Lets Take a Swing at this Again (Medicine)

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

83 Day of Spring Year 510 AV

After spending the past couple days working on herbalism and with one of the coldest and strictest teachers he could remember Taithrosa was glad to finally have the chance to return to the studies he remembered from his previous time as a student. There weren't many memories and they were scattered which was frustrating. But strangly enough could remember those first few days of his life in the doctors academy.

As he walked into the room were he was to meet with Kanis Obvala to review and relearn about medicine he had a flash of memory. It was clear and precieses. To any other observer it looked as if he had been hit in the face. His body shuddered for a moment and his hand grabbed a table. His unearth silver eyes seemed to flash and then grow lost.

He walked into the open class room the light streeming in from the open window slits. Its wasn't beautiful, but it was pleasent and comfortable. It was also very simplistic. The desk were of polished wood, but like the room lacked any decoration. Everything was designed around purpose and stability.

Taithrosa Eldytia was young, in the strange stage as one trasitions from adulthood to childhood. His voice was wabbling between alto and bass. His hair was long and pulled back to stay out of his ears. He moved slowlly into the room, eager eyes looking both ways at the other boys who would be attending the Doctors academy with him. Considered a difficult life path, many entered the early classes but few actually graduated.

The young Akalak though was determined that he would do so. So he walked in with confidences and took a seat near the front of the class room. The other boys in the room were as young as him, but some appeared to be almost adults, while others still looked like they should be safe in the nursery.

The idiots. Why don't you just do them a favor and show them the real power structure. That ever present voice said. Taith kept his face blank but inwards gave a mental shove. Oh how mature. Would you father act that way? He felt as if he had been slapped in the face. Syadai knew his deepest secrets and knew were it hurt the worst. Oh poor boy are you going to cry, again, why don't you just admite you can't handle it and let me take charge. It would be so much easier for you if I do. Taithrosa just smiled at the other boys and nodded waiting for the teacher.

He wasn't disappointed as the Akalak doctor walked into the room, and they all sood up to honor him as was the custom among the Akalak of that period. The teacher stepped to the front of the room and they all returned to their seats.

"Welcome Students." He said in his deep voice speaking the native tongue of the Akalak. "You are about to start one of the hardest classes taught in this city." Taithrosa felt the thrill of excitment.

Taithrosa was yanked out of the memory by a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw a Konti woman standing by him. She had a concerned look on her face. Taithrosa didn't know that he had been standing there clutching the table. His eyes wide and his breathing shallow. He turned thought with wide eyes and then blinked his silver eyes returning to normal and then he smiled.

His smile was a little dazed, but it was honest and friendly. "I am sorry just was remembering something. Are you Kanis Obvala?"

"Yes I am." She said with a concerned look. "If your sure your okay shall we begin?"

Taithrosa nodded his head in agreement and followed her farther into the class.

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

Taithrosa followed the woman into the room. It was a room clearly designed for a group of students, but was empty except for them this day. She walked to a desk and sat down motioning for him to do like wise across from her.

The Akalak looking Ethaefal took a seat across from her and looked over here. She looked young, but it was becoming apparently that all Konti looked young. His silver eyes looked at her intently as she looked over a piece of paper. "So it says that you took some bacis classes among the Akalaks?" She asked looking up curious.

Taithrosa nodded, it was basically true. "Alright lets get started then. Tell me about what you know and understand." Taithrosa nodded his head and began to speak, his voice deep and base. His accent was clear as he spoke it was otherwordly almost.

"I was taught how to set a broken bone, how to deal with common illness, and that is about all that I remember very basic. I also learned some of the basicis of Akalak mental pratices for healing." As he said that he had another flash of memeory.

He was sitting once again in the same classes room, but it wasn't strange and new like it had been in his first flash, but this time he was a bit older, not much, and the room didn't seem to have as many students. He was wearing a wooden ring that seemed to be of improtance. His hair was trimmed short and his eyes looked up at the teacher with excitment.

"Today we will be talking about Akalaks mental health training." He said his bass voice filling the class room. "If one prepares one minds correctly then one can fight off sickness and weakness." He said walking around the room looking at each boys. "How many of you have felt the chills coming on and told yourself you wouldn't get sick." He said looking over them. Many of the boys nodded there heads, Taithrosa among them. "Well that is but a basic step needed to train the mind to avoid illness."

He processed with the lesson explaining the details of mental prepardness. They as the future doctors must master the techniques as they would be required to teach them to others. The mind training was the basic for Akalak healing and even there training programs.

"One must first tell themselves they aren't weak. Confidences is critical to keeping ones body healthy. Now becareful of arragance because that can cause a whole other series of problems, no confidence in yourself must always come first. If you have confidence you can conqure."

He sat down. "The mind is just some voice speaking to you in your head, it is the core to developing your body. If your mind is crowded with worry it is unable to focus on helping your body fight illness. If there isn't order in your body, then your defenses are weak." He contiuned with his explanation. Order in the mind was critical, because the body was a reflection of all that occured in your mind.

The lesson contiuned and mentioned several methods of controling ones mind. Meditation was the first one mentioned but before the lesson could contiune. Taithrosa was dragged back to the present.

"Please tell me a bit about these Akalak methods." His instructor asked with curiosity in her eyes.

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

Taithrosa nodded his head at his teacher and leaned back in his chair, his memory become clear with what he had been taught about the Akalak approach to healing. His silver eyes took on a gleam as old memories and habits took form. When he spoke he spoke as if from the distant past and with a strange authority. He wasn't arrogant or being a know it all, it was just like a college explaining something to another college.

"Akalaks believe very much in preparing the mind to help fight of dieses." He said calmly and clearly. "Stress and confusion create openings in the bodies defenses against disease and other bodily health problems. The mind is very important to a persons a health and to often people are so focused on the physical that they miss taking care of the mind."

He paused and then continued. "The Akalaks strongly believe if one works on ones mental health you can help to keep your physical health. We believe in the strong use of meditation, also in controlling one thoughts you can keep the body healthy as the mind will be able to fight off problems." He looked at the teacher and smiled. "That is the simple version. What is the Konti approach to healing and medicine?"

The Konti nodded her head and stood up to retrieve a book. She brought it over and showed it to Taithrosa. "This would be the best sources of reading on Konti Medicine pratices. Like the Akalak it can be very complicated and in depth, ranging from diets to herbs." She let him look at the book. "There are copies in the library if you care to look them over." She said leaving the book there but turning her attention back to the subject at hand.

"Alright only of the basic skills needed for the use of medicine is the ability to identify what is wrong with your paticent." She said "What are the most likely illenses or problems that your paticent will come to you with?"

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

Taithrosa tapped his fingures on the desk and thought for a moment. Before he spoke. His deep voice carried as his eyes looked out one of the windows. "There are many issues to which a paticent might come to you with. Broken bones and twisted joints. Other skelatol structure problems, such as pulled ligaments, or mucles. There are the colds, flues, and other sickness. Stomach problems such as food poisoning or stomach flue. Those tend to be your more common ones."

She nodded her head and smiled at him. "Good. Lets me run some examples by you." She said still smiling. "Since you have learned so much about the skelatel structure lets start there."

"You have a paticent come in. They are being helped by there friends. They can't walk. Their ankle is in pain, and is swollen."

Taith didn't think for long before answering. "I would check the ankle. See how much swelling is occuring. Also check to around the ankle. The danger here is that it might be broken or it might be sprained. To treat it for the wrong one could have disasterous effect."

He paused remembering how to treat such injuries. "You feel the bone. If it is broken it will flop around like a dead fish basically. If it is sprained it will move normally, but cause stabing pain."

She nodded her head. "You feel the leg, everything seems to be normal as far as movement is concern."

"To confirm that it is a sprained ankle then ask how it happened. This would be best to do at the begining or while examining the leg, but the situation can tell you a lot about what is going on." He said. "If it was something like tripping then it is a sprained ankle. If it was falling or jumping off something depending on the height it might be a sprained ankle or a brake."

She nodded her head. "Good you have a basics of how to determine the problem." She leaned back in her chair. "Next example. Say you have a paticent come in they have a cloged nose, and are coughing. What do they have." she said with a sweet smile.

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

Taithrosa thought for a long moment before looking at his teacher. "I would ask them some questions while checking out several things." He spread his hand out and began to count on each figures the questions he would ask. "I would like to know how long they have been sick. What they have complained about such as being hot or cold, maybe excessively tired."

He pursed his lips and then contiuned. "While asking these questions I would check there skin to see how hot or cold it might be. Check their face for redness especially around the throat or the eyes." He said then looking at his instructor.

Her voice spoke up pleased. "That sounds good. You have the right idea. They say they have been fine other then they are coughing and stuffed nose. The have only been feeling sick for a couple hours. Their skin is warm to the touch but not particular hot." She said still smiling.

"I am suspecting they have a flue, but it might be a bit to early to say. I would then suggest that they go home get some sleep, keep a wet compact on there forhead. I would also suggest a lot of water, and suggest they get some herbal remady to help." He looked shy. "I am only begining to learn about herbalism."

She nodded her head. "You seem to understand the importances of identifing the cause. But just to cover it. You must ask the paticent there part of the story, as you said, such things as when did it start, how have they been feeling and such. You also need to make your own observations, such as body heat, redness, swelling, even the sound of there voices." She nodded her head.

Taithrosa nodded his head and waited for her to contiune. "Okay lets start on something else." She thought for a moment. "Lets go over some of the most common illness you will run into. What their symptoms are what are the best ways to treat them."

She stood up and walked over and found a small little book on a shelf and handed it to him. He took it in his large hands and turned it over. "This is so you can record what we learn in class about weakness of the body and how to identify and heal them." She said with a smile. The book was just a small note book. Nothing great but something to start with. "All healers should keep a journal."

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

Taithrosa took the book in his hands and looked over the pages. They were blank and ready to be filled with the information he would collect. His large hands ran over the small book, made even smaller based on the size of his hands. He looked at it though fairly used to the smaller dimensions. He smiled and picked up a quill and dipping it in the ink he put pen to paper and wrote on the front page. Medical Note Book belonging to Taithrosa Eldytia Started the 83rd Day of Summer Year 510 AV His handwriting was small for one of his size, but still came out on the larger side on the page. It was neat though as he remembered that he would have to read all of this again time and time again so he made sure to have clear legable script. Once he had marked the book as his own he looked up at the Kanis, as she smiled at him. "Alright lets begin with some of the more common illness." She sat down and said. "Lets start with the common cold." Taithrosa turned to the first page and wrote down Common Cold he then looked up his eyes and ears opened as she began to descript the symptoms. "A cough, fever and runny nose or some times congestion in the nasal cavity." Taithrosa's tappered fingures held the quill correctly as he contiuned to scribely notes under the sections symptoms. "While this is the most common type of dieses you run into it. It can run through a family in the space of a couple days, but it is also impossible to cure. Only time will heal someone of the cold. Usually seven to ten days, but it can take longer up to twenty days." She contiuned at a slow pace to allow Taithrosa time to write. "There are ways to treat it though." She paused and waiting for him to finish writing spoke again. "Do you know why it is important to treat the dieseas and not the symptoms?" She asked her voice curious.

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

The blue skinned man nodded his head. "The symptoms and the dieses are not the same thing. The symptoms collectively can identify the disease, but to get ride of them is not always to get ride of the disease. If you give someone something for a caugh, and it goes away that doesn't mean that he is cured. Actually it could hide that he is getting sicker. So you must discover the reason behind the cought as it were." The konti woman smiled and nodded her head. "Excellent. Now it isn't bad to help with the symptoms either, but only after you have used them to identify the real problem." She said happily. "Now a common cold can not be cure, and so the only relief you can give a paticent is to lessen the symptoms, and of course you have to keep them from preventing there body from healing." Taithrosa nodded his head. "I have dealt with people before who wanted something for there symptoms and thought once the cough was undercontrol they could return to there normal activity. Rest really is the best of any medicine." She nodded her head in agreement, smiled and then went on. "Our next topic is one that is very similar in nature to the Common Cold, but more serious. It is the flue or influenza." Taithrosa lowered his head and turned to a new clean page. He quickly began to write along the top of course keeping his hand writing as neat and readable as possible.

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

He looked as up at his instructor as she began to list the symptoms of the of the flue. "They will have a feavor. At the same time though they might also have chills. These won't be like cold all the time but suddenly they are cold and shaking. They also will have aches and pains, espeically in the joins, and in the throat. Conjestion, fatigue, coughing and headaches." She paused allowing him to take notes before contiuning. "There are occasionally other symptoms as well, but these are the common ones." He looked up at her once he was done writing. "The way to treat this is simple. You can treat the headache, couching and other pains, but you need to focus on them resting, getting enough water. Time is the biggest agent you need to give to someone with the flue, but there are ways to speed it up directly. If someone doesn't seem to be healing quickly some other methods would be to wrap them up, keep them as warm as you can. Not all use this method, and it doesn't work everytime, but is works enough that it is an option. Also spies foods are way of helping clear the system." Taithrosa carefully wrote everything downs. As he finished she smiled at him, "Our time is over for the day. I will see you tomorrow."

[Alice]

Taithrosa Eldytia Experience: 5 pts Medicine, 4 pts Listening, 3 pts Storytelling, 3 pts Writing Lores: Mental Health, Akalak Mental Training, Most Common Illnesses, Identifying Sprained or Broken Ankles, Identifying & Treating a Common Cold, Difference between Symptom & Disease, Identifying & Treating the Flu Items: Book on Konti Medicine Practices, Medical Notebook Comments A very interesting and informative read! It shows that you know a great deal about medicine and understand what you’re talking about. I also liked the example discussions between Taith and Kanis and how he taught her Akalak medicine.