synopsychic | A far too formal presentation to say "We have a cure"

Entry tags:

A far too formal presentation to say "We have a cure"

As many of you may be aware, Lyall and I have been working on analyzing the Stricken disease to find a cure and possible way of vaccination against it. Thanks to the cooperation of many and much time and effort, we have managed to isolate it and can officially report on our findings.

The Stricken disease is a form of bacterial infection, likely transmitted through biologic contamination -- that is to say through the shedding of dead cells, saliva and other bodily fluids. Samples have responded to treatments of two types of antibiotics, penicillin and doxycycline, and should be able to be overcome in the body with administration of a proper course of those drugs.

Work on a vaccine to prevent the infection from being able to gain hold in the body has begun, as has production of a large quantities of the antibiotics in both pill and liquid form.

Anyone who has shown any sign of infection or believes they have been exposed to it should report to Liminal Space where a clinic has been set up to administer the antibiotics. Anyone who has concern over possible allergic reaction or a DNA structure that may be incompatible to standard human medications should plan on spending a bit more time to have a blood sample drawn and tested to insure there will be no harmful reactions.

Thank you.

[[Clinic and "traveling sawbones" log]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Drizzt relaxes a bit at the warm smile, nodding and walking into the clinic with more confidence now.]

Easily enough, yes.

Good. Hopefully it will be for others as well. [[He's pulling over a small tray now, one with a two plastic wrapped packages marked "sterile", some alcohol pads and gauze. ]]

Ever have blood drawn before?

[Drizzt looks confused, wondering what sort of spell needs such components. Except one of them looks like bandages? Is that for after??]

I have not, no. I do not even know what that means. The words do not make sense together. Unless--

[Drawn as in pulled. From his body? Drizzt looks kind of worried.]

... You take blood from me?

Tachibana nodded. "A small amount," he assured, holding up the small vacuum tube to demonstrate. "Just enough to run the test to see if you have the infection or not."

Drizzt's eyes fall onto the vacuum tube before he slowly looks back to Tachibana's face. "How does my blood get from my veins into there?"

Tachibana this time held up the sealed and sterilized needle and tubing, pointing to where the vacuum tube would be placed. "With this," he explained. "The needle is small, so there's barely any discomfort to it," he assured. "Since the tube is at the end of the line, there's no real pressure from it."

Drizzt takes several steps back at that, eying the thing uneasily. "With a needle? How?"

Tachibana blinked once. "Normally though one of the veins in the elbow, since they're fairly easy to find," he explained as he carefully opened the package. "This part here," he held the needle up. "Goes into the vein, and the blood flows through it into the tubing."

Drizzt's eyes slowly widen. "... Like leeches, only--" He gestures at the thing. "--that?"

There was a small huff of something close to laughter as Tachibana smiled. "A little bit. Only leeches are only good for removing blood, whereas the point of this is to collect it for testing," he explained.

Drizzt relaxes slightly, but then tenses back up before breathing deeply. "... Okay. We should just get it over with. What do you need me to do?"

"Lean your am on here," Tachibana nodded to the pad on the tray. "And hold it like this," he demonstrated. "And still."

"And this works?" Drizzt asks, slowly sitting down on the chair near the pad and leaning his arm as instructed. "I have bled many times, but nothing quite like this."

Tachibana nodded, reaching for the elastic band to carefully pull tight around Drizzt's upper arm. "Intentionally bled?" he asked, tone a touch curious as he ripped open the alcohol pad to gently disinfect the teen's inner elbow.

"If being attacked during battle could be considered intentional," Drizzt answers with slight amusement, mostly distracted by watching what Tachibana is doing; the pain from the band is slight enough to ignore.

Tachibana chuckles softly, carefully poking at where the vein is before dabbing with the pad once more and reaching for the needle. "This is a far cry from that sort of bleeding, yeah," he nodded, voice a touch distracted as he was far more focused on what he was doing.

"This will prick just a moment. If it keeps hurting after the first prick, let me know."

"Or the leaches and bloodletting I have heard of being used," Drizzt shrugs a bit then grows quiet.

He's still unnerved but does not look away as Tachibana gets ready to insert the needle. No, he will not look away. Drizzt intends to watch this.

"This is far more sanitary than any of those," Tachibana assured, carefully sliding the needle into place before reaching for the vacuum tube. There is a soft sound as the tube connects and begins to fill, and he reaches up to undo the elastic with the other hand while holding the tubing steady.

A minute later, he pulls the tube out, setting it down before carefully extracting the needle once more and setting a gauze pad over the place it had been. "Hold that down for a minute or two," he instructed.

Drizzt doesn't move as the needle pinches slightly. The pain is light, far less than Drizzt expected for all the fuss about it. He watches his blood flow out of his arm in a sort of creeped out fascination. The elastic hurts more than the needle did, but not unbearably so, and that's soon over enough itself.

The ranger nods at the instruction and does as he's told, simply asking. "How hard?"

"Just enough to keep any blood from escaping," Tachibana answered, writing a label for the tube before carrying it over to the mini lab in the corner and setting it the centrifuge. "Normally, it'd get a bandage, but considering the setting out there, it wouldn't be such a good idea, I think."

Okay, pressure until it stops bleeding. Drizzt can do that.

If Tachibana thought he was going to be walking over by himself, he's mistaken. Drizzt, ever the curious sort, cannot help but hop right off his chair and follow Tachibana to the centrifuge. He looks at it for a moment, brows furrowing, and then looks up to the man.

"And now what are you doing with it?"

Tachibana blinked over before giving a smile. "This separates out the parts of the blood through accelerated motion," he explained.

Drizzt would lean on his forearms if they weren't currently busy, but he does press himself close to the tank to get as close of view over it as possible. "Separating it? Will that help with the test?"

Tachibana nodded. "The red blood cells are mostly unaffected by the infection," he explained. "It's the neutrophils that will be attracted to it. Separating the two means less to look through to see if the infection is present."

"You can separate cells that way?" Drizzt tries to get a closer look, leaning forward. "What are red blood cells and neutrophils?"

Time for a thousand questions--sorry, Tachibana!

A far too formal presentation to say "We have a cure"

no subject

CW: Needles / Doctor's office

CW: Drizzt is regretting going to the doctor's office.

CW: Insert an inappropriate and inapplicable joke about playing doctor here

CW: Drizzt is REALLY regretting going to the doctor's office.

CW: Somehow the succession of subject lines makes it worse. But it's just needles.

CW: JUST NEEDLES, Drizzt says.

CW: Welcome to modern medicine, Drizzt.

CW: DRIZZT WOULD RATHER HAVE LEECHES.

CW: But those are so unsanitary. And not helpful in this situation

CW: Yes but he can't actually see the blood go out of his veins OKAY

CW: He doesn't have to look. (I never do....)

CW: Oh, Drizzt is too paranoid to not watch to start.

CW: So it'll be a learning experience!

CW: Drizzt will learn that modern medicine is creepy.

CW: No worse than "classical" medicine.

CW: This is true and NEEDLE TIME.

CW: After all the build up, the CW is true~

CW: FINALLY

And we're done! All that build up for so little~

I KNOW RIGHT.

Now we play the game of "lazy not well researched answers"

LOL ah yes that part. ... Drizzt makes it hard.

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)