After a restless, uncomfortable sleep, Ivanova woke up feeling like she hadn't slept at all. Seeing that Dr. Pevensie was nowhere in sight, she swung her legs off the bed and reached for her cane, trying to make a break for it. If she was distracted, it might be her chance for a quick discharge.
Hearing Ivanova move around in Exam Room #2, Susan came in to check on her. "How did you sleep last night?" She disconnected the EKG leads, and moved the cane out of Ivanova's reach. "You weren't going to leave without telling me. I hope."
Ivanova looked longingly at the cane, now out of reach. "I was going to tell you," she replied defensively. "And I slept poorly. It wasn't the most comfortable of beds. And my ribs were feeling a bit sore."
"And I would have more sympathy for that if you would take your painkillers," Susan said, not unkindly. "Which are right over here, if you want them now." She took a look at the EKG readout, and frowned. "Hmm."
[any idea if anything would show up on this? weird delta waves, weird alpha, hiccups?]
"It means, frustratingly enough, that your brainwaves in sleep look completely normal." Susan sighed. "I'd like to do an MRI on you, if you think you can stand it, Ivanova. After that, if there's no other solid results, I shall have to admit to simply being baffled as to why you were in a four-day sleep state. It won't hurt, but it won't be very comfortable-- I'd rather you take your Codeine before I give you one, so you can stay still. What do you think? If you're not up to it now, I'll have to schedule it for tomorrow."
And have to come in again? No, thank you. "Let's do it now. But I'm not taking those drugs. I don't think you'll find anything on the MRI. I recovered from my concussion perfectly normally." Every time Dr. Pevensie mentions those four days, Ivanova just can't seem to concentrate on it and brushes it off as unimportant.
[[Memory centres would be suppressed in some areas; Lyta altered her memory so she wouldn't remember that Lyta mindwhammied her. And anything to do with telepathy would be more active. So . . . *tries to remember her Firefly* Also - whee I can see my brain! MRIs are fun.]]
"Ivanova..." Susan gave a frustrated sigh. "Humor me. And you have to remain absolutely still if you're not going to take the meds. I just don't want to stress you even more. All right? Let's go back to the MRI in the lab, and we'll get this set up."
She carefully led Ivanova back to the lab, and made sure she was settled into the slide as comfortably as possible before firing up the computer. "Last chance for the pain medication for twenty minutes, Ivanova. And you *must* stay still."
Twenty minutes? Growl. Twenty-first century technology. But she wasn't about to give in. She shifted slightly to one side, making herself a bit more comfortable.
"It's a principle I'm rather fond of, Doctor," she murmured. "Just fire it up. I can stay still."
After opening her eyes in the machine and the first thing that she saw was the warning label and the intimidating little diagram of the frying man, she had closed them. The twenty minutes seen to take forever, but she was finally being moved out. She blinked, making sure her head was clear, and slowly sat up, her ribs complaining and stiff. She looked around for Susan, a bit disoriented. "Dr. Pevensie?"
[[*is in awe of the medbabble as is only lowly arts student* Um, all of it? If Ivanova thought she was hiding anything, she would ask. Keep on about the memory. Lyta's a strong telepath (P8ish at the moment) and Ivanova isn't (P1), so it'll take a lot for her to get around the block.]]
"It's all right, Ivanova, take your time." Susan ripped off the print-out, and joined Ivanova in the lab room. "You may be having a bit of a head-rush from that, just go slowly. How much medicine do you understand? I don't wish to talk over your head."
[*salutes* Basic psych courses, how the brain works and you. And will do.]
Ivanova waited for a moment for her head to clear before answering. "Not very much. A bit of anatomy, high school biology stuff. I'm usually much better at making other people need medical attention than knowing how to fix them myself."
Susan's lips quirked at that, then she gave Ivanova one of the pictures, the view of the back of her skull. "This is your brain stem, the amygdala, and part of your limbic system. In most people, these areas would be a green-gold to yellow-gold color. I think-- and I have never dealt with a telepath before, so this is all theory-- I think that yours is orange-red because your telepathy is growing. These parts of your brain function automatically; if a new function was coming on-line, as it were, it would of necessity need more blood flow, and more energy, to maintain it. Do you understand?"
Susan then took out the picture of the top of Ivanova's brain. "Now, this picture concerns me somewhat, but it still doesn't explain four days worth of sleep."
Ivanova frowned. "I understand the part about the . . . amygdala, but I don't understand the rest. Is it those areas of shadow? What do they mean?" She didn't connect it with her big nap. Not yet, anyways.
"Usually, areas of shadow like those portend some organic dysfunction," Susan said carefully. "I say usually, but these don't follow the pattern for Huntingdon's Chorea, Alzheimer's, or any known brain disease. For one, they are far too tiny. And for another, while they are in the areas for memory, you haven't reported any lost time or memory problems." She cocked her head at Susan. "This doesn't explain your four-day nap, but it does lead me to think that there is something physically wrong. I'm just utterly baffled as to what it is. Have you experienced any blackouts, or moments of aphasia? Have you been trying to remember things, to find they're just out of reach?"
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[any idea if anything would show up on this? weird delta waves, weird alpha, hiccups?]
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[[She should be normal on an EKG. An MRI on the other hand . . .]]
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[got it]
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[[Memory centres would be suppressed in some areas; Lyta altered her memory so she wouldn't remember that Lyta mindwhammied her. And anything to do with telepathy would be more active. So . . . *tries to remember her Firefly* Also - whee I can see my brain! MRIs are fun.]]
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She carefully led Ivanova back to the lab, and made sure she was settled into the slide as comfortably as possible before firing up the computer. "Last chance for the pain medication for twenty minutes, Ivanova. And you *must* stay still."
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"It's a principle I'm rather fond of, Doctor," she murmured. "Just fire it up. I can stay still."
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[[*is in awe of the medbabble as is only lowly arts student* Um, all of it? If Ivanova thought she was hiding anything, she would ask. Keep on about the memory. Lyta's a strong telepath (P8ish at the moment) and Ivanova isn't (P1), so it'll take a lot for her to get around the block.]]
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[*salutes* Basic psych courses, how the brain works and you. And will do.]
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Susan then took out the picture of the top of Ivanova's brain. "Now, this picture concerns me somewhat, but it still doesn't explain four days worth of sleep."
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[[AFK for an hour or so, supper and errands.]]
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