Chaos and painkillers

1. Faintly stepping away.

She snapped her index and thumb, the conditions flowing to her naturally. "Anemia. Fever. Diseases of the heart valves. And how could I forget my favorite word in physiology? Hypoxia." She met his point of view and immediately averted from it when it dawned on her that he was angry and she wasn't done briefing him.

She cleared her throat, her voice now more composed than the last. She motioned to her head. "Tachycardia is controlled under normal physiological conditions through the vasomotor center located in the reticular formation of the uh...medulla oblongata and the lower pons." 3 fingers of hers hiked. "It consists of 3 areas; the vasoconstrictor area, the vasodilator area, and the sensory area." A small victorious smile emerged on her face.

It was times when she was explaining things medically that seemed to flow naturally to her that she felt alive, she felt big. Mighty. She felt like she had a purpose. But most importantly, it sank more that she was going to prove so many people wrong one day.

Laila shook her head, snapping out of her trance, and added an opinion on her last one. "Although i think having the vasoconstrictor area and the vasodilator area is unnecessary. I mean if you can control the sensory area, you can control the vaso-motor center in general. Also, i think—"

"Hyper. Hyper. Hyper." It came out in a blah blah blah tone. "You're going hyper, madam."

She snapped out of her victory-filled thoughts to look at him.

However, he did say brief.

Brief, Laila. Brief.

She nodded.

He attained her script from the tip of her fingers and placed it together with the remaining stacks before tucking them away. It was against protocol to let students sight of their scripts.

"When i say brief me, i want the definition, a few causes, prevention, and management. I want physiology. The mechanism, Laila."

"Ok."

His shoulders sagged, and he tilted his head to the left to crack it. He did the same to the right. His fingers rose into the air and he bent them until almost all the bones in them cracked.

He sighed, expression softening down. "Brief me on erythroblastosis foetalis."

Laila cast her head down, again. Her mind jumbled up until it came to a stop at memories from her 1st year and 3rd year of med school. She raised her head and spoke, confidently. "Erythroblastosis foetalis is also called the hemolytic disease of the newborn or foetus. It is characterized by abnormal hemolysis of RBCs in newborns or foetus due to Rh incompatibility. It results when an RH-positive mother is carrying an RH-negative child. During parturition," she scissored the air with her fingers, "Or transplacental crossing of the foetus RBC into the mother's bloodstream," those same fingers gestured back and forth, "Sensitization and production of antibodies against the foetal RBCs by the mother occurs..." she stopped to take a breath. When she got rid of her hypoxia, she continued. "First pregnancy is usually unaffected. However, if another pregnancy with the same case of RH incompatibility occurs, there is the instant proliferation of those antibodies created by the mother which cross back to the foetal circulation and destroy its RBCs." She threw her fingers into the air to demonstrate and further her explanation. "This then leads to jaundice, severe anemia, edema, and um-or kernicterus."

He looked at her in disbelief. "Simple. Then why the hell did i have to embarrass you in Ward rounds? You could've just said that. That was the biggest slap to my face, the conso was even looking at me. I tutored you since when you were in freshman year, and i also know you're damn smart and i put much pressure on you so you could be better." He hit the back of his right palm into the palm of his left in anger and desperation. "That was 1st-year med school. Physiology of Blood and body fluids, ko kin manta? You must've treated this same condition under pathology last year."