The Very First Exam - Part II

Posted on Sun Mar 31st, 2024 @ 3:43am by Lieutenant Minerva Zephyrin & Lieutenant Commander Sakaan

1,164 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Season 1, Episode 0: "A Time To Heal"
Location: Medical Centre, Deck 16, USS Yorktown

[Previously]

'Nudity does not discomfort me,' Sakaan stated flatly as she followed the younger doctor through to the enclosed room. 'This does seem different from a standard Starfleet set-up,' she observed, looking around the small enclosed space. 'Usually when I'm being medically evaluated it's done by tricorder and bio-bed unless it's out on the frontiers.'

[And now the continuation ...]

"And that's usually all well and good." Minerva remarked as she plucked a tricorder out and placed it on the table next to the bag she pulled it out of before withdrawing the stethoscope from the same and wrapping it around her neck, "But I don't like relying solely on scanners and the all-up technology. It's impersonal and what if we're in some place where the technology isn't up to our standards? What if the tricorder you take with you goes down? I prefer to hedge on the 'what-ifs' than end up twiddling my thumbs as someone is dying in front of me when the tech support is gone." She huffed a couple of breaths onto the pad of the stethoscope even as she put in the earpieces and moved behind Sakaan, "Just breathe normally for me for several seconds, then a few deep breathes, please." She knew that Vulcans had much more lung capacity than humans due to Vulcan's thinner atmosphere.

A logical outlook, Sakaan thought as she breathed in deeply. Pleating her fingers in her lap, she concentrated on the breath, breathing in and out in deep, easy rhythm. A simple meditation technique taught to Vulcans at an early age as a first step on the long road to controlling their raging emotions and, eventually, achieving Kolinahr. Not that I ever will, she observed as she felt the warming pad of the stethoscope travel around her ribcage as the doctor placed it here and there.

Minerva finally settled the pad of the stethoscope over a spot in the lower abdomen and closed her eyes as she tapped a constant rhythm on her leg with her fingers for about twenty seconds before removing the scope from Sakaan and the draped it around her neck, "Two-fifty roughly in heartrate, not hearing anything unusual in the breathing, so I can give you a pass there." Minerva rubbed her hands together for a few seconds to warm them up before reaching up to feel around the jawline, then worked along the neck before branching off onto the right arm, lifting it as her delicate fingers ran down it palpating as she felt for something wrong, noting somewhat crude stitches, then stopped as something about midway down the ulna caught her attention. She felt it over again, checking the Vulcan's face for signs of pain, then repeated it for the radius which had the same ridge she'd felt on the ulna, before moving down to the wrist, rotating it around as she felt for any internal bone rubbing and rightly so, because the 'willing' rotation was shorter than she desired, while feeling the resistance from minor 'crunching', "I'm concerned about how your forearm healed a bit on initial examination. I'll do a deeper look at it when I scan you... Also, how long has this wrist been bothering you for?"

Not expecting the question in the middle of her reverie - she found the gentle probing to be relaxing - Sakaan had to think a moment. 'I think I injured it in ... eighty-seven. Eighty-six maybe.' She remembered vividly the hurried extraction from her Romulan deep-cover mission, escaping pursuing Tal Shiar. An awkward tumble off a short drop resulted in a fracture that had never healed properly. She shrugged, 'hazards of my duties.'

“Well, we are going to get a good series of scans of it today, along with that old break of your arm and I’m going to take a detail look at it to see what I can do to help.” Minerva stated cheerily, moving on to the other arm, finding more scars and bad stitchery. She moved onto the neck, chest and ribs, using the backs of her hands on the chest, so as to not seem to be groping Sakaan, but noting ridges on the ribs and clavicle. She pressed in on the stomach area, which was firm but palpable, always a good sign of a lack of internal bleeding or organ deformation, then crouched as she moved onto the legs. “Who has been your primary care physician?” She asked, looking up at Sakaan’s face as she rotated an ankle, not enough for full mobility, then using her fingers to try to identify what may be going wrong, or at least roughly where.

'Whoever has been on hand to conduct medical care, usually, latterly it has been Starfleet Medical.' Sakaan stated. 'My injuries have healed to an acceptable standard, and do not hinder my work. As such, I've not felt the need to pursue further treatment or correction of the results of my fieldwork. I take it as my new primary care physician you disagree with the past approach?'

"Indubitably." Minerva said, "Which is why in a couple of days, before we get underway if possible, I'm going to be having you come back in so we can start to repair things properly." She started at the top of the other leg, again palpating to feel everything, this time stopping at the foot when the ankle gave her full mobility, "We don't have to do it all at once, in fact, I'd rather not do it all at once because there's so much to do." She gave a 'Tch' sound as she straightened back up, "Do your fingers and toes feel cold at any time?"

Sakaan held up the arm with the dodgy wrist, 'infrequently on this hand. The grip strength seems fine, however.' She pondered for a moment, then said, 'I will concede this is your are of expertise. However, I'm not looking for cosmetic alterations. Please do not attempt a correction of those. If the work is to be done in stages, where do you recommend we begin?'

"The wrist." Minerva said definitively, picking up the tricorder and beginning a thorough scan of the Vulcan, making several passes from all sides on the wrist in question, the ankle she didn't like the feel of and then where she'd palpated the broken bones that had healed, "Cold fingers tell me that you've probably got some restricted bloodflow to them. I'm going to be reviewing these scans today and tonight to discover what sort of plan of action to take. I don't want to rush things, you see."

'Very well,' Sakaan said, 'I look forward to seeing what you conclude. But I must emphasise. No cosmetic alterations.' She looked Minerva firmly in the eyes to drive home the point. 'The scars have long since healed, and it is unnecessary to alter them.'

[To be Continued ...]

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