Sick Call (open)

[missing]

The sounds of swearing drifted from an open door in the infirmary hall, yet again Pala had managed to injure herself with some menial task. She hadn't had any patients yet today, and so Pala had thought it prudent to stock the rooms as every good Healer should. Noticing they were woefully low on bandages she decided to cut some more, and had somehow managed to slice her palm open.

She growled in frustration as she rinsed the cut, inspecting it. It didn't look like it would need stitches at least but she couldn't allow herself to be bleeding all over any patients that happened to walk through the door. The stupid thing certainly was bleeding enough. Applying some salve first to keep the bandage from sticking she wrapped it tightly and held it over her head. With her other hand she began cleaning up the mess she had made. Sometimes it felt like she couldn't do anything right, she was such a klutz! Fortunately she only seemed to injure herself with her fumbling, never any patients, but still... It seemed silly.

[lyonza]

Z'mer hobbled down the passage from his weyr towards the infirmary. One would think that he'd be more careful when going out hunting with his dragon. While Amoneth was off getting his prey, Z'mer had the bright idea to sit by a stream with his feet in the water. When he got up at some point, he slipped and managed to slice open his foot.

Amoneth had abandoned the second wherry he was after and insisted they go back because Z'mer was bleeding profusely from the rather large cut. So he was hobbling along with a makeshift bandage (his shirt) to staunch the bloodflow. Amoneth had wanted to land outside the infirmary, but Z'mer had insisted that he could very well walk from his quarters, thank you very much.

He looked around as he entered the infirmary before calling out. "Uhm, hello? Can someone come help me please? I sorta cut my foot open and well... I'm still bleeding all over the place and it hurt. A lot."

He hobbled over to one of the beds and flopped down before turning sideways so he could put his leg up on the bed as well.

[missing]

Shards! Pala quickly abandoned her attempt to clean up, at least her own idiotic injury had managed to stop bleeding, or at least it wasn't bleeding though. She moved towards the sound of the voice until she saw Z'mer, "Oh wow, what did you do to yourself?"

Without waiting for an answer the girl quickly grabbed some blankets and wadded them up, putting them under the leg to elevate it before grabbing the scarf holding her brown hair in place and wrapping it tightly around the leg above the knee to help slow the bloodflow. She poured some water from a nearby pitcher into a bowl, mixing in some numbweed and something else. Grabbing a cloth from the shelf she dunked it in the bowl before applying it to the cut, inspecting it carefully to see just how bad it was, "Not a knife... too jagged... a rock maybe... certainly enough of those here..." She reached out, her hand instinctively opening a drawer and grabbing out some tweezers. She pulled out a shard of rock that had broken off inside the cut, "Yep, definitely a rock!" Oddly enough the girl sounded rather pleased with herself.

((how deep is the cut?))

[lyonza]

((the cut isn't too deep, maybe 1/4 inch?))

Z'mer had the good grace to look embarrassed. "Well, I was out hunting Amoneth and decided to sit with my feet in a stream, when I got up I slipped and cut my foot on a rock." He peered down at the young woman as she worked, wincing a little as she tied the scarf around his leg.

He hissed as the cloth touched his foot and then sighed as the numbweed took effect. "Oh, holy Faranth that feels so much better, thanks." He fell back onto the bed, letting the Healer do her work. His foot twitched as she pulled the piece of rock out of the cut and he pulled himself up into a sitting position again.

Z'mer spotted Pala's bandaged hand and give a soft chuckle. "Seems I'm not the only one that's accident prone today. What happened to you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

[missing]

"I was cutting more bandages... I don't think we'll have to stitch it up... You probably just managed to hit almost every capillary in there, they tend to bleed alot but clot quickly..." she carefully cleaned the wound of dirt and rock shards, taking a smaller bowl and running water through the cut every so often to flush it, "The problem with things like this is that they can get infected or scar up stiff so you'll want to apply the salve I give you frequently. You are a rider yes?"

Satisfied that the wound was clean she went back to the drawers and pulled out a jar of salve. Opening it, she began to apply it herself, "Apply this in the and change your bandages twice daily, and again if you bathe or get the area wet enough to need it," she wrapped the injury snuggly, but not tight enough to constrict bloodflow before loosening her makeshift tourniquet. After a few moments had passed without any blood seeping through, "When you change your bandages you should clean the area of the old salve and let it air a bit to help it heal. You should only need to do this for less than a sevenday or until you start to see new skin, after that just making sure to move should keep the skin supple. That DOESN'T mean you should go dancing the night away got it?"

She leveled a gaze at him that let him know that rider or not, in this matter she was in charge.

[lyonza]

"You should really be more careful," Z'mer said with a mock frown. "Who will heal the healer if she injures herself doing prep work?" He was teasing and hoped she took it in that spirit.

Z'mer grinned. "I don't do things in half-measures," he said with some humor. He listened as she explained what had happened. "Well, it's not the first time I cut myself by accident. But this is the worst one so far." He peered at his toes. "So I don't need stitches?" He tried wiggling his toes but felt the twinge in the cut and left it alone.

"Clean properly, apply the salve, wait for the skin to grow back and don't dance the night away. Got it." He fluttered his eyes outrageously. "If I look enough like an invalid, would you consider dressing my wound each day?" He added a swoon for good measure, grinning all the while.

[missing]

"If the healer is any good at her craft she can heal herself," she smiled, pouring out some plain water onto a clean cloth and handed it to him before grabbing another cloth for herself, "For the blood, you cetainly did make a mess of things, and I thought I was bad. No I don't think you'll need stitches if you are careful," she seemed pleased by his ability to wiggle his toes, "It's better to let these things heal on their own as much as possible. Many stitches on the foot tear due to the increased movement of that particular appendage, that and the weight it bears daily."

"If your dragon is waiting for you outside I would like to tell him
the same instructions I gave you. I've been informed that riders often need their dragons to remind them of these things," she eyed him, as if trying to decide if he was one of those people, "If that is alright with you of course?"

She sighed, "I don't think you should have a problem changing them yourself... But if you feel you need assistance..." she suddenly frowned, coming down out of her work mode she realized the look he was giving her, "You're teasing me aren't you?"

[lyonza]

Z'mer took the cloth and started cleaning the blood off himself now that the wound was taken care of. "So you reckon I was bleeding like all over the place because I managed to cut a good number of blood vessels? Who knew the foot could bleed like that?" He peered down at his foot. "This is the worst kind of injury I've had on my feet - usually I'm wearing boots of some sort." He wasn't going to catalog the list of injuries he sustained in the twenty years he'd been a rider. Training accidents were common enough.

"Amoneth is on our weyr ledge - I made him drop me off there. He's not too worried about this but I did cut his hunting short, so we'll go out in a day or two so he can eat some more. I do have ground access so its not too much of a hassle to get down from my weyr." He poked at the bandage and nodded when he didn't feel too much pain. "You're welcome to tell Amoneth as well if you want, but I don't think its necessary." He pursed his lips. "When do you want me to come back for a check-up?"

Z'mer chuckled. "Just a little bit, but you were being so serious, I had to tease you. Don't fear, I will be the best patient you can imagine. I'll follow orders and make sure it doesn't get infected and that it heals properly. I swear on Amoneth's shell."

[missing]

"In your hands, feet, and skull you have capillaries and they tend to bleed a lot. Veins can bleed quite a bit, but can clot with minimal help. Had you hit an artery you would have known, the blood would have been bright red and spurting out with your heartbeat. It really is a rather interesting thing to watch actually-" she caught herself, as if just then realizing that she was talking about things that most normal people didn't really want to hear, "Ah sorry about that, these things just hold a particular interest for me..."

"If you think you can and will remember then I don't need to tell him, I've been warned that dragonriders tend to ignore things they shouldn't when it comes to their health," she thought a moment, "You shouldn't need to come in for another week or so, earlier if you have complications. If it starts to get warm, ooze a weird color, smell bad, basically anything you don't normally see in a cut you should come back right away. It was fairly dirty but I flushed it well so it should be okay as long as you continue to keep it clean and bandaged."


Pala seemed satisfied by his promise and nodded her head with a smile, "It would be nice to have a compliant patient for once. Just keep an eye out of infection, we need every rider with threadfall coming..."

[lyonza]

Z'mer listened for a moment at the list of things and places that bled profusely before smiling. "At least I have a thick skull, so any damage is superficial. And thank Faranth that I haven't cut open an artery yet. I'd hate to bleed that much - seeing it pump out in time with my heart would give me nightmares if I survived it." he patted her hand reassuringly. "My dear, you wouldn't be a healer if things like that didn't interest you. Though I do not suggest that the topic of how blood spurts out in time with one's heart is good dinner conversation. Except maybe with other Healers." He winked to take the sting out of the words.

Z'mer just nodded. "Altruistic I may be in serving Pern as a rider, but I am selfish enough to not let myself get sick or cause myself to lose a foot through negligence. So, rest assured that I will take care of this foot as if its my own." He winked at Pala. "I had friends back at Telgar that were like that and I had to constantly remind them that taking care of an injury was better than suffering later on from a crooked arm or something because they were too macho to actually DO what the healers told them. I love myself too much."

His eyes softened and then unfocused for a moment. "Don't worry, Amoneth heard everything, the big sneak was lurking in my mind the whole time so he knows to remind me about taking care of the wound." And you better or I will eat you, his dragon added, letting Pala hear him as well. The words might have sounded threatening but the dragon's tone was fond and filled with love.

"Yeah, yeah, you keep threatening to do that and what have you done to date? Not even a nibble," he answered aloud for Pala's sake. He looked at her. "He threatens to eat me, I tell him that I can't wait. Twenty years of friendship and partnership... I won't exchange it for anything on Pern. Ever."

[missing]

At the mention of dinner Pala's face broke into a huge grin, "Oh you should have seen me when I was first learning at Fort Hold. My aunt had been teaching me about how one pulls a muscle and the the differences between tendons and ligaments. Well we had wherry that night an you wouldn't belive the looks I got when people saw a ten turn old girl dissecting her food and pointing out the parts of a fowl. My aunt explained to me only afterward that that wasn't really an acceptable dinner activity in a Major Hold..." She laughed.


"It's good to take care of yourself, in the case of being a rider it is technically taking care of your dragon as well. I'm glad he's being sneaky, it's always good to have someone else looking out for-" she blinked in surprise at Amoneth's voice in her head, "I don't think I will never get used to that..."

She listened carefully as he spoke about Amoneth, mentally storing the information. How strange the bond between a dragon and his rider was sometimes. She wondered what made it happen, or why a dragon chose one over another. If that person wasn't there for hatching would they have... gone between? She visibly frowned at the thought. Or would they have found another candidate instead? How was the connection even made? Such questions fascinated her.

[lyonza]

Z'mer listened to the tale with growing disbelief. "You didn't!" he exclaimed like a youngling, as if denying the story would prove it to be false. Then he broke up laughing, deep from his belly. "Oh, I can just SEE it happening and the horrified looks from the rest of the Holders!" He collapsed on the bed and laughed some more.

Z'mer finally got himself under control. "Amoneth doesn't listen often but he's worried enough to do it. I can feel him most of the time, but sometimes I'm a little distracted, like cutting my foot." He smiled as Pala mused about getting used to it. "I've heard someone say once that our dragons sound like we do, that their voice sounds the same as if we were talking. I can't tell, but its still an interesting notion. And don't worry, you'll get used to it when you Impress," he said with a certain amount of surety.

Z'mer heaved himself up off the bed, testing the amount of weight he could put on the foot. He winced as he put his foot down and frowned. "I'm not sure I should walk on it right away. A cane or a crutch perhaps until tomorrow when it would have started healing more?"

[missing]

She smiled, actually having the gall to look a little big smug about the whole situation. When she had looked up from her meal some of the other children had begun looking at her like she was mad, and more than a couple were being lead away by concerned parents. Thinking back on it it probably hadn't been a good idea to point out that disconnecting certain tendons would almost certainly cripple someone.

Pala perked up a bit at the bit about dragons sounding like their riders, "Really?! Now that is something I haven't heard yet. I wonder if their voice changes to match the rider or if they sound that way even before they impress... Although I imagine only their mothers and possibly a few other dragons would know the answer to that... I'm not about to go asking Orlaith though, she certainly has her hands- er claws full enough as it is without dealing with some nosy candidate... And don't start with that 'when' talk. I'm living my dream right now by working towards Master rank. Impressing would be wonderful but I'm not about to cheapen my life-long dream just because something shiny comes around. If I am allowed to live my life as nothing more than a healer I would be overjoyed. So don't get my hopes up about something more and make me discontent with the dream that is much more certainly within reach. "

She nodded, setting down her cleaning cloth and walking to a storage area. She pulled down one cane, held it up while looking at him before shaking her head and putting it back. The next one seemed to suit her requirements better and she brought it over to him, "This should be the right length for you... just don't try guilting some poor young thing into your bed with it," she laughed, picking up the used supplies and setting them in bins to be either washed or tossed.

[lyonza]

Z'mer just chuckled some more. "You enjoyed that at the table, didn't you?" he sort of accused. "You may not quite have known what the ramifications of your dissection was, but you enjoyed it none the less." He paused. "I like your style."

Z'mer frowned. "Well, Amoneth just spoke to you. Did he sound anything like me? Or did he sound different?" He was quite curious and never did get to ask anybody else about that. "I think when they Impress, when they first speak to the person they chose - their 'voice' is established. Hmmm, interesting notion. I really should investigate it more."

He nodded when Pala explained that she was quite happy to be a Healer and would love to attain her Mastery. It was quite admirable and he couldn't help but grin at her words and held his hands in surrender. "At least you have a dream," Z'mer said. "I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I was chosen at fourteen, I didn't really have much in terms of ambition at the time. Hold on to your ambition and if you do Impress, try and make them understand how important being a Healer is to you, not just being a rider but that you want to keep doing what you love. I'm sure our Weyrleaders will accept and understand that."

He took the cane, tried it out and nodded his satisfaction. "All I want right now, my dear Pala, is to have something to eat, go rest a while and then soak in the bath for a while before going to bed. Alone and virtuous in my weyr." He put on a pious look and batted his eyes at her.

[missing]

She smiled, "I'm not sure if I should be worried or grateful..."

"Honestly I was caught off guard, I didn't think to listen to how he sounded, just what he was saying. I haven't really spent any time at all around dragons or even fire lizards so I figure if I'm going to be working in a Weyr, and probably treating them... Well I should learn more about them right? And besides, it's rather fun to figure things out I think."


"Well I didn't always know what mine was. If my parents hadn't sent me off to live with my aunt I'd probably STILL be on our cothold covered in mud and beating the shards out of anyone who dared tease Laura- ah that is my sister, sorry. I haven't seen her in turns now, she's probably getting all sorts of attention now..." she got a rather possessively angry look on her face, but shook it off quickly, "When I left home I wanted to learn all I could about everything, but something about healing just stuck with me. Maybe it's hereditary, who knows?"

Pala watched him try out the cane, hiding a silent laugh behind her hand, "I can hardly picture you as virtuous. Don't you bat those eyes at me! I'm immune to your charms mister!" She crossed her arms over her chest.