Illness

Posted on Fri Jan 14th, 2022 @ 1:05pm by Lieutenant Nikosh Targus

1,217 words; about a 6 minute read

Illness
Personal Log, SD 202201.13
Lt. Nikosh mok Targus

OOC Info:
During the month of December, the player of Nikki was unable to attend any sims. He missed two regular sims and the "Christmas Party" sim. This log is an attempt to provide an in-character excuse for those absences. Please also see the Duty Log of LtCmdr. Adonudo T'lanuwa (another character played by this simmer) entitled "Catching Up" with the same date as this log for additional information.

. Lt. Nikosh mok Targus, the Tellarite Intelligence Officer of the USS Roddenberry hadn't been feeling well that morning as he was getting up for his shift. He decided to "take a sick day" and just stay in his quarters relaxing in a mud bath.
. Ordinarily, the warm, soft mud against his naked flesh brought a calming feeling and a relaxation of tense muscles, but today, it didn't seem to be working. Nikki felt unusually tired and flushed, and even after several minutes in the hot mud he still felt tense and was developing a headache. And even though he hadn't actually eaten anything for breakfast, his stomach seemed knotted into a hard ball.
. He dragged himself out of the bath, showered the mud off with a typical warm water shower, dried off, and got dressed in civilian clothes, just a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, and some open-toe sandals on his feet.
. He muttered to himself in his thick, Russian-like accent, "Strange, yes? Usually even in my own quarters ze temperature is barely varm enough, but today, is almost hot, no? Smoke or Lance must be playing vith something in Engineering, eh?"
. He puttered around his quarters for a bit, but after a while he had to rush into his private head, barely making it before retching violently over the toilet. There wasn't much content to his stomach, though, since he hadn't eaten breakfast because of his upset stomach. "Ugh," he moaned, "I tink maybe I should see ze doctor, no?"
. He stumbled to the door of his quarters and stepped out into the hall. His quarters were on Deck 2 with the Senior Officers (he was the "Chief of Intelligence" after all, even though his department consisted just of him and a couple of folks to help with "paperwork" - they were probably just basic Operations personnel, though). Sickbay, or rather, the Wellness Center as Dr. Adonudo T'lanuwa had named it when he was Chief Medical Officer (and the current CMO, Dr. Heather Argeneau-Morgensen had kept), was on Deck 10.
. He made it to the Turbolift with only a few strange looks from passing residents. He stepped inside and said, "Vul-neth Shan-tru." The computer buzzed the negative and said, "Unable to comply, unrecognized destination."
. Nikki tried to scowl but his face felt odd. He tried again, more slowly, "Val-nash Soon-tee-ru." Again, the buzzing and the computer said, "Unable to comply."
. Suddenly, the doors slid open as a young woman in civilian clothing slipped in. She'd seen the Tellarite Lieutenant around the deck before, and though they weren't friends she knew the man had some unusual behavioral quirks. A glance at him and the unspoken thought came to her, ~Isn't it a little early to be drunk? It's only like 1100 hours!~ She spoke her destination, "Deck 13," and the Turbolift began moving.
. Nikki felt a little relieved to be moving. He slouched slightly, leaning against the wall, then turned to the young woman and said, "Fang chu ... oovak vundarinku vaishi tabolufi vahdintko."
. The young woman put on a fake smile and turned to the Tellarite man, "I'm sorry, I don't speak Tellarite." She turned back to face the door as they rode.
. Nikki responded, "N-na sh-shrakun t-talurai. Votz vahngvit m-mu?" He tried to lift his arm, to reach out to the woman, but it only shook feebly at his side. His face took on a mask of fear just before he fell to the floor, convulsing spasmodically!
. "My stars!" the woman exclaimed. She dropped to the floor beside the seizing man then quickly stood and pressed the wall communication panel. "Dr. T'lanuwa, come quickly, it's Lt. Targus, he was ... well, talking nonsense, stumbling around ... I just thought he was drunk or something, but then ... well, he had a seizure or something. He's convulsing!"
. Dr. Adonudo T'lanuwa was the older Native American Medicine Man who was once the Chief Medical Officer but now served as the Chief Counselor. The woman knew that whatever was going on with the Lieutenant it had something to do with his brain and brain stuff was what the Counselor was for, right?
. The Counselor's voice came back, "Call Cmdr. Argeneau too, and get him to the Wellness Center. I'm on my way."
. The woman quickly tapped the comm panel again, "Sickbay? I mean, Wellness Center? Dr. Argeneau? I'm calling about Lt. Targus ...."
.
. Lt. Nikosh mok Targus, the Tellarite Intelligence Officer of the USS Roddenberry was quickly brought to the Wellness Center. Dr. Heather Argeneau-Morgensen had been resting in her office, heavily pregnant and barely able to get around comfortably. But, she quickly responded to her new patient, getting him onto a bio-bed and making all the preliminary scans.
. She had to have several nurses hold the short but burly Tellarite down until they could get restraints on him. His convulsions were wild and violent and she didn't want him hurting himself or anyone else, and she didn't want to administer a sedative to knock him out until after she'd taken enough scans to get some idea what was going on with him!
. It was only a few moments later when the Counselor, Dr. Adonudo T'lanuwa arrived. He quickly checked Nikki's bio-signs, then stepped off to consult with Heather a moment. The two doctors spoke softly to one another for a moment, then Heather excused herself to go to the Head, again. That baby was doing a tap-dance on her bladder!
. Adon pulled up a medical database on one monitor and Nikki's bio data on another and began comparing information. After a few moments, Heather returned and leaned over his shoulder to read the same information. The data seemed to indicate some kind of inflammation to the myelin sheaths, the insulating layer of material that surrounded nerves, including the spinal cord and those in the brain.
Finally, the two doctors agreed the problem must be a Tellarite version of Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis, a kind of widespread inflammation of the myelin in the brain that was probably the result of Nikki's own immune system reacting abnormally to some kind of virus, probably a respiratory infection based on the phlegm detected in Nikki's lungs.
. They continued reading on ADEM and saw that it could be indicated by fever, fatigue, headache, nausea and vomiting, and could cause ataxia, an inability to coordinate voluntary movements. "That could explain the speech problems," Adon said.
. "I'm worried about hemiplegia," Adon said. Hemiplegia was weakness on one side of the body caused by impaired nerve signals.
. "Or even palsy," Heather added. "It could be permanent if he's suffered brain damage."
. "Or optic neuritis," Adon said. "I wouldn't want him blind, even if just in one eye."
. The usual treatment was a heavy infusion of anti-inflammatory corticosteroids and Heather quickly set up an IV for methylprednisolone. "Let's hope we caught it in time," she said.

=== END LOG ===

 

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