In-Treatment

[Luna Eva]

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Alerted to an incoming emergency from the on-call line, Doctor Eva Luna was waiting out front of her clinic when the Prius carrying a wounded Michelle pulled up along the curb. Before anyone got out, she motioned the driver to pull around to the back alley where it would be easier to transfer Michelle onto a gurney to wheel in through the double doors.

“Hey Michelle. I’m Dr. Luna. I hear you had a bit of a tough night, hunh babe?”

“I don't really remember it. The last thing I remember is leaving the locker room to fight a duel. Next thing I know I'm flat on my back in the rings with Gren, Eden and Hope beside me nursing a splitting headache and the urge to vomit.”

The standard neuro exam took about twenty minutes. Eva maneuvered around Gren and Hope in the exam room, shining a penlight in each of Michelle’s eyes to check the reactions. She asked Michelle questions, tested her reflexes, tested her muscle strength and control, her balance, and then she asked her questions again. And then she looked at scans of Michelle’s brain, the gray scale images appearing on a tablet that Eva turned for Michelle to see.

When it was all said and done, Eva leaned against the counter facing Michelle and gave her the diagnosis. “So you definitely have a concussion. It doesn’t look very serious, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it seriously, okay?”

For a fighter, the treatment wasn’t ideal. At least twenty-four hours bed rest, and after that, two weeks without strenuous activity. No fighting---not even sparring---for Michelle.

Eva suggested that Michelle stay overnight in the clinic for observation, but her patient insisted she needed to get home to Atrebla. Eva reluctantly agreed to it, so long as Gren or Hope accompanied her home. She gave her a couple acetaminophen for the pain, and sent her off with her instructions in writing---just in case she had any other lapses of memory.

The medicine helped ease Michelle's headache and she gave directions to the portal. Gren walked alongside filling her in on the details from the evening - more than once.

“ . . . Michelle, we got to ride in a Prius! It’s the most environmentally friendly automobile you can find! That alone made my night . . . eh, uh . . . I mean, sorry about your concussion.” Gren grimaced as he gingerly led Michelle to the portal back to Atrebla.

The portal was inside the library where Gloria Blaze still worked. Michelle used a key to let them into the building and the back storeroom, happy to listen to Gren as he extolled the benefits of a Prius. The only significant object in the room was a large oval mirror. In her presence it glowed blue and revealed the scenic twilight landscape of Iron Mountains southern pass.