A visit to the good doctor (Tag Andrej)

[needsthumpin]

Kerai stood at the reception desk, having asked for Dr. Kosciusko. No, another doctor wouldn't do, unless they had another psycho-pharmacology expert on staff? Alright then, please ask Dr. Kosciusko if he will see her

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[andrejkoscuisko]

Andrej was sitting in his office. It was his rotation. He had no particular patients at the present and it was quiet. That was good. He had no pressing paperwork, and that was even better.

He decided he would review an Earth text on infectious diseases and then perhaps review one of the Earth history books. The thought of an epidemic was never far from Andrej's mind and so he was always reading one or another of the epidemiology texts.

Andrej was setting back at his desk with a fresh flask of rhyti when the call came. Someone was asking for him by name. Interesting. Andrej rose and exited his office, walking between his pair of security troops as he did so. He rounded the corner to the left.

The weaver. His face fell. What could she possibly want from him? She was not his patient. He knew she was pregnant. He wondered if the child would also be a weaver. Time would tell.

Keeping his face as neutral as possible, Andrej bowed minimally toward Kerai. "You have asked to see me?"

[needsthumpin]

Kerai felt Kosciusko closing off, and it made her angry. She'd tried to share with him something precious, that might do him some good, if he could but receive it. Purblind, stiff-necked...and not her only concern.

"Dr. Kosciusko, this is Kieren. Kieren, this is Dr. Kosciusko who's agreed to help you. You'll be in his good hands." Rabin of the Ice Traverse would see the joke in that, but not thank her for it. A side-long, poniard of a glance at Kosciusko, who wouldn't take what was offered to him with caring. Take this then.

"He's the best there is at what he does." She turned to Kieren.

"Do you wish me to stay?"

[andrejkoscuisko]

Whether or not Robert would see the joke, Andrej did. He did not think it was funny. At least the weaver recognized his skill at medicine even as she made reference to his other abilities.

Andrej had a patient in the room, one nervous of authority. He could not spare energy on the weaver. He need do his best to make his patient comfortable.

Even if it meant that he had to allow the weaver to stay.

Andrej nodded toward Kieren. "Good greeting, Kieren. Kerai has your name given. I am Dr. Andrej Koscuisko as she has said. I will all my skill use to try and replicate your medication. I have never heard of your condition. We have no cases on Azanry, where I am from." He hoped that would convey some comfort. No cases meant no prejudices.

[kierenwalker]

"Thank you." Kieren said quietly, a bit hesitant still, but taking a step further into the office. "I really appreciate the help." he added eventually. "I really don't want to harm any more people than I already have back home, and I'm scared that might happen if I don't have enough of my meds."

[needsthumpin]

Kerai was comforted by his turning away from her needling to attend to Kieren. Even if he wouldn't hear what she was trying to convey, his complete attention to Kieren showed that he took the doctor/patient bond as quite sacred enough to be going on with. She could trust him. She began moving toward the door, she would wait in the hallway, just in case. His quiet,

"I really don't want to harm any more people than I already have..." made her stop, her breath catching. Surely Kosciusko would see now.No. It didn't matter. Oh, there was a thing.

"He has a port in his neck, at the back. The doses go into the spine, into the fluid there, I think." Was there such a thing as fluid around the spine? Kerai was pretty sure there was.

"It takes no great pressure to push them through." She resumed moving toward the door. Kosciusko could ask Kieren further questions about it as he needed. She paused in the doorway to look back. If there seemed to be no need for her, she would step out.

[Unless someone specifies otherwise, assume Kerai has

[andrejkoscuisko]

Andrej was surprised when Kerai spoke further. The thought of a port into the spine was alarming. It wasn't quite as disturbing as the man - had his name been Glitch? - with a zipper on his head but bad enough. Risky

[kierenwalker]

"I understand." Kieren said, "up until four years ago, my ... illness was well not known outside of legends and movies either."
"I read a lot of the pamflets, at the treatment center. They often were the only thing we had to read. The medecine, the Neurotriptyline, it artificially stimulates the neurogenesis of gial cells. Gial cells are vital for proper brain function. People like me, we can't produce them anymore, it's why we need the drug."

[andrejkoscuisko]

Andrej nodded. He was surprised that Kieren had such an understanding of what the drug did. He shouldn't be, he supposed. The young man wanted to know what had happened to him. Some took comfort from understanding. Andrej filed that away for future use; it was a way to build trust with his patient and therefore provide a better outcome.

"Thank you, Mr, Kieren. That gives me a solid place to start research. But my first task is to replicate what we have to provide time. May I inspect one of your osmos? Have you one with you? Perhaps I could a small sample take." He wouldn't need much. If Kieren had a used osmo it would likely contain enough residual to inspect under a scope.

Andrej would need to inspect the port.

[kierenwalker]

"Just Kieren, Kieren Walker." He offered his name. Before grabbing the small bottle with the medicine out of his pocket. "I hope this is enough, I think it holds two or three doses."

[andrejkoscuisko]

"More that enough, Kieren," Andrej said. "Would you be willing to move to a patient room? I could a slide prepare with a drop or two of your dose. And perhaps inspect the osmo and take a tissue sample. From inside your cheek with a swab. It is not painful or even uncomfortable."

Andrej had not moved. He did not wish to rush Kieren. "You do not have to come if you prefer not. I can prepare the slide of your medication without. But, for now," Andrej said, "you are the expert on your condition. You may be able to aid in the process."

Andrej inspected the paper with the drug information on it. It did not say what Andrej needed to know. "Though you appear to be Type 1 hominid, Kerai did not give your planet of origin." The question was implicit.

[kierenwalker]

"Whatever you need." Kieren said. "You don't have to be too careful, I'm not very sensitive to pain." His sense of touch had improved somewhat since his brain started working again, but even now it was hard to have more than the memory of a touch at anything. He was also aware that he had to be more careful. Because his nervous system would not give him the same warnings of danger that a regular living person would have.
"I am from Earth, and I was human, before I died. I think I was dead for a few months when the Rising happened. I woke up in my coffin and I was like this." he aimed at himself. "The make up and the contacts just help in ... fitting in, making people feel more comfortable around us... me" Or at least that was the general idea.

[andrejkoscuisko]

Andrej had barely noticed the make up and contacts. Some men wore them. Andrej never bothered. The comments about pain Andrej noticed very well indeed. And pushed them from his mind as quickly as possible.

"Good. That you are Earth from, I mean. Many here are and I am well versed in the physiology." Andrej wondered why he was not as shocked as he should have been that his patient was, technically, dead. Perhaps it was the presence of Joslire, also dead. Andrej was growing accustomed. It might comfort Kieren to hear of it.

"I do not know if Kerai has mentioned, but there are others here that are ... risen. In a way. My good Joslire for one."

Andrej stood to head toward a patient room with a lab. They would have to pass by the weaver. Andrej hoped she had gone. He motioned for Kieren to leave the office and turn to the right.

[kierenwalker]

Kieren followed the doctor, this at least was familiar. He wondered about the person the man mentioned, would this Joslire be like M? Maybe.

"I met another one when I arrived, his name's M. But I don't think he was from the place I'm from. His condition seemed slightly different and he didn't know about PDS."

[andrejkoscuisko]

"I am not familiar with anyone named M. But I have possibly misspoken. Joslire does not share your condition nor is he from the place you are from. Joslire is from Emandis, a planet under Bench jurisdiction. It is simply ... he is dead there and he is not here." There was no other way to put it

[kierenwalker]

"Oh." Kieren couldn't help but be a bit dissappointed. It was silly, but somehow numbers seemed to equate with safety these days.

"It's not like I can get infected, I think." Kieren said. "not that it stopped the doctors at the treatment center from being careful, but then they knew so little about PDS, that the precautions were more for the medical team than for the patients to begin with."

"So what do I do?"

[andrejkoscuisko]

Precaution for the medical team? "Is it that your condition is contagious? I am not Earth from, as I said, but I shall precaution take." He put on a pair of the clean gloves that were in all of the rooms. Dolgorukij did not have reaction to all of the bacteria and virus that Earth hominids did but he was dealing with a complete unknown. Then he picked up the cotton swab and turned back to Kieren. "Simply open you mouth wide, like this," Andrej demonstrated. "I will with the swab brush the inside of your cheek lightly. There are loose skin cells that I may collect." Andrej waited for Kieren to comply.

"Then, if you would, if I might inspect the injection site?" Andrej was both appalled and curious. Perhaps the port would not be as deep as he feared and not a danger. Then again, if Kieren could not become infected, could his spine be damaged? Everything Andrej knew about physiology might not be relevant here.