Posted by Commander Brad Walker (Chief Of Staff/Second Officer) in Primary Sickbay- Private Consultations
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Both the tests for Encephalopathy and encephalitis were negative.

The deep cellular scans, however, showed something unexpected, something their pervious scans would not have been able to detect: embedded in the walls of many (but not all cells), was a stealth pathogen. This particular pathogen took the form of a fungus. In this semi-dormant state, the fungus seemed inactive and wasn’t growing, but was secreting toxins in minute amounts. It’s small enough that a person’s immune system doesn’t register the threat and doesn’t know to attack it.

“Huh,” Brad said idly.

Alexis’ brow went up.

Over time, stealth toxins like the one this fungus was releasing into the patient’s system kill the healthy cells they attack and force the liver to work harder resulting in a condition called toxic overload. Some of the early symptoms of toxic overload were headache, insomnia, fatigue, dizziness, tingling, malaise, joint pain and brain fog.

This state causes extra cortisol production as the body is now under stress it can’t do anything about, triggering a vicious cycle that can go on for a long time and eventually affects all organs and can lead to organ failure, usually with the liver being compromised first.

Interestingly, when the fungus was investigated it was the same fungus they had encountered at Starbase 157 when many people had thought they were in Alice and Wonderland. Since everyone exposed was treated, there were a couple possibilities: either the patient’s physiology made the treatment less effective, or perhaps they encountered minute amounts of the fungus after the initial treatment. Either way, the fungus lay dormant and undetected in her body until it was triggered to be more active and start releasing toxins. It was a known fact that stealth illnesses could be triggered by extreme stress (and thus a weakened immune system).

“Oh for crying out loud,” Brad moaned. “Not that bloody thing again!”

Captain Myqian, CO

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

“Well it appears your patient will need another round of the anti-fungal. I am assuming the patient has given several blood samples. We will need to start the medical lab on developing an anti-toxin to clear the patient’s system. And we need to sweep the ship to make sure there is none of that fungus left on board this time.”

“At least one more round,” Brad agreed. “And if it’s still there after that, I’m going to do my damndest to find a genetic sample of hers from before that infection and running her through a transporter.”

Alexis looked over, “I would strongly recommend that your patient report to Psychiatric. Obviously they have experienced some sort of extreme stress or trauma that triggered this.”

Lt. Cmdr. Kane, AMO

Brad snorted.

“It’s a good suggestion, Doctor, don’t get me wrong, but the patient being who she is, I doubt there’s a damn thing even our excellent Psych staff can do about her stress levels. Her partner, on the other hand…”

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

“Well on the chance this becomes a chronic issue and can’t be removed from her system, she will need to learn to handle her stress. Or she will have constant relapses.” Alexis shrugged. However the patient found a way to deal with their stress in a healthy manner would be beneficial. That wasn’t her area to decide on treatment.

Lt. Cmdr. Kane, AMO

“True,” Brad said. “Thank you, Dr. Kane, I have some news to deliver,” Brad said, transferring the results onto a PaDD and heading across the ward to the private rooms where Dira should be just about ready to wake up.

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

The sedative had been wearing off for a little while now and Dira was slowly coming to. She was aware of the people in the vicinity and if she focused for a moment, their thoughts could be quite loud. But she wasn’t awake enough to raise her mental shields fully, so settled on letting the voices be background noise. A social hum, if you will.

Captain Myqian, CO