#medbay posting

[earthstellar]

famously, healthcare workers typically do not have time for food

this leads to bizarre things, for example: I just had "lunch" at 11 AM, which consisted of a dill herring sandwich and a chocolate pudding, both consumed simultaneously within about 5 minutes

what I'm saying is: you know Ratchet and the other medics eat the fucking weirdest energon types and additive combinations imaginable

maybe zinc is like, a tangy flavour for them, almost to the point of being sour, and most bots don't use it as a fuel additive too often

but medics want to save the more palatable, more easy-on-the-fuel-tanks blends and additives for their patients

and zinc might have some benefits for medical staff; maybe it provides a little energy boost, at the cost of requiring a shorter time in between refuellings or something --

--or perhaps the opposite and it congeals energon slightly, resulting in slower fuel processing at the cost of requiring fuel line cleaning (to prevent energon accumulation within the fuel lines) slightly more often, but that's something medics could likely carry out for each other

so medics always have the most zinc-loaded bullshit fuel imaginable, like nobody else would be able to consume it, it's so fucking sour by energon standards

but medics chug that shit back fast in between other tasks

maybe Drift is visiting Ratchet in the medbay towards the end of his shift, and Rodimus tags along because of course he does, and because they decided to race each other to the medbay, Rodimus needs a little fuel top-up

so he just grabs a cube that isn't sealed (the sealed cubes are for patients and may have medications mixed in with them, and Rodimus doesn't feel like playing accidental sedation roulette today lol), and he slams it back

only to start choking while First Aid pops in to let him know Ratchet will be ready to go in a minute (and also to laugh at the sputtering Rodimus a little, serves him right for taking a medic's energon, lol)

IDK my bizarre "lunch" just made me think about how fucked Cybertronian medic's schedules must be and how equally bizarre their refuelling habits probably are, lmao

[earthstellar]

���We all keep graveyards in our heads.” - One of the docs I work with 

You can’t save everybody.  In fact, there are days when, I think, you can’t save anyone. 

[everwalldigan]

You know what would be really funny. If Jason had the most normal/conventional food taste out of his siblings (still very far from regular people’s “normal”), he’s stuck in the manor because of an injury and therefore has to witness the culinary WAR CRIMES his siblings consume for sustenance. Since there’s no Alfred to stop them anymore, they have been running rampant.

Jason: What. The fuck. Is that.

Damian, pouring out a green sludge into two cups: father and I’s breakfast smoothie, or did you hit your head hard enough to forget the concept of a smoothie?

Jason, scooting his chair away clutching his water bottle to his chest: yeah I dont know what nuclear reactive, Gotham harbour concoction you so flagrantly bestow the title of “smoothie” on but keep that shit FAR away from me

Tim: *sits down next to Jason, cracks open a can of energy drink and pours it into a glass, pouring milk on top until it reaches the brim*

Jason, with tears in his eyes looking at Dick for help:

Dick: *shrugs, shoving a fistful of dry cheerios into his mouth*

Jason: *turns his horrified gaze to Cass*

Cass: *grins at him toothily with two heaping plates of a full English breakfast sitting in front of her. He has no idea where she got it from. She is using a set of utensils for each plate.*

Jason: *stands up calmly* maybe I should stop looking for the unstable bomb I lost in the manor the other week *walks out of the kitchen, a few moments later a shrill scream is heard*

[askthemedbay]

Wait, I'm a little out of the loop, why has Arcee been doing all of these surgeries? - 🌠 (New Anon, hi there!! :3)

The war experiments were fronted by Shockwave. Arcee was… well, she had a lot of damage to repair. Though she’s a long time resident of the medbay, she’s a delight to talk to!

(OOC: I will dub you Shooting Star anon! I never did explain Arcee’s situation in the “lore post” tag, apologies!)

[arcticclimes]

There's been an incident on Terror.

[earthstellar]

Thank you for tagging me-- This post is a classic! :)

The self-sacrificial attitude is a problem in the NHS as well; There are multiple formal rules and guidelines which essentially boil down to "patient safety and decision making capability are priorities to maintain: otherwise monitor each other for exhaustion and please don't fuck yourselves up too badly" lmao sigh

My dad was an Army Medic and his entire back, chest, shoulders, and upper arms are permanently scarred with shrapnel wounds from various occasions where he would use himself as a meat shield while treating patients or the field or preparing them for CASEVAC etc., and he has permanent nerve and spinal damage from jumping out of helicopters too early etc. in an effort to evacuate casualties as fast as possible.

I think the vast majority of healthcare workers are prone to these self-sacrificial behaviours or that kind of mindset in general, really.

Case in point, working in healthcare during a pandemic. I can use myself as an example, but this applies to literally everyone who worked through especially the early days of COVID.

Even though I'm disabled (relevant here are my POTS and asthma), I still applied and was hired to work at the Nightingale Hospital, which was London's first large scale COVID "field hospital" which was converted from an event centre into essentially intended to be a large assessment and treatment centre for early pandemic cases.

My thinking was that since I may die from COVID anyway, I might as well die on my feet trying to help others.

Now, that whole experience was a Situation, but I was also cleared to work at 2 other hospitals and was getting further training at a third all around that same time.

Somehow I did not perish in those early days of COVID (double masking hell yeah), but I was pretty sure I'd be most okay with dying from the plague if I caught my death while trying to help. At least I'd die trying to do good. I felt sadder thinking about my parents, if I were to die.

This was all while also working at my main job, which at the time was medical secretary and patient advisor at a specialist clinic.

If that sounds dramatic, it very much was at the time, but keep in mind it was early pandemic and as a disabled person I was essentially told I would die from the plague, so I fully did not expect to live all that much longer anyway.

Every day I woke up, I stressed that it would be the day I caught COVID and would certainly die, as a disabled and more vulnerable person. I minimised my time outside/exposed unless I was training etc., and I'm still pretty much going to have to shelter forever because the plague isn't gonna go away, but at the time I was told I'd die so I figured I might as well do something good while I could.

I still chose to work in healthcare services during the early, terrifying days of a fucking pandemic.

And I was certainly not the only disabled healthcare worker during that time!

So please don't think this is just about me lmao, I'm not that full of myself LOL-- What I'm describing here was a fairly common experience for most if not all disabled healthcare staff.

My point is just that a lot of healthcare workers can be so self-sacrificial that on top of everything else, even when caring for others might actively kill us outright and we are clearly aware and informed of this, we all still showed up for work.

I don't know what that says about me, but since my dad was a MEDEVAC guy, I'm pretty sure it might be genetic in my case, lmao

But anyway, this is why they have to make both formal rules and informal systems for trying to prevent us from literally dying while trying to help people.

Because otherwise, a lot of us would.

[earthstellar]

Medical Staff Superstitions and Cybertronian Medics

I was just thinking: What superstitions might Cybertronian medical staff have?

For some real world examples:

-Deaths come in threes

-Tying the corners of a bed's sheets "keeps the soul in" (helps prevents a patient from worsening/dying)

-Preparing for certain procedures ahead of time wards off certain incidents from happening (crash cart, some surgical setup, etc.)

-Full moon means a busy shift

-Some staff can be "unlucky"; For example, if a certain doc/nurse is working that shift, you can expect X to happen

-Nobody should ever say the word "quiet", or things are about to get real, real loud (busy)

Superstitions in healthcare vary from region to region, and from speciality to specialty.

For example, in a maternity/birthing ward, a well-prepared birth plan means everyone should prepare for emergency c-section or post partum haemorrhage.

One of my friends who is a nurse in Mexico said that a picture of an upside-down cat or upside-down dog pinned on the wall helps prevent poor outcomes! (This is apparently often done with pictures of staff member's pets, lmao.)

I'm sure that Ratchet wouldn't (at least knowingly) lean into any superstitions that might exist in Cybertronian healthcare, but I feel like other medics might.

Perhaps it varies regionally across Cybertron, too-- Tetrahexian medics may have different beliefs compared to Praxian medics, and so on.

I can see First Aid, with his collection of Autobot badges, potentially putting one upside-down on his work station. It would probably drive Ratchet up the wall, but Velocity might ask questions about it and share some Camien medical superstitions!

IDK It's just fun to think about.

Ratchet might even engage in some superstitions unconsciously, just out of habit from centuries of working with other medics in Iacon etc. who would probably get upset if the superstitions weren't taken into consideration, lmao.

First Aid might call this out in front of Drift, who would then be aaaaabsolutely fascinated, lmao.

I'm at work right now so I might elaborate a bit on this later, just thinkin' out loud lol

[agentark]

everything we know about Red vs Blue means that there's a canonically supported reality in which every bit of the rvb timeline that happens post-Freelancer saga is actually just simulations Epsilon is running in WASH's head as he unravels

[earthstellar]

BIG SAME. 

Disabled Ratchet is so important to me. 

The reason why IDW Ratchet continues to experience issues with his hands even after he replaces them is because his degenerative condition is progressive and stems from the spark; Replacing his hands does nothing to address the actual root of his symptoms, so after a while he begins to experience the same essentially neurodegenerative symptoms (if we’re comparing it to a few human IRL conditions which can cause similar symptoms) with the same or slightly increased frequency compared to before. 

I get why JRO couldn’t spend too much time focusing on Ratchet alone with such a large ensemble cast and a limited number of issues per series even prior to cancellation, although it does come up here and there throughout MTMTE/LL in more subtle ways-- 

--Like when the ship/shuttle crashes on Luna 1 (if I recall correctly) and Drift has to help Ratchet stand up again after they clear the wreckage, even though neither of them were particularly injured by the crash itself; The implication being that Ratchet may have difficulty with his other joints or motor control systems etc. as well, not just within his hands/digits. 

Getting up might be hard for him in general, as Drift seemed pretty relaxed and casual about it as if it’s a normal occurrence, not just something needed specifically in that moment. He wasn’t overly worried that Ratchet was struggling to get up and seemed to anticipate it as he stayed close by on the right side of Ratchet, ready to help him up, and neither of them seemed to have any significant damage from the crash itself. 

Even the way Ratchet tends to rest his hands on his hips is something I see a lot in people with chronic lower back pain, hip pain, or balance issues-- A lot of people will develop it as a postural habit when standing. 

So there are lots of little things that we could read into within the context of Ratchet being disabled, especially in retrospect after the end of Lost Light, knowing that his condition is spark related and not isolated to his hands/servos. 

I just really love Disabled Ratchet!!!! 

TFA Ratchet makes those little creaky noises when he moves his joints.

And in IDW he’s seen fiddling with his hands even long after they’d been replaced.

To me Ratchet will always be disabled. I wish it was focused on more in canon and not mostly abandoned after the Delphi arc or only mentioned when joking about his age.

The same goes for a lot of TF characters with medical issues/disabilities. Ratchet in particular is just important to me personally.

[askthemedbay]

Knockout, why are your optics different than everyone else's? The other bots on this blog have monocolor eyes, but you actually have sclera, irises, and pupils. Why is that? - 🌠

Bots with red optics tend to struggle under blue lights, and that just so happens to be what a lot of the Nemesis is lit with. It’s nothing more than a small, helpful lens :)

[wickedcooldog]

@haterempiresoldier

(Previous) When Cathy asked about Larry, Norman turned on his phone to check if Larry responded. "No response," He sighed. "I'll still check to see if he at least read my mess--" Right before Norman could finish sentence, the door slid open from behind to reveal a badly shaken up Larry. Norman, taken aback by his sudden appearance, turned over to Cathy and quietly remarked: "Huh. Now would ya look at that.." Before he began walking towards him. "Hey Larry! Great timing." Norman warmly smiled as he pulled him into a big hug. Larry, however, just stood there... Not returning his partners embrace until he noticed Cathy standing right in front of him. In that moment, the reality of the situation he was now dealing with hit him like a truck and he couldn't help but burst into tears almost immediately as he clutched onto Norman without saying a single word. Norman half-expected this to happen, but since he already knew how close Larry and Freddy were, it still ultimately made his heart ache for the guy as he soaked his uniform with his tears. "Shhh..It's okay," Norman murmured. "I'm right here."

Cathy nervously smiled when she saw Larry enter. Then she awkwardly shifted at the sound of his crying. She wasn’t good at comforting.

Fortunately Norman was there for him. She gave the pair a relieved smile before rushing to her own partner, slowing herself only to avoid spilling his soup.

Meanwhile Freddy was struggling to keep his mind off of both the pain and leftover fear from the ordeal. There wasn’t a better way to pass the time than getting to know his cotmates, even if his social energy was somewhat drained. So when Cathy dashed in he was in the middle of hearing about how the girl to his left broke her leg in a “totally kickass” explosion.

“I’m back!” Cathy cheerfully said as she shimmied her way between the cots. Then she handed his soup and spoon over while asking, “Still hungry?”

“Sorry, my wife’s here.” Freddy gave his temporary neighbor an apologetic wave. “I’ll hear the rest later!”

Cathy cut in with, “I wanna hear it too!” Then she looked back at the door. “Oh yeah, Norman and Larry came too.”

When Freddy spotted them he gave them an exaggerated smile and energetic wave to show that he was okay, despite not feeling the best. “Hey guys!”

[freddythewatchdog]

@haterempiresoldier

(Previous) Larry hesitantly smiled back at Freddy, trying his best to remain positive, but deep down: he was still extremely worried about him. And he very much did not appreciate the tone of both Freddy and Cathy's voice when they mentioned his previous and much worse condition. "Yeesh.." Norman cringed slightly after Freddy brought up his injury. Though, if he insisted he didn't need his kidney, then he shouldn't be too worried. After all, he knew Freddy was quite resilient. So surely losing a kidney wouldn't be too much of a hindrance for him.. "Thank grop you only lost a kidney," He then added. "I couldn't imagine seeing you in a much horrible state than the one you're in right now." When Freddy shifted to talking about how Norman and Larry were doing, Norman spoke up first: "Ehh, not really," He shrugged as he shoved his unoccupied hand into his pocket. "Aside from us worrying about you guys, these past few days have been mostly uneventful, haha." Larry chuckled a little alongside Norman, but it was getting more obvious that he was uncomfortable by the way he tightened his grip on his partner's hand.

Cathy didn’t get why Larry and Norman got so worked up just because they didn’t see them for a few days. They’re adults. Things happen. And as far as they knew they could’ve randomly decided to go get takeout for a few days. Why bother letting everyone know?

Freddy, on the other hand, was better at both reading and understanding people. His smile faded as they contradicted his belief that they’d be better off not knowing what happened to him until they knew that he would make it through.

After a long moment of dead silence he slumped and let out a heavy sigh. Then he turned to his wife, who looked like she was about to put her foot in her mouth. “Could you please check on Teddy?”

Cathy was smart enough to know that he was trying to shoo her away. Fortunately, she had been waiting for a chance to leave. “Like, sure, I’ll send another pic of him in the same spot I left him.” She lightheartedly rolled her eye as she made her way out from next to the bed. Then she gave him one last wave before heading out.

Once Cathy was gone Freddy looked to Norman, then Larry. “Please don't blame Teddy and Cathy,” he said with another sigh. “I..,” He rubbed his head while finding his words. “...well, they were wrecks when I woke up...”

Then he nervously shrugged while fidgeting with his blanket. “And they knew that I’d rather not have all my friends crowding around to see if I’d make it through...”

[earthstellar]

Funniest outcome would be if some bots just couldn't take it seriously and tried to screw around during the training session, Ratchet would go all in

Maybe there's a Cybertronian equivalent to those fake pregnancy bellies used in some birthing classes to make the partners understand what their pregnant significant other is going through, and he makes all the class clowns wear one for a full week. Ratchet calls it "remedial health class extra credit" or something, lmao

Or perhaps a more appropriate comparison would be some short acting code that Ratchet would install in the class clowns to give them some carrying symptoms for a few days, just to impart to them how much they do not want to experience this for real and how important it is to understand the underlying physiological changes etc.

This would inevitably result in a tired, emotionally wrung out Rodimus crying on Drift's shoulder while chugging back abnormal amounts of plain ol' regular energon because he found out the hard way Ratchet's temporary code won't let him keep anything else down and he's so tired and hungry for no reason (the reason is not paying attention in class lol)

Drift may or may not have been informed about Ratchet's plan yet so he has no idea it's just a temporary code and he's Extremely Concerned that Rodimus might actually be carrying, because nobody on this ship can communicate for fuck all and/or because Rodimus delayed signing off on the "remedial health class" because he knew he'd be in it, so Ultra Magnus signs it retroactively later and that's when Drift finally gets the memo LMAO

In the meantime Rodimus is crying because he thought about how cute turbofoxes are and he's mad that he's crying and he's frustrated that whatever code Ratchet's using for this "lesson" isn't letting him flame on to relieve any stress (because his frame thinks that energy needs to be saved for a new spark but also Ratchet took the flames into consideration lmao)

Rodimus: "I'm still hungry and sad for no reason and my protoform feels puffy somehow, does that make sense??? God I'm so tired. I didn't do anything today except read Megatron's boring data pads because Ratchet has me on restricted workload!"

Drift: oh shit oh Primus oh no

lmao

[earthstellar]

healthcare event day: new lanyards, new enemies -- Pharma would love this shit

had to go to a healthcare conference

they were giving out lavender gin and brie crackers, like astonishingly good snacks and booze (probably because a lot of consultants were present lmao)

everyone got drunk and the hepatologists got mad about it

anyway two docs got in a verbal fight in the hallway which got pretty loud (all I know is that it was an argument about a research project)

you can't tell me Ratchet and Pharma wouldn't be the two docs fighting at the professional event lmao

also they really gave everyone a lot of gin, the tonic seemed to be optional. like straight up shots. you'd think they wouldn't do this at a healthcare thing but I think the organisers were just excited about hosting something in London so they went overboard LOL

I can imagine some event in Iacon going roughly the same way, they want to schmooze with the big city medics so they accidentally-on-purpose get everyone wasted on unreasonably good engex in order to make sure everyone has a good time (this does not work, it only results in pettiness and/or arguing, lmao)

like usually they'll have Prosecco or something served moderately, but this was fucking shots of gin. which is hilarious.

maybe it's because it's Saturday so they felt bad about having everyone show up on a weekend, I have no idea. almost all of us work every weekend anyway lol.

nothing is funnier than watching med professionals get increasingly drunk and somewhat agitated with one another over the course of several hours while still having to pretend to be more or less professional

like you can't cause too much of a scene in the lecture hall, but as soon as everyone's mingling in the reception area, everyone groups into their various specialities and starts WILDLY SHIT TALKING

Pharma would be a shit-talker. Ratchet would be consistently agitated the entire time, and would get into arguments over health service logistics and solutions to staff retention problems, among other things.

First Aid would be the one trying to make sure that nobody from their institution embarrasses themselves too badly in front of anyone from any of the other institutions, in between trying to network with said other institutions.

Ambulon would be three shots of engex deep by the second speaker, but still taking some pretty good notes the whole time while actively avoiding having to speak with anyone else.

Velocity would be extremely nervous but ultimately would raise some good questions during the Q&A session. She would also immediately utilise any stickers in the swag bag to decorate her datapad, but then panic because now she has to shove all the blank sticker papers into her bag since there's no trash receptacle around, which makes it rustle really loudly.

anyway I'm going to take a nap now, I ate a whole fucking block of brie at this thing

[review-anon]

*Togo pats their heads before she goes to the others.*

"Did I miss anything?"

Yeah you did, as it seems another Abnormality has spawned on the Voidship.

It seems to be friendly but its just a sack of human organs in a santa suit, some weird reindeer like creature that I'm sure is also made of human flesh and a bag, which moves.

It's not the most charming creature out there, but it wants to help with us getting Christmas back on track by delivering the presents, so who are we to refuse its help? We kinda need it.

You know...I'm kinda worried about the cooking crew, are they okay and safe in medbay?

Not just them...as Tenko and Moreno also got badly injured dealing with them as well.

Can you guys go over to medbay and see if our friends are alright?

Yeah...and I hope Tsumiki and Inori aren't too overworked.

[earthstellar]

I love these!!!

The first thing I thought was "oh god a speedster medic" LMAO

and then I remembered how the guy who invented the residency system was a full on Cocaine Dude so actually, a speedster medic is perfect and more realistic than it should be

(I just got off shift so I have Med Bay Brain, feel free to ignore me)

dratchrod kids