House Call

Posted on Mon Sep 19th, 2016 @ 12:14pm by Chief Petty Officer Adriana Keen & Lieutenant Commander Morai Keen

2,365 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: A Civil Act
Location: Keen Family Quarters
Timeline: En Route

ON:

Going through all the records, Rise noticed that one of the operations staff had recently delivered a baby with need for surgical intervention. Both had come through it okay, but well, this Trill doc liked to be rather through and her general obsessive nature helped a lot.

So, that was why she gave orders that she would be doing a house call, grabbed a medkit and left a junior in charge while Rise went off.

On the way, Rise went through what she had read of her paitents - Adriana was a full human born on the Great Plains of North America and married to the Chief Counsellor, Anthony was born recently aboard ship and part-Bajoran. Due to various complications, Adriana would need a bit more tending and rest, but that was to be expected.

Arriving at the Keen family quarters, Rise took a calming breath as she liked to do, and pressed the door buzzer, waiting.

When the door opened, Rise gave a friendly smile, "Hello, I am Lieutenant Rise Lahl, the new chief medical officer. I was wondering if it would be okay to do a little checkup on you and your beautiful baby boy."

Adriana blinked sleepily. She'd been sitting in the rocker after putting Anthony down for a nap. She'd only meant to sit for a minute before she grabbed a quick shower and then laid down for a nap of her own.

Next thing she knew she'd been woken by the chime of the door and now she was blinking at the strange woman at her door. "Check-up?" she echoed and rubbed at her eyes a bit.

She dropped her hand suddenly and the bottom of her stomach dropped out. "Check-up? No- I- Did I miss a check-up? I- I thought we didn't have one until next week...." she trailed off...

Rise nodded, "I'm sorry to have woken you. You didn't miss any checkups, but I'm doing my own checkups on various crew. When I read about what happened, I felt that I needed to make sure you are all okay. I can come back later if you want."

Relief swept over her and Adriana sighed. At least she hadn't forgotten a checkup. Bad enough she tended to forget her own appointments; she couldn't do that to Anthony.

She shook her head. "No, it's alright... I should have been getting up anyway. I just dozed off I guess... Come on in. What time is it? Morai- my husband, Counselor Keen- he'd like to be here to, I think. If you have a few minutes I can call him? Anthony's asleep but he'll be up any time now," she said and stepped out of the doorway to allow the doctor to come in.

Rise nodded, "That is quite common actually. Especially with what you went through and a young child. I've got time. I should be able to do some scans without waking Anthony. Just be glad you only have one at the moment. There was an ensign in Sciences aboard my previous ship who had quadruplets for her first time. We had to arrange a two year leave of absence for her so she would be able to cope. And my symbiont just gave me a memory of one of its previous hosts having a rather bad time once."

Adriana nodded a bit and headed for the comm unit on the wall. She wasn't wearing her badge while on leave. "Keen Quarters to Counselor Keen. Hey, there. Are you busy?"

=^= Paperwork from my short tint as Commanding Officer of the Ranger.=^= Keen said with a smile on his face. =^= What is up Kitten, something wrong with the cub?" =^=

"Wrong? Why would something be wrong? I didn't say anything was wrong!" Adriana said, flushing red and glancing back at the doctor. Her husband's little 'pet name' for her, while she loved it, was not something she generally liked him using around other fleet personnel- especially not officers she didn't know well.

=^= You need me to come by and help with Anthony, I can if it would let you have a break. Just say the word and I am there, Love.=^=

"It's just, the new doctor's here to check up on us, I and I thought you'd want to be here for it..." Adriana said with a shrug to herself.

=^= I could use a break I will be there in a few.=^= Keen said as he closed his eyes realizing he had done a mistake. =^=On my way. =^=

Adriana smiled a little and turned back to the doctor. "Won't be long," she started to say. And she was going to continue with saying that Anthony should be awake in just a bit when he started crying in the next room.

=^= I hear Anthony so I will be there soon. =^= Keen replied.

"Have a seat, I'll get him... He might need to be changed... I'm sorry, excuse me," Adriana said as she started towards the nursery. "There's a pitcher of iced tea on the counter there, help yourself," she said, feeling like a terrible hostess and a pretty bad mother.

Rise smiled and took a seat, "Don't worry, okay? I'm fine. I brought along a pad and have journals I can check up on."

Adriana smiled weakly at the doc before she ducked out of sight, rushing to Anthony’s crib. At nights he slept in the little bassinet in their room, but for naps she put him in the crib that her Morai had worked so long and hard to build and carve.

“What’s wrong, Cub?” she murmured, her worry stamped clearly all over her face as she picked him up. He did need to be changed, but he had also spit up again. Those tired tears threatened to fall again as she changed his diaper and his onesie, bouncing him gently to sooth his crying. He was still so tiny… and he weighed almost exactly his birth weight- it was normal for babies to lose a little in the first week or so, but they were supposed to gain weight after that, and it just felt like he hadn’t….

She carried him out into the living room, grabbing up his yellow blankie to lay him on so the doctor could get a good exam in.


[SHortly after]

Keen was emerging through the door and wondering how much trouble he had gotten himself into? He removed his jacket and placed it neatly on the back of a chair before moving to Kitten and offering a kiss.

"Sorry, Adriana, got a bit busy with routine stuff." He winked.

Looking up from where she had been sitting, Rise turned off the datapad, "Hello, Commander. Sorry to call you away from your work. I've got a bit of an obsessive personality, and when I saw that your wife had a bit of a difficult delivery, I wanted to check up. I know its a bit earlier then expected but at least it will give you something to work with when I do Counselling."

Adriana allowed her husband to kiss her cheek, but she was too preoccupied with spreading out the blanket on the floor and laying Anthony down on his back to really turn to him for a proper greeting kiss. “I’m just glad you could come. Look, Anthony, Papa’s home,” she said to the baby. Leaving one hand resting on him, she turned to Doctor Lahl. “Ready as he’ll ever be.” She bit her lower lip and her eyes fell back to Anthony, so tiny and fragile and helpless and counting on his Mommie and Papa to take care of him…

Rise nodded, and adjusted her tricorder to the right settings for pediatric use. Using the tricorder wand, she did a quick little scan and nodded, "Overall, he seems like he is doing okay in the expected parameters for a child who has parents of two different species. We can count that he's got a got a good set of lungs there. However, I'm seeing some readings that may need to be investigated. How has he been with feeding? Any tummy upsets, colic, reflux or more severe spitting up? For babies his age, episodes of crying for about two hours a day is normal."

Still biting her lip, Adriana glanced up at Keen. "He... he seems to be eating alright? We had some difficulties at first, but he's latching better now and- well, he seems hungry all the time. He- I don't know, it's like he eats so much he spits up- but then he's hungry again just a little while later..." She dropped her eyes back down to watch Anthony, blinking quickly to clear the frustrated, tired tears she was always so close to nowadays.

"He is a defined growing boy if his appetite is any indication." Keen interjected.

Rise mused for a moment, "Okay. I think I might do some checks anyway."

Reaching to her kit, she brought out a little cylinder and pressed a button on it so it began making little beeps & some flashing lights.

Holding it up until the boy noticed it, she moved it around, watching his eyes as the tricorder ran some scans & she gave it time.

She checked his reflexes as well and smiled as she checked the tricorder, "Okay, I can see something in the scans which points to a minor little issue really that we can handle. Adriana, you are doing everything totally correctly and I can see he is doing well. But he seems to be having a bit of trouble with human milk proteins and his body isn't able to process as much of it as a totally human baby. The best way to handle this is with a Bajoran milk supplement that will give him the minerals and chemicals he needs."

Adriana blinked a little at the doctor, then looked up at her husband, fighting the urge to apologize. That urge got stronger as she looked down at Anthony again and reached out to pick him up. "Is... Is he alright other than that? He's not sick or..." She bit her lip and traced Anthony's cheek softly.

Keen gently put his hands upon her shoulders in support; it was useless him telling her that they were blessed to have a baby and if this is all the complications we should count ourselves as lucky. He also knew that Adriana would not ever really get over her worry; she cared for and loved Anthony; forever the mother of course.

"The doctors said there might be a few things." Keen whispered. "Had you not been as attentive there would still have been the need for vitamin supplements. You have been the great mother to the little man." He softly whispered. "You know what a picky eater I am; like father like son..." He teased.

Adriana didn't smile despite the attempt at a joke. She nodded absently, but was so focused on Anthony that she wasn't really listening very hard.

Rise put her hand on Adriana's, "You have done everything good, and it means nothing at all about either of you. He is perfectly fine otherwise. Once a day for about a week, you can give him a little bit of a drink. It can also help settle his tummy a bit. You can still breastfeed without any worries. I don't know what it is like myself, but my symbiont has given me a few memories of previous hosts. But I can tell that your husband is here for you, and we are just a call away. Any time of the day, for anything. Okay?"

Adriana nodded. "I will. Thank you. I just... I- I was afraid something was wrong, but..." She bit her lip again. She'd known something was wrong- Anthony should have gained more weight, she KNEW he should have. Why hadn't she said anything? She cuddled her baby a little closer and silently apologized to him for not calling a doctor sooner, for not taking better care of him....

"It is all new Love." Keen whispered. "We are learning the little Cub; there is no instruction. He is a healthy little guy; his mother is taking such good care that he will just get bigger now and you might wish he were going to stay this small."

Turning to her husband, Adriana passed Anthony to him. "Excuse me for a moment," she said to the doctor. "I'll be right back."

Keen knew that look and he was fairly sure the Doctor knew it as well. He held the Cub and bounced him lightly while looking at the Doctor. "I am told this gets better as her body adjusts back to normal?" Keen almost had pleading in his tone as any new father would.

Adriana made her way quickly to the bathroom and shut the door, a few tears escaping and tracking down her cheeks once she was alone. She felt stupid and like a complete failure. She couldn't even properly feed her child! And she was so tired still, so emotional after the birth, so scatterbrained and disorganized. It was all 'normal', everyone told her, but that didn't stop her from just wanting to cry...

Keen knew his wife and that look was not her being happy; it was partly his fault for his physiology. He would have to fess up and take his lumps as she was upset; he knew her that well. But he just bounced the 'cub' and smiled to the Doctor.

"So how will we give Anthony his supplements?" He asked the Doc.

"Bottled formula will be best, I think, replicated to mimic Bajoran milk. I don't want to subject him to endless hypos every day for something he can ingest easily on his own. And it'll allow you to take over some of the feedings- maybe take a little of the pressure off your wife, help her relax and get some sleep." Putting her things away, the doctor smiled. "Don't worry; this is a tiny bump in the road, but it's easily solved, and everyone should be feeling much better very soon."

OFF:

Lt Commander Keen

CPO Keen

Dr. Lahl

 

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