Posted by Ensign Mike Jones (Medical Officer) in Sick Bay Lab

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Sharah Fayth (Medical Officer) in Sick Bay Lab

Posted by Ensign Mike Jones (Medical Officer) in Sick Bay Lab
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Mike alternatively loved and hated times like these being a doctor. Whether it was in a starship or a practice on Earth it all seemed to be the same. ‘Feast or Famine.’ as his mother used to say . Always the same . Either there were too many people at a time or none at all which left you precisely where he was right now.

He was in the lab with a coffee cup full of a dark earthy smelling brew with a hint of mint. He took a sip of the brew and wrote some notes in the notebook which lay beside him. He was putting together a volume of cures called simply Antiqua Remedia. He smiled at the bite of the liquid despite the mint. He looked over at the jar which held the chopped up dark twisted version of the root that the tea was made from . It was his opinion which he hoped to introduce that old non-technological cures should not be allowed to disappear. And he hoped to research the cures of other races. But for now he sipped at his Dandelion tea. And began some cleanup in his lab area.

Ensign Mike Jones Med.

The doors released a hiss of air as they opened to admit the raven haired Betazoid doctor. Over her blue uniform she wore the typical lab coat most of the medical staff wore and she was carrying a basket.....of flowers. She moved over to one of the lab tables that looked more like a Terran medieval apothecary work bench than 24th century medical technology. She sniffed the air as she nodded as she passed by Jones. “Dandelion tea?”

Fayth, med

Mike looked up from taking a sip and sat down the cup gently. He could only mentally pat himself on the back for not acting shocked. He couldn’t however keep the tug of a grin away from the corner of his mouth as he looked over to the Lieutenant and scratching the back of his head replied. ” Yes ma’am. But if I might be so bold as to ask. That is to say I’m not doubting your abilities in such matters but how’d you tell? I mean given that it naturally looks and smells like coffee with the exception that I’ve added mint to it that is.” He paused then as he looked over to his collection of dried roots , flower tops and leaves. “Or could you make it out from the root?”

Ensign Mike Jones Med

Sharah shook her head, “The smell actually. My first CMO after my Academy tour, Dr Zarath, was huge into tea. He thought with the right tea any ailment, any problem, could be helped. He used to quiz us about which tea he was drinking that day and its properties, and every one left with a prescription for some kind of tea.” Of course part of that was Zarath trying to help her come up with something to help with her own condition, as well as helping her expand on her own cadet project. “And it does smell and look like coffee, but there is a very subtle, deeper earthy twinge to the aroma.” She followed his gaze over to the herbal pieces and laughed slightly, “Well that too, if I had seen them.” She held up the basket of botanicals she’d carried in with her. “What are you working on?”

Fayth, med

Mike smiled as he shook his head and said, “I would never have gotten it from the smell, that’s amazing! ” Pausing for a few beats he answered the Lieutenants question as he replied ,”Well as to what I’m up to is something pretty far out of my field of study, but it’s also something that I think is overlooked too much. And that is naturally occurring medicines . Barks , roots, Berrys saps the list goes on. All perfectly good natural cures with no side effects which have been replaced by modern medicine with side effects. .” He shrugged then and said, “It’s been a hobby of mine for the past couple of years. I started out with the plants from around my home and I’ve been expanding my writings since . I figure that now I’m out here with completely new people from completely new places I might be able to add to my list. You wouldn’t happen to have home remedies from where you were born do you Lieutenant?”

Ens. Mike Jones med.

As he spoke Sharah turned her full attention on him. And a pleased and excited look came to her face. “You are absolutely right. My cadet thesis focused on something similar.” She turned to the work station and snagged a standard tricorder, not a medical one, from the table. “As you know most away teams don’t form at standard with a medical officer, unless medical help is specifically requested. Accidents happen, and the consequences are pretty severe sometimes and basic first aid isn’t always enough. So the premise I was working off of is that all our medications originally came from plants, herbs, minerals found naturally until science advanced enough to create synthetics. Exactly what you just said. Natural medications. So I wrote a program that scans the surrounding area for those base chemicals found in those natural medications. Then it walks the person through how to make a tea or compress or salve to help treat the problem. It’s not an absolute but it does buy time until medical help can arrive.” She passed over the tricorder with the program loaded. It asks a series of questions to pin point the symptoms and then suggest the required chemical or nutreiant. Then once it was found the program would explain how to create a medication and administer it. “It’s not known natural medications, but a little adjacent to it.”

Sharah flushed a bit then. “Sorry, you asked where I was from. I’m from Betazed. Unique to Betazed…” she turned back to the table and reached up onto the shelves and pulled down three jars. “There are several of course but these are unique to our people. Jestral tea actually works as a mild telepathic inhibitor and utta berries can settle an upset stomach. Hilrep can actually enhance empathic ability.” She handed him the jars. “I actually grow several plants for medicinal purposes in the arboretum. There is also plenty of extra room there for more if you would want to grow anything. I’d be happy to show you.” The idea of going to play in the dirt with her plants made her very happy. Her father used to tell her she looked like some kind of mythological fey after she’d been in the garden for awhile, covered in dirt, leaves, roots, and petals.

Fayth, med

Mike sat and listened with some sense of amusement as the Lieutenant seemed to erupt one sentence followed after the other. He had quite frankly until now only heard a few words out of her. Maybe it had just taken something of great interest to her to trigger her conversational mechanism?

Either way, as she spoke he found that this was truly a thing of passion which spoke to her. And although Mike may not be the oldest or wisest in his chosen profession he had found out that when people spoke of such things with a passion they would be worth listening to. Mike was getting ready to start a dissertation of the chemicals contained in some of his cures when he heard the Lieutenant mention her special scanner . It was like she was presently reading Mike’s mind! He frowned wondering for a moment but this was merely one of those odd things you were taught to ignore where he came from .

He looked at the herbs she had given him and had started to comment when she finally told him where she was from . He smiled to himself as he thought that that may explain a few things. Then as she spoke he got into his sealed metal box and pulled out a bag which contained bark shavings. He had started to speak again when he heard the word arboretum. He was amazed at his own stupidity because he had never thought to check to see if the ship had one .

“Wow.” was the only semi-intelligent answer he could finally give her. “So, then if I’m hearing you right . You could scan your say indigestion into your scanner. Then if you scanned your Utta berries or .” he said pointing to the bark .”These bits of willow bark and it will tell you that. Well from mine a salicin would be used ? And ..” he said as he felt as though someone had given him a great Christmas present . “Do your berries contain the same chemicals?“

Sharah looked a little sheepish. “I’m sorry, Dr Jones. I tend to runaway with myself when talking about this,” and she pointed at the tricorder. “That and plants. Ever since I was little I’ve been fascinated by plants as medicine.” She shook her head considering, “Not exactly. So scientific and engineering tricorders can’t really take the kind of scans a medical one can. They can monitor on a very basic level body temperature, electrical impulses, that type of thing, but you would manually choose the symptoms from a list in the program and then the program would scan what ever you put in front of it to see if it contained the chemical you needed.” She tipped her head looking at the bark and then the berries. “It’s possible they have the same chemicals. Of course on Earth you have willow bark, ginger, and mint. You can even use lemon for an upset stomach if the cause is a pH imbalance. But there is one way to find out for sure. The chemistry lab down in sciences has a great mass spec. Spits the results out in less than an hour.” While she talked she worked with the plants in the basket, removing leaves, petals, roots, separating them out and putting into different containers.

He waited patiently for her answer and only after she had did he remember the arboretum. “Oh and arboretum? Yes I would love that! I have literally a gaggle of seeds!”

Ensign Mike Jones med.

“Well then, let me know when you have time and I’d be happy to take you down there and help you get set up.”

Fayth, med

Mike then quickly finished the entries he had been making, drank the rest of his tea and began to clean things up as he said to Fayth. “I wish I could go now, but I have some other things I have to attend to. But Lieutenant, believe me I will hold you to that invitation to the arboretum. I think that together with a bit more research we might be able to put out a decent paper on the subject and perhaps get some others interested on the subject. I honestly thought I was the only one interested in this. “
As he finished packing everything away Mike said,” I shall look forward with talking to you again Lieutenant! “

Ensign Mike Jones med.

Sharah nodded returning to her samples and jars. “Any time doctor, just let me know.”

Fayth, med