ways_infirmary | Is there a doctor in the Bar?

Is there a doctor in the Bar?

YT makes her first visit to the infirmary in a spectacularly undignified way: by falling across the threshold. This is not, however, her biggest problem - that would be her right ankle, which she can no longer walk on. Which is why she's in the infirmary in the first place, and also why she was hopping around on the other foot, and why she fell over.

Fortunately she's wearing her coverall, and the armorgel on her joints protects her from any floor-induced trauma. She curses, then manages to get to her knees. "Hey! A little help here, please?"

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Guppy jumps up from his seat in the office.

"I'm coming." he says, moving quickly over to her. "I'm Dr Guppy Sandhu, what's your name and what happened?"

"YT. I had a skateboarding mishap out back." She groans. "We don't have ice in L.A. I thought it was just a puddle."

"Okay YT, no worries, will you let me help you up to the bed?"

"No, I think I can...ow! Okay, yes please. But if you're gonna x-ray me, please give me some aspirin first. Otherwise when you try to lay it flat I'll scream like a girl, and nobody's gonna be happy."

A gently smile.

"It's okay, I'm not going to X-ray it. Our scanner is very sophisticated and you won't need to move."

He helps lift her gently onto the bed.

YT winces a little as her foot comes in contact with the bed, sending a fresh shot of pain through her ankle. It feels like a sprain to her - she's had a few of those, it comes with the territory - but it could be a small fracture. Just her luck.

Getting off her sneaker and sock is going to be a problem as well. She's wondering whether she should trust the doc to do it, or attempt it herself.

Now that she is no longer in immediate distress, the rest of her brain functions have started working, including her memory. "Hey, I saw you at...uh, that group thing a couple days ago, right?" She really doesn't want to say "support group."

He nods.

"Yeah, that was me. I assure you that despite my presence I am entirely qualified to treat you today. Even doctors have to vent their feelings sometimes."

He runs the scanner over her, sock and shoe included.

"Nothing broken, just a bad sprain."

She still has to get the footwear off to treat it, unless they've got something here as Star Trek as the scanner. "I'm not worried about that, dude," she says. "I'd be more worried if you had trouble and weren't asking for help. Of course, then I wouldn't know." YT hopes he does not remember the particular problem she brought up at the group: it didn't exactly make the best impression.

His mun isn't in a position to look it up, so let's say he arrived after she'd said it?

He wouldn't have mentioned it anyway, unless relavent to this injury.

He nods. "Well you're going to need rest and support for that foot. There's no magic cure for sprains I'm afraid. Are you baseline human?"

"One hundred percent. Last time I checked, anyway." She sighs. "Not the first time I've done this, but, you know, I'm a thrasher - it happens a lot. Say, do you have epsom salts? Sometimes it helps if I soak with them." Of course, she will have to get off her shoe and sock first. Fun fun fun.

"Normally I'd use an ice pack for this sort of thing, but we're a well stocked infirmary, I'll see what I can find."

Glancing at her foot. "Do you want to try and get your shoe off? I don't want to hurt you any more than needs be, but your foot is swelling and it will only get harder."

It's very difficult to get your own sneakers off when you can't move your ankle. YT could do it, but it wouldn't really be much better than the alternative. "Go ahead," YT says, linking her hands under her right calf so she can lift her foot off the bed. "There's no way to make it not hurt, so please just do it quick and get it over with."

"Okay, I'll be as gentle as possible."

He gets the shoe off relatively easily. He does this sort of thing every day after all.

YT squeezes her eyes shut and yelps a little, but otherwise endures the removal of her shoe and sock without a fuss. When she opens her eyes again and looks at her ankle, it sort of reminds her of a plum that is just ripening. Of course, a ripening plum is supposed to look round and reddish-purple: an ankle is not. "Did myself a good one there," she says.

"You'll be able to show it off, that's for certain." he says with a small grin, glancing at the sprain to check he hasn't missed anything.

"Okay, let me see if I can find your salts..." he heads to one of the cupboards and looks through it for a moment until he finds the gel. He then checks the label, just because he's not as familiar with it.

"Okay, I can give you this if you want, but it's not what I would normally use for a sprain. An ice pack in the short term and ibuprofen gel in the medium term would probably be my first recommendation. But, since you are of course the patient, the choice is entirely yours."

"I'm gonna do all the regular stuff too," YT reassures the doctor. "This is just something a little extra. Natural remedy and all. I didn't know it came in a gel, though. Or ibuprofen. I thought that was just pills."

He nods.

"Okay then." he hands her the tube. "And yes, ibuprofen can come in two forms. The gel is a topical painkiller, so just affects the area you put it on, and is a lower dose. It's pretty effective. You can get that from the bar."

YT nods as she unscrews the cap from he gel, squeezes a little out, and (carefully) applies it to her ankle, which is tender to the touch and feels like a not-quite-ripe plum as well as looking like one. "Thanks," she says. "I guess I gotta ice it now. And then it's crutches and an Ace bandage for me. Fabulous."

"You need to follow RICE. Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. Stay resting as long as possible today, then crutches and rest as necessary." Guppy replies with a nod. "But it sounds like you know what you're doing."

YT shrugs. "This is, like, my third or fourth sprain," she says, almost as if she's proud of it. "I think I was due for one anyway. How long should I stay off it?"

"As much as possible for the next forty eight hours, gentle exercise afterwards until it stops hurting really."

YT brightens up at this. "That's good, last time I was out of commission for a whole week. But that was apparently a really bad one. Can I have an extra pillow to prop my foot on?"

"Absolutely. And you can stay here as long as you need."

He gets her the pillow. "And it may take a week or more if it's still hurting, you just need to take it at your own pace. You shouldn't be doing anything strenuous on it for that time at least. Forty eight hours is an estimate on my part."

A smile. "Maybe you need to take up a less dangerous hobby."

YT puts the pillow under her foot and wraps an ice pack around her ankle. She'd hoped she could get through this encounter without hearing that suggestion, and feels obligated to defend herself. "It's not a hobby. It's business. I gotta keep in practice so I can do my job when I get back home. Is there a way to adjust the height on this...oh, there it is." Finding the controls to adjust the bed, YT moves the head of it up into a good sitting position.

"Oh, I see. Sorry." He smiles apologetically.

"Well if you're doing it all the time, four or five previous sprained ankles isn't so bad."

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