If You Need a Doctor, I'll Examine Every Inch of You [Phys Evals; Open]

[meat_mooks]

Ever since the medical briefing on the comms, the medical bay staff has been preparing for an influx of appointments for physical evaluations, as well as a few walk-ins. After that, the hunt will be on for those who've been skipping such appointments.

A few of the staff members are going about their regular duties, expecting patients or simply biding time at the coffee machine until they're called on.

[OOC: please state the name of which med character(s) you want to administer the evaluation in the header to your comment. If you're fine with anyone tagging in, please indicate so. Available characters are Sakura, Howard, Dr. Faiza Hussain, Soren and Dr. Carson Beckett.]

Comments

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I got bit by a dinosaur," Howard adds, the epitome of helpfulness. "We can do a shot for you. Do we need to up the dose any, or would you rather just come in more often? Or do we just stick with the current routine and you stiff upper lip your way through the rough spots?"

He clicks his fingers for Stacy's tentacles to descend. "Anything else on your mind? You look a little tired, not that that's unusual around here."

[boobhat]

Hiccup just nodded at the dinosaur thing in normal-guy-that-gets-injured-a-lot camaraderie like he had mad respect for Howard.

"Current routine and I'll stiff upper lip it."

Stiff-upper-lipping was what Vikings generally did.

As the tentacles descended, he closed his eyes briefly, trying to quell the waves of nausea and the nervousness he felt at the sight of it. Just because he had to come to the Medbay every so often didn't mean he liked to be here. In fact, if he didn't have these recurring problems, he'd probably avoid the place entirely.

His eyes fluttered open again and he tried to carry on casually.

"Actually, that was the other reason I'm here. I've been having trouble sleeping and staying asleep and some trouble concentrating. That, along with feeling like I was accomplishing absolutely nothing was why I stepped down from the Council."

Oh hey, along with the gut-squirmy feelings he was feeling at the moment, his hands were doing that thing again.

"Annnd also there's this."

He held both his hands out. They were trembling.

"Comes and goes. I've been having trouble doing detail-work with my blacksmithing because of it."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Well, hate to break it to you, but you were accomplishing absolutely nothing."

Howard writes down what Hiccup tells him in neat print, then glances up at Hiccup's hands - and pauses. Because that's familiar. That's something Howard catches his own body doing as often as not, usually at night, usually paired up with the insomnia that seems to be going around the ship like the world's most brainsucking flu.

He gets closer and holds his pen out between two of Hiccup's fingers, judging how much they're trembling.

"Comes and goes with what?"

[boobhat]

"Hey, it wasn't for lack of trying," Hiccup said mildly to Howard's remark about the Council, but then he focused on his hands.

"It just...comes and goes. It's usually worse when I first wake up."

Particularly when he woke up from the nightmares.

"Is it something serious? It better not be something serious 'cause I'm getting pretty tired of serious."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Hey, you were one of the few councilors I liked. Not that I voted for you, but still." Howard will never vote another teen into anything. It's just a rule of his, one borne from watching the teens on his own council in the FAYZ, and it's unlikely to change for anything short of said teen being the only alternative to voting in Hitler.

"When you wake up at night or in the morning?" He furrows his brow and leans in close to the hands, then hands Hiccup the pen to see his dexterity while they're shaking. "Depends on how you define seriously, probably. It's not like, cerebral palsy or anything, if that's what you're thinking."

[boobhat]

"Both. Depends. But it's other times, too. Like right now."

He paused.

"I'll assume cerebral palsy is a bad thing?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Yeah. It is." Howard angles his head over to the side and bites his lip. "I want you to play a word association game with me. I say a word, you say the first thing that comes to mind. Okay?"

[boobhat]

Hiccup looked a little confused, but hey, future medicine, right? Who knew how it really worked. He'd follow along if Howard thought it'd help him figure out what was wrong with his hands.

"Oookay. Sure."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Here."

[boobhat]

"Stinks."

Understatement.

And he meant both "here" as in the Medbay and "here" as in Stacy.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard tries not to laugh as he put the blood pressure cuff around Hiccup's arm. "Home."

[boobhat]

"Gone."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Mood."

[boobhat]

"Miserable?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

To his credit, Howard manages to cover his mouth before he snorts.

"Sleep."

[boobhat]

"Nightmares."

Hiccup's blood pressure was through the roof. Much higher than it should've been for someone his age and physical condition--and he was in good physical condition now after all the time training with Zuko. His pulse was too high as well.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Every." Howard writes it down without letting it show on his face that something's off.

[boobhat]

"Time."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard makes an educated guess based on Hiccup's file. "Aliens."

[boobhat]

"Pain."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Fear."

He puts the pen between Hiccup's fingers again to see if he's trembling more or less since this conversation started.

[boobhat]

More. He was trembling more.

"Death."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Well, that's enough of that.

"Okay, I've got some ideas. Let me screen you for any bugs or anything though, okay?" He glances over at his tools. "You don't mind if I draw blood, right?"

[boobhat]

"Go ahead."

He was just...going to go very very pale and look away the whole time.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Figures. A guy gets his gut busted open by aliens but a little needle still makes him queasy. Howard will never understand people's priorities around here. He takes the blood and sets it aside - he'll run it through the scanner for the usual suspects, but also to see if there's any sort of coagulation problem that could offer an alternate explanation to the high blood pressure. Just in case.

Howard's pretty sure he has this pegged, though.

"Okay, shirt off." He puts his stethoscope on. "I'm going to check your heart and breathing and then poke your stomach a little."