56th of Winter, 512 AV
The Infirmary was bustling with activity. The place had been running over capacity for over a week now but various healers had been brought in to care for the sick and dying. Predictably, most of the patients here were students but the Infirmary had been turned into a makeshift hospital so people from all over Zeltiva were being admitted.
Mistress Clara was as busy as anyone but her experience and clinical wisdom was too valuable to be used on any one patient. She was acting in more of a directorial capacity. She had, in one sense or another, her eye on every patient in here and was making the final call on the clinical decisions.
Adnaj found himself among these bustling healers. For the moment, he had closed down his clinic and had directed his patients to this more centralized location. If his Nuit body had been capable of producing sweat, he might be covered in it by now. This wasn't the most mentally taxing or the most complex clinical encounter that he had ever endeavored but it was certainly the most physically demanding and the most stressful. He had never had to tend to 7 patients at once but this was the kind of work that Zeltiva had demanded of its healers during these dark days.
Not all of Adnaj's patients could really be left alone, either. Over half of them were quite serious cases. Most worrisome, he had 3 cases of bacterial meningitis. Viral meningitis was both dangerous and prevalent in these higher education settings but it was manageable if caught. Bacterial meningitis represented a far greater threat and it had Adnaj treading carefully and second guessing every decision on this stressful day.
Outside of this, he had 2 serious fevers. Although dangerous and calling for careful monitoring, the thinking was a bit more straight forward, here. He had the luxury of trusting most of the care to two interns who oversaw these two patients.
He was grateful for the fact that one of his patients had nothing more serious than a common cold. She had presented with fainting spells and weakness but it had turned out that the symptoms, in this case, were far more frightening than the actual danger. He regretted the small amount of time that he was able to spend with this patient but his priorities were obviously with his potentially dying patients.
Then there was that last patient. Gordon Mendels. The man was in his early sixties and lived alone. Adnaj had managed to keep him stable, but hadn't figured this one out yet. The man had begun to have headaches six months ago. The local healers had described him as having 'stiff, old joints' in the neck. Basically, his diagnosis was Headache type pain secondary to multi-segment neck joint Arthritis. He was given a medication to decrease the inflammatory activity in his body.
The thinking, of course, was to decrease the inflammatory pain with the medication. The problem was that the pain never went away and a week later he began to develop confusion and fever symptoms. He was in the clinic, today, because he still experienced all of these symptoms but had recently developed a dizziness severe enough that he was unable to stand. The biggest problem was that none of these were side-effects of the medication. The anti-inflammatory hadn't caused any of these symptoms, this was the progression of whatever disease the man had contracted.
The Infirmary was bustling with activity. The place had been running over capacity for over a week now but various healers had been brought in to care for the sick and dying. Predictably, most of the patients here were students but the Infirmary had been turned into a makeshift hospital so people from all over Zeltiva were being admitted.
Mistress Clara was as busy as anyone but her experience and clinical wisdom was too valuable to be used on any one patient. She was acting in more of a directorial capacity. She had, in one sense or another, her eye on every patient in here and was making the final call on the clinical decisions.
Adnaj found himself among these bustling healers. For the moment, he had closed down his clinic and had directed his patients to this more centralized location. If his Nuit body had been capable of producing sweat, he might be covered in it by now. This wasn't the most mentally taxing or the most complex clinical encounter that he had ever endeavored but it was certainly the most physically demanding and the most stressful. He had never had to tend to 7 patients at once but this was the kind of work that Zeltiva had demanded of its healers during these dark days.
Not all of Adnaj's patients could really be left alone, either. Over half of them were quite serious cases. Most worrisome, he had 3 cases of bacterial meningitis. Viral meningitis was both dangerous and prevalent in these higher education settings but it was manageable if caught. Bacterial meningitis represented a far greater threat and it had Adnaj treading carefully and second guessing every decision on this stressful day.
Outside of this, he had 2 serious fevers. Although dangerous and calling for careful monitoring, the thinking was a bit more straight forward, here. He had the luxury of trusting most of the care to two interns who oversaw these two patients.
He was grateful for the fact that one of his patients had nothing more serious than a common cold. She had presented with fainting spells and weakness but it had turned out that the symptoms, in this case, were far more frightening than the actual danger. He regretted the small amount of time that he was able to spend with this patient but his priorities were obviously with his potentially dying patients.
Then there was that last patient. Gordon Mendels. The man was in his early sixties and lived alone. Adnaj had managed to keep him stable, but hadn't figured this one out yet. The man had begun to have headaches six months ago. The local healers had described him as having 'stiff, old joints' in the neck. Basically, his diagnosis was Headache type pain secondary to multi-segment neck joint Arthritis. He was given a medication to decrease the inflammatory activity in his body.
The thinking, of course, was to decrease the inflammatory pain with the medication. The problem was that the pain never went away and a week later he began to develop confusion and fever symptoms. He was in the clinic, today, because he still experienced all of these symptoms but had recently developed a dizziness severe enough that he was unable to stand. The biggest problem was that none of these were side-effects of the medication. The anti-inflammatory hadn't caused any of these symptoms, this was the progression of whatever disease the man had contracted.