Oaths and Opinions (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 20 May 2012 @ 7:08pm by Lieutenant JG Brayden White Ph.D. & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D.

2,518 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Sickbay
Timeline: MD07 - 1330 hrs

[ON - Continued...]

"What kind of alternative treatments are you thinking of?"

"Have you ever heard of a branch of medicine known as Physical Medicine? The aim of this branch of medicine is to enhance and restore functional ability and quality of life to those with physical impairments or disabilities. Your side effects of the disc degeneration and the pain you experience when it acts up could be managed under this."Placing her hands back on the desk, Pola leaned back while keeping her eyes on Brayden.

"And that's different from the ongoing therapy I'm doing now... how?" he asked, interested to hear if she had some other idea about how to manage his hyperextension.

Picking up the Padd beside her, Pola set her left leg swinging while she called up the data she needed. "The treatment your undergoing at the moment, photo-dynamic therapy, involves a chemical reaction on your skin using a combination of photosensitizers, a light source and tissue oxygen. The main element of this treatment though it the involvement of the chemical reaction to help reduce your experience of pain."

Holding out the PADD for Brayden to have a read through it, Pola continued, "With the Physical medicine, what I would encourage you to take a look at is a process known as electromyography. Through the use of electrodes to more deeply penetrate the muscles of your back, allowing the treatment to penetrate deeper the PDT, thus allowing a long and more efficient form of pain relief."

"I'm familiar with electromyography in theory," he said, considering the PADD she handed him. "Never actually had occasion to use it before. And this," he tapped his finger against the screen, "will last longer than the light therapy? By how much?" It'd be nice not to have to strap the wide pad to his back at the end of every week or very long days.

"At the moment your getting 3-4days worth of relief, maybe more if your not being very strenuous? As the electromyography allows for deeper penetration would could probable double that. It's also non-invasive. We use a piece of equipment called electron generator. By running it across your back, the generator creates a pulse which radiates electrons down into your back, pushing them down to penetrate into your muscle. I would be inclined to think an application of this or 15-20minutes once a week should be more than efficient." Pola was glad she was explaining this to a fellow Doctor, it was a complex procedure and she was bad at breaking things down into simplistic understanding as it was, at least she knew Brayden would understand her language.

Brayden nodded. If it could last two times longer and let him sleep without something strapped to his back, he was more than willing to give it a try. "I'm willing to give it a shot," he agreed. "Who else knows how to use this thing? Not that I don't relish the idea of someone unfamiliar with the equipment shooting pulses into my spine."

Picking up a second PADD, Pola quickly glanced through the files of her medical personnel, "Hum...I have some knowledge in the usage of the electron generator. From what I can see here, I think our EMH would be the only other person on the medical staff who would have the experience."

"Ah," Brayden laughed. "Never been treated by an EMH; I guess we'll get to know each other pretty well, if I'm getting zapped by him every week. How did the meeting with the XO go?"

"Ah it was nothing, just one of those senior staff meetings, ensuring we are all actually doing something and not just slacking off." Pola continued to look down at the files in her hands. She had managed to push aside what had been discussed but Brayden's question had her thinking back over everything discussed. The Doctor's hopes were firmly pinned on the recent incidents being purely down to the fact that it was pure coincidence. Her focus right now needed to be on the medical and psychological well being of the crew of this ship. Those thoughts suddenly reminded Pola see needed to have a one to one with Jonathan over the crew psychological state.

"The EMH isn't actually that bad I must say, nice guy."

Brayden grinned at her, winningly, "See - this is why I like being a civilian." He sobered a little, "Liked, anyway. No one to answer to but your own ethics and sense of purpose. Speaking of which," he began, then paused. "Sorry. Had you finished my evaluation?"

Closing over the tricorder, Pola leaned over to place her hand on Brayden's arm, "Number one, am I that bad a boss that your worried about having to report to me as a starfleet officer? Number two, just because you have a pip in the collar doesn't mean anything changes between me and you and how you do your job. As far as I'm concerned, you are still Brayden White and nothing changes that. Rank doesn't exist in medical, it can''t because you treat everyone equally."

It was hard to explain, he thought, but he gave it a try. "It's not about you personally..." He scrubbed his hands through his hair, leaving them momentarily scratching at the back of his head, thinking. "It's the philosophy of the thing. And the ethics in general. If they think that tagging me means I'm going to turn over confidential patient information, for example, then I might as well get off at the next station. And don't tell me that doesn't happen," he sighed. "I've seen it. I can't imagine throwing any patient of mine - medical or psychological - to the wolves like that. I can't imagine you doing it either, but when loyalty is pledged to a system instead of an individual, people feel like that's okay." He laughed, "My hippy Terran brain."

Pola pulled back, listening to what Brayden was saying and trying to figure out a responce. "In any job you do, as a civilian or as a starfleet officer, if your patient puts another person at risk, you will be forced to hand over information youmay not want to, but at the end of the day it is to protect either your patient themselves or an innocent party."

Getting up Pola, limped over to look out her office window at sickbay."Your not looking beyond being a starfleet officer. In this job your Hippocratic oath comes first. Noone is going to demand you breach a confidence unless there's evidence to show why it has to be done. Starfleet recognises a counsellor or a Doctor must be treated differently. You seem to not be able to look beyond the label and see things are not the way you think they are." Turning, the Doctor looked at her colleague, she wasn't angry or upset, she was worried. If Brayden felt this strongly it may effect him he may walk and he was someone she didn't want to loose, both as his boss and as his friend.

She was so young, he thought. Maybe she hadn't yet seen how medical officers could become more officer than medical over time. Or maybe it was because she had always been inside the system, that she couldn't see it entirely for what it was. People - humans and other - were fallible. In a way, he hoped she'd never learn otherwise. He lifted his brows. "Looking behind the label is what I do, Pola. It just so happens I've been doing it for a while." He looked at her fondly, "You keep believing what you do, and maybe I'll find myself doing the same."

Turning around to smile at Brayden, Pola leaned back against the window pane, "Look on the bright side if anything else, at the end of the day your job is to look after the crew, anything above that which brings that into question falls to me to make the decision. I have to believe what I do as it's the only way I can be a CMO, if I didn't believe it then I'd be better off staying as a medical officer."

"And, on that note, how are you doing with everything? You didn't come see me yesterday."

Sticking her tongue out at Brayden, more so to try get him to smile, Pola limped back around to lean against her desk. "I'm doing fine with everything. I did as promised, went and got some sleep and then reported straight here for work. I've been up to my eyes trying to finalise the crew's medicals and then I collapsed into bed again after my shift. Now quit trying to change the subject again."

"I'm sorry," he said truthfully. "I thought we'd exhausted the subject of me. All right, what else did you want to cover?"

"Well we had exhausted the subject of you but that wasn't an indicator to turn this into a counselling session for me again, surely you'd enough of that yesterday." Leaning back on her hands on the table, as she grins. It wasn't that she was trying to avoid the topic of yesterday coming up again, she just really did feel concerned about Brayden, he'd enough on his plate today without adding her to it again.

"I didn't, actually," he assured her. "You're an interesting, complex woman, Pola. If there's any way I can help you, I will seek it out. We don't have to now, but I really do think it would be good for you to talk about it. We didn't leave it last time with a plan."

"Hum...do you use that line on all of your female patients?" Smiling softly, Pola leaned her weight further back onto her hands on the table, looking down at her foot. "As a Doctor I understand how people can fight you for treatment and I'm conciousness of not doing that to you also. A plan might help..I'm sure you understand it's difficult to go one minute from happy and able to do my job to upset and powerless, it contradicts who I need to be as a departmental head."

"It's not a line. It's true," he told her. "And I do understand that catapulting between two sides of your emotions can be disorienting, which is why I'm concerned. Until you find a way to find peace with your feelings about this, they will keep cropping up. If you give yourself the space and time to work on them, then they shouldn't sneak up on you because you'll be giving them the attention they need from you. Does that make sense?"

Finding herself blushing at Brayden's words, Pola gently cleared her throat, continuing to concentrate her focus on her foot. "It does make sense but it doesn't take away that fear...I know yesterday was an exception as everything became piled on at once but the fear of it happening again is still there."

"So what do you want to do about it?" he asked her.

Laughing, Pola looked up and grinning at Brayden, "Ignore it an hope it will go away? But given that's not an option, I like your idea of handling it across time instead of all in one go."

"Ignoring it is an option," he told her. "It's just not one I'd recommend. It's not up to me how you choose to deal with this, but you do need to choose. Would you like to schedule a session, see where we get to, and go from there?"

Letting out a breath, Pola looked back down at her lap as she nodded her head. Thinking over her schedule in her head, she tried to figure out when would suit, "How about we do it tomorrow? I'm on beta, to be honest after my ship is best to catch me as often I have to come in and help the alpha shift."

"I'd say you could just come in whenever you were free, and you can if you want, but I think it might be helpful for you to have a set time. That way you know when and that you have a time prioritized just for your feelings and that will help you focus on other things in the meantime. So tomorrow, end of beta? What is that, zero-hundred?"

"If you don't tie me down I'll also find a reason to keep forgetting and not go." Smiling Pola nodded her head, "Let's make it 0010hours, give me until 0030hours though and if you don't hear from me, you'd best give me a shout."

"I will. Just make sure you get some rest. Don't let them work you all the way through Alpha and Beta." He looked at her with his best arch doctor face, "You may be the CMO, but I am officially your doctor until your ankle is finished healing. Agreed?"

Laughing gently, Pola nodded her head again, at this point releasing it might fall of if she nodded any more. Looking up she met Brayden's eyes, grinning herself, "I promise Doc. If it looks like we are over worked I'll get you called in so as I can rest."

"Good to hear. I like to be used." He winked at her and settled back. "And now I'm officially done prodding at you until tomorrow night." He tapped his feet lightly together, humming. "I guess I should get back to deck three... I like your office."

Slightly shocked, Pola looked around her, "My office? Ah..." The Doctor wasn't sure how to respond that. She'd only taken it over a few days ago so was still settling in.

"The light's good in here." He looked around. "Do you have anything you carry with you from place to place?" he asked, curiously, wondering if there was some rule he hadn't touched upon yet in the rulebook about not personalizing spaces.

"This is the first time I've ever had an office, ACMO aren't usually afforded one. I've only had control of this space about 2-3days now so I'm still shifting stuff around. Personally...the only things I carry with me place to place are two photographs and my dance equipment such as my ballet shoes."

"Yeah," he agreed with a little nod. "Carry too much, you get weighed down." He nodded again, thoughtfully, and drew his attention back to her. "Well. I'll let you get back to work. Thanks for the chat. And the check-up."

Getting to her feet, keeping her weight on her right leg, Pola walked over to Brayden and gave him a hug. It was a little out of the blue but she just felt a want to do it, "Thank's again for everything Brayden, you really are a good guy."

He grinned. "And you really are a good gal," he told her, with a vague attempt at a salute before he headed out.


[OFF]
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Lieutenant JG Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Brayden White Ph.D. (pNPC Kestra Orexil)
Counselor
USS Galileo

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