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Harper's Tale - January 28, 2002, 
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Classroom
Glows bright the room immensely as they highlight the many hides hanging around the room. Tables and chairs are arranged neatly so that the instructors can teach from almost any place in the room, slate boards decorating the entire northern wall. Herbs and spices fill the room with a pleasing aroma, as shelves are covered with hides, scrolls, herbs, and all manners of teaching aids. A small hearth is here, mainly used for demonstrations although there is a pot of klah warming on it, brought over from the hold's kitchens by the apprentices daily.
You see Healer Interview Board, Healer Board, Tray1, Narali's Herbal, Infirmary patient, Tray4, Tray5, Teobald, Tray2, and Ripple here.
Kracken, Jaqui, and Yumi are here.
Obvious exits:
Records Room, Healer Center
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| Kracken m Healer Apprentice 18t 9m 17d              |
| Jaqui f Healer Istan Crafthead 39t 19d                    |
| Yumi f Healer Apprentice (HRW) 18t 9m 6d           |
| Miralwyn f Healer Apprentice 18t 2m 9d                 |
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Kracken has his listening tube and notebook as he finds a seat and makes himself comfortable, opening his notebook as he smiles up at the older master. Okay so she's anceint isn't she? Especially after he met her goddaughter.

Yumi pats her listening tube. She's ready. This class should be easier than the midwife class. That was fun, but some didn't think so. Glancing at Kracken and the other boys she snickers to herself.

Miralwyn strolls in at an easy pace. Yes! She's not late for this one. Flicking a nod to those present, the grey-eyed teen settles in a conveniant seat, offering a low "Afternoon," to her seatmate. *grr*

Jaqui settles herself back on her stool and then gives a welcoming smile to those that have come into the classroom. "Alright, so we are obviously talking about physicals today. Who can tell me just what a physical is, and how often a person should get one?"

Miralwyn ponders a moment, before raising her hand slightly. "It's... sort of a preventative check? To make sure people are healthy, and catch any problems when they're little?" That much, she's read. Someone else can stick their neck out for the times. She retreats to a studious silence.

Kracken smiles as he needs this class. He opens his notebook to a blank page and prepares to take notes. He raises his hand and answers, "A physical is checking a persons wellbeing for any health problems. Preventative checks some would call them." He pauses and then adds, "At very least once a Turn."

Yumi nods, carefully taking notes. Raising her hand she answers, "We would be looking to maintain the patient's health. Making sure they're Ok. " Considering a moment, she adds, "About once every turn?"

Jaqui nods slowly, "Yes that's correct all of you, a physical is just what it sounds like, a check up to see how a person is doing and to try to either catch problems early, or even prevent them. Once a turn is a good guess Kracken, however we recommend that a person get one every six months. Now, when you do a physical, you need three instruments. Your listening tube, which you should have gotten when you entered the craft, a glowstick, and a mallet. Both of the last two items are kept in any infirmary, or if you carry your own healer bag later on when you journey, you will more then likely have them in your bag as well. We will go over each of the items as we do the physical. Now the easiest way to learn how to do a physical is to actually do one. Miralwyn," the master says, pointing at the apprentice, "why don't you come up here and," with a searching glance the master points to Kracken as well, "along with Kracken. You can give him a physical, and if you need help I'll walk you through the steps ok. I'll let you start with what you remember though." The master smiles encouragingly to the two.

Kracken begins to wonder why he seems to get picked on by the teachers in this craft. He grumbles as he stands, setting his notebook, stylus, and listening tube down and heading to the front.

Yumi's attention turns to the front of the room, somewhat relieved that she was not called on. Stylus poised above her notebook, she readies herself to take notes.

Oh... sure, pick on the newest apprentice. Evil ranking types. Miralwyn nods gamely, nonetheless. "Yes ma'am," she demurs, slipping softly up to the front, and drawing her listening tube from her satchel, warming it idly as she turns to Kracken. "So..." she begins. "So, ummm, how have you been feeling lately, Kracken? Any injuries or illnesses?" *boots connection*

Kracken rubs his chin then shrugs his shoulders, "I have had no injuries or illnesses." He glances towards no apprentice in particular as he starts, "Except for someone trying to drown me yesterday, I have not even come close to such.

Jaqui nods as she listens to Miralwyn, "Good, that's the first thing we want to do with a patient," she narrarates as Miralwyn goes about the physical. "We want to know if the patient has any healing wounds, injuries, or illnesses that we need to know about before we begin the physical. Also you'll note that Miralwyn is warming her listening tube as she talks. This is a very curtious thing to do, it keeps the patient from jumping away from your touch, and is just much nicer when you do that."

Miralwyn offers a ghost of a smile, sign of extreme relief in Wyn. She then offers a wider one to Kracken. "Well, attempted drowning seems more a matter for the Guards than the Healers." she quips. "But, I guess we'll..." Oh, what next? Bother, to quote a certain stuffed bear. Ah! "We'll have a listen to your heart and lungs next?" Glance at Jaqui for confirmation. "So if you'll just lift your shirt out of the way, I'll have a listen." Checking the 'tube, she decides that it's warm enough for her purposes.

Kracken nods his head, lifting his tunic up over his head and setting it onto the cot beside him. His well sculpted chest coming into view as he does so. He obviously has been working out the last few years. He smiles at Miralwyn and asks, "As you wish.."

Jaqui continues to talk as Miralwyn works, "The actual physical should not take a really long time, the patient isn't going to be wanting to sit in the gowns we give them to wear any longer then they have to. You can ask the history type questions before you have them change for the actual exam. You want to make sure that the room you are conducting the exam in is clean, and your instruments that you have used are sterlized after the last patient's use. Normally we would have the patient change into a gown for a full physical, but since we aren't in the infirmary, I think we can make due without that little step." After this narrative the Master nods to Miralwyn, "That's correct the first thing that we do is to listen to the heart and lungs. You are listening to the heart for a strong and steady beat without any irregular sounds or murmurs.

Yumi is busy taking notes, looking up when she hears female apprentices behind her tittering. Glancing toward the front, she smiles, shaking her head. What a showoff....

Oooh, a well sculpted chest. Pity Miralwyn's such a studious sort. Although her eyes dance slightly at the titters from the back. Giving the listening tube a final check, she positions it to listen for a heart beat, counting time in her head, and then offering a quirk of a smile. "Well, unlike female hearts in your presence..." she offers, dryly amused. "Yours is far from broken." She shifts the tube to his back, requesting "Could you take a few deep breaths for me? In and out... See if you're developing pneumonia from the attempt on your life, hmm...?" Hopefully, she'll tease patients less than she does fellow apprentices.

Jaqui drones on as Miralwyn does her work, watching the apprentice closely and hoping the others are both able to watch and listen at the same time. "When we listen to the lungs we listen over the esophagus in the front, over several places on the back, and then over the diaphragm, again in the front. We listen for a clean flow of air without any whistling or rasping. You should hear the air moving without any clicks or rubs. If you hear anything but the clean flow of air that indicates that something is wrong in the lungs and you'll have to investigate further to see if you can figure out what's going on with your patient. You can have the patient take deep breaths for you, and even hold it for a moment. Just remember that too many deep breaths in a row can make a person dizzy, so if you have to do a lot of listening, as you may at first, be sure you give your patient a break every so often. You may have to warm your listening tube occassionally as you go along." The Master pauses in her speaking to let Miralwyn listen to Kracken.

With a raised eyebrow at the comment, Kracken takes the deep breaths as requested. After a few deep breaths he let's out a rather soft moan just for Miralwyn's benefit. He has to tease her back afterall. He asks softly, "Since my heart isn't broken, what about my lungs?" He also begins to think Jaqui's monotone is going to get to him by the end of the class at this rate.

Yumi continues to jot down notes as the Master lectures, trying to catch everything that's said. Pausing to watch the physical, she adds a chuckle of her own at Miralwyn's comment. 

Miralwyn arches an eyebrow at the moan, but doesn't blush. No doubt to Kracken's disappointment. She /does/ give him a rare grin, though, while her back is turned to the class. After listening to a couple more breaths, she shakes her head. "Nope, you aren't suffering from broken lungs either. Good thing, too. If you were a runnerbeast, we'd have to kill you for that." she muses cheerfully. Now..." A glance at Jaqui. "Hernias?"

Jaqui continues on, giving Miralwyn a slight head shake. "Not quite yet," she says with a grin, "After we've listened to the heart and lungs, the next step is to use the glowtube." She holds it up for everyone to see before she hands it over to Miralwyn to use on Kracken. "We use the glowtube to check a patient's eyes, ears, nose and throat. Shine the light in the patient's eyes. The eyes should be clear, with the outside part being white. If the white part is red or yellow, it indicates a problem. In addition, you should watch the black center of the eye. When you shine in the light, the center should get smaller, and grow larger when the light is taken away. You want to check the ears, nose, and throat for any redness, swelling, or objects that don't belong there. Also when you check the throat, smell the patient's breath for anything odd.

Kracken glances over towards Yumi before returning his gaze towards Miralwyn, "Good because some might be happy with having to kill me." His breath smells very weakly of wine, though he won't admit to it. He makes himself slightly more comfortable as he awaits the next section of the physical.

Yumi doesn't notice anything, other than her notebook, that is. She's very busy scribbling to keep up. What was that about killing runners?..what a good idea..

"Glowtube... right..." mutters Miralwyn, sounding slightly sheepish at missing a step. She picks up the indicated article, and moves to check Kracken's eyes, checking the pupillary reflex twice, just because it's amusing to watch. Then nose. Then ears. "Y'know, you've got a little wax buildup in there," she comments mildly. "Forgot them at the last bath?" No inflamation, though, so it's on to the throat. She peers intently at his tonsils, and then draws back, inquiring "Benden?" in her usual low tones, a hint of amusement present. "Patient appears normal." she reports. "Reflexes now?"

Jaqui explains a few more things about eyes, "The black part of a patient's eyes should also be the same size. If a person has hit their head and has a concussion, often one eye's center will be larger and the other much smaller. Once all the face checks are finished then we move on to the mallet." With a nod she affirms Miralwyn's next quess and then holds the instrument out for all to see and then again towards Miralwyn for her use. "We use the mallet to test a person's reflexes by tapping here," and the master indicates the soft part just underneath her knee. "This will cause their foot to kick out, so make sure when you do this test that you aren't standing in front of your patient, or you will be kicked. If the person has some problems with their muscles or with walking, they may also have problems with their reflexes, which is partly why we test them.

Kracken smirks at Mir and points out, "I had an apprentice trying to drown me, would you have stuck around?" He sighs softly as he patiantly waits for his physical to get over with.

Miralwyn takes the mallet with a nod and twirls it, baton-like, through her fingers as she heads back towards Kracken. "Hmmm, put it like that, and /no/." she allows, standing to the side and tapping appropriately, head almost comically tracking the resultant arcs. "Well, your legs work too... All the better to run from drownings with." she quirks, before stepping back again to regard Jaqui quizically.

Jaqui nods at Miralwyn as she tests Kracken's reflexes, "That's good. Now you can go ahead and do your hernia check you wanted to do earlier. For those of you that don't know," the Master explains, "a hernia is when part of the body from the inside sticks out through a weak place in a muscle. We test this by having the person lay down flat, a cot is ideal for this, and then raising their head and shoulders up and off the surface on which they are laying. If they have a hernia, you will see it bulge out in their middle when they do this." Jaqui puts her hands over her middle to indicate where the hernia will be seen. "Also while you have them laying down, gently probe their abdomen, see if you feel anything abnormal like a mass or something. You can use your listening tube on the abdomen, however, you don't have to. I usually will only listen to a person's stomach if they are complaining of stomach problems or problems in the necessity." Jaqui pauses to see if there are any questions and to let the hernia exam commence.

Yumi continues to scrawl in her notebook, looking up to watch Miralwyn check the reflexes. She smiles as she notices her eyes following his leg.

Kracken's reflex's work just fine, extremely well in fact. He glances towards Jaqui as she speaks and moves to lay flat on the cot. By this time Kracken is starting to get annoyed at the length of time this is taking, though he does try to hide it and does to a point.

Miralwyn nods to Jaqui, and turns back to her vict... erm, patient. "Down you go," she gestures, before nodding. "Okay, head and shoulders up... There, good. Darn, you're hernia-free too... most disgustingly healthy person I've seen." she quips, hands busy moving across his abdomen with a light, if thorough, touch. "Hmm, the only mass I'm detecting is muscle. So he's been working out, but other than that, he's normal. Anything else, Master Jaqui?" 

Kracken chuckles under his breath, "I'm anything but normal." He grins at Miralwyn and moves to setup now as it would seem the physical is just about over...or is it? He looks to Jaqui and watches her carefully.

Jaqui nods as she watches Miralwyn do the exam. "Also at this point you would ask a female patient if there is any chance she is pregnant. If there is, then you need to do the check for pregnancy, which you will learn, or have learned, in midwifery class. After you've done that your patient can get dressed again. Make sure that you tell them what you found in your exam, even if it is simply to tell them that everything looked good. Also make sure that you remind them to come back in six months for another exam. In addition you need to offer the patient contraceptive if he or she wants it. In the healercraft all apprentices take contraceptive, however, that is not necessarily the case with all crafts." Jaqui holds out the contraceptive for Miralwyn to give to Kracken as she smiles, "Once you've done that, the exam is done."

Yumi snickers behind her hand, she'll vouch for that. He's anything but normal.

Kracken quips laughing, "I might be pregnant Master Jaqui!"

Jaqui raises an eyebrow and then shakes her head, "If that is the case Apprentice, I think you might be in serious trouble." and the Master leaves it at that.

Miralwyn takes the dose of contraceptive, and hands it to Kracken with a plummy gesture. "Congratulations, it's a boy." she quirks, backing away.