[personal log: supplemental]
/begin recording
Okay. So here I am in... Actually, I don't know what this place is called. I'll have to ask. But I'm in their clinic, with the local doctor. Want to say hi, Keh'rin?
[unknown speaker:] Hi-i?
[audible laughter]
Close enough. Um. Yes, so I'm in Keh'rin's examination room, and he's about to sew me up. We were attacked by these animals... Long story short is that my leg is pretty torn up, and Keh'rin doesn't have anything modern that will work on me, so he's going to try an old-fashioned method. And I'm going to log it for posterity. And because it will be a distraction.
I think I should be more nervous? Christine thinks it will scar. And I think it's going to hurt, frankly. But I'm feeling kinda carefree about the whole thing. It's probably because of the blood loss.
[unknown speaker:] Yes. Many bloods lost. Dizzy, yes?
Oooh yeah, very dizzy. I'm lying down, actually, on the examination table, and I still feel like the world is spinning a bit.
Okay, he's starting. He has a little squeeze bottle with a nozzle on it, and he's putting something in the wounds. Christine cleaned them out already - speaking of things that hurt, ow - so I think this is gonna be... Yeah. Local anesthetic. Maybe some kind of amide? It just feels cold, a little bit tingly.
[unknown speaker:] Is feel this?
Can I feel that? It's uh... I can feel a pressure. Pushing? But it doesn't feel sharp.
I guess that's what he wanted to hear. Oh, hey, there's the needle. It's curved, like the ones they show in the textbooks. Not quite a half-circle. And... Oh. Wow, that's weird. I can feel it, but I can't feel it. Like, there's a push, and this tugging when he pulls the thread and then ties the knot, but it's not... It doesn't hurt. It's just odd.
He's cutting the thread and tying it off after each stitch. He's using four hands simultaneously. Goddamn, he's fast. Keh'rin, how often have you done this? You do this a lot? Lots of stitches?
[unknown speaker:] Lots, many, yes. Often.
I wonder why that is. Maybe because of the way their skin is. Looks a little thicker than ours - maybe dermal regeneration isn't as efficient? Or maybe... Keh'rin, where on the body? On the legs only?
[unknown speaker:] Legs, yes. Not this, this, here.
He's telling me not on the face or the hands, not on the neck. So maybe it is a skin thickness thing.
[unknown speaker:] Is many... Height? Ehhh, level?
Layers. Of tissue. He's pointing at the deepest wound, I think he's trying to show me the difference between the subcutis and the dermis.
[unknown speaker:] Layers. Yes. This ones, lots... Hard? Not for machine heal.
The epidermis on some parts of the body is too tough for the dermal regenerator, but it works on the lower layers, then. That's interesting. And I know he has a surgical glue he uses sometimes, because we figured out that's toxic to humans.
I think it'd be really interesting to do a sort of internship somewhere like this, where the medicine isn't geared towards Terrans at all. I know M'Benga studied on Vulcan... I should ask him about that. I bet he learned a lot by comparing differences in tools and methodology, even beyond the specific techniques he learned for treating Vulcans.
Keh'rin is almost done. I think I've been promised a bath or a shower or something after this, so I'll end the log here.
Oh, a chance to bathe and put on clean clothes! If my leg wasn't so fucked up, I think I'd start dancing.
/end recording
Okay. So here I am in... Actually, I don't know what this place is called. I'll have to ask. But I'm in their clinic, with the local doctor. Want to say hi, Keh'rin?
[unknown speaker:] Hi-i?
[audible laughter]
Close enough. Um. Yes, so I'm in Keh'rin's examination room, and he's about to sew me up. We were attacked by these animals... Long story short is that my leg is pretty torn up, and Keh'rin doesn't have anything modern that will work on me, so he's going to try an old-fashioned method. And I'm going to log it for posterity. And because it will be a distraction.
I think I should be more nervous? Christine thinks it will scar. And I think it's going to hurt, frankly. But I'm feeling kinda carefree about the whole thing. It's probably because of the blood loss.
[unknown speaker:] Yes. Many bloods lost. Dizzy, yes?
Oooh yeah, very dizzy. I'm lying down, actually, on the examination table, and I still feel like the world is spinning a bit.
Okay, he's starting. He has a little squeeze bottle with a nozzle on it, and he's putting something in the wounds. Christine cleaned them out already - speaking of things that hurt, ow - so I think this is gonna be... Yeah. Local anesthetic. Maybe some kind of amide? It just feels cold, a little bit tingly.
[unknown speaker:] Is feel this?
Can I feel that? It's uh... I can feel a pressure. Pushing? But it doesn't feel sharp.
I guess that's what he wanted to hear. Oh, hey, there's the needle. It's curved, like the ones they show in the textbooks. Not quite a half-circle. And... Oh. Wow, that's weird. I can feel it, but I can't feel it. Like, there's a push, and this tugging when he pulls the thread and then ties the knot, but it's not... It doesn't hurt. It's just odd.
He's cutting the thread and tying it off after each stitch. He's using four hands simultaneously. Goddamn, he's fast. Keh'rin, how often have you done this? You do this a lot? Lots of stitches?
[unknown speaker:] Lots, many, yes. Often.
I wonder why that is. Maybe because of the way their skin is. Looks a little thicker than ours - maybe dermal regeneration isn't as efficient? Or maybe... Keh'rin, where on the body? On the legs only?
[unknown speaker:] Legs, yes. Not this, this, here.
He's telling me not on the face or the hands, not on the neck. So maybe it is a skin thickness thing.
[unknown speaker:] Is many... Height? Ehhh, level?
Layers. Of tissue. He's pointing at the deepest wound, I think he's trying to show me the difference between the subcutis and the dermis.
[unknown speaker:] Layers. Yes. This ones, lots... Hard? Not for machine heal.
The epidermis on some parts of the body is too tough for the dermal regenerator, but it works on the lower layers, then. That's interesting. And I know he has a surgical glue he uses sometimes, because we figured out that's toxic to humans.
I think it'd be really interesting to do a sort of internship somewhere like this, where the medicine isn't geared towards Terrans at all. I know M'Benga studied on Vulcan... I should ask him about that. I bet he learned a lot by comparing differences in tools and methodology, even beyond the specific techniques he learned for treating Vulcans.
Keh'rin is almost done. I think I've been promised a bath or a shower or something after this, so I'll end the log here.
Oh, a chance to bathe and put on clean clothes! If my leg wasn't so fucked up, I think I'd start dancing.
/end recording