[PRIVATE] Progression

Toshiaki walked down the hall, the last bell of the day still ringing in his ears. He was surrounded by other students on their way out of the building as he made his way to the nurse's office.

Three months down already… hard to believe it.

He knocked on the office door and awaited a response.
"Dr. Carrick? Here for my regular check-up."

[Due to the nature of the thread, I'll try to be as concise as possible knowing you've been waiting some time.]

"You may come in." Declan had gotten through a few checkups already and was only just beginning to put items away. It wasn't going to be a bother to have one more before the day was through and was more than glad to have to do.

Toshi entered and closed the door behind.
"Good afternoon, Dr. Carrick."
He spoke English during his appointments, as it was no harder for him than Japanese, and easier for Dr. Carrick.

As usual, he hopped up onto the paper-covered examination seat and removed his jacket and shirt.
"Heart and lungs first, right?"
Then reflexes, strength testing, hearing, vision, and finally blood testing.

Of course, this was a routine he had been through plenty of times before. A rather rigorous regimen, but it helped keep the disease at bay.

"I suppose order doesn't matter. I don't usually start with this but, again, hardly matters. What matters is we see how you've been during the interval." He begun going about the usual testing procedure of checking Toshiaki's pulse in different locations and the same for his breathing. After some time spent writing down the findings, Declan started on the next examination, which were about one's reflexes.

"The heart and lungs are fine, not much to be mentioning. I'll go get the reflex hammer. You'd probably know to sit right up but, please sit up in a way where you're feet are dangling so I can properly gauge reflexes."

Well, at least that's good news. Even if he never heard about the incident with my lungs.

He turned and let his legs dangle from the side of the table.

A few taps were made on each patella, each of varying degree to see how much flexion there were in the knees. The same were done to the arms through the elbow and the entire portion of the exam took no more than five minutes. During each examination, it was found that there was only a slight delay than should be occurring and he notified Toshiaki of this.

"There's a wee bit of a delay if you've not been paying attention and that may be a worry, we'll see after the strength tests why this may well be so."

He knew all too well what that meant.

"Okay then."

Going through the various exercises of the test, which required the abduction, flexion, extension and inversion of several muscle groups. The recordings were found to indeed be worse than the previous trials.

"As figured, you've lost around a sixth of a rating point, you're getting close to about 4+/5 now which is still somewhere close to normal strength, but there's been some progression in the dystrophy between now and the last we've done this."

Goddamnit.
He ground his teeth in frustration.
I really haven't been working out as much as I should be lately.

"Still reversible losses with exercise?"
Or starting to see permanent decline?

No way. I can beat this. I won't let this stop me.

"Before I answer that, as unfair as it is to respond with a question, have you been exercising lately? If not, I suppose we could see within a week or so whether that had any effect." Declan didn't wait for a reply as he went looking for the audiometer for the hearing test. He still appeared moderately at attention, as if still expecting some visitor to enter at any moment.

"What with all the other craziness going on lately… not really, no."

He's right. Just a temporary slump. I can regain that in a few weeks.

"I'll be able to do more over break, so that should help."

"We'll hope. For now, just tell me what you hear, and don't say me voice or the clock over yon."

Declan played a few sounds from the audiometer and registered on a new page all the findings. It was this test that was a clear passing grade over all the rest before. Declan hoped this trend would continue for the rest of the exam.

"Hardly anything amiss here, hearing is more than fine. Now on to how well you see."

He only moved the audiometer enough to make way for the way to the Smellen Chart near the door. "Well your eye test went to show that you've no longer the acuity to not have some correction, you have 20/45 vision, I suggest looking into a pair of correction lenses or contacts. "Well, not much left other than to have a few blood tests. I'll be taking one more vial than usual to make sure you have a decent protein count in the blood. I might ask you to take a urine sample for the same reason, to run it through the lab for a protein count."

I knew it. Vision has been slipping.
Even the muscles in the eyes… and no exercising those.
Contacts would be a hassle… Better get some glasses.
And remember to work out.

"All right."

Soon enough, the samples were collected, and Toshiaki was on his way.

"Thanks, Dr. Carrick. See ya."