Have you tried not doing the thing that causes pain?

Posted on Sun Aug 21st, 2022 @ 11:09pm by Lieutenant JG Nayisa Wrea & Lieutenant Commander Michael Ki

Mission: Character Development
Location: USS Athena, Sickbay
1704 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Nayisa sat with her thoughts in her quarters, a PaDD with her medical file in hand. According to the Pioneer's doctor, her leg should be healed by now but she should check in with her new posting's doctor to make sure it healed properly. While it felt better than when she first came aboard, it still ached now and then. Like how it did now. Her orders were to take it easy, and for the most part she had, but even the wonders of modern medicine couldn't fully heal a broken bone that fast.

"Ensign Wrea to Lieutenant Commander Ki," she said, after tapping her badge. "Can I borrow a few minutes of your time?"

Ki sighed and rolled his eyes heavily before responding. Truth was he did not plan on going on shore leave. He wanted to continue his research into Bendii Syndrome unimpeded, and yet here was a hurdle. An Ensign who probably had nothing wrong with them save for the sniffles. He tapped his comm badge. "No problem Ensign. Come on down to Sick Bay whenever."

Nayisa acknowledged before pushing herself up from the chair, wincing a little as the newly added weight made her leg ache more. She didn’t think she overdid it, if anything she "underdid" it. The crew was on shore leave, so there wasn't much for her to do aside from wandering the ship to familiarize herself. With her medical file in hand, she limped out of her quarters and carefully made her way to sickbay.

On her way to sickbay, she thought through what she had read about the ship's doctor. The main thing that caught Nayisa's attention in his file was the mention of an extremely high intelligence, which intrigued her. What else aside from medical knowledge sat inside his mind? Perhaps she'd get a glimpse of it during this checkup. From his image on file, he looked like someone who enjoyed being in deep thought, and Nayisa found herself enjoying the company of such people. The best conversations came from those in deep thought. Soon enough, she found herself outside the sickbay doors, and Nayi put on a smile and stashed her train of thought before entering. As the double doors hissed shut behind her, she looked around, partly to identify the doctor in the flesh and partly to scope out the room, shifting her weight onto her good leg.

Michael sat in his office just off of the main part of Sick Bay. The warm sake sat in the cup with the pitcher next to it. He reached out for a sip as the tradition Japanese flute music he listened to reached its peak. Ki was in meditation mode which also relaxed him. But beyond that it helped him focus on a problem. Bendii was his problem at the moment. He had been so deep in meditation that he had forgotten the Ensign would be arriving. That is until the Ensign walked in and the sound of the doors brought him to the present. "Ensign Wrea I am in my office, come on in..." He sipped his sake to keep his nerves calm.

Following the voice, Nayi carefully approached the office, the gentle flute tickling her ears as she got closer. Sure enough, the man she sought out was at his desk, looking like he had things on his mind but also like he was just interrupted. Nayisa stopped in the doorframe to rest her hand on it, allowing for a subtle lean to get weight off of her leg. Between present company, however, she figured the lean would be glaringly obvious. "I appreciate your availability, Doctor," Nayisa said with a friendly smile. "I was injured during my last mission prior to transferring, and my leg has been aching. Aside from getting it checked out, Commander Zora wants to make sure I am cleared for full active duty."

"Sounds like something we can get done rather quickly. Come with me..." Michael led her into the Sick Bay proper and proffered her to sit on a bio bed. He took his medical tricorder and began the scan. "Tell me about the injury. How it happened, what kind of pain and where etc..."

Nayisa followed him and sat up onto a bio bed as instructed, setting the PaDD with the medical record of the incident visible next to her. She got a vibe from him that he wanted to get back to what he was doing, and part of her was disappointed because she wanted to converse with him and get to know him. An 'all business' conversation, then. "I broke my right leg in two places when a bulkhead fell on me about a week ago." She pointed to two spots on her thigh, one about halfway between her knee and her hips, and the other just above the knee. "The pain is at the break point above the knee and feels like..." There was a brief pause as Nayi thought of how to describe it. "... it's a dull but somewhat intense pain, as if someone were jamming their finger into that spot and didn't let up. It started up yesterday, and I decided to spend more time off my feet today to see if it helped before I called."

"It is possible that the tendons and muscles are still inflamed from the break. Let's have a look then..." Michael smiled briefly as he opened the medical scanner. "You know it is a good thing that I majored in emergency medicine while in med school. It seems that is what I use much since I joined Starfleet." Within moments the imagery of the Ensign's internal workings of their leg appeared. "Yes yes... As I expected everything is still inflamed, you are going to have to stay off it for an extended period of time."

As much as she tried, Nayisa couldn't keep the frown off her expression. "How long is 'an extended period of time'," she asked hesitantly. Being off her feet was not in her job description, and with this new transfer, how could she stay off her feet? Everything is exciting and new! She also despised desk work, even though she technically could do it.

"I would try to stay completely off of it for two to three days. After that light work with the leg until it returns to normal. If you continue to stress the injury it will never heal, and could in fact become a cause of permanent pain. So my recommendation to you is to choose what you would like: option a is stay in your quarters off duty for a week, I will make sure the Captain is informed that it is for medical reasons. Option b is to work but go to analyze data, desk work for a week or so this will keep you off your feet. Or option c do your normal duties and perhaps cause permanent damage." Michael hated officers that were so dedicated to duty that they would sacrifice their own bodies. He had no patience for people like that.

There was a pause before a sigh of disappointment came from the silver haired woman. "I hate it with a passion, but I can do the boring desk work," she said, a hint of defeat in her tone. "At least I can still be useful that way. If needed, I can probably get work transferred to my quarters so it's less movement." The truth was that Nayisa hated sitting still, so being told to not be on her feet was going to drive her up the bulkhead if she didn't have something to occupy her time. To lighten the mood, she gave a smile and shrugged, "if I can sit in a shuttle for months on end, surely I can handle one week off my feet."

"Well good because I would like to see you back on your feet and raring to go. Just make sure that you keep it elevated and the less weight on it the better." Michael knew that his comment sounded caring however, he said it because if the Ensign did as instructed there would be less work for him. "It seems that you are good to go to your quarters. I can have you transported there if you wish. If the pain becomes too much to bear, or at the end of the week whichever comes first return here and I will have a look at it."

"Oh I definitely want to be back on my feet, so I'll do what I can to make that happen," Nayisa said with a smile. She was tempted to turn down the offer of a transport, since she found herself in the pattern buffers more often than she'd like, but she also wanted to make a good first impression. If he could see that she was a good Ensign who followed the rules, maybe he'd indulge a conversation with her sometime. "Yes please, I'll take the transport. Thank you for taking a look at it, Doctor."

"No problem Ensign and like I said one week and then come see me again." Michael smiled and keyed the instructions to transport Nayisa to her quarters. With a look back he energized the Ensign. With her gone he could return to his research. Although the buzzing in the back of his head said that he had to make more of an effort to make friends. Who knows the Ensign could be just the person to start with.

Nayisa barely got out a "will do" before her vision was replaced by the light of a transporter beam, then by her quarters. That was brief... she really must have been interrupting the doctor. "Ugh, I hate desk duty," she said aloud, briefly walking to the desk in her quarters to get a PaDD. Sitting back in the chair she was transported to, she sent a notice to the intel offices basically volunteering to take on those boring desk tasks for people, just so she had something to do. Only a moment passed before she started getting a stream of tasks, and she leaned her head back and let out an exasperated sigh.