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no_fastolfe[Vasilia's bundled up in a robe; her face is waxy-pale with heat-reddened cheeks; she's reached the point where she's stopped sweating. She is having obvious difficulty breathing]
This is becoming intolerable.
For the last three days I have said nothing, assuming that the basic decency of our captors would see this rectified. I have no more patience!
Why does nobody else noticed the increased gravitational pull? Why hasn't this been corrected? Are the life support systems malfunctioning? It would explain how inhumanely cold it is. The food's quality is steeply declining day by day; it offers neither savor (which I hardly expect!) or the nutritional content to provide basic energy. This is-
[She breaks off into a wet cough, diving offscreen to muffle it in something that she can burn later. Phlegm. Disgusting.]
How can I fail to mention the quality of the air! Some large molecular contaminant-- pollution from poorly maintained equipment, I can only assume-- is making breathing more and more of a labor. I could tolerate it, perhaps, if these beds could provide restful sleep, but they do not!
The rest of you may ignore this campaign to weaken and exhaust the inmates of the vessel, but I demand better treatment.
This is becoming intolerable.
For the last three days I have said nothing, assuming that the basic decency of our captors would see this rectified. I have no more patience!
Why does nobody else noticed the increased gravitational pull? Why hasn't this been corrected? Are the life support systems malfunctioning? It would explain how inhumanely cold it is. The food's quality is steeply declining day by day; it offers neither savor (which I hardly expect!) or the nutritional content to provide basic energy. This is-
[She breaks off into a wet cough, diving offscreen to muffle it in something that she can burn later. Phlegm. Disgusting.]
How can I fail to mention the quality of the air! Some large molecular contaminant-- pollution from poorly maintained equipment, I can only assume-- is making breathing more and more of a labor. I could tolerate it, perhaps, if these beds could provide restful sleep, but they do not!
The rest of you may ignore this campaign to weaken and exhaust the inmates of the vessel, but I demand better treatment.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-13 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-13 08:10 pm (UTC)I would prefer that.
Thank you.
[The last two words might as well have been dragged out of her with pliers.]
Please give me a moment to prepare. I will need my gloves.
Spam?
Date: 2011-08-13 09:09 pm (UTC)Spam!
Date: 2011-08-13 09:58 pm (UTC)Private--->Spam
Date: 2011-08-13 11:12 pm (UTC)[And twenty minutes later, Martha came to her room carrying her medical bag and a picnic basket as well.]
Private--->Spam
Date: 2011-08-13 11:16 pm (UTC)She called the door to open when she heard the chime of a visitor, but did not move. She ached, a physical muscular pain she could not have imagined as the consequence of infection.
"I am here."
Private--->Spam
Date: 2011-08-13 11:50 pm (UTC)With a little smile, Martha walked over to the woman, but she didn't extend her hand as she normally would. The last thing that Martha wanted to do to an immunocompromised person was compromise their immune system even further.
"Hello, Vasilia. I'm Martha, I'm going to try and help you, alright. I'm going to run this scanner over you, to tell me what you've got going. It won't hurt, I promise."
[OOC: Just lemme know what the scanner says.]
Private--->Spam
Date: 2011-08-13 11:58 pm (UTC)"I have seen medical scanners before, thank you," she said, not as bitingly as she might have. What had she come to when simply talking-- engaging in a few brisk arguments, the heat of which had at first energized and then exhausted her-- could beat her down? Was this illness? Why did Earthers go on if this was to ambush them at any time?
"I am not sure where I contracted this," she said, trying to seem less of a helpless mass, "but perhaps it was the shower. I have not been eating; little point. Body won't accept it."
She had vomited for the first time in her adult life, yesterday morning, and the experience had been vile and horrifying.
[OOC: Raging fever, 104-105 F. Severe dehydration, secondary infection settled pretty productively into her lungs. Not quite to a major system failure but would be within the next few days.
If the scanner is likely to pick it up: She also has an artificial hip and some minor surgeries around her wrists, and the wear on her cartilage says that she's much older than she looks]
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 12:31 am (UTC)"You're probably going to be dehydrated then, at the very least." Martha's voice was soft, and her eyes went wide when she saw the readings on the scanner. Really, she needed to get the woman into the infirmary.
"Vasilia, we really need to get you to the infirmary. You're extremely ill, and we'll put you into a sort of clean room so that the air is filtered. You need round the clock care. At the moment you have an extremely high fever, and you're dehydrated. We need to get you some serious treatment."
Already she was rummaging into her bag, pulling out two ice packs. Fevers that high were likely to boil her brain in her skull. A little bit more of rummaging, and Martha took out an IV kit.
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 12:35 am (UTC)It was nearly a whine. Perhaps not even nearly; Vasilia could hear how pathetic it sounded, and scowled.
"If I must," she said, as if she hadn't protested, and made to sit up; an easy motion that should not have left her head spinning. "--I'm cold, surely I don't have a fever-"
Yet even as she said it the basics of thermal transmission suggested themselves to her. Of course; her skin was burning and nearly anything she touched would leech heat from her at a higher rate. She had only worsened her symptoms, she realized, by wrapping herself in insulating layers-- but she was so achingly cold!
Her eyes widened at the kit. Old technology. "Will there be a needle?"
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 02:19 am (UTC)Gloves were quickly pulled on, and Martha swabbed the woman's arm with an iodine swab. Normally it would just be an alcohol wipe, but with Vasilia's immune system she didn't dare.
"Yes, I'm afraid there will be. But it'll only hurt for a second; it'll be like a large pinch, and then we'll start pumping fluids and antibiotics into you. They'll help you feel better."
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 02:27 am (UTC)"I understand." She felt as foolish as she had since she was young and made her great misstep. Now she was at the mercy of another-- an Earther, who treated this sickness as something known and conquerable, and not as the great unknown fear it was to her. Oh, it galled.
She shuddered as the icepacks pressed into her skin, the chill of them sharp and harsh, but held still and shut her eyes. Her gasp turned into a fit of coughing that she tried to still as quickly as possible.
"I defer to your expertise, madam doctor," she said, turning her arm to present the swabbed skin more conveniently.
Spam (hoping the IV bit is okay. IF it's not yell at me and I'll fix it.)
Date: 2011-08-14 03:05 am (UTC)Martha traced her finger over Vasilia's hand until she found a vein, and then she moved in with the middle. "It's going to be a big pinch. I'm sorry." Warning now, and then Martha slid the needle into her skin, and then secured the tubing, removing the needle.
Spam (Nope! All good)
Date: 2011-08-14 03:13 am (UTC)But still pain. Vasilia released her held breath once it was over, a slight hitch in her exhale. She was miserable, but had at least enough self control not to show it-- to a great extent. She blinked and opened her eyes once the tubing was secure, but did not look down to see the tubing protruding rom her skin.
"I wonder how often I will have to repeat this," she said dully. "I have used every precaution available to me; nose plugs, face mask, gloves. But I cannot use them everywhere. And it was, in the end, not enough."
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 03:23 am (UTC)As she was explaining, Martha's hands were in her bag again, gloves off, antibiotics in, then more gloves before she touched her patient's skin again. At the dull tone, Martha placed a reassuring hand on the patient's arm, and then she spoke softly, but kindly.
"Well, we'll put you on broad spectrum antibiotics which should help any new infections from forming once we take care of this bug. Then there are other precautions that we can help you take. Do you have a warden assigned yet?" Martha didn't think so, but that was beside the point.
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 03:35 am (UTC)She was not often touched, not by humans. Not even by her household robots, who she would have more easily permitted the necessity.
It was not so unpleasant, beneath the glove. Though she felt-- she would always feel-- that those who she must interact with had a hidden agenda, there was an unfamiliar kindness to the handsome Earth doctor. She was not sure she liked the feeling of dependency-- or, the willingness to depend.
Vasilia swayed slightly; dizzy again. Now she realized that it must be the fever that had destroyed her equilibrium. She had attributed to a faulty gravitational system before.
"If I have a warden, I have not been notified."
[OOC: She and Sherlock (BBC version) are paired but it hasn't been announced yet so not sure what to do about that?]
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 03:55 am (UTC)Martha was very good at talking while she was working, and for a moment, she just used the scanner again. "I'm going to give you medicine that should help lower the fever. It's just Tylenol, but it should help bring it down to a safer level." Martha removed the cold packs now, and she studied the woman for a moment.
"Do you feel as though you're going to vomit? I can give you something to help with that as well." Martha's fingers rested on the inside of the woman's other wrist now, taking the pulse there.
"I'm going to request that the Admiral put in some sort of filtering for your room for a little while, until we can figure out things that work for you. Normally it would be your warden who would do it, but any warden will do before you're assigned. Now, I'd like to get you to the infirmary, alright. We'll put a mask on you so that you don't become exposed to anything else in the meantime."
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 03:59 am (UTC)She wet her parched lips with an equally parched, strangely coated tongue. "I do not think that I will vomit, but I will not be able to walk very quickly. My apologies. There is still muscular pain. Is that normal?"
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 04:50 am (UTC)"I have a stretcher. If you're feeling dizzy or in pain, it would probably serve you better to go on that then walk. I don't want you to fall or hurt yourself in some way." Sometimes having a wizard for a husband was a very good thing; it meant that you could get him to enchant you things like stretchers so they hovered and only needed guidance.
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 04:54 am (UTC)She was beginning to feel less lightheaded; whether it was the fluids being introduced to her body or simply the relief that the pain would not be interminable and that there was a cure for her distress, she could not say with any certainty.
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 05:55 am (UTC)"They're not there for restraints, not in the common way, anyway. They won't lock, they're just so you don't fall off. I've fallen off one of these before, and it wasn't very pretty."
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 05:58 am (UTC)"Shall I lay down?"
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 02:46 pm (UTC)After a moment, she pulled out a surgical mask in a sterile wrapping and handed it to the woman. "Here, so we don't pick up anything else on the way."
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 05:43 pm (UTC)"I am rather tired. Do you need me to be awake?"
Spam
Date: 2011-08-14 08:01 pm (UTC)Spam
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