Gemma's Winter Job Thread 2

by **Gemma Parker** on February 15th, 2019, 5:24 am

Winter 2nd, 518 AV

It was another day and Gemma was at work again. She walked up the long steps to her work, washed her hands before she began, and got to work. Today she was scheduled to help with surgery. She double-checked to make sure that all of her herbs and medicines were in place in her pouch, and reported for duty.

“Hello, doctor, I'm ready for my shift.” She said as she walked into the surgery wing.

“Good. First patient in five.” The doctor said brusquely.

Five minutes later, Gemma was waiting ask the doctor entered the room. The doctor's assistant had already prepared the room and the table, and had brought in the patient. Gemma was excited because this was one of her first surgeries. Normally she just did rounds like another doctor's assistant, and then she did her best to make sure the patients were not in pain, and she had used her healing ability to the ticket. The simple fact was that her medical skill was not what it should be for her to assist in a surgery. However, in the case of a surgery such as today, she was invited to participate both to learn and to use her gifts.

Today, her responsibility was to make sure that the patient did not bleed too much. This was something that even her simple level one gnosis Mark was sufficient for. She stood opposite to the doctor, closer to the chest. Today they would be operating to remove cancer. Gemma had heard of cancer before, but she had never seen it in an open patient. She had never even known anyone who suffered from cancer. Her people tended not to suffer from things like this.

The patient was opened, and the cancer was revealed. Gemma was commanded to begin her work by stopping the bleeding. She whispered words of a prayer and the bleeding visibly slowed. It did not stop, but that was intentional. She did not want to fully heal the wound while it was open, because that would make it harder for the wound to be closed and to heal properly later.

She paid extra close attention to all medical details. After all, even though she was paid to be a Healer, you would be much more effective if you was able to use mundane medical knowledge in addition to Healing Arts. She paid close attention to the way the doctor held the scalpel, imagining herself as the one opening the wound.

Before she knew it, the surgery was over. Thankfully, the cancer had been identified early enough that it could be healed by simply removing it. With the doctor's supervision, Gemma was allowed to close the wound using a needle and thread. She gripped the thread with metallic instruments, and begin sewing as she had been instructed previously. It was not something she did all the time, but she had done it enough, both in reality and in practice, that she was able to complete the action with no questions or comments from the doctor. She prayed one more time over the patient, and began to apply an herbal compound as an antiseptic. It was a simple combination of honey and a Vyfox. She crushed them together in her mortar and pestle and applied them to the bandages before placing the bandage over the wound and binding it with cloth. And with that, another surgery was a success.

WC: 571

by **Gemma Parker** on February 19th, 2019, 4:48 pm

Gemma walked into the next patient’s room and read the report. This patient was suffering from a stomach ache and wanted something for the pain. He also wanted to know if there was anything wrong with the stomach, or if it was just something he ate.

“All right, let’s take a look at this, mister Masters. Can you tell me about your diet in the last few days?” She asked as she approached the middle aged man with the report in hand.

“Aren’t you a little young to be in here asking me questions?” He asked, looking her up and down with incredulity.

“Yes, sir, I’m only in training.” She said. “I’ll be reporting everything you tell me to the doctor to receive your treatment.” She said.

“Oh. I guess that’s fine. Well it’s like I said, my stomach hurts a lot.”

“On a scale from one to ten?” She asked.

“Like a six or seven.” He said, grimacing as he did. A hand went to his stomach.

“All right, sir, I’d like you to lay back please, and I’ll run some basic tests.” She said. “So what about your diet?” She asked.

“My diet has been the same. Nothing new.” He said.

“Even with all these festivals?” She asked.

“Yeah, I mean I eat a little extra, but this isn’t from that.” He said.

“All right, and how long have you had this pain?” She asked.

“It started like four hours ago.” He said. “It’s gotten worse and worse since then.”

“And where is the pain exactly?” She asked.

“It started in the middle here.” He pointed near his naval. “And it moved over to the side.” He moved his hand to his right side.

“Fever and vomiting?” She asked.

“Yeah.” He said. “In the last few hours.”

“Ok, sir, I’m going to feel your stomach lightly, ok?” She said, putting her hands on his belly. She prayed for Rak’keli to heal this man through her, and she felt him relax a little bit, but this would not fix his problem.

“Sir, please wait here and I’ll be right back. Don’t eat or drink anything.” She said, scribbling on his notes and bringing them with her as she ran to find the doctor.

Fifteen minutes later, the man was in surgery, and once more Gemma was assisting, her hand on the man’s side, and her lips mouthing a prayer.

“Sir, we believe that one of your internal organs is inflamed and possibly about to burst. We’re going to remove it.” She said.

“But don’t I need my organs?” He asked.

“Not this one.” She said, preparing her utensils. “Gemma, anesthetic.”

Gemma continued praying as she mixed a variant of a Tulja Poultice into a fluid that they would then inject under his skin. She also applied some of the mixture over the location of the incision. With the doctor’s permission, she inserted the needle.

“This might pinch a little.” She said. To the man’s credit, he didn’t cry out.

by **Gemma Parker** on February 21st, 2019, 7:37 am

Gemma prepared for the man's surgery. She had a small work table on the side of the room, and while the man was being prepared for surgery, she was preparing all the herbs and medicines that he would need.

She prepared a tincture of opium by adding poppy bulbs to alcohol and allowing that to sit for a while. She then prepared labrador tea by bringing the tea leaves to boil and leaving them for a few minutes. Finally, she measured out alcohol that would be used as the anesthetic.

With her tools and herbs prepared, she nodded to the doctor that it was ok to begin. They gave the man some of the opiate tinctures first, careful to measure the amount to what he would need based on the pain they were about to inflict. They then went ahead and gave him the tea, but this meant that they had to act fast. It would be good to get the tea and the tincture into his blood, but they did not want him to get it down to his intestines where his appendix was.

"All right, sir, we're going to put you to sleep now. Please don't worry. We'll be done soon and you'll be in recovery before you know it." She said to the man, remaining calm. She was confident that they would be able to save him, especially since they were able to diagnose the issue soon and prevent a rupture. It was a good thing that he came in when he did.

Gemma and the doctor worked together well. There were very few issues between the two, and those were mostly just about speaking clearly. Gemma was not used to working in surgery, but her skills were solid. There was nothing to worry about.

She applied alcohol to the area and the tools and the doctor began to cut. The doctor made an incision along the right side of the body and Gemma watched, again keeping this motion and movement in mind for when she would be doing the same thing. Gemma then added more alcohol to the area to make sure that there would be no infection. From there, the doctor got to work with removing the appendix, which left Gemma holding open the wound. She had to be very careful not to let the tissue move much because the more movement there was, the longer the healing would take.

Before long, the doctor had the appendix out and on a side tray, and they were sewing up the cut, with all the man's internal organs once more functioning, other than the removed appendix, of course.

The wound was sewn shut by Gemma as the previous patient had been, and she paid special attention to the detail of the sewing and was careful to tie the knot shut at the end. The doctor watched and made sure there were no issues, and the man was moved into the recovery area.

by **Gemma Parker** on February 21st, 2019, 7:52 am

Gemma knocked on the patient's door and entered quietly. He was awake.

"Hey, how're you holding up?" She asked as she entered.

"I'm all right. I'm sorry for doubting you because of your age. You probably saved my life." He said.

"I'm glad you feel that way. Don't worry, you were right. I am young. I just have really great teachers." She said with a smile. "Do you mind if I take a look at the incision and clean it for you?" She asked.

"Not at all." He said.

Gemma moved to the man's bedside and handed him another cup of labrador tea that she had brewed before coming to meet with him. He drank it without asking what it was for. Gemma was sure she was being paranoid, but she really didn't want to have to worry about addiction, and this tea was a great way to prevent that. She unwrapped his bandages and took a look. Thankfully, it looked like everything was healing as well as could be expected. Gemma took a look and saw that her sutures were still intact and tied tight, holding the man's flesh together on his right side. That was good.

She got to work changing his bandage next. She removed the bloody gauze that had been bound to his wound and prepared another set. She put another poultice together, even though it would only help a little bit with the recovery, and reapplied it to the wound, binding the cloth and mixture to the man's body with the same wraps he had used before. This was all part of the healing process, but of course she was paid as a healer first, herbalist second. She began to pray over the wound, feeling the gnosis mark on her right hand warm as she did so. She felt the healing power of her goddess go through her into the body and the wound, and could almost feel the tissue mending faster. Thankfully, due to her gift, she was able to help the recovery time of her patients go much faster than normal with regular daily visits.

"How's your pain doing?" She asked when she was done.

"It hurts, but not as much as it should with one of my organs missing and the skin sliced open like that." He said.

"On a scale from one to ten, what's your pain?" She asked.

"Probably a five or six." He said. "But it's a different kind of pain. It's like a dull throbbing rather than a sharp pulsing like it was before. Is that ok?" He asked.

"That's to be expected. I'll give you some more pain medicine and make you some more tea to wash it down. I'll be back in a few minutes." She said.

She went back out to her work station and poured some more of the poppy tincture into a small cup and brewed another cup of tea, bringing it to him together for consumption.

by **Gemma Parker** on February 21st, 2019, 8:12 am

It was now time for Gemma to get back to making her rounds. And because she had not done so in a few days, she decided it was time to visit the cancer ward and give the medicine that they needed. There were two types of cancer patients in The Catholicon. The first type was the type she had seen earlier that day, where the cancer or tumor could be removed from the host body without harming them too much. That then helped them to recover. But the second kind was the kind she was going to see now. It was the people who were trying to fight off cancer without surgery, which was a very long and difficult process. Thankfully, though, this was where Gemma shined, because she was able to make tinctures and decoctions out of various herbs that could help to speed and advance the healing process, in addition to her healing gnosis.

To begin, she went to the herb cellar and removed the Turkey Tail Mushrooms that had been brought in from her dad's shop. Normally the hospital would have had to buy the tincture or decoction already made for a higher price, but since they were already paying Gemma, they could just bring in the raw ingrediants and she could make the blend herself.

She began by breaking the mushrooms into small pieces to allow the alcohol to bring out the healing properties. She would then later use another process to bring out even more, but this was the first step. She brought the broken up pieces to a pot and put it on to boil and left it there, remembering that she needed to check back in about seven bells.

While this was happening, she went to the patients in the cancer ward to give them the help that she could without that decoction being ready. She helped to change sheets, give tea, change any bandages, and sometimes even just sit and talk with the patients who were sad. She knew that one of the most important parts of the healing process was the spirit of the person who was being healed in adition to the spirit of the healer. She had to make sure that her own spirit was open and had a healing attitude so she could channel the healing power of Rak'keli, but if the person was depressed and sad and had lost faith, the healing gift might not be as potent. So she spent some time talking with the various patients, took a two hour nap during the rest period, and when the time came, she was back to the cellar preparing the decoction. She added the alcohol to bring out the healing properties, and began to make her rounds once more when it was ready. Each patient could get the same amount of the decoction, and she had enough for everyone thanks to the discounts she was getting from her dad. Before long the day was over and her decoction was all used.