Posted by Lieutenant Allison Scott (CMO) in Medical Preparedness Drill for the XO

Posted by Commander Balfor Kolar (XO/CSO) in Medical Preparedness Drill for the XO

Posted by Lieutenant Allison Scott (CMO) in Medical Preparedness Drill for the XO
Posted by… suppressed (21) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Allison Scott looked at her watch. She had sent a memorandum out several weeks ago to random crew members about the emergency preparedness medical drill. On the Ogawa, they had performed these drills a few times but every port was a medical emergency and no one tended to be shooting at them. On the Saracen, they had red alert drills for when people were shooting at them but never casualty drills. This was the perfect combination of both and would give her staff a chance to see her not as the “other doctor” but as the medical chief.

The alarm dinged on her watch and Ally hit the pre-recorded message programmed into the ship.

=/\=Commander Balfor Kolar =/\= The artificial voice piped through his comm badge. It carried the slightly up beat voice of a woman. =/\=The Emergency Preparedness Drill is now commencing. You have been assigned Alice in Wonderland syndrome. Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS) is a rare condition that disrupts your brain’s ability to process sensory input. The disruption affects how you perceive the size of things you see around you, the feel or look of your own body, or both. It can also distort your sense of reality. There are many ways this condition can present itself but ultimately yours will be found out to be the onset of Influenza

It was out of character for Kolar to display irritation so he didn’t. Even without a witness he just blinked once firmly. He took a deep breath. A good drill was good preparation for an actual emergency.

To make this as realistic as possible, a list of symptoms for you to report are included below. You may experience:

1. Disturbances in self-perception. People with this have trouble correctly perceiving the size and feel of their own body (either the whole body or just specific parts). It also changes your sense of reality, your ability to feel connected to your body and your emotions, and the passage of time.

2. Disturbances in visual processing. This affects how your brain processes what you see around you such as
   -Changes in size. (Objects may appear larger (macropsia) or smaller (micropsia) than they actually are.)
   -Changes in distance. Objects may appear closer (pelopsia) or farther away (teleopsia) than they actually are.
   -Changes in both size and distance. Objects may appear smaller and seem to be moving farther away (porropsia).
   -People appearing smaller than they actually are. This is known as Lilliputianism (pronounced “lil-ip-yew-shun-ism”). This -gets its name from the fictional, tiny residents of the island of Lilliput from the 1726 fantasy novel “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift.
   -Changes in object appearance. Objects can appear distorted. Straight lines can look wavy or squiggly. Lines that are level vertically or horizontally can look skewed or slanted.

3. Combined symptoms. This is when you experience symptoms that affect both your self-perception and visual processing.

At the sound of the tone, please call the medical staff and report your injury. Thank you in advance for your time=/\=

Ally Scott CMO

OOC: Ooooh I’m really excited to see how this plays out!!!!

Captain Daniel “DaVinci” Colter
CO/CIO USS Saracen
-
Forcing himself to get fully into character he reached slowly for his comm badge as if he thought it might move.

=^=Balfor to sickbay,=^= He started then paused.

=/\=Sickbay=/\= Ally responded in a chipper tone.

=^=I’d like to report… that is to say, that my left arm has swollen to approximately 50% larger than its typical mass.=^=

Ally recognized the voice but the statement left her with many questions. The XO didn’t seem like the type to drink but the quiet and reserved ones typically were. =/\=Like just the arm or has the swelling gone to your chest?=/\=

=^=If it wouldn’t be difficult, I don’t want to be crass, could a medical officer attend to me, Damn it doctor, move your…=^= he disconnected the line. Moving to the mirror he stared at it as he would suspect someone who was having perception difficulties would.

Kolar

Ally looked at the doctors in the next room. She could send someone else but the XO seemed to be rather irritated and there were few reasons one’s body swelled up. Not bothering to reply, she took off to the XO’s location. Two minutes later, Ally rang the door chime and waited to be let in.

Ally Scott CMO

“Enter, please on the double,” Kolar turned to face the entrance and lifted his arm that didn’t seem 50% larger than the other. Twisting it back and forth so she could get a good look at it. “This looks bad to me, am I in trouble?” He questioned the doctor.

Kolar

Ally entered the room in a brisk pace but slowed considerably as she closed the space between her and the XO. “I don’t know,” she stated in”How does it look to me,” Balfor stated as if Ally was a first year, wet behind the ears med student. “My arm looks like it is a balloon,” he held it out for Ally to get a better look but if she could not see the differenc in the size then the good doctor needed old timey glasses.

Kolar XO a inquisitive and slightly confused tone. Every medical drill she had been on had been highly elaborate and given her immediate clues to what was happening. The science chief had been unable to bear weight on a leg and the CE was covered in goo with visible burns. The XO looked fit as a fiddle. “How bad does it look to you?” The way he was moving his arm indicated the issue that was there but it could have been anything from his arm to his shoulder.

Scott CMO

“How does it look to me, Do you think I’m a buffoon?” Balfor stated as if Ally was a first year, wet behind the ears med student. “My arm looks like it is the size of a balloon,” he held it out for Ally to get a better look but if she could not see the difference in the size then the good doctor needed old timey glasses.

Kolar XO

Ally had been running drills for the past month. They had run from broken bones to levodian flu. This one was far more perplexing. Her instructors at the academy were always lecturing about not jumping to exotic diagnosis when there tended to be a far more simple one. Right now the term seeing pink elephants came to mind. The phrase “seeing pink elephants” was a euphemism for hallucinations caused by heavy drinking or the use of narcotics. Kolar did not seem like the type to imbibe but none of this made any sense. Pulling out her tricorder, Ally scanned his arm and nothing came up out of the ordinary. Kolar was clearly upset about his arm so Ally focused on bedside manner instead of traditional medicine.

“Of course not but your uniform shirt can hide things at times. Would you mind removing it?”

Ally watched as the XO took off his shirt more evaluating his motor movements over any injury.

Scott CMO

Balfor pulled his shirt off cleanly in one swift motion over his head. He held his hand out and yanked harder to get the fabric down over his swollen arm. He stared as he pulled. He felt the friction from dragging the oversized arm through the normal sized sleeve.

Surprisingly it did not hurt in the least. This perplexed him some given the size of the appendage. Logic would dictate that it would hurt or at least be stiff given the amount of swelling but it seemed to just slip off his arm. Looking down at his bicep, Kolar let out a frustrated sigh. Standard uniform was the colored shirt with a black t-shirt or tank underneath. Today he wished he was wearing the tank since the black t-shirt was stretched to capacity around his bicep. He wasn’t a vain man but the last thing he wanted was to be prancing around shirtless in front of a junior officer. “Do you want me to take the t-shirt off too?”

Kolar was surprisingly muscled for someone who held three doctorates and virtually no honors in physical or athletic endevors.

Kolar XO

Kolar was very well built and his question caught Ally off guard. “Um yes,” she replied before stammering out, “no.” It was uncommon for Ally to get flustered but it was also uncommon to see your XO looking very un-XO like stripping off his shirt and asking about removing more clothes. “No,” she shook her head as if to clear it before focusing back on him as a doctor. “That won’t be necessary for now.” Ally focused all her attention on his arm. After inspecting it for several moments, she looked up at him.

“So what were you doing before you noticed the issue with your arm? Were you in the gym or maybe the lounge?” There was absolutely nothing wrong with his arm. The XO’s system was scanning clear of drugs and booze but he was acting like he was under the influence.

Scott CMO

If this was not a drill, Kolar might not find the situation as amusing. Since it was a drill, he could find some humor in it. It was not often a junior officer stood before the XO gently probing one’s sobriety. “Are you accusing your XO of being drunk and delusional Lieutenant,” he asked. He waved his ‘normal’ arm at her.... “You see this right?”

Kolar XO

“Of course not. You are the XO. You would never drink on duty nor has any XO in the history of the Federation or the ancient US Navy.” Ally had a tone in her voice that made it clear it was lip service.

Kolar almost smirked, she actually was pretty funny in a sarcastic way. “Miss Scott is sarcasm a regular part of your bedside manner or am I receiving specialized treatment?” Few things or people outwardly amused Kolar. Dr. Knight stated that Dr. Scott would fit in perfectly when she found her feet. The doc seemed to be standing just fine but it was her mouth and wit that was developing from nervous lieutenant about the job to spunky medical chief that was not afraid to piss off a superior officer in the line of medical treatment.

“Part of the regular package,” Ally shot back without missing a beat. “Rank means nothing to me when you come into Sickbay. If you are near death you get the Florence Nightingale package; however, you are far from death’s door.”

“Okay hands out to the side and walk across the room with her heel to your toe please.” The XO was not really drunk but this was a drill and so far, all the signs were pointing to drugs or booze. Drugs tended to cause more erratic behavior and alcohol tended to make males ten-foot tall and bulletproof or exceedingly charming. Kolar had called very brusquely, and Ally could not deny the XO was charming. He had a smile that seemed to be always hidden and seemed to have a solid sense of humor evidenced by their first meeting. Ally wasn’t sure how he was going to take the heel toe walking request, but she was the CMO and this was a medical exam.

Ally Scott CMO

Kolar looked at his CMO and cocked his head to the side in a slightly humorous expression as he processed her request. The direction on his diagnosis was Alice in Wonderland Syndrome not Drunken disorderly. He had been in command long enough to know that the only way junior officers learned was through trial and error. Still the sobriety walking test was rigged in the sense only a ninja could maintain perfect balance heel toeing it across ten feet. “A field sobriety test, and an old one.”

Still, it took some chutzpah to pursue this wrong fork in the road of his diagnosis. His diagnosis stated abnormally large limbs so this probably meant if he had the disorder he would not be able to do what she asked anyway. “Dr. Scott,” Kolar assumed the position but leaned and bobbled as if trying to balance an oversized arm on one side of his body and an oversized leg on the other side of his body. “I can assure you I am not under the influence but I can be a good sport about this.”

Kolar XO

“Excellent. So let me see that fancy foot work. Get to steppin’, ” she repeated.

Ally Scott CMO

Kolar rolled his eyes. Heel to toe as he thought previously was a virtually impossible task for any protracted period of time, but he did it as well as many, and better than most. It was almost surprising how dexterous Kolar actually was a secret from his former dancing background. Completing the heel to toe exercise he raised both eyebrows at Scott. The thrusting his ‘non’ bulbous arm at the Doctor. “See that has done nothing to make my arm normal size.”

Kolar

Ally watched Kolar heel toeing it across the floor. She had expected him to lumber about and yet he moved across the floor with the dexterity of a dancer rather than that of a drunk. Her eyes drifted over his body fascinated at how well he accomplished the task. As her eyes drifted up she noticed the raised eyebrows. Clearing her throat, Ally crossed her arms over her chest and blinked a few times. “Okay so you seem to not be drunk.”

“That is your professional opinion?” he let out a small laugh. “A tricorder scan is infinitely more effective, accurate and admissible in a court-marshal, which your field sobriety test would likely not be.”

“Court-martial,” she looked up at him wrinkling her nose. “The last thing I would ever do is court-martial someone for disorderly conduct or tell the boss someone was drinking on the job. If we did that none of us would have graduated from the academy. I tend to list it as indigestion.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Ally realized she was mistaking who she was talking to and letting out professional secrets. Opening her mouth, she kept the posture as she replayed the conversation thinking about ways to put a different spin on it.

“On duty?” He would have sounded incredulous if he could.

Putting her hands on her hips she gave him that look all men knew. It was first given by a mother and then all somehow all women mastered giving it to men regardless of what their relationship status was: friends, lovers, wives, ex’es. “Who hasn’t had a real pain in the rump boss who rides you day and night for things you have no control over and sometimes you just need to drink and get a little rowdy.”

“Not on duty. Never.” Well, it was clear that Kolar was not the party type. She didn’t know it yet, but Kolar’s going out was his ceremonial prayer robes. When he got really wild, he wore his white robes instead of the orange red that were the most common variety.

“I have never been disorderly in my career.” Her overly candid answer piqued his interest. “I will have to translate your medical reports using this code. The only redeeming part of this information is that I will be able to tell the engineers that cases of food poisoning or upset stomachs have nothing to do with the replicators.” At first Kolar was slightly irritated at the thought of a surprise medical drill. He understood the need for it but that didn’t mean he wanted to participate in it. Now he was having a different perspective. He was learning a lot about his new medical chief and some of it he didn’t like. He could accept and even see the value of her laissez-faire approach to the over-regulation of Star-Fleet, but drinking on duty was a bridge too far for him.

“What I meant to say is,” she paused again and then just shrugged. “Nope, I stand by my statement. Any ship is filled with a lot of kids just out of high school. Most of them are non-coms and tend to blow off steam or homesickness with booze. I have found a referral to counseling and dealing with a hang over a far better remedy than a come to Jesus meeting with the CO or XO.” Ally did not think her approach was ever clandestine enough for the bosses of a ship to miss. CO’s and XO’s tended to be highly intuitive about their crew.

Ally stood there waiting for some sort of response knowing Kolar, as XO, probably wanted to address it.

” You know part of being a doctor is taking a patient history, and you seem hell bent to not believe a word I say about spending time with the bottle.” His words held a hint of amusement and humor. In some ways it was like playing charades with only one person knowing what the theme was and enjoying the other person figuring it out.

“Fair enough,” he responded. Ally was not wrong in that the youngest members of the crew tended to be under twenty years and with far less responsibility than officers. Many of them had never left home probably before joining up. It wasn’t a bad policy as long as it didn’t happen too often. “The difference being I am off duty and having a drink is not something I would deny in the midst of a medical emergency.”

“Have you been having any fits or muscle twitches in your arm?” Ally began to intently re-examine his ‘good’ arm which for Kolar was not the overly large one. Her fingertips lightly traced his forearm almost to the point of being ticklish if Kolar was the type to feel ticklish.

“No and it’s the other arm doc,” he nodded with his head to the other arm as if trying to give her a hint.

Letting go of his arm she pulled out a tricorder and began to scan his forehead. “Do flashing lights put you into a trance or make you feel wonky?” At times epilepsy could make people have false perceptions of things right before they had a seizure. Looking him up and down, Ally began to size up the probability of being able to support Kolar if he fell over from a seizure if it was epilepsy. The odds of Kolar having an unknown seizure disorder were slim to none however, although rare, people could develop epilepsy later in life. Kolar had had a hard life for a time so it was not that out of the question.

Ally Scott CMO

“If you are talking about going to a club with the mind numbing thumping and flashing lights so that you waffle between half blind and spots than yes. I avoid them at all costs. I am also not a cadet so the local watering holes for me are more subdued. If you are taking about the flashing of emergency lights or an odd intense sequence that can trigger seizures in some, then that is a solid negative.”

Kolar XO

Ally looked almost sad by his response. “Well that is not good,” she let out a long breath of air. Glancing down at her tricorder her expression became more quizzical. “Are you having problems with your vision? Your occipital lobe seems to be wonky.”

Ally Scott CMO

“Wonky,” he tilted his head. “Is that your professional opinion?” He paused, “On a scale of one to ten, how concerned should I be with a diagnosis of wonky?”

“I am also not sure what you mean by visual processing. If you mean one of my arms is insanely inflated like a balloon compared to the other than yes but nothing else seems…wonky.”

Kolar

“So you are telling me one arm looks different from the other?” This was a fact the XO already stated but since drugs or alcohol had been ruled out, Ally was having start from scratch. All the other drill conditions were symptoms of inclusion. Kolar was going to be a diagnosis of exclusion.

“If it didn’t I would not have called you down here.” Balfor had a slight hint of sarcasm to his tone but it was not negative in any way.

“Does anything on me look bigger?” Standing with her arms held out she waited for the XO to give her the once-over however she did have the tricorder pointed at him during the request.

Scott CMO

Kolar blinked at her for a moment. No one would ever mistake him for a ladies man but even he knew that you didn’t comment on a woman’s appearance. “Well that is a loaded question, but no.”

Kolar XO