FTEC, Thursday, 3/10

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully was reading up on advances in science since 2000; it was good to have developments to look forward to in her own world in the next decade or so. Hopefully.

[open and ocd-free]

Comments

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Well. Triela had said she'd show up. She'd forgotten about that, actually, but that was why she was writing things down now.

So... her schedule said she'd agreed to come visit. So she did.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Triela," Scully greeted her, pleased that she'd come in today. She hadn't wanted to badger the other girl about their agreement. "Come on in. How are you feeling?" She led the way to one of the exam rooms, and turned around to check Triela's expression.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Fine. No new developments." Though her memory was slowly getting worse.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"I want you to try to remember the seven words I say now, and repeat them back to me at the end of the exam, okay? Pen, umbrella, scissors, zebra, lightning, shoes, paint." Scully nodded, then said, "Okay. more complex things first. Is there any part of your body that you feel comfortable letting me X-ray?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela nodded, repeating the words back. Hopefully that would help her remember them. Or something.

"X-rays are fine, but I won't be able to tell you what some of the things you'll find are."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"I want to see the extent of your cybernetic enhancements," Scully said, leading her into the X-Ray room. "Then I can make a few guesses from there, even if you can't confirm them. How long ago, exactly, were the implants put into place?" She turned started to set up the X-Ray machine, and nodded to the bed for Triela to lie down on.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela did as indicated. "Seven years, approximately." She'd seen the X-rays in her file and suspected that the high-density ceramics that most of her bones had been replaced with would stand out.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Nothing's been replaced, or changed, since then?" Scully put on a radiological apron, and carefully set the machine to scan over Triela's entire body. "This will only take a minute."

She stepped out and hit the button, watching from the next room as the machine took a careful full-body picture of Triela's form, then scanned at intervals and took quick photos of her skull, sternum, and joints. It was all over in less than ten minutes.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Parts are occasionally replaced when damaged, or when the first-generation line is cleared for an upgrade."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

The clinical way she said that gave Scully chills; but she was fairly certain that didn't show on her face. "Okay." She switched off the machine, and turned on the lights, coming back into the room. "Those will take a little while to develop, so we'll look at them when they're ready. Let's go back into the examining room."

When they were there, she told Triela, "For most long-term prosthetics, there are three common problems that tend to develop, to one degree or another. Pain, nerve damage, and immuno-deficiency difficulties. Are you having any pain now?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"No. One of the primary purposes of the Conditioning regimen is to control pain and encourage proper nerve connections."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Let's do a few quick reflex tests, to set a baseline," Scully suggested. She paused, thinking of something. "Please tell me if any of these tests make you uncomfortable, physically or emotionally, okay? I'm not trying to push your tolerances right now. Just get a clear picture."

She got out the little hammer, and waited for Triela's okay.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Go ahead." Triela smiled just a bit at the suggestion. The Agency testing was, she suspected, significantly more strenuous. Every so often Claes would mention what she'd done for a day, and dislocated limbs weren't that uncommon.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully tested her ankles first, then her knees, and her elbows. "Any pain or tingling?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

The responses were all normal. Or as normal as cybernetics got with Triela. "None."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Good. I need to check your eyes and ears, and your breathing," Scully said, getting out a stethoscope. Something else she'd been forgetting to mention occurred to her, and she paused. "I should tell you, I am actually fully medically licensed to do these examinations."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"I thought you might be." Spend enough time around doctors and you get a feel for them.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully started checking her vitals, and got out the blood pressure cuff too. She didn't quite look at Triela as she said diffidently, "Ten years out of medical school. For what it's worth. So I won't do anything just to see if it will work." She shot Triela a look, and said, "Okay. How are you feeling, and what symptoms do you have these days?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"The expected ones. Continued minor memory lapses, usually lasting no more than five minutes. Nothing too serious to date, but I'll probably start lapsing on more serious things within the next four weeks. Occasional minor muscle tremors or lack of motor responsiveness. Again: nothing too serious to date, but they have been occurring with more frequency as of late."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Symptoms that spoke to nerve degeneration, and the long-term effects of the types of hypnotics meant to suppress memory and defiance. Scully chewed her lip, studying Triela a moment, then said, "I'm reluctant to give you more drugs for this, when you're already on a regimen. You've said they aren't going to do anything else, like replace your current prosthetics, or work on other transplants. Would they be likely to decrease any of the dosages, or effect smaller repairs?"

She checked her watch, then said, "I'm going to get the X-rays. I'll be right back with them."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"It's possible," Triela shrugged. "They might even do cybernetic replacements, but most of the damage isn't in areas they can replace."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

When Scully returned with the X-rays, she put them up in the lightboxes, turning them on so they could both see them. "Where is the damage that you already know about?" she asked, catalogging what she could see: high density ceramics and metals in place of bones, joints entirely replaced with mechanical versions, smaller implants whose purposes she could only guess at.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"As far as anyone can tell, it's accumulated brain damage from the Conditioning. There's no real way to repair it using current techniques."

She shrugged. "Toxic accumulation is what it says in the file."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Which was often extremely fatal, if the liver and kidneys broke down from filtering it out too often. Scully was quiet, then pointed to the X-rays. "You can see here, and here. These lighter spots, near the joins of your implants. Tissue decay from contact." Her voice was quiet. "It's not widespread, yet, but they're not wrong; there's no current treatment for that." She was quiet, then reluctantly said, "Have you considered consulting any of the healers here with magic abilities? I'm not giving up yet, but it might be something they can fix, where modern medicine can't."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"From what I understand, while it might be possible to purge my system of the drugs, the brain damage is pretty much permanent."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully suddenly got Mulder's frustration with her own dispassionate reaction to her cancer's progress last year. For something this awful, some reaction seemed demanded, especially so early. But Triela either wasn't capable of that, or wasn't capable of dealing with having that reaction yet. So she stifled her own, and asked quietly, "Do I have your permission to consult with other experts on this, though? And do you have some idea of what the progression will be, from what they've told you?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Go ahead," Triela waved easily. "And no one's sure, but if I roughly follow the trajectory of the other case this advanced, rapid deterioration will occur in the next couple of months."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Will you be allowed to stay here, if that happens?" Scully asked, her voice even. "Or will they take you back to Rome?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"I actually have no idea." It hadn't come up.

"I do graduate this semester. Perhaps things will be okay until then."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

There was something so sad about that. Triela looking forward to graduating as something to hope for, instead of getting well. Scully clenched her teeth against the feeling of helplessness.

"I hope so." She shut off the light box, and said quietly, "Do you have any questions? Or any requests, as this goes forward? If you're allowed to stay, have you thought about how you want to handle this? How aggressive you want the treatment to be?"

Or when she'd want it to stop.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"No." To all of those questions.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

It was still early. And maybe things could be done. "Think about all that. I want to see you back here again in two weeks, unless something goes wrong." She tilted her head. "Now. Do you remember the words I gave you to remember?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela paused for only a second before nodding. "Pen, umbrella, scissors, zebra, lightning, shoes, paint." So. No memory problems today, at least.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully nodded. "Good." She smiled a little. "I'll keep all this on record. And we'll for a way to cope with this. Okay?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Sure." Triela still sounded indifferent, but she was grateful.