This Is.... New (Nik)

[Connor Anderson]

Since first coming to Hammel, Connor had very seldom found himself with any sort of need to visit the infirmary, save for if Charlie was hurt or sick.  Then he would stay as long as he was allowed to to keep her company and bring anything she might need or want.  His power tended to look after any kind of issues that came up with his own body, be it injury or illness.  

But today... today was different.

Well, really, the whole weekend had been... off.  He'd worked at Lahja's on Saturday, and Sunday he'd dedicated to working off some spring fever in Sona.  The weather had been decent, and he'd tried lunging him for a while to work out some excess energy before daring to get on his back.  The gelding had gotten better since moving to Vermont, but he was still hot tempered when he felt like it, and Connor didn't want to chance it.  

Riding without anyone around was always a risk, but after getting the chestnut Thoroughbred worked hard on the lunge line, he'd thought it was safe enough.  He'd ridden Sona for years, and he very seldom ended up on the ground, even when he was at his most headstrong.

He hadn't accounted for a bird swooping directly in front of them, though.  (Who could, really?)  When Sona spooked, he spooked.  Connor had barely had a chance to try to grab for his mane when the gelding had stopped dead and half-reared before spinning and bolting.  Fully unseated, Connor had ended up slipping from his back and hitting the ground hard.  

Thank God his mother had always made him wear a helmet.  

Getting up, he was sore all over, but he knew that would vanish sooner rather than later.  Nothing felt disastrous, and apart from a solid headache blooming from where he'd hit it, he managed to catch his wayward horse and put him back on the lunge line to end the ride on a better note, as well as to cool him out before putting him away and taking the bus back to Hammel.

By dinner most of the aches had subsided, but he noticed that his vision was blurring a little, and not just up close.  Well, it had been a while since his last eye exam... maybe things were getting worse.  Or maybe it was the headache, which had yet to disappear.

Standing up from dinner to go back to his dorm resulted in him nearly falling over, his hands on the table the only thing that saved him.  He hadn't experienced a dizzy spell in... probably since he was a kid riding a roller coaster or something.  

Maybe he was just a little rattled from the spill.  After texting Charlie, he decided to go to bed a little early, to see if that helped.

Upon waking, he instantly shut his eyes again.  For someone used to waking early, sunrises didn't usually bother him.  But the light made the ache in the back of his head bloom back into a fully formed headache.  Getting up didn't make anything any better, as he had to sit for almost two full minutes before the dizzy feelings subsided enough for him to get up and get dressed.  

This definitely wasn't normal. 

Checking the time, he decided to chance a quick visit to the infirmary.  Maybe his power was just taking longer.  Or maybe he'd done something more serious than he'd first though.  And that wasn't a good feeling.  

Carefully, he made his way down to the infirmary, wondering if anyone would be in this early.  Well, if not, he could wait.  For now he'd linger by the desk in the hopes someone started their day as early as he did.

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

Dr Nakia Kenjutsushi (or Nik, to almost anyone that knew her) treated a variety of patients at the Hammel Institute. Adults and children; staff and students; metas and baselines. Of all of these, the rarest of all injuries tended to belonged to those with cellular regeneration. The injuries that she did see were either far too severe for them to heal (and thus, generally to severe for her to heal alone), or were illnesses that would keep people down for weeks.

Rarely were they neither.

With her Infirmary near empty, usually the albino woman was in a good mood. The only remaining people from the previous night were a precognative with a hefty migraine and an aerokinetic with food poisoning. Both were sleeping off their issues in the side rooms, and the doctor had just left her sick patient's side to see another one standing by her desk. "Good morning," she stated, straightening out the sleeves on her blue and white dress. "What can I do for you?"

What? Spirit Week was starting today, and she and her husband had planned for months on this scheme.

Back to business. By the way he was standing, the young man didn't seem used to being in the Infirmary. While she recognized him from somewhere, Nik didn't think she'd ever actually treated him before. He must have been a visitor to someone else, otherwise she'd probably remember his name. He didn't look sick or injured right this moment, but looks were often deceiving.

[Connor Anderson]

As Connor waited against the counter, he briefly closed his eyes to shield against the light. It seemed to be aggravating his headache, which in turn seemed to make his vision fuzzy, which he could only attribute his dizzy spells to. It all seemed connected, though whether that was good or bad, he didn't know. He'd been almost out of touch with things that could go wrong with his own body since his power surfaced, so he had no idea if he was just being a giant baby, or if there was an actual problem. He didn't know which was worse, either.

When he heard a voice he raised his head quickly, eyes snapping open. The quick motion set his head off spinning again, and for a moment he leaned a little heavier on the desk to keep from falling over. Waiting until it was over, he chanced peeking up again. He didn't quite notice her costume, mostly because he was starting to worry, and honestly, clothes were clothes. He was the last person to judge what someone else was wearing.

"Uhhh. I don't really know." Idly he rubbed at the back of his head, as if that would help relieve some of the ache. "I'm a cell regenerator, so this is kind of... odd. So if it's nothing I'm really sorry to bother you." This wasn't helping. "I've had a headache since yesterday." That was the worst of it, and seemed to be the cause of everything else.

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

This early in the morning, the closing of eyes could easily have simply been due to tiredness. Sometimes, it was to ward off headache, dizziness, or nausea, but until she had some firm answers, Nik couldn't speculate one way or the other.

Though, if the sound of her voice could send the poor boy reeling, there were definitely other problems afoot. Lifting a pale eyebrow, the doctor watched in a calculated fashion as Connor recovered and began to explain himself. Dizziness, perhaps disorientation. Definitely something he's not used to by the look on his face, so likely not a side effect of his abilities. Oh? Hm - cellular regeneration doesn't necessarily exclude injury, but this may be a migraine. But not if the headache started yesterday.

Nodding in understanding, the doctor pulled a fresh set of polyethylene gloves from the box on her desk. "Have you ever had a headache like this before?" she asked, gesturing for him to sit. "Or is this something new?"

Once he was seated, Nik settled down across from him and lifted his chin, looking across his face. His eyes tracked her well enough, but there was something wrong with it. She couldn't put her finger on it just yet, but it looked like his eyes weren't dilating properly. She'd have to run another test to be sure.

Taking out a flashlight from the drawer behind her, she asked, "Do you have any other symptoms other than a headache? Dizziness, nausea, sensitivity to light or sound?"

[Connor Anderson]

Connor was used enough to early mornings that normally he wasn’t overly tired when he got up. Rising early had been a habit since he was young, and at school it was a lot easier to start the day. There were no horses to feed, no stalls to clean, nothing but showering and getting his things together for class. Or, in today’s case, it allowed time for him to travel down to the infirmary before classes started.

At her question, he slowly and carefully shook his head. “No. Not that I can remember. I mean, maybe, before I came to Hammel. But it feels… different than a normal one. Sort of.” He really hoped he wasn’t wasting her time.

At her direction, he shifted away from the desk and sat himself in one of the chairs cooperatively. As she looked him over, he did his best not to squirm or move around.

“Other symptoms?” Well, yes. He did. Blinking slowly against the bright lights of the infirmary, he twisted his hands in his lap. “I’ve had a few dizzy spells… and my vision was a little blurry. I thought maybe my eyes were just getting worse. But having a headache this long and being dizzy… maybe not?” He really didn’t know.

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

Nodding in response to his answers, the doctor looked at her watch and felt for a pulse in her patient's throat. Steady, strong, not too fast. Blood pressure was good, too, with that steady beat. Nothing out of the ordinary outside his head, then. The dizziness is worrisome, though. Perhaps...

"Did anything physically violent happen on Sunday?" she asked, turning on the flashlight. "Look up for me please - thank you. Did you hit your head, or perhaps snapped it back too fast? What happened?" As she talked, distracting him, Nik shone the light into his eyes, watching the dilation as the light flicked back and forth. Ah, as expected. His pupils are not contracting at the same rate. Very likely a concussion.

It was unerringly one of the few things outside major trauma that would send a regen to her office. The brain, while a marvelous thing, healed rather slowly compared to other parts of the body, even to the point of scarring in a way that was not conducive to long-term healing. In short, brain damage, while often minor, healed slowly regardless of who you were.

[Connor Anderson]

As she held her hand against his neck, Connor closed his eyes and relaxed a little against her touch. This wasn't that big of a deal. That's what he kept telling himself, anyway.

Violent? He opened his blue eyes to look at her curiously. "Uhhh. My horse spooked and I hit the dirt." He looked a little guilty over that. He'd really thought Sona was improving, but he was proved very wrong instead. "He got scared of a bird and..." He frowned at the memory. "I don't really know what he did, but he got me off his back." In all fairness, it had happened fast, and it felt like a blur. At least the talk of what happened distracted him a little from the bright light in his face.

He just hoped that Dr Nik didn't have to tell his mom. The last thing he wanted was for her to question him having Sona in Vermont.

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

Falling off a horse would definitely do it, especially if he was struck by the flailing creature's head before being thrown. Honestly, the hard impact on pounded dirt would be more than enough. Even with a helmet, that was something that could potentially kill a person without his power, should they be foolish enough to not wear a helmet, or unlucky enough to land too high on their shoulders.

Humming a sound of understanding, Nakia turned off the flashlight and put it back on her desk. "Well, that could certainly explain your symptoms," she explained. "It looks like you have a concussion - have you had one before?"

It was a fairly common injury for those who played impact sports or didn't have protective guards for physical events (the former being football, the latter gymnastics). While she didn't know much of horses save that they were very big and quite dangerous when startled, Nik was certain that riding them came with its own share of danger.

"I'm going to need to test your memory," she then explained, pulling off her gloves. "And I will need you to hold my hand while you answer so that I can assess your condition further. My skin is cold, but other than that, I promise I don't bite." She smiled. "Are you comfortable with that?"

[Connor Anderson]

It had been a long time since Connor had really hurt himself falling off of a horse. He'd been fortunate enough to never break a bone, but he'd certainly gotten his fair share of bruises and sprains. Horses could be dangerous, yes, and Thoroughbreds had a reputation for being hot headed. His parents tried hard to focus on good temperaments as much as they did soundness and speed, but it wasn't easy. Even good horses spooked sometimes. The last time he'd been thrown before getting Sona, it had been from one of their retired stallions, who had spooked at a plastic bag caught on the wind. Normally he was mellow, but that had scared him that day.

His eyes widened slightly at the possibility he'd really hurt himself. He couldn't remember exactly what a concussion was or did, but it didn't sound good. Shaking his head, he answered carefully. "No, ma'am, I haven't. Is it... bad?" Was his mother going to freak out about it?

Okay, memory test. He could handle this. Hopefully. Listening to her instructions, he nodded. "I'm okay with that." Managing a small smile back, he joined his hand to hers. "How does a memory test work?" Hopefully he could pass it. Failing it probably wasn't a good thing.

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

Nik shook her head at the question, though not because her answer was a negative. "They can be," she replied. "Too many of them can lead t a traumatic brain injury, and if they are reinjured during healing or left untreated at all, they can cause some severe damage." noticing the worried look on her patient's face softened her tone, though. "It doesn't look like that will be the case here, though. Besides, concussions are a common injury in many fields, not just sports. There are a number of treatments that, when used together, help resolve the issue before it becomes too serious."

For most students, that would take easily a couple months of being off the field and alterations in lifestyle. For someone with cellular regeneration? Maybe two weeks, depending on the severity.

His hand was unsurprisingly warm as it grasped her, and the pale woman nodded. "I'll ask you some questions that range in difficulty," she explained. "Answer as best as you can, but don't think too long on any of them, and tell me if something is hazy or hurts to think about."

Releasing some of the tight restraint on her tactile ability, the doctor nodded once to herself as a distant feeling of dizziness and the lingering touch of a headache blossomed in her own skull. The light felt, but did not appear, brighter as well, and something of titling effect touched the room. These were all lesser forms of the various symptoms Connor was experiencing, and it would serve her well as a baseline for what was missing during the course of the test.

"All right, are you ready?" At his affirmative, Nakia nodded. "Good. First, please forgive my manners, but I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Dr. Nakia Kenjutsushi, though I'm sure your classmates mostly call me Nik or Dr. Ken. What's your name?"

The next couple questions were all similar in vein: how old was he, when was his birthday, what grade was he in, where was he born. Things that most people knew very easily, and could recite without much thought. The question after taking that baseline came after she stood for a moment to retrieve his medical file and sit back down, slipping her hand back into the teen's.

"What's your current address?"

[Connor Anderson]

None of that sounded particularly good. Connor dreaded to think what might have happened if he hadn’t had his helmet on. He swallowed and flexed his fingers gingerly on his lap. His parents weren’t going to be thrilled about this one bit. His father had always referred to Sona as a bit of a wild card, and this was exactly what he’d always worried about. Sigh. “I won’t be riding for a while, that’s for sure.” Not unless it was on one of Lahja’s practically bombproof horses to exercise them. Sona could cool his heels for a bit and exercise on the lunge line. Connor wasn’t going to risk a repeat of this.

He offered a slow nod to her explanation, trying not to tilt his head too much. If this was going to help her, he’d do his best.

Her seeming lapse in manners made him smile. It sounded like something his own mother would expect him to say when clients were around the farm. “It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Ken. I’m Connor Anderson.” There, now both of them had manners on their sides again.

Most of the questions he was able to answer easily, though his address tripped him up. It wasn’t like it was an easy one to remember most of the time, being a rural farm as opposed to a more typical address in a city. Plus they had a mailing address for in town… Scowling, he rubbed his temple. “It’s close to Lexington… like… half an hour South of it.” But the technicalities were frustratingly beyond him at the moment. “Sorry.”