Xanadu Weyr - Infirmary
The infirmary here is intended for human care. It is spotless and smells of disinfectant, cots are lined up against one wall, a curtain can be pulled to give some privacy to the occupants of the cots if they so desire. A cabinet stands off against another wall, instruments and medications stored against when they will be needed. A couple of curtained off beds are used for examinations of patients and the treatment of minor injuries which won't require long term care. A desk with chair is just off of the doorway for the healer to sit and catch up on record keeping after a long days work.
For someone with a day off Kera has been rather busy. Midmorning and already a couple of things are marked of her list of 'Things that should have been finished a sevenday ago.' Making her way into the infirmary with Minimur riding escort on her shoulder, she smiles and speaks quietly to the apprentice on 'check-in' desk duty. A few minutes pass before the healer candidate heads towards the stocked cabinets, tugging a list from her pocket and giving it a quick skim as she goes. The brown warbles some soft greetings as he drifts through 'his' domain, that is before his person got searched at least. Kera scans the list and starts murmuring to herself beffore taking up the resupply clipboard and jotting down what she's gonna take.
A'ven is here too, making his assigned rounds. He's dressed in healer scrubs, and so wears no knot or rank other than his healer one at the moment, but that's expected by most who work here. He makes his way through the relatively small number of cots this infirmary supports. Most serious patients get transported to the Healer Hall, if they're well enough to go — so in order to end up staying you have to be either too sick to transport or a fairly minor case. He stops to check the temperature of the patient in one of the cots and sees Kera come in, "Afternoon." he says politely, not looking up. "We're almost out of milkthistle…in case that's on your list."
Kera scribbles down her small list before she starts plucking a couple of small jars and vials from the shelf. Glancing around at the lack of milk thistle warning, she nods, offering a smile to the on duty Journeyman. "Afternoon sir. I'll add that to the resupply log then." And she does just that, jotting down what is needed to resupply. Casting a quick glance over her shoulder "It wasn't on my list though. Just needed to get a few things I ran out of during our recent … hiking trip." A roll of her eyes at referring to that excursion as a hiking trip. "I used all the numbweed I had." Of coarse it was used on the other candidates. "And poor Mini was scraping the bottom of his little oil pot too."
A'ven frowns a little. "Oh right… I heard something about the… hiking trip., he says carefully. "Are you all all right?" He looks about, "None of you ended up in here did they?" He flips through a few papers he's holding. "Hmm." "Well, anyway, I'm glad you're back." "If you need some oil that's never in short supply with Glyith." He looks a little annoyed. "Sometimes I think he chose me just because I'm obsessive about details like that. I've never let him run out." He begins changing the bandage of one of his patients, for though he might be responsible for all of them, because it's his rounds, he does have a few that fall within his specialty. This one is a girl of about fifteen. He begins cutting the bandage on her arm away, trying not to wake her up. His voice drops instinctively, "As I said, people are talking about your little trip.. sounds kind of scary. You okay?"
Kera gives her head a little shake "No serious injuries. Scrapes and bruises mostly. I shared my little jar of redwort, sparingly, on everyone's scrapes. Good thing I always keep a few things in my shoulder satchel, cause we didn't even get a chance to pack a journeypack." Sighing a little, she collects the things she came for, slips them in her satchel and crosses over to where A'ven is working. Crouching down and lowering her voice so the patients aren't disturbed. "We were told we were going on a diplomatic excursion. Then the Weyrleader and WeyrSecond are telling us to get off the dragons, then they left. When they didn't come back, we started trudging through the mud. Becoming a Candidate feast for all the insects." She gives an amused snort "If that wasn't scary enough, then some odd…swamp people found us." Head tips into an agreeable nod "I'm okay. Nothing that a good scrubbing or two, and a couple of 'normal' meals did't fix right up."
A'ven agrees, "It's good to be prepared." "But, swamp people? Honestly, I don't think you mean they actually came from the swamp… do you?" "… and you say the Weyrleader and the 'second dropped you off themselves? That's a little odd… I mean, unless…" "Oh never mind, I'm letting my imagination get away from me. I'm glad nobody was hurt. We have enough work as it is."
Kera nods her head quickly. "Aye, they dressed to blend in with the surroundings. Knew the paths through the swamps. Pointed out a couple of quicksand mires. Took us to where there were a few buildings. Odd people, the lot of them, even though we only saw a few people the time we were there." Watching A'ven work a few seconds, she shrugs "I guess the leadership expected us to go one way, but we went another instead. And ended up getting lost. Well, even more lost than we already were." Kera chuckles softly at that and leans forward to peer at the young girl's arm.
A'ven notices Kera's gaze, "It's a burn.", he says quietly with a sigh. "Even with one of the most modern kitchens on Pern we still don't know how to build an oven that'll prevent these." "Get me the numbweed salve would you?" He stops to wash his hands before putting the new bandage on. "Learn anything new today, or are they keeping you busy with busy work?" Another pause to dry his hands and then he starts to wrap the wound. "Her name is Naya, I think… she's been sleeping a bit too much, I'm wondering if that might be a problem in itself." "This is enough to wake anyone up, really… and she doesn't. It's odd."
Kera winces at the burn when its completely unwrapped. Nodding quickly she gets the numbweed, and holds it open and at the ready. Hmming softly in a noncomittal way over the ovens, "Normally it's the food that gets burned if I'm working the oven." A quick headshake "No busy work today. Actually had a restday. So like anyone else with a freeday, I've been catching up on some tasks." Peering down to the girl, she frowns but can only give an agreeable dip of her head and seems to consider a moment "Is it possible one of the apprentice's gave her an extra fellis dose when she had already been given one?"
A'ven considers Kera's question, "I don't think so. She's been here almost 18 hours and slept through most of them. I can see making a mistake, but two… on the same patient?" "Besides, you know how serious fellis really is…even apprentices are taught to be so careful with it. It could happen.. but, I guess I have faith in the Healers here… to miss something so basic would be very unusual. I don't know. Maybe the b urn isn't her only problem." He falls silent for a time, "Problem is, where do we start… I mean, if it's something else?" A'ven adds, "There are a lot of things that cause excessive sleeping, after all… some of them are very serious indeed."
Kera eases back a bit staying out of A'ven's way as he works. "Sometimes, it all starts with a simple mistake." She hooks a stool with her foot and slides it closer so she can settle down to be more on a level with A'ven and young Naya. Not having scrubbed her hands to be sterile clean, she is hesitant to touch the girl, but does cant her head a bit as she is observed. "Is it possible that she hit her head when she got burned? It could be a concussion,…" She trails off and her eyes drift towards A'ven to see his take on it.
A nod, a slow smile, "That would make sense. A concussion… maybe she slipped." "Can you get me the intake notes on her? Let's see if the Healer that saw her admitted asked her that question. Maybe they didn't think to while they were stabilizing the burn." He looks at Kera with another nod. "It's a start… it might not be the answer… but it could be. Not bad, Apprentice. Not bad. He taps his head. "Glad to see all the excitement hasn't gone to your head. They say the eggs are going to hatch soon. Are you nervous?"
Kera is still peering critically at what she can see of Naya's head. "If she were to have a bump, at least that would give reasoning for her to still be sleeping. I'm not sure of the best method to wake her if it becomes an issue." Could need a sniff of something acrid, or merely a brisk smack to the cheek to shock her enough to wake. Sitting up again, she peers at A'ven. Unsure if he was testing her or asking her opinion, she does smile though. "I haven't let my studies slide too much. Granted, my chores aren't in the infirmary right now, I'm still keeping up with my lessons. For the most part." At the mention of the eggs, she gives a little nod "I've been keeping real busy, but doesn't keep the brain from shredding your nerves to ribbons does it."
A'ven tries to be reassuring, "I'm sure you'll be fine. It's probably been a long time since there was a serious injury on the sands. I have to admit though, I haven't been here long enough to be sure." He goes to get the notes on Naya's arrival and pages through them. "Hmm… I don't think they covered that with her when she came in. Naya did say that she thinks she remembers falling back against someone… but maybe there was nobody there to catch her. We might have to track down people who might have been there when it happened. That…" and here he lets out a long breath, "Might take more time than we have. If it is a concussion we can't let it go untreated… so… what does that mean?" He's got a little smile now, you may have seen it before with some of the others. He could be using this as a learning experience, as long as there's the opportunity.
Kera frowns a little "One young man had his calf clawed pretty good a couple of hatchings back. Took several candlemarks to mend him up." A little shivers slips through her at that "I'm thinking maybe I should take to keeping my little kit with me just in case." Now that a couple of small bandages would do much good with a dragonet injury. Peering over A'ven's shoulder at Naya's chart, then eases back when she realizes she probably crowding the Journeyman. "And even then, the kitchen is always so chaotic that everyone might have seen something differant happen." Peering between Naya and A'ven "If it's a concussion then she needs to wake up. Maybe even to the point of getting her to her feet and walking her around. Being careful of the burn of coarse. That is if a acrid-sniffer won't work that is."
A'ven says "That is the right answer, Kera… at least I think so if I understood what you said. We need to treat this like it could be a concussion even if it isn't… because to leave things as they are might harm the patient, and if we're wrong and it's not a concussion, well, treating it as such won't make things worse. But… in the meantime we need to narrow down the real cause. We can't be sure it /is/ a concussion until we've ruled some other things out. Why don't you wake her up? Try to be gentle if you can. I don't think she'll be ready to talk but we need to get to the bottom of it when she is… and if you get a chance to ask in the kitchens you can follow up with that as well."