Lt Commander Foster - Will Work
Jamie LeBlanc
(( Main SickBay – USS Constitution-B ))
Desperate times called for desperate measures. Cade was old enough to understand that sometimes pain was a way to a goal. Sometimes pain was good and prompted change, and reminded you that you were still alive.
But he was also a doctor and he had lived through enough pain. He understood pain, empathized with it through too many traumatic personal experiences. He did not like causing pain to others, and he did not like prescribing pain.
And yet that was exactly what he was about to do.
Foster: If you have the will to fight, and you are completely onboard with getting into able bodied condition in fifteen hours… ::he took in a slow breath:: I can hyperstimulate the area to basically jump start and force your brain to form new bonds with the repaired nerves.
Her expression was – as always – difficult to read due to those pure black eyes. Eyes that Cade was now well accustomed to. He read the twitches in her cheeks, the curl of her lips, the pinch of skin at the sides of her eyes.
She was curious, and chagrined. He was expecting the next question.
D’Sena: We worked together for over a year and you are just now bringing that up? Why?
Because of so many reasons. Pain was only the first. He knew if there had been an easy way presented to her right away she would have jumped on it and the result would have almost certainly been a lot of unnecessary pain and a vicious backslide. Because the only thing that feeling helpless was feeling helpless while in excruciating pain.
No, he had vowed to himself to never bring up this possibility unless he felt there was a better than average chance at success. And now? Yes, he felt she had not only made enough progress on her own, but the incentive was right that this wasn’t just a suggestion to watch a dear friend get tortured. That it might work. It wasn’t just a possibility but a probability.
And it was still dangerous.
Foster: Hyperstimulation will cause acute pain, which you can dampen by reforming those connections and moving the legs ::he stressed the moving the legs part:: basically it forces your brain to recognize the repaired nerves, and the more you move them the more you bleed off the stimulus, the pain recedes. But if you can’t form those connections? Then you’re in a lot of pain and it will remain painful until the nerves calm down on their own. I give you painkillers and sedatives, you sleep through the mission and we lose ground on physical therapy. So yes, there’s a risk.
It was like holding your hand against a flame to get a reaction – either it worked and you jerked your hand away because it hurt, taking a minor first degree burn… or it didn’t work and you left your hand there until a doctor pulled you away with third degree burns.
Except with legs and without fire.
D'Sena: So I either am in pain and then that stops and it works. Or I'm in pain and have to be knocked out.
Foster: Correct. ::heck, he would use the fire analogy. It was working for him.:: Think of it like you’re holding you hand up to a fire, and your goal is to get your hand to react and move away. You hold your hand up and ow! That hurts! If you pull it away right away then the pain starts to go away and the damage is minimal. The skin is red like a sunburn, we heal it easily and you have the confidence to move. But if you can’t get that reaction going your hand stays by the fire and the burn gets worse and worse until I step in. And then the pain gets worse and worse and we have more work to do to heal everything.
That seemed to sink in. She quieted and mulled it over while Cade started running probability equations in his head on how crazy this stunt would be in a risk/reward sort of way.
D’Sena: Do we have alternatives?
Possibly. He looked to her, tossing the ball back into her court.
Foster: What sort of alternatives?
He was all ears here, trying to see where she was going with options.
D'Sena: There are things that support species that naturally live in different gravity levels like Elaysians. Exoskeletons and the like. Would those work?
A nod, he picked up a medical journal and smirked. Wyn – his very own kid – worked with an Elaysian and had written several papers on Elaysian mobility over the last two years. Funny how things seemed to work out in odd ways.
Foster: That could certainly help. There’s levels of cybernetic integration with devices like that from not invasive at all to very invasive. Consider it a spectrum.
From ‘braces’ to ‘borg’ and everything in between.
D'Sena: How about a combination? It may not help against the pain but it would help as a support to ease the muscles into functioning wouldn't it? Just the skeleton alone might not be enough but both together?
He considered it, leaning back and letting his blue eyes glaze over in concentration, weighing the benefits and considerations and trying to factor in each tweak on various brace and support structures.
Foster: Ok, I think we can optimize a plan for the best chance of reward versus risk.
D’Sena: ?
Foster: Now, know that you are still required to *move your legs on your own* - something I know damn well you can do, I have seen you do it in physical therapy. So I’m counting on this being a surefire success; but it will still be painful. The move movement you can accomplish the more the pain will recede, understand?
D’Sena: ?
He started to tap up a plan of action on his PADD, getting details in for leg supports and how engineering could modify what they already had available doubletime.
Foster: We do have access to the braces you were talking about from the StarBase. Good thing we haven’t launched yet. Now, I need to be clear about functioning. Hyperstimulation makes you move your legs. Not in a tentative manner, you will move them like you mean it. The braces help support and balance your weight. They are like crutches that are fitted to your body. They will help your muscles get used to that movement and help support your weight so you’re not doing it all on your own.
D’Sena: ?
Foster: I am not discounting the possibility that the best way to work through the first wave of hyperstimulation to bleed off pain is to lie on your side and run your legs like a dog runs while dreaming. At least it gives you practice with the movements. If the first round is successful we will repeat the treatment and every round will give you more strength and mobility with less pain. It will get better – if it works.
And he wasn’t here to ruminate on what would happen if it didn’t work. Not righgt now when they had come so far and there was so little time left.
D’Sena: ?
He stabbed a finger at her chest.
Foster: No, I’m counting on you to believe in yourself that you can do this and you will not fail. Remember, subconscious on board. Conscious on board. Get all on board and this will work.
Might work.
Will work.
When did Cade Foster become an optimist?
D’Sena: ?
~*~
tags/tbc
~*~
Lt Commander Cade Foster
Misison Specialist and Acting CMO
~Julian Beck
E239010ST0