Posted by Lieutenant Commander T’Aria (XO / Navigation Officer) in Sickbay – Kastarak’s simple ailments clinic day (anyone may join!)

Posted by Ensign Kastarak (Doctor) in Sickbay – Kastarak’s simple ailments clinic day (anyone may join!)
OOC/TLDR: Basically Kastarak is playing a local GP, dealing with the little issues. Feel free to join in, all patients welcome!

Today was a good day in Sickbay. Due to a Starfleet nursing conference, for which all nurses had been given a leave of absence and the physicians and medics agreeing to take on some extra nursing duties during the time, Kastarak and Symar had planned for a good staffing situation during today, and for the next few days.

However, the conference, scheduled to be held on a distant Federation monarchy planet, was cancelled due to the death of the local monarch, and the planet was placed in mourning. As such, the nurses stayed on. This meant that Sickbay today, and for the next few days, would actually be on 150% capacity!

For everyone except the two resident Vulcans, it was a delightful time. Plenty of time for staff to socialize in between patient visits. There was laughter and smiles among the coworkers (again, excepting the two Vulcans working there), and it was almost, Kastarak mused, as if he had returned to his rural clinic back on Vulcan (minus the smiles and laughter, of course).

Because of this strange over-staffing situation, there was more time to deal with the crew’s more simple, yet perhaps annoying, ailments. Now was the time to cure it all. Bad sleep? That slight tension?

Kastarak was the on-call physician for today’s morning shift.

The door to his office chimed, and his first patient appeared.

– Ensign Kastarak (Doctor)

Kastarak’s doors parted with a metallic shriek, exposing a lithe figure adorned in command gold.

T’Aria stood with tousled hair and restless creases that tormented her tunic and trousers. Her eyes, half-lidded and sunken, drifted to Kastarak. “Doctor,” she lifted an ashen hand touched by irritated green blotches, “am I interrupting you?” She advanced with an awkwardness that exposed the fatigue in her voice and the dull ache attacking every fibre of her being. But even the ache was no match for the throbbing sensation in her temples.

“Not at all,” replied Kastarak, standing up as he greeted her. “Come in, sit down. What is the reason of your visit?”

Was this what humans endured every winter?

“I awoke with mild rhinorrhea,” her nose and cheeks were flushed with rubbing, “and a negligible fever. Naturally, I assumed it was a product of my dander allergy, but the antihistamine did little to soothe it.” She pinched her eyes shut to quell the prickling pain in her neck… and the sneaking suspicion that her visit with Crewman Hidalgo had wished this upon her. Why were human illnesses so virulent?

“I believe I contracted a rhinovirus,” T’Aria observed. Her training bestowed an acute awareness of the ailment, but T’Aria could not recall a time she treated it from a patient perspective. She often found herself conducting brief examinations only to prescribe mild anti-inflammatories, rest and honey or ginger-infused tea. Never had she expected that she would be the patient. Fighting a yawn, T’Aria added, “do you have time to confirm?”

— T’Aria

Kastarak listened carefully to T’Aria. Her self-described symptoms were rhinorrhoea and a mild fever. At the same time, T’Aria appeared fatigued.

“Of course,” he replied to her question. “Are you in pain? If so, where?”

He then picked up his medical tricorder and pointed it in her direction. “I wish to measure your temperature. Do you consent?”

“I would also like to test your hypothesis that your ailment is virulent and not a cause of allergy. Another possibility is a bacterial infection. I wish to take a sample of your mucus. You may blow your nose on this cloth.” He handed over a sterile cloth to T’Aria. “Do you consent?”

Kastarak took a deep breath, something he would almost always do before needing to ask something that was private. In Vulcan culture, privacy was highly guarded, and there was always a hesitation before Kastarak would ask a private question, even if logic dictated that he needed to ask them, as in this situation.

“You have described your symptoms adequately. You have not, however, described the presence or lack of any neurological or neuropsychological symptoms. State whether you exhibit such symptoms, and if so, describe them.”

– Ensign Kastarak (physician)