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Post by Gidget on Jun 17, 2020 1:56:25 GMT
The plastic chairs were uncomfortable, but the stares she could feel through the cover of her overly large hood - cloth imp ears hanging below her shoulders - were even more so. She was meshing her teeth tightly, grimacing through the pain and the outright irritation. She knew she looked twelve, but it couldn't be THAT uncommon for somebody who looked like her to be off on their own. She reached up and gently dragged her fingers along the leather collar she wore buckled tight around her neck, finding some comfort in the familiar gesture.
Her jacket - sleeveless and slightly cropped, extenuating her totally non existent curves - was like her security blanket. It was the only thing keeping her in her seat... That, and the dull, throbbing pain that had managed to keep her up for days. She was tired of all of the attention. Glancing up just enough to catch the curious gaze of one of her onlookers, the androgynous teen bared her teeth and made a snapping motion towards the stranger. She jumped and looked away. Snickering to herself, she looked back at her phone, trying to keep herself distracted and waiting for someone to call her name. Against her better judgment, she had put her real last name on the paperwork. Given, she had come up with some silly little first name. "Alisha Clement." She wasn't using any sort of insurance or anything, and she had an ID in that name. Given, she had a few IDs, in a few different names.
She sighed, clicking through whatever it was she was doing on her phone.
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Post by Dr. Selena Sullivan on Jun 17, 2020 2:25:49 GMT
Selena sat at her desk, finishing up her notes on her last patient, preferring to write out the details on her computer than on the tablet. Hopefully the blood work would come in soon for the man and she could deduce what was the matter sooner rather than later. The young woman felt bad enough it was taking as long as it did and how many other doctors Mr. Tepes had gone through before ending up here. He was at wits' end, and could only imagine how awful he felt emotionally on top of his chronic pain. The young doctor sighed heavily and leaned back, massaging her temples momentarily, before looking towards the door to her office upon hearing a knock and seeing one of the nurses peeking through the crack. Selena offered a smile and waved her in, and the doctor was told about a new patient who would be coming in momentarily. The doctor thanked her and quickly looked through her tablet, scouring through the medical files. They were suspiciously obsolete, especially for someone so young, and a quick search found nothing concrete on this 'Alisha Clement'. Another sigh fell through her lips. Something about this city resulted in a higher number of fake profiles and dubious individuals, but perhaps it was a good thing someone like Selena came to live in Anthem. Those were some of the people who needed the most aid, were they not? After enough time passed with the nurse bringing 'Alisha' in and doing the preliminaries, Selena read everything she needed to and entered the room her new patient waited in. If it wasn't for the age on the file, which might have frankly been suspect anyway, the young woman would have assumed the girl before her was a child. But even children she treated with respect, and the impeccably dressed doctor walked forward and set upon her swivel chair, offering the semi-unusually dressed young woman before her a smile. "Hello, Ms. Clement. I am Dr. Selena Sullivan. What brings you in here today?" she inquired sweetly. The file she had stated some of the general concerns, but the doctor preferred to hear the problems herself from her patients. A generic questionnaire could only relay so much. Outfit |
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Post by Gidget on Jun 17, 2020 2:39:46 GMT
"Clement? Alisha Clement?" Gidget's head jerked up as her false name was called. She jumped up from her seat, her Converse making very little noise on the polished floor. She tucked her hands into the pockets of her jacket and headed after the nurse. She gave fairly generic answers to all of the questions, seeming fairly bored overall. However, when the nurse asked what her pain level was on a scale of one to ten, she gave an honest answer. "Right now, probably a seven... But its been a nine pretty recently." The nurse nodded in concern and promptly dumped her in a room to wait some more.
She groaned softly to herself, putting her head gently in one hand. She glanced around the room at the fairly archaic equipment. Why was it doctors offices always had such outdated tech? Didn't these people have enough money to update their own systems once in a while? She was fighting the urge to get up and head over in that direction, just to see what kind of security was on the machine (read: to kill the fekkin boredom) when the doctor finally graced her with her presence.
She looked up sharply as the woman entered, her lilac eyes taking in every detail she could manage. She reached up and began to rub gingerly at the back of her neck, massaging the just recently healed surgery scar only barely covered by her short hair. "Ah... Yeah. Thanks for seeing me?" Her accent - obviously West Coast, Jersey (or the equivalent) - showed just how far she was from home. Her eyes narrowed for a moment, and she lightly kicked one foot... a foot that didn't QUITE reach the ground.
"I... I've been having headaches recently, doc," Gidget muttered, obviously not completely sure how to start this conversation. She cleared her throat. "Pretty intense ones, too. I mean, I work on a computer all day. But I've done that for... ever. And I see just fine, so I know its not my eyes... But they're getting... rough."
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Post by Dr. Selena Sullivan on Jun 24, 2020 15:57:16 GMT
"Of course. I am happy to," answered the young woman earnestly. Even when she was full up and utterly swamped, Selena wasn't one to turn others away. Others always came first, even if it was to her detriment.
It was immediately quite clear her patient was currently in extreme pain, and Selena gave her a sympathetic look. The young doctor wished she could have done something to help right then, but the best she could offer was a quick diagnosis and figure out a treatment plan.
Blue eyes watched 'Alisha' with care, taking note of where exactly she was holding her head and every little detail she could possibly discover with the naked eye.
"How long exactly, if you can think on it? A week? Two? A month?" Selena inquired. It might have come across as intrusive, at times, but the only way she could treat a patient was to ask for details and gather as much information as possible. It wasn't uncommon for patients to become aggravated, as a result. She continued to ask, rolling a bit closer and reaching into her lab coat to pull out some tools, "Where exactly is the pain, Ms. Clement?" |
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Post by Gidget on Jun 24, 2020 17:32:31 GMT
"Uh. A few months, now?" She kicked her feet back and forth, staring down at the ground in an effort to focus and think. After the surgery, she had been groggy and a bit tired, but her head hadn't really hurt... "The first one was probably six months ago, now. At least."
Shr shrugged, reaching up to gingerly rub the back of her neck. "Usually, it starts in the back of my head, I guess. But thats only for a little while. It takes about ten minutes to peak, and at that point, its everywhere." She made a dramatic motion with her hands, like an explosion from either side of her head, and sighed.
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Post by Dr. Selena Sullivan on Jun 24, 2020 18:06:56 GMT
Selena rapidly wrote down what her patient told her, taking diligent notes. The young doctor noticed how 'Alisha' gingerly rubbed at the back of her neck and made a mental note to check the back of her head after the few standards, such as inspecting the girl's eyes and her ears, and so forth. Going then with her hunch, Selena stood from her seat and leaned forward.
"May I?" she motioned to the back of the girl's head, indicating she wanted to feel and inspect her neck and back of the head.
Assuming she was given the okay, Selena gently pressed her slender fingers into the back of the girl's neck and immediately quirked a brow. She continued to feel upwards and soon move to the back of her head, and the serene expression upon the doctor's face twisted into that of concern. There was extensive, deep scar tissue all throughout the area, and nothing of her sparse medical documents indicated any sort of injury or surgery, although if it was the latter, it seemed like a butchered job.
"Ms. Clement, have you suffered from any serious head injuries or undergone a surgery?"
As her fingers continued to move, it was then she felt it, a surgical scar hidden beneath her short ashen hair. And Selena frowned. It was especially clear now that her transcripts were fake, and Selena wondered just what in the hell this girl had been put through. |
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Post by Gidget on Jun 24, 2020 18:15:42 GMT
"Uh...."
They told her not to say anything, to keep it quiet, but that was impossible. They also told her she would be able to access the internet, and that there would be no lasting physical effects. Obviously, they didn't know what they were talking about.
And if they didn't keep their end of the bargain, she shouldn't either.
"This is all confidential, right?"
As long as the nice doctor lady would affirm, she'd continue on.
"Before I left Jersey about a year ago, I... ah, yeah. I had a surgery."
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Post by Dr. Selena Sullivan on Jun 24, 2020 18:29:45 GMT
Selena confirmed with a nod and added, "Of course. Part of the Hippocratic Oath."
Her patient seemed reluctant to give details or say anything in the first place, which considering the level of pain she was enduring, it must have been something serious. There was quite a bit of gang and illicit activity in this city from whispered rumours she heard from time to time. While it was not something Selena gave much credence to, it was impossible to disregard, being in the line of work she was and some of the injuries she and other coworkers came across, and talks with local authority. Could that be what this was about?
The girl proceeded to say the surgery occurred elsewhere and offered a time-frame, but no other details. Selena learned back, placing her gloved hands upon her lap as she sat back down. Her blue gaze held her patient's and she slowly inquired, "What... sort of surgery? I understand you may be reluctant to give details, but nothing you say here leaves this room. And I cannot effectively help you or offer proper treatment if I don't know the nature of your predicament." |
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Post by Gidget on Jun 24, 2020 18:43:04 GMT
She raised her gaze from the floor to look directly at the doctor, and there was outright challenge in her lilac colored eyes. Doubt would insinuate some kind of uncertainty: this was straight up disbelief, and, as stated, challenge. There was cold calculation that broke through the fog of her pain, her brain working quickly as she processed what the woman said, and decided whether or not she believed her.
"These people," she began, as there was no way she was going to attempt to incriminate the CIA, "put a chip in my brain. About a year ago."
She said it as if she were expecting the woman to not believe her. She stated a fact, but she was obviously preparing to lash out. She looked a lot less like a child in that moment. She remembered how her brother felt about her implant, about the horror he expressed to her, and she remembered the way her parents told her to stop making up stories. Her anger rose wildly to the surface, and she kept it contained... like a time bomb.
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Post by Dr. Selena Sullivan on Jul 19, 2020 10:20:41 GMT
The doctor's expression was impassive as 'Alisha' offered her explanation. A chip in the brain? In most circumstances, Selena would have been like the other's in this girl's life and chalked it up to delusion. Usually, stories and 'explanations' such as these came from paranoid schizophrenics and people suffering from other psychological issues. But with the surgical scar, the extensive scar tissue, and her searing headaches... Selena was pressed to believe her. Even if it wasn't a chip, serious damage had been done and she had little doubt there was at least some sort of foreign object inside.
Selena chose not to pry, sensing the brimming defensiveness from the girl, but thought with some measure of contempt that whoever performed this surgery seemed to do it with little care or expertise. Simply put, it was a total hack-job. It was impossible to know the full extent of the damage from the outside; a CT scan would prove necessary in this situation.
"With an unnatural object which seems to be have been implanted... haphazardly, no wonder you are experiencing excruciating headaches and that they have been worsening," she finally replied, ending on a sigh. Pressing her lips together in a firm line, her expression still holding that usual warmth and approach but grave. This was clearly a serious matter. "Alisha, I would like to set up a CT for today to see the extent of the damage. Once I see those results, it will be easier to know what course of action to take."
Regular, intensive massages and physical therapy might help, but, depending on the severity, the scar tissue may need to be removed surgically. And Selena had deep concerns regarding an invasive foreign object within the head of this girl and the inevitable ramifications it would and was currently bringing. It was rather likely, in her mind, it might need to be removed altogether, although, depending on the job, it might prove an impossibility or extremely dangerous to try and do so. But all of her trains of thought Selena kept to herself at the moment. It wouldn't do to say or do anything preemptively.
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