Old Wounds Pt.2

Posted on Sun Jun 20th, 2021 @ 7:53am by Lieutenant Chester "Duo" Maxwell

Mission: Gamma Quadrant
Location: Deck 2, Lt. Maxwell's Quarters and Deck 4, Sickbay
Timeline: Current

Deck 2, Lt. Maxwell's Quarters

Duo pushed himself off the couch and manged to get on his feet. It was a mistake to try and move so soon. As he stood and tried to take a step, his foot caught the leg of the table causing him to fall forward over the table knocking himself and the bottle of kanar on the ground. It knocked the wind out of him, and made his hip hurt worse, if that was even possible. There was no way he was going to be able to pick himself up in the state he was in.

=/\=Maxwell to Transporter Room 2...I need a site to site transport to Sickbay. Authorization, Maxwell Theta Pi three.=/\=

=/\=Transporter Room 2, acknowledged.=/\=

Deck 4, Sickbay

Ensign Valentyna Shevchenko has the only medical personnel assigned to Sickbay during Gamma shift. She was sitting in the office, looking over the previous day's sick and hurt log when she heard a transport into Sickbay.

(Who is this beaming into Sickbay so late at night?) She picked her tricorder off the desk and walked into the main section to see a man laying on the examination table. She approached him. He was conscious and looking at her.

"What seems to be the problem, Lieutenant?" As she spoke, he looked at the vitals display on the biobed monitor.

"I tripped over my own two feet in my quarters." Duo answered. His face turning red with embarrassment.

From the display she could see that his pulse and blood pressure were elevated, most likely and indication of moderate to severe pain. "Uh, huh." She took out her tricorder and started scanning him from head to toe. "Did you hit your head?"

"No. But my hip is killing me. It's an old war wound." He moved his hand over the left side of his hip. "I just need a hypo and I'll be ok." He started to sit up. Nurse Shevchenko put her hand firmly on his chest and pushed him back down onto the bed.

"I don't think so, Lieutenant. I may be just a lowly Ensign, but in here I make the rules. Now lie down and don't try to get up again until I tell you too."

"Aye, aye, Ma'am." Duo said sheepishly, but he complied.

Valentyna ran the tricorder over him again. She could see severe inflammation in his left pelvis. And she could see elevated levels of Aldehyde dehydrogenases, the enzymes that break down alcohol in the liver.

"Ok, lets deal with the inflammation first. I'll get you an analgesic. Wait here." She turned to the waiting tray next to the exam bed and started to load a hypospray.

The pain was making it hard for Duo to concentrate. He looked up at her loading the hypo. "Triptacederine." He said.

She stopped and looked at him. "I beg your pardon?"

"Triptacederine, 5 ccs. I have a prescription for it for when this happens."

She looked him in the eyes. She could see he was in a great deal of pain. "I'm going to need to check your records, that's a powerful drug. Don't go anywhere." He normally would have laughed at the joke, but he couldn't muster one.

She left him on the exam table and went back to the office and pulled up his records. Sure enough, he was approved for 5 ccs of Triptacederine when his hip became inflamed. She walked over to a medical replicator and replicated the drug, then brought it back to him. She loaded it up quickly and pressed it to his neck.

The effects of the medicine were potent and immediate. He took a deep breath as the pain dissipated. His mind cleared, somewhat. He still had some kanar left clouding his mind.

She looked at him and asked, "Does this happen often? Your hip becoming inflamed?"

"Not recently. It's been about a year since it happened last. The combat drill probably had something do do with it."
He started to sit up again.

"Not so fast. There is something I want to take a look at first, before I discharge you." She pressed a few commands on the exam bed controls and the scanner closed around him. She targeted the area of his hip where the inflammation had been.

"Your records show that you were shot with a Jem'Hadar weapon causing this wound, correct?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"I take it that you didn't get back to a starbase for some time after it happened?"

"Let's just say there weren't any starbase medical facilities for about five light years. Just me, a bombed out city, a second rate med kit and a few hundred pissed off Jem'Hadar."

The scans she took revealed that the pelvis where he had been shot had begun growing bone spurs, the most likely cause of the inflammation. "I think you are going to need surgery."

"What!?"

"Don't worry. It will be minor. Doctor Wilson can have you in and out in a few hours."

"This isn't the best time for surgery, Ensign."

"Your pelvis is growing bone spurs like Tellarite quartz. If you don't, these episodes will keep happening, and they will get worse. Come back in the morning and see Doctor Wilson. I will put a note on her schedule."

Duo sighed. This Ensign was one tough blue collar. "Fine. I'll come see her, first thing. Can I go now?"

She disengaged the scanner. "Sit up please." He complied. She took another hypospray and changed the vial in it and pressed it to his neck.

"What was that?"

"A dose of Hydrocortilene."

"And what's that do?"

"It will help counteract the effects of the 'medication' you prescribed yourself tonight."

Duo hung his head in shame. He didn't say anything.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much Lieutenant. You aren't the first vet to self-medicate. But from now on, let's leave it to the professionals, OK?"

He looked up at her. She had pretty eyes. He could see the compassion in them. "Understood. And thank you Ensign."

He slid off the table and walked out of Sickbay under his own power. He had just enough time to get back to his bed and catch a few hours of sleep before his shift started.