Medical Check Up: Sledge

Posted on Wed Nov 15th, 2023 @ 11:38pm by Lieutenant Roan Gaeta & Lieutenant Commander Joseph Sledge

1,116 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 1 - Project Concord

Doctor Roan Gaeta sat at his desk with the Voyager medical notes, writing down by hand on paper his own notes. While the PADD was very handy, these were his own little musings and he preferred paper for that. The species mentioned in the reports were fascinating, as were the illnesses encountered. Samples would have been good, but raw data helped as well. And descriptions.

His next scheduled appointment was the medical baseline check up for Joseph Sledge, the First Officer. He had read his medical file, but found the most helpful thing he had learned the fact that after having been injured, he hadn't had the scar removed. It was unusual, especially for a human raised on Earth from what he could gather. The baseline check ups were important, especially with the notes he had from Voyager. He needed to know what was considered normal for each individual, not standard for the species as a whole. He knew from experience that no two individuals were the same after all.

Joseph had gotten slightly lost trying to find sickbay as he had been ordered for his physical. When he finally arrived, he stepped in and looked at a nurse questioning "The doctor's office?"

The nurse pointed him in the proper direction and he made his way to the door she had pointed to. As he reached the door, he called out and spoke "Hey doc? I am Commander Sledge." He waited to be told to come in before offering his biosynthetic hand for a shake.

Roan took it without any hesitation, meeting his eyes. "Doctor Gaeta," he introduced himself. "Come and get comfortable, I suspect this won't take very long," he said, with a small smile. "I try to get people out as soon as possible. Sick bay isn't people's favourite spot."

He smiled as he nodded to the doctor. Joseph made his way in to the office and took a seat across from the doctor before he spoke "I assume you've received my medical file from Starfleet Medical? It should have the information on my hand."

"I did," Roan said as he met the other man's eyes, holding them for a moment. "Seems not too complex, all things considered."

Joseph nodded gently as he looked to the doctor "I occasionally get some sensory overload and pain from it. But I manage well enough."

"Well, let's get you on a biobed and we can look at it. Did your previous doctor give you a prescription for something to use when there is sensory overload and pain?" Roan stood, meeting his eyes before he walked over to one of the biobeds.

Joseph made his way to the biobed that the doc had indicated. Hopping on, he moved to lay down as he spoke "Not really? I need full nervous system capability, and the only way to get rid of the overload is to deaden the nerves temporarily. However if we do that, I lose dexterity."

He nodded, watching him for a long moment as he clearly considered something. "I can look into alternative therapies," he said, after a moment. "Other ways to help minimise symptoms, especially with the sensory overload." Roan was, if nothing else, a believer in trying different avenues.

Joseph nodded gently as he flexed the fingers on the artificial hand. He spoke softly "Anything that helps with the sensory overload would be great. Other than that how do I look doc?"

"Other than that, a healthy man," he said with a small smile, nodding as he scanned the artificial limb, taking a deeper breath. "How did you lose it?" he knew it was a blunt question, but these things were as they were.

Looking to his hand when the doc asked the question, he spoke gently "When my ship, the Deliverance, was destroyed during the war.. An emergency bulkhead came down. Just before we had been rocked by several polaron beams from a Jem'Hadar battlecruiser. It set off the emergency bulkheads we had installed due to the Breen's use of Energy Dampening weapons... It was a solution to not being able to use emergency forcefields."

Traumatic amputation. Roan nodded, understanding...and it explained the artificial limb too. The man was lucky to be alive and not have died of shock or bleeding out. Especially if the ship was being destroyed around him. "The work done on you and the limb is...excellent. And a healthy man like you would have been an ideal candidate."

Joseph smiled a bit and shook his head lightly “It took a long time to fully calibrate the hand. There were times that it wanted to do it’s own thing..” he looked to Doctor Gaeta and spoke “it shouldn’t be an issue now though.”

"Small mercies," Roan said with a smile, nodding as he met his eyes. "We take what we can, right? One breath at the time." He finished the scans and nodded, pleased with it. "You are a very healthy man."

Joseph nodded a bit and smiled as he sat there "Of course. I do my best to keep my exercises up. Used to run deck 10 a lot on my previous ship. Tended to irritate some of the junior officers. But then again it was better than running in place in the Gymnasium.."

"Laps around a ship never hurt anyone, I am sure people will adjust," Roan said with a smile, shaking his head. "I might join you, I enjoy staying active."

Joseph gave a smile and nodded as he spoke "Well it'll be nice to have some company. Especially on a new ship."

"I know exactly what you mean," Roan said and smiled as the results came in for the baseline. "I am hopeful this will remain the same by the time we get where we are going."

Joseph smiled happily and nodded "Agreed. It'll be nice to get away from the war too.."

"Hopefully it'll heal some wounds on the inside," Roan said quietly, meeting his eyes. "You're all set, Commander. Healthy as anyone would be happy to be."

He slowly pulled his uniform top back on. He looked to the man and spoke gently "Thank you doc. I appreciate it" With a bright smile.

"Go and have fun," Roan said with a smile, nodding as he held his hand up. "Well, as much fun as your rank permits you. I know First Officers are usually extremely busy."

Joseph smiled and nodded as he spoke "I won't have too much fun. I do want to tour the ship before we head out so. Hopefully I will see you later doc!" before he made his way to the doors and out to the corridor.

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