finally, she shrugged. “My instincts say no, because I am actively dealing with my trauma. Yes psychological trauma can have all sorts of physical effects, but in most causes it manifests when the trauma is ignored. That’s not my situation. But can I rule it out entirely, no? But if you want to bring in Dr. Grayson to consult with, she’s aware of my situation and offered as much to me already.”

Captain Myqian, CO

Brad sighed. “We might have to, but I’d rather leave that until absolutely last,” he said. “Although… it’s not like that last fainting spell in public isn’t going to make the rounds of the ship by the end of the shift.”

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

Zoi nodded absently, thinking back and wondering if she noticed anything that Dira had not already spoken to. Had she been unaware that Dira’s physical body was in this much distress? She certainly hoped not, but intermittent symptoms always made it difficult to diagnose. She hoped Brad would be able to figure this out. She took a seat beside Dira and took her loves hand in a gentle embrace. Whatever it was, they would face it together.

Haven, Cos

At the mention of the ship’s very adept grapevine, Dira’s expression darkened before she sighed. She ran a hand over her tight curls and tipped her head upwards, gazing at the ceiling. “Naturally,” she deadpanned before dropping her head and gazing directly at Walker.

“Brad, I’m going to tell you what I told Solal and John when we first starting digging into all of this. We need to figure this out, asap. Not just because this ship needs its captain, but the longer it goes on, the more likely it’ll be that Command starts to question whether I’m fit for duty.” She held her hands up. “I know, currently, in this moment, I might not be, but I need to get back on that bridge. It’s not an order, it’s a plea,” she said, dropping her hands, palm up into her lap. “I’ve been through too much and I’ve worked too damn hard to lose my command over a fainting spell.” She wasn’t exaggerating. She knew all too well that whatever was happening to her was progressing in some fashion and she was quite frankly terrified, even if she was keeping that well and truly off her face. Zoi would know differently- she would also know.

Captain Myqian, CO

“We have the best medical staff in the fleet on this ship,” Brad said sincerely. “We’ll figure it out, and solve it,” he promised.

It was then that Solal turned up in the primary sickbay and stepped quietly over to the group around the CO. “I’ve been thinking, Captain, and I may have a new idea.” He turned to John and Walker, “Perhaps we have been looking at this the wrong way. Perhaps it is not systemic, rather a smaller problem with systemic complications.”

~ Solal

Dira sat more upright, despite the ever present tiredness. Huh, that was interesting.

“Like a line of dominoes?” Brad asked. That would be a relief if true, since solving one small issue would have a similar knock-on effect with the complications, but the trick would be determining now which of the symptoms Dira was exhibiting was the true problem.

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

John tapped his chin thoughtfully and nodded.
“That would be simpler. We’ll need to work out which of the symptoms is the main one.” He stated then turned to the Captain.
“Which symptom did you experience first Captain?” He asked.

Lt McCandless (Head Nurse)

She thought back and to be honest, the concentration and memory issues made that hard. “Fatigue, I’m pretty sure. It’s the one thing that never really goes away. Some days I have a bit more energy, but lately it’s like my body is working so very hard to just function. I’m not going to lie and say that I’m not in that terrible cycle of always being tired and then using caffiene to keep me going.”

Captain Myqian, CO

“How much sleep would you say you’re getting in a week?” Brad asked. “Is it more or less than 56 hours?”

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

Dira couldn’t help it and broke into a laugh. “I don’t think I’ve had eight hours of sleep consistently in almost a decade, every since I became the head of counselling on the Halcyon.” She shook her head. “But I would say that in the last few weeks, I’m averaging somewhere around forty hours of sleep. And yes I know that I should be getting higher as a telepath due to the extra energy requirements and recovery time needed.” She shrugged, trying to not sound too defensive. It was the life she was leading and the underlying issue that was getting worse. She was doing the best she could.

Captain Myqian, CO

“Stars preserve me,” Brad muttered, looking briefly towards the ceiling. “Please for the love of all that is holy do not make me do what I had to do to get Willow to get something resembling a proper sleep schedule. Not only would Commander Haven probably kill me, I don’t what the lower-decks rumour mill going into overdrive again.”

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

Dira glanced briefly at Zoi and then back at the medical staff before dropping her head, she shoulders sagging. “I’m doing the best I can,” she said in a small voice, so contrary to the one the captain was used to using. She was just so tired but then had the insomnia, plus a ship to run. What did they expect her to do? “Besides, the rumour mill has been doing its thing ever since Williams Franks abducted me. I’m used to it,” she added, her voice now flat.

“Used to it and fueling it are two entirely different animals,” Brad replied, equally flat. “Just because I’m used to the fresh-out-of-the-Academy girls turning red and giggling every time they see me walk down the corridor doesn’t mean I like it.”

She drew her hands together in her lap, one thumb rubbing back and forth along the other. “We’ve established that we need to looks smaller. How small are we talking? We’ve been looking at systemic issues, but my symptoms aren’t relegated to one organ. My symptoms are systemic, even if the cause is not. How small should we start looking?”

Captain Myqian, CO

“I don’t want to be overly simplistic and suggest that one good night’s sleep will fix everything, but getting out of the cycle of fatigue and stimulants would, at the very least, cut down on some of the symptoms. It could give us a clearer picture if there’s something seriously wrong if our case board, so to speak, isn’t being cluttered by red herrings of issues that look related but actually aren’t, if you follow my meaning.”

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

John nodded along agreeing with Brad. He continued to listen, it wasn’t his place to chip in at the moment. He was taking notes so that he could add to Dira’s medical notes later.

McCandless (Head Nurse)