It's just a headache. on Hospital Wing

Joe Umland

February 25, 2018 9:10 PM

It's just a headache. by Joe Umland

Joe had realized he was in for a rough day within moments of realizing what day it was, a good thirty minutes after he had intended to come to that realization. His head had felt full of fog, his eyelids and bones full of lead. Getting up and getting dressed, he had felt like he was moving through jelly, and he had not been able to muster much more speed even when his mirror had started chiding him about being late.

At the time, he'd chalked it up to RATS exhaustion, studying too long for too many days, and had carefully made his way to the Cascade Hall to get coffee. This had made him even later for class, and he had muttered an apology and proceeded to spend the rest of class avoiding his teacher's eyes. He was dimly glad that shame and contrition were the proper emotions for him to feel right now, because he was not sure he would have been capable of looking up. The coffee had done very little to clear his head, but it had done an excellent job, he thought, of making his stomach clench and his leaden bones begin vibrating alarmingly – so much so that by the end of that class, of which he understood barely a word, his arms and back and neck were all aching to the point where it was hard to ignore them.

Get it together, Umland, he told himself sternly on his way to his next class, sticking close to the wall after a few steps forward without the guideline seemed to involve things rushing forward and back at odd angles. Skip today and you'll just have that much more to do tomorrow.

By the end of that second class, however, he realized it was a lost job. He had tried to perform several spells – one of them with the aim of making himself a cup of water, as he'd been intensely thirsty – but his arm had felt too heavy to maneuver the wand smoothly, and magic itself had felt…wrong. Now…slippery, almost, dropping threads here and there as he tried to move his wand to make the right patterns, now like a mist slipping away from him, now like an electric shock jerking him around instead of the other way ‘round. The sensation that his bones were all shaking had only intensified, turning his awareness that his back and arms existed into a source of pure misery, and his head felt as though something very sharp was trying to claw its way out through his forehead, with extra feet digging into the sides of his temples for leverage. This last one was the problem which made him draw the line; there was no way he would be able to do anything else, he thought, with this awful headache, and he didn't have anything to take for a headache, so he'd have to go to the hospital wing. A nice, smooth path of logic there; the new Healer could give him something for his headache, and then he'd feel better enough that he could drag himself first to lunch and then through the rest of his classes and then call it a night….

“Hi,” he said, and accompanied this word with what he thought was his usual dealing-with-adults smile. It was, in fact, a mockery of the expression, drooping a bit and additionally set in an unnaturally pale face. His brown eyes were dull and sunken into dark circles under his eyes, and he flinched at the light. “I'm…sorry – sorry to – bother you, but I have a headache, could you – “

Standing upright was such an effort. He just wanted to lie down on that bed there and go to sleep. Everything that wasn't aching from his bones shaking was aching as though it was strained. Just a few hours and he'd be good, he was sure…but he had to go back to class. He caught the back of a chair and leaned on that. “It's a really bad headache,” he clarified, in case she was one of those people who was reluctant to hand out drugs.

16 Joe Umland It's just a headache. 329 Joe Umland 1 5

Healer Kapoor

February 26, 2018 7:34 AM

Oh really? Where'd you get your healer's degree? by Healer Kapoor

Aisha had been just about to go and get some lunch when one of the older students walked in. He claimed he had a headache, but if he did, it had to be something more like a migraine. He looked about as good as the last one and, even though he'd managed to get here under his own steam, seemed to need the furniture for support.

“Why don't you sit down?” she suggested, giving him a chance to do so of his own accord but, for all that she'd made a question, perfectly willing to firmly steer him into that chair if she needed to.

“Name?” she asked. She could see his house, clearly displayed on his robes. She called his name back to the filing cabinet with a flick of her wand, and a set of notes came forward with somewhat less certainty than they had for her two previous patients. Umland, Joseph (k.a. Joe) was written across it and accounted for the slight confusion. He fit the house and year, and it was an unusual enough surname that she was pretty sure she had the right boy, though she still checked his date of birth with him, alongside his (lack of) allergies.

She waved her wand, sending the thermometer his way, glad to see that he opened up obediently in spite of it being ‘just a headache.'

“102.5!” squeaked the thermometer after a minute.

“So. That would be not just a headache,” she informed him seriously, in case he was unaware what constituted a fever. She was pretty sure he had to be feeling fairly terrible with a temperature that high, and that he was experiencing a lot more than a headache right now. She cast a charm over the thermometer to clean it and returned it to the cupboard. “You need a fever potion and a couple of hours in bed,” she informed him.

OOC - permission obtained from Joe's author that he would co-operate with having his temperature taken. If he's a good little boy and co-operates with the recommended treatment, you can write Aisha giving him the medicine but I thought I'd leave it there in case he gets it into his head to argue…

13 Healer Kapoor Oh really? Where'd you get your healer's degree? 1482 Healer Kapoor 0 5

Joe Umland

February 26, 2018 12:30 PM

University of Beinstubborn. You? by Joe Umland

So much talking. He just needed something for his headache, and probably some food - however painfully his stomach contorted at the mere idea of eating anything. Still, she was the one in control of the drugs, which meant humoring her for now.

“Joe Umland,” said Joe, accepting the proffered seat, at least, with gratitude - the chairback really had not felt sturdy enough to keep holding on to much longer. “I'm one of the Teppenpaw prefects. Nice to meet you,” he recited, adding another attempt at a smile and not adding his full first name - it never occurred to him to do so. He was puzzled by why she wanted to know his birthday, but he agreed what it was, trying not to sound as impatient as he was for her to get to the part where she gave him painkillers.

“Is this really necessary?” he croaked when a flying thermometer came toward him, but he submitted to this indignity, too, for the sake of eventually getting some relief, resolving to look up the formula for a good aches-and-pains potion himself later and make a few batches of it and keep them in his room for future use. He could have been headache-less for...some length of time, anyway. It was hard to tell. Everything seemed to be moving so slowly today...he wondered if someone had cursed the clocks.

One hundred-anything sounded pretty bad to Joe in terms of temperature, but then he remembered that Americans used Fahrenheit. Everything sounded worse in Fahrenheit. He was too groggy to guess at the difference, but it probably wasn't that bad....

“I can't go to bed,” he argued. “I've got things to do. Important things. Just...give me something, ok? Then I'll get out of your hair,” he added, thinking it might work better if he made it sound like he was the one doing her a favor as he tried to resist the urge to huddle into a ball to conserve warmth, which was conspicuously lacking in here, or so he concluded from the way he was shivering now.

16 Joe Umland University of Beinstubborn. You? 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Healer Kapoor

February 27, 2018 6:12 AM

I don't think that's widely recognised by Healer Kapoor

Oh good. She had a little soldier on her hands, who wanted to keep on trooping. She could overlook the borderline rudeness in his tone, given that she doubted he was functioning anywhere near normal right now, but that was also one hundred percent why he was not going anywhere. One hundred and two point five percent, in fact.

“You're shivering,” she pointed out in a very reasonable tone, “And I doubt that the only thing hurting is your head.”

He was going to bed. That was not up for discussion. Given that he had been able to stand on his own, she'd considered telling him he could sleep it off in his own room if he preferred, but that option was now solidly gone. The only choice remaining to him was whether he changed into the hospital pyjamas provided or passed out in his own clothes. And honestly, she wasn't fussy which, so long as he rested. The main question was how to get him there.

“Even if you go to class,” she pointed out, deciding that was probably the ‘important thing' he had to do, “You won't take any of it in. Plus, you clearly have a virus of some kind given your symptoms, which you will then be in danger of passing onto your classmates. That doesn't strike me as terribly responsible behaviour,” she added in a tone of mild censure, her eyes loitering on his prefect badge.

13 Healer Kapoor I don't think that's widely recognised 1482 Healer Kapoor 0 5

Joe Umland

February 27, 2018 11:09 AM

It's a very exclusive institution. by Joe Umland

Joe could only shrug slightly in response to the comment that his head was probably not the only thing which hurt. “Pulled something in m'back,” he conceded.

He put up a hand to protectively cover his badge when he noticed her looking at it, perceiving a threat to it in her tone. Had to keep that. Both of the others had had one. “It's too late for that,” he observed. “I've been to two classes. It's just this headache, and m'back - I can think.” There was a bridge between those thoughts, he was sure, something tying how he could not presently think to his back and head but he would be able to think in his later classes, but it was hazy and vague, and he didn't even really want to keep fighting her on this. He actually wanted to do as he was told and go to sleep, as he'd been hovering on the edge of falling asleep sitting up all day. Hours was...a lot of time, though. Maybe half an hour wouldn't do any harm.

“I want to go to sleep,” he said, allowing himself to slump - or at least making the decision to slightly control his slump instead of waiting until it became wholly involuntary on his part. “I'll sleep through lunch, ok? Just wake me up in about half an hour, ok? Please? I gotta go to Potions. I'm saving my E f-for Transfiguration.”

OOC: Feel free to write/assume Joe accepted medicine after vague soothing noises if not outright lies.

16 Joe Umland It's a very exclusive institution. 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Healer Kapoor

February 28, 2018 7:07 AM

I think we should stick with my opinion on the matter by Healer Kapoor

She was glad she hadn't confirmed his identity using his full name, because that meant she still had it up her sleeve, said in reproving tones, to wield if he continued to be difficult. Which he looked like he might be. But just as she was preparing to full name shame him, he gave in and started mumbling about how he wanted to go to sleep.

“Let's get you medicated and into bed,” she nodded, as he started to come around to the idea. She waved her wand and his shoes unfastened themselves, tugged themselves off his feet and trod over to a little locker beside the bed, where he could put anything he wanted to take off. “Maybe lose the robes, and anything warm you're wearing like a sweater,” she advised. “I know you feel cold, but that's just the fever, and you need to cool down.”

Aisha was not in the habit of lying to her patients, however tempting, and however much in their best interests in might be. And, if she was going to be their healer for the whole year, she needed them to trust her. If she betrayed Joe now, he'd only soldier on all the harder next time. Though hopefully he'd never be much worse than this.

“Fever reduction potion, non-drowsy variety,” she told him, handing him a bottle of sunshine yellow potion so that he could verify the label himself. “Now, you take that and have a nap. Your body will wake up when it feels well enough to handle things again. And until then, there's no point forcing yourself through. You'll only make a mess of things.”

13 Healer Kapoor I think we should stick with my opinion on the matter 1482 Healer Kapoor 0 5

Joe

February 28, 2018 6:46 PM

I'm...not the biggest fan of that kind of thing generally. by Joe

Joe almost began to protest again as his shoes began removing themselves - admitting that he was ill was not the same thing as saying he was too weak and feeble to even take off his own shoes! - but decided it wasn't worth it. As long as the decisions related to his socks remained his own, he could manage, he supposed.

He began to remove his robes - he had damaged his robes enough this year without sleeping in one set of them like some kind of barbarian - but balked again, however, at the prospect of deliberately making himself colder than this, even though his trousers and shirt were not in the category of garment types the Healer wanted him to remove. “I know its's' fever,” he said, carefully folding the uniform garment. “Don't you need heat to kill th'virus?” He was not so much concerned about that, of course, as the possibility that there would not be blankets involved when he cooperated with the lying-down part of the prescription. He wanted blankets. He wanted all the blankets. And tea with a bit of lemon and a lot of honey, like Mom made when they were sick. Then he would feel better, or at least less annoyed about it all.

He didn't bother looking at the label of the potion, not least because reading sounded kind of hard right now and reading medicalese that he might not understand anyway sounded downright torturous. Sunny yellow. Nice color. He liked it, and it occurred naturally - there were squash that were that yellow. Did the potion have squash in it? Squash were a vegetable, vegetables were full of vitamins, vitamins were good for sick people, weren't they? A cocktail of salicylic acid, vitamins, and caffeine sounded like just the thing right now, provided it came with a bit of food he didn't want to eat but would eat to prevent himself from feeling worse….

He realized he was staring blankly at the vial and drank its contents quickly, trying to ignore the taste and not try to reason out whether or not it tasted anything like squash. Non-drowsy formula sounded good; if he could just stay awake until it kicked in - then he could go about his business. Good idea. Very good idea. He just wished they had little cubicles or something, something so he didn't worry as much about people watching him...if she saw he was awake, she might dose him with something to resolve that, and if he did fall asleep, he didn't like the thought of people watching him in his sleep.

Huh. Hospital bed was surprisingly comfortable. He had not anticipated that - he vaguely thought of them as uncomfortable things by default. Nice pillow. No. He had to keep his eyes open. Couldn't miss things….

He blinked, and knew he had failed to execute his brilliant plan as soon as he opened his eyes again. There were several things that let him know this. One was that his head hurt in a completely different way than it had what seemed like a second before. Another was that his other aches and pains still existed, but his bones no longer felt like they were vibrating. Another was that he felt nauseous from lack of food. The most potent clue, however, was the window; it looked like it was dawn outside.

“So much for that plan,” he muttered.

OOC: Salicylic acid - a major component of aspirin, and one of the things that makes ‘willow teas' pop up as medicines so often in historical and fantasy fiction (and actual history). NSAID medications like aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen often prove more effective when combined with caffeine; a lot of migraine medications are essentially a high dose of ibuprofen combined with a high dose of caffeine (high enough, in the case of my prescription migraine meds, that the blood vessel dilation is sufficient to result in feeling uncomfortably hot). The rambling about vitamins is a nod to a) the inclusion of vitamins in the amphetamine injections many sixties politicians (among others) regularly took from the infamous “Dr. Feelgood,” creating the sensation of strength and well-being in patients but often damaging the patient's health overall and b) the fact that Joe isn't as smart generally as he thinks, particularly at the moment.

16 Joe I'm...not the biggest fan of that kind of thing generally. 329 Joe 0 5

Aisha Kapoor

March 02, 2018 9:24 PM

You might have to get used to it by Aisha Kapoor

(OOC - agreed with Joe's author in chatzy that he's mistaking sunset for sunrise, otherwise he's been out solid for 20 hours)

He gave one last feeble attempt at arguing, and then was in bed, taking his medicine and going to sleep. Aisha left the curtains of his bed open to keep an eye on him, though she didn't expect to hear anything out of him for a while. She went out to the back room, though she still had a line of sight on her patient, and began to brew up a new batch of fever remedy. Two wasn't an epidemic yet, but it was definitely concerning. Especially as it had taken a couple of doses to fully clear Jozua's symptoms.

Joe did not wake up in time to grab a late lunch and head to class. She hadn't remembered to ask which advanced classes he took, so had just messaged all the afternoon's teachers, explaining that he would be absent, if he took their class. It was early evening when he came to. Aisha heard him mumbling.

“Good evening,” she smiled. She placed the back of her hand against his head. “You feel a bit better but still rather warm. Do you think you could manage some dinner? If so, I'll get something brought in for you. Then we can give you some more fever medication.” Solid implication: you are not going anywhere.

13 Aisha Kapoor You might have to get used to it 1482 Aisha Kapoor 0 5

Joe

March 03, 2018 2:17 AM

Yeah, I'm starting to get that impression. by Joe

Some hours earlier, implications - however solid - would have flown over Joe's head. Now, though, he still felt terrible, but he was much more in command of his faculties, enough to realize a losing battle when he saw one.

“Food...might be good,” he admitted. His stomach felt tight and hollow, with a dull gnawing. Food sounded as unappetizing as it had at breakfast, but he knew he needed some if he had the slightest intention to stop feeling so weak and shaky any time soon. “Maybe a cup of tea and some toast to start with? Steady things up a little, I only had coffee all day before I came here….” He rubbed his eyes. “If it's Friday, I'm a vegetarian either way,” he remembered to add. “What...how long have I been here?”

Evening, she'd said. Good evening, dinner. He had been wrong about the time then. Either it wasn't tomorrow or worse - it was late tomorrow, practically the day after. He hoped for the former.

He paused for a moment, trying to debate merits and drawbacks to himself, before adding, “I, uh, vaguely remember not being very polite to you. I'm sorry about that.” This would perhaps underline how improved he was and get him out of here faster...once he had some food, and maybe another nap.

16 Joe Yeah, I'm starting to get that impression. 329 Joe 0 5

Healer Kapoor

March 03, 2018 7:17 AM

Things seem to be heading in the right direction by Healer Kapoor

“I hope that's just cos you were feeling ill and is not a frequent habit, otherwise I suspect you'll be back here rather often,” Aisha commented, when Joe said he'd only had coffee for sustenance that morning.

“Any more specific direction than tea?” she asked. She was solidly a coffee drinker, but her family being Indian, she knew a thing or two about how diverse a subject tea could be. As could coffee, for that matter, of course. In fact, it was just generally best to take further direction when preparing hot beverages. She scribbled down any details Joe gave her regarding tea type, planning to let him supervise the actual brewing time himself, seeing as that matter could be sensitive to a degree of minutes, and sent the note flying off.

“You've been here about six, seven hours?” she suggested, gesturing at the clock. It was behind his bed, so understandable that he might not have noticed. “You came in at lunchtime. Today,” she clarified.

“No one's at their best when their ill, don't worry,” she said, when he apologised, smiling appreciatively. For all that it came with the territory, it was still nice when people recognised their bad behaviour and said something about it.

One of the prairie elves entered bearing a tray of toast, with butter to the side, and a small stack of teabags. Aisha placed one in a cup, pouring in boiling water from her wand and set it in front of Joe.

“Let me know if you want anything else before we knock you out for the night. I mean, food or otherwise. A book. A game of tic-tac-toe. Nothing too taxing though. I am not getting your homework or any volumes of theoretical transfiguration sent over.”

13 Healer Kapoor Things seem to be heading in the right direction 1482 Healer Kapoor 0 5

Joe

March 03, 2018 10:09 PM

Excellent. by Joe

“Not regular, no,” said Joe. “Food didn't appeal, but I was...really sleepy and thought it would wake me up.” He paused and added, “It didn't work.”

He raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise when asked for specifics about how he would prefer to take his tea. “Assam if you've got it, please,” he said. “English breakfast - whatever sort you've got - if you don't. No milk, no sugar, or anything.” He often liked a bit of sugar in his tea, but when it was true head-clearing he needed, adding things in just seemed to dull the effect. The exception was John's tea, which tended to have so much lemon in it when same was available that one's eyes were pulled open just by the degree to which one's mouth abruptly twisted, but Joe didn't consider that a proper exception because John's tea had more in common with the category ‘chemical weapons' than the category ‘beverages.'

The smile made Joe relax a bit, confident he had gotten back on the right foot with her. “Thank you both,” he said when a prairie elf brought a tray and the Healer started steeping tea. Perhaps this wasn't so bad, this invalid thing, or wouldn't have been if he hadn't felt so terrible.

He did not want volumes of theoretical Transfiguration, but would have liked a chance to start making up all the things he'd missed. However, he couldn't see any benefits in starting an argument, and doubted he could focus much anyway. “Is the newspaper too strenuous?” he asked. “Mine - ‘s from Canada - should be in my room, I think - I didn't read it this morning.” Mom liked for them to be informed, and in his case specifically, have some idea what was going on back home. Joe liked the crossword and had come to regard the Society Bee as a bit of a guilty pleasure read even when nobody he knew was in it.

16 Joe Excellent. 329 Joe 0 5