The Healing Touch and Neutral Colored Anatomy [Ariston, private]

[Finnie]

Timestamp: Provided by Ariston

Herbi Vore sat waiting in his classroom, thick rimmed glasses with thicker lenses over his verdant eyes, his nose deep in a tome. When he looked up one could see his nose tip dark with drying ink. He waited for his new student patiently, but the subjects in the classroom for teaching were not too patient, one bleeding from the knees, another with a drippy eye, one with an ulcer the size of a grapefruit by his buttocks, another with labored breathing-- all men, all very sick and very in need of a good healer or medic's touch.

Herbi wore his robes, deep gray, and behind him was a diagram of a humanoid's anatomy. Jars of human and humanoid parts lined his untidy desk. Before him was a wound care kit and a jar of leeches.

[Ariston]

Brightening 36 of Imperos
Autumn of Era II
Era XIV P.F.

Ariston strode down the hallway, his destination within view and a smile on his face. He nodded politely to people as he passed, and even chanced a look or three into other classrooms just to see what they were learning. But, as much as he would like to sit in on as many of those classes as he could, he had one of his own to get to. At the door to his assigned room, he slowed, then stepped through. With more than a little amusement and a barely restrained laugh he greeted the ink-nosed man he presumed to be his instructor.

"Mr. Vore?" he asked, not moving from his position at the door. He looked about the room, taking in all the ill men sitting about, and all looking very impatient. The jars of body parts didn't escape his gaze, either, which, oddly enough, fascinated him. It took a lot to make him squeamish these days. After all, he had watched his arm get chopped off. Things like that tend to harden your stomach to the grotesque. But, he was happy to see that he would apparently be getting hands on training on the very first brightening of class. A good sign.

[Finnie]

Organs were like little machines-- fascinating indeed. The brain controlled every aspect of the body, the movement of the fingers and limbs, thoughts, and functions-- save for the other organs-- some filtered wastes, other metabolized nutrients, the heart pumped blood and kept a person alive-- little things could upset the system-- hemorrhage, infections, diseases-- one could poison the body and one could heal it with herbs and potions and remedies and such.

"Welcome welcome my new friend. Come have a seat. Yes I am Mr. Vore. You can call me Herbi, Herb, Herbi Vore, it doesn't matter. These people here are my patients. My medical students treat them. You will learn the basics of wound care today, cleaning a wound, and putting a dressing. Dressings can be dry and wet-- wet dressings have a saline solution. Wounds that are relatively dry use wet dressings and vice versa, but come here come here."

Herbi handed Ariston a healer's kit. "Cloth bandaging, saline solution, a scissor, needles and stitch lining, a pack of all-heal salve, some salt and a small bottle of alcohol." Herbi took a swig of the alcohol and smacked his lips. "Tell me, how much do you know about basic healing and medicine?"

[Ariston]

Relieved he had found the right place, he flashed his typical boyish smile and introduced himself. "NIce to meet you, Herbi. I'm Ariston." He followed Herbi's instructions and took a seat, nodding at the patients and offering them a sincere "vedui". He took the healer's kit, and perused it, listening to his teacher as he did so, trying to put the names with the items in the kit.

He was anxious to begin, and learning to clean and dress wounds was, at this point to him, as interesting as major surgery. You had to start somewhere, and the one-armed half-elf was always eager to learn. He looked up at Herbi's question. "Not much, I'm afraid. Keep the wound clean and dressed is about all I know. Oh, and it's best not to get wounded in the first place." He grinned lightly at Herbi, unconciously scratching the stub of his right arm.

[Finnie]

Herbi had seen numerous amputees throughout his life and had even trained one with two prosthetic legs to run a marathon-- but don't as him how he did it, he was no darn aelyrian physical therapist, just a very brilliant medicine man.

"Well that's more than what these people here know... some thought soaking in a warm tub would do them good, that would just train the blood out of them. It's painful but first we have the patient take a swig of this alcohol, then alcohol the wound-- wastes good liquor unfortunately. Numbs the patient from the pain a bit. Then we sprinkle a bit of salty water to flush out the wound, the bad stuff in the cut. Good? Then we dress it, cover the wound, make it good and clean. Now in the case of an amputation, which you probably have experience in-- heck not probably--" Herbi tapped the stump that was in the place of the arm Ariston was missing, "You have first hand experience, don't mind me pun." Herbi clutched his stomach and chuckled.

"We make a turnicate-- cutting off the blood to the amputated area and then that's that. In the case of an arm, the edema and blood pooling after the amputation is not as much as that in the leg, because the legs are dependent, below the heart that is. So pooling to the amputated leg stump is easy-- the thing balloons up you know?"

From under the table Herbi reached for a saw and he scuttled over to nameless patient number one who had complete gangrene, a blackened toe and destroyed vascular system... Without the amputation, he would have complete sepsis-- or the vis equivalent.

"So watch as I give the man some wine, good stuff it is." Herbi stuffed the bottle of alcohol in the man's mouth. The man moaned and nearly cried, his right leg was in so much pain despite the poor circulation to his nerves. "Now bite on this..." Herbi gave the man a dirty sock to chomp on before Herbi sanitized the saw and then hacked off the poor man's leg from below the knee-- giving him a baloney amputation, otherwise known as below knee amputation.

The man screamed and fainted during the operation. Herbi proceeded to flush the wound before he tied the end of the newly formed stump in a complete turnicate to cut off the circulation.

"Now after the blood has stopped, we'll wrap the stump. It'll need to be wrapped so that it doesn't balloon up. Next! Prepare the next man!"

Herbi washed the saw off and then pointed at the next victim-- patient, who had a running fever.

"He has some illness that affects his lungs, he is running a hot temperature... What would you do for him?"

[Ariston]

Ariston sat there and listened attentively to Herbi, his honey eyes watching the man's every move. He took no offense at Herbi's uninvited tap, nor his pun. As a matter of fact, the half-elf found himself chuckling along with his teacher, amused at the odd man's own amusement. He committed the things he was told to memory, and repeated it half to himself to help make it concrete. "Alchohol for the pain, flush the wound with salt water and dress it..." Amputations, however, he really knew nothing about. His arm had been cleanly chopped off, and a thaumaturgist had done the healing part. So, again, he paid attention.

And then, to his complete surprise, Herbi began sawing a man's leg off. Right there. In front of him and everyone else. Ariston could only sit there and watch in wide eyed amazement at the sight before him. The blood didn't bother him, nor did the man's screams of pain. It was just that this was all unexpected. He had assumed that on his first brightening in the class, things would have been a little less...well, he didn't expect to see a man's leg get hacked off with a saw.

He shook his head to clear it as Herbi called for the next patient to be prepared and stood quickly. He had to stop and think, though, about the question. Then, with a small measure of confidence, he spoke. "For the fever, a cold cloth on his head, perhaps. But, the lungs, I have no idea." Oh, this was shaping up to be a very interesting class, indeed.

[Finnie]

Herbi shook his head.

"The easy breezy rule of medicine. There's a bone out of place, you crack it back into place." Orthopaedics was no rocket science despite what people chose to think, despite the thousands of dollars spent on all those damned knees and hips replacements in some realm outside of aelyria.

"If there is something in the lungs it's likely to be an infection. Clear it out. Do percussion, do vibration." Herbi demonstrated briefly, setting the man to lie on his right side so that the doc could percuss the left sided lung, helping the sputum in the chest clear and drain. "You ask the man to cough. If he is in pain, have him do splinted coughing. Have him hug a pillow over his chest before he coughs. The more that comes out the better, clears the lungs, clears the infection. As for the fever, cold cloth, cold water, a cold bath, all good to lower the heat in the body. This is a fever, the body is becoming warm to kill off what has infected the body be it bad vis or some sort of bug or spirit. You leech the man, release some of the hot blood in him."

Herbi proceeded to dump leeches all over the man's body, the man writhed in unspeakable discomfort.

This was not a lecture in compassion or empathy, though a healing hand and touch was often more effective than a medicine man's quick quirks.

"You keeping up with me? Spritz some vinegar water or spit on the leeches, have them removed, cool the man's body and have him cough until he spits out enough phlegm to cover half a jar. When you're ready, tell me what you would do with the next patient my boy, he has a fractured knee bone."

[Ariston]

Ariston was attentive, trying to take in everything Herbi was telling him. He had to admit, though, that Herbi's rather straightforward explanations made sense. He had expected to recieve lectures on theories, be shown anatomy charts and expected to memorize big words. So far, he had not been subjected to any of that. No, instead, he was given blunt explanations and directions, complete with the no frills whys and wherefores of what was being done. All in all, he was relieved. He always learned better by seeing and doing, rather than just being expected to take what was taught as fact. He liked to see things put into action, to see how they really worked.

He nodded, indicating that he was indeed keeping up, and grabbed a bottle of vinegar water, and began doing as he was told. It was a rather slow process to remove the leeches, but, he finished the task and wet a cloth with cold water and placed it on the man's forehead, and asked him to cough, using a jar to catch the nasty phlegm. It seemed to take hours, but, finally the man had coughed up enough. Finishing, he turned to Herbi and the next patient.

He peered at the man's knee, carefully thinking it over. "You said that if a bone was out of place, crack it back into place. But, a knee......I'm not sure. Doesn't a knee sort of float there? If you can put it back, though, I would think a splint or cast to keep the leg from bending."

[Finnie]

Little medical students in their white labcoats had to memorize tomes upon tomes of medical terms and in the end, in their internships, they brought along with them tinier tomes to refer to when they were tested or treating real live patients.

Healing a body was simple-- flush out an infection, make a hot body cold, keep a broken part from moving, drain a seeping wound, and stop something from bleeding. Who needed to know terminology, the nerves in the body, the glands and systems-- all that was boring and boring made a student sleepy.

"Technically my boy the knee bone doesn't just float there. You can say it does, but if it is free floating then I can push your knee bone down to your heel bone and that won't be a pretty sight, now would it? But the second part you got right," and Herbi placed two boards, one behind and one in front of the leg before he wrapped it in place.

"Step up boy, no bending the knee, no taking the boards off for at least a month and then you do some quadriceps setting exercises. You take these and you hop on your good leg!" And Herbi showed the patient how to ambulate with makeshift crutches. Then the patient hopped outta the room. Herbi turned to his new student. Herbi moved fast and his classes were fast-- in one short class, Ariston would learn more than most medical students in a semester of classes-- mainly because theories made one sound smart but it gave one no hands on, practical and effective experience.

"You are learning fast my boy. I'm impressed. Now if someone you meet has a broken neck of some sort, have the person lie in neutral position or don't touch them at all. The theory is the same-- you keep the neck un-moving. Now final patient of the brightening, he's vomiting a bit, complains of dizziness and the whole room moving. What would you do for him?"

[Ariston]

Herbi made everything seem so simple and effortless, as he rattled off to Ariston what he was doing as he did them. Had the half-elf not been such an avid learner, he probably would have been lost somewhere around recieving his medical kit. As it was, he was absorbing everything Herbi had to say and everything the man was doing. He watched as Herbi placed the splint on the man's leg, asking a question here adn there and getting a much simplified, straightforward answer. Already he had learned how to cleanse a wound, hack a man's leg off without him bleeding to death, bandaging a wound, how to dislodge an infection from the lungs, relieve a fever, leech a body and splint a leg. It seemed like quite a bit, but, Ariston was taking it all in.

He peered at the dizzy man, trying to figure the problem and the solution. He wondered if this was a similar process that Klue went through with his gadgets. "Make sure he stayed sitting or lying down, I suppose. Can't have him falling and bashing his head open. Could it be something he ate? If so, I would think inducing vomitting to empty his stomach. More than he is now, that is. I recall experiencing something familiar once when I ate something bad. Or, he could be sea sick?" He was completely unsure about this one, and it showed in his voice.

[Finnie]

Herbi gasped and could have proposed marriage to Ariston right there and then if he swung that way. Luckily for Ariston, Herbi did not swing that way-- he swung no way since he was quite asexual, just that he didn't bud like a sponge to reproduce.

"I like the way you think. Vomiting is to rid bad contents from one's stomach to clear out the toxins. We can flush out the system by making the poor guy drink lots of water or we can do this!" Herbi stuck a finger down the man's throat, triggering his gagging reflex and causing him to vomit the contents of his stomach, putrid smelling pile of grayish matter all over the floor.

"Would you clean that up for me?" Herbi asked Ariston, pointing to a mop. "Now when you're down, we're going to get down to business." Herbi pinched his nose. "Do you feel better?" he asked the patient. The patient shook his head.

"So the vomiting did not do him too much good. Hence is is nauseous. Thus it is from the dizziness that is making him nauseous. What we can suspect his positional, something positional with the water in his ear." Herbi did a few maneuvers, which Ariston would not be able to learn, but in effect, it shifted the water nicely in the man's ears, and his vestibular problems would be gone by the morrow.

"Keep your head like this, straight, go home and sleep on your side and that's it. Alright. Good. How do you feel about the lesson today my boy? Any questions?" Herbi clasped his hands together. The only man left was one with urinary incontinence... he hadn't been able to pee for a whole day.

[Ariston]

Ariston watched in bewilderment as Herbi suddenly stuck his finger down the mans throat. Not so much as a warning to the patient, who proceeded to empty his stomach of gods only knew what. He nodded to Herbi, still unable to speak after that little incident, and looked about for something to clean up the mess with. A little sawdust and some scooping, and he was finished just in time to catch Herbi's final instructions to the patient.

He shook his head. "I think I got it all. Cleaning and bandaging a wound, leeching, dislodging infections from the lungs, relieving fevers and splinting a limb. Oh, and inducing vomiting to empty the stomach of offending toxins. Did I miss anything?"

[Finnie]

"These are the basics my boy-- you can use what you had learned today to treat minor wounds and infections in a patient. Now as for the final patient, you may wish to avert your eyes if you are squeamish-- this takes a lot from you, a lot from me, and a lot from this poor fella here." Herbi closed his eyes and shook his head and then sterilized a straw made of gum material that could bend through small tunnels.

"Pull down your pants boy," Herbi helped with the pants pulling. Then with one hand he took a hold of the patient's peepeedeepee, the other hand he stuffed the beginnings of the straw into the peepeedeepee hole. At the end of the straw was a pump. Herbi gave one squeeze and the pump vacuumed out clear yellow liquid. Despite the pain of urethral-invasion, the patient breathed a sigh of relief when Herbi's catheter helped released the contents of his almost exploded-bladder.

"If something is blocked, you clear it. Good? Good. Have his area washed and cleaned. I'll give him a pill to eat to prevent an infection. Wash with saline water, will be good enough. And you, patient man, keep drinking lots of cranberry juice and water and remember to not hold in your urine any more!"

Good, good-- the patient might need surgery later but that was beyond the scope of this class, too bad for the patient.

"Now Ariston, I think you are set. Here is your documentation, and you are official a Beginner Healer."

XP awarded X2, Basic Healing/Medicine

[Ariston]

Hacking legs off and inducing vomit by shoving fingers down one's throat Ariston could handle without any problems. But, this, well, this was almost too much. The half-elf's eyes widened at what he was witnessing, before quickly turning to find something else to focus on. He fought back the urge to cringe himself, as the straw was pushed into the end of the mans... peepeedeepee. Almost everything about this class had been unexpected, and this definately was no exception.
He returned his attention to Herbi, then set about cleaning th man's private area, spritzing some saline water over it and wiping it off with a towel. He had to admit, this was a bit awkward, but, there was nothing to be done about it. He finished up and turned back to Herbi.
He smiled when the teacher handed him his documentation, proving that he had passed the class. He was one step closer to an honorable diploma.

[Finnie]

"Very good job my boy. You are a fast learner. Hope to see you sometime soon in the future. I will be offering new classes if you are interested. In Intermediate, it will be a more hands-on approach on your part. Now if you've no questions, that is it for the class. When I next see you, hopefully you will not be my patient."

Herbi winked. If Ariston didn't reach the age of 75 or older ordinations, he needed not worry about what the last man had, that was if Aelyrians had prostates...that enlarged gradually with age... who knew.