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]

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."

[boobhat]

Hey, hey, maybe he just didn't like the sight of his own blood after seeing it so many times, Howard. Did you ever think of that?

Hiccup checked to make sure his gun was holstered properly with the safety on first, then took off his leather belt and shoved it, weapons and all, behind him on the Medbay bed. His tunic followed right after.

His abdomen and chest were still a messy mass of surgical scars and graft scars, but they'd faded slightly over time.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard makes the effort to hold the stethoscope in his palm first, so it isn't a freezing cold metal instrument against Hiccup's bare skin. He places it there, ding his best to ignore the scars. It's not like he doesn't have some nasty scars of his own either, although nothing that required the extensive grafting Hiccup needed.

"Breathe deep." It's partially so he can hear Hiccup's lungs. It's also partially to try and get Hiccup to relax just a little.

[boobhat]

It did help a little bit. Hiccup didn't realize it was even helping because he didn't realize he was having anxiety. Anxiety was pretty much his general state of existence now.

After taking a few breaths, he looked to Howard.

"So what's the damage? Alien brain parasite? Lung-eating diseases? My hands are trying to detach themselves and run off without me?"

He was joking, but it was to cover up the actual concern.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Lay back. I'm going to check your stomach a bit more." He moves the holster so Hiccup has room to recline. He doesn't laugh at Hiccup's joke but he does crack a bit of a smirk. Howard in a professional environment is a lot more subdued than Howard hanging around waiting for something to do.

"Do you want it framed as good news or bad news?"

[boobhat]

His face fell, as he laid back, looking at a Medbay ceiling that he'd spent far too much time looking at already.

Then there wasn't much expression on it at all, as if he'd been expecting the worst anyway, simply hiding his fear the entire time Howard had been checking him out.

"Bad news," he said quietly. "It's always bad news anyway."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Amen, brother. Tell me if this hurts." He presses ever-so-slightly beneath Hiccup's ribcage, feeling the muscles there. "Well - and take this with a grain of salt, because I'm not qualified for mental health - as far as I can tell, there's nothing physically wrong with you that would make this happen. My best guess is it's stress-related."

He travels his hands over to Hiccup's side. "I'm going to run all the other tests just in case there's another cause, but your blood pressure's high, your pulse is fast, your breathing's a little unsteady and you started trembling more when I was agitating you. So that, to me, says the problem's mental, not physical."

He holds a hand out and flexes his fingers. "As for that, that happens to me all the time. There's nothing wrong with it. It's not weird or anything that your hands are doing it."

Easier said than believed, of course.

[boobhat]

"Hurts," Hiccup said with a wince when Howard hit a certain spot.

There was a knot there where the muscle was spasming rather badly.

"And I'm not crazy," he insisted, something in his expression shutting off.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Okay." Howard makes a note on his form.

"And I didn't say you are." Thought it, maybe, but without much conviction, since if shaking and sleeping bad makes you crazy, god only knows what binge-eating until you're sick means. "Stress is normal. Stress in this situation is super-normal. Normal is the opposite of crazy. That just doesn't mean it's any fun."

He steps back and gestures that Hiccup can sit up again.

"It's also just totally not my specialty, so the most I could do for you here is give you some medication to help you sleep. You're getting the, you know." He gestures to his face. "The dark circley thing."

[boobhat]

"I'll just take what I need for sleep. And for the muscles."

He wasn't crazy. He wasn't.

Hiccup knew he could be weak in some ways, but he'd put far too much effort into getting physically stronger for any other part of him to get weaker instead. And as far as he was concerned, if he'd let all this have gone to his head, it was the penultimate weakness.

Vikings didn't do crazy. They didn't do mentally ill. They tied madness to a mast and shipped it out to see.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Sure thing. I'll write you a prescription." Medics can do that here, mostly because there just aren't enough doctors. "But I'm going to seriously recommend you go to the psych department, just so they can tell you you're not crazy. Because otherwise you're going to stew on it."

Howard's not trying to manipulate you at all, Hiccup.

[boobhat]

"Yeah, I'll take that under advisement."

By which he meant he wasn't. At all.