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Darker always better, and that's the colorblind me speaking not the minion. I may have missed it somewhere, but how does one actually join the Houses? as an apprentice I mean. Once Eril is dealt with (I'm heavily considering the heart attack and recovery option) I'd love to actually jump in an do some healing,. This has been a surprising joy to be a part of.

@Vampire Bob You state your intention to in your post. You using a new one or Eril? If new you ask in the reception, if Eril then he can ask Nessa. Then you wait until a healer comes to train you. Atm thats Nessa and Pele :)


@Ercassie @Pele Alarion is't not my turn to post with Naela, is it?? Cause I have been waiting for Ercassie if that's the case :(

@Nessa Saelind I would not really be opposed to having a gathering at healers' quarters.

@Winddancer Hmm, Ercassie will respond sooner or later, I am sure, but perhaps you can still drop in a few sentences.

@Pele Alarion I am fine waiting, I just didnt know if it was my turn or not, I am pretty sure it isn't though didn't want it to be that you guys were waiting on me lol :P

“The one you are waiting on” would be me. Apologies @Pele Alarion. After waiting pretty much everywhere that I have been posting in Gondor for responses, and noting instead the sad disappearance of all but about three active Gondorians here total, myself included, the idea of my having to post for any Gondorian thread sort of fell into a pit of despairing amnesia.

Aww sorry to hear that @Ercassie! Are you wanting to pull out then?

@Ercassie Don't you dare give in to that despair! This Gondorian likes you too much and would become pretty much of a lone wolf otherwise.

I’ll try to put something up tonight, since have started so I’ll finish. But I doubt I will be drawing very much character development out at the moment. My heart isn’t quite in it right now. Sorry.

If you were wanting to do something with just Pele, feel free to send Naela off to get some herbs or something so you can finish on you own <3

Eh, most folk have indeed wandered off, so have to play with all who are still here.

@Winddancer, if you would rather leave my patient in favour of doing something a little more exciting by all means, it’s Naela’s first day. She could easily feel nauseous from the freshly revealed infection enough to flee, or simply be called away to help someone more urgently in need of help. I wouldn’t want to hold you back/up.

@Pele Alarion, you know I’ll finish what we have started. I have just threw my focus toward Imladris lately where I have lots to respond to, while Gondor is so quiet. I’ve not given up completely. Who knows, it might well be me and my stupidly long posts which scared everyone else away.

Nah Naela is fine, it is more if you were wanting to do more of a private rp with Pele, which I totally understand as Naela was a bit of a tag along.

@Pele Alarion Yay! Maybe we can start by organising a kind of informal gathering to welcome or newest healer apprentice(s)? It makes sense, it's not intimidating and it's easy to organise :-)

@Vampire Bob - sometimes it's awesome when you and your minion side agree And regarding the heart attack thing what level of damage are you considering? A mild one, a serious one? I'm asking for research purposes, because I'm not really familiar with how medieval doctors treated myocardial infarction. I asked for advice re literature on Twitter, and Le Goff's name was invoked highlight of my day honestly! I picked up some books about the history of medicine* from the library and I shall endeavour to research this as much as can.

*I didn't get the books only for this purpose, I still have to finish researching births (especially twin births) when @Winddancer NPC goes into labour with twins. This is going to be interesting, because the only thing I remember about twin births from the Middle Ages is that twins rare and that people had strange attitudes re twins.

Nessa, maybe? Sounds quite a good idea.

@Nessa Saelind I think we should just give him a minor one, we don't want to potentially leave poor Tom without a mother and a father (though it's honestly up for debate as to how long he's "had a father"). Please let me know what you find out, not just what you are able to put in your posts obviously, now that you mention that, I think that would be extremely fascinating to learn.

@Pele Alarion - great :-) I'll let this idea marinate in my brain over the weekend and come back when something comes of it so we can find the time to arrange this gathering ^_^

@Whatever I Want - worry yea not :-) I was already thinking about posting research notes, references, links and other things of interest here in the OOC thread so we could have some sort of healer RP repository.

Hmmm maybe we should have a Healer repository, stuff and RP things in the Cotage of Lost Play section? *thinking face*

Just make it here in Gondor :)

Windy - I wouldn't want people to think that it's solely a Gondor kingdom thing? *thinking face* I'd like everyone who ever RP-ed a healer in any age or kingdom of Arda to pitch in with their research, links, notes and whatnots. That's why I thought CoLP. But I guess I could do it in this thread too *thinking face* and mark the posts somehow or gather the links in one post... Clearly, I'll have to think about this a bit more.

So put in the title open for all? Afterall Gondor was where the great libraries were at :)

@Pele Alarion @Winddancer
I have posted, in the new (THANKYOU !) much nicer to see blue font colour !
Gave as much information as I could as to the injury etc, so it's clear what you'd be looking at. Sorry about any ick factor !

I like ick..

@Ercassie - I'm not part of your healer team ( what even am I saying, need that coffee), but all of us in the HoH are in for the nitty-gritty details, so no worries. BTW great post; really loved reading it.

Very enjoyable post indeed!

If anyone was ever wondering how research into medieval medicine was going, well dear reader we have officially reached the stage where I have a folder named History of Medicine (screenshot below)



And that's just pdf books and articles (so far), I have a couple of books on the shelf that have chapters about medicine and science in the Middle Ages (maybe I should take a picture of that too). I'd like to say that this escalated quickly because of Frost but I only have myself to blame for getting sidetracked by references. However, I'll try not to get sidetracked (ha! Famous last words!) and figure out a post by Saturday? (methinks) Hopefully, by then I can make a summary of my research because sharing is caring.

Edit: just realised that Patricia Skinner's article about Burn Victims could be useful for Rohan's infirmary, so I'm linking it. There's an interesting recepie for burns from the Trotula

Hey so I have some of the stuff from Rivendells old Healing classes type stuff (and am reworking the illustrated herb book I had been working on) Which included Seragon, Athelas, Mallorn and Elanor for sure.... I think there was one other but I haven't been able to find my notes on that.

ALSO ALSO

I am going to have Fuin brought to the house of healing for treatment, she's just (I hope) survived the Towers of No Return Might and is beat up pretty badly. so if anyone is wanting to play healer I am okay with that!

@CHAOS - Yay! Whatever material you can dig up it will be more than welcome! I'd love to see it. :-) I don't know how swamped up with work/obligations/other RP's @Pele Alarion and @Winddancer are, but generally the 3 of us are at your service. :-) Feel free to drop by/stumble in/bleed at the reception floor whathave you.

Oh, mentioning of plants reminded me that I stumbled upon these two classical antiquity gems: Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum vol 1 and vol 2 and Dioscorides De materia medica. The books were among the most important and influential books on the topic of natural history, and if memory serves me right they were still in use in the Renaissance. I know that a copy of De materia medica was used in Byzantium in the 15th century.

Apologies for the latest This escalated quickly fruit salad of a post. Well, it took a while and then it escalated quickly

Regarding the research I did (and told Frost I was going to report back on), I started with these two articles that were interesting and helpful. The first was The Middle Ages Contributions to Cardiovascular Medicine and the second Coronary Heart Disease: From Mummies to 21st Century. The second one led me to these articles about Medicine in Ancient Egypt: part 1, part 2 and part 3.

There's a lot of literature on the topic of Medieval medicine, and I haven't even scratched the surface, but I think for this case I'd like to stress a few things. In the Middle Ages, there was an interesting form of applying anaesthesia in the form of soporific sponges (spongia somnifera). More about that here. Additionally, although al-Nafis was the first to accurately describe the pulmonary circulation, there was no way the doctors at the time could perform open-heart surgery. Heart diseases were mostly managed by herbal medicine (careful dosing of foxglove), some methods are mentioned in the Egyptian papyri I linked.

So tried to think of what a medieval doctor would do, adding a few modern CPR methods into the mix because we want Eril to live , thus leeches to thin the blood - basically to lower the blood pressure. Bloodletting was commonly used in the Middle Ages and well beyond for basically everything in accordance to the humour theory. If Eril was conscious I would probably administer willow bark, as it's a precursor of aspirin which is given to patients who suffered a heart attack to prevent clothing. Further treatment will (most likely) consist of herbal remedies, carefuly dosed foxglove tea with willow bark to manage pain and aid with thinning the blood. Perhaps some leeches for the same thing. I'll do further reading on that...

I think I covered everything, I hope i was coherent, but if I wasn't poke me, holler at me or something @A BEAR A BEAR

Oh btw @Winddancer the yellowish part of the post could be of interest to you if you need to plot about Thea and the missing money.

@Nessa Saelind Fantastic post! The NPF told me I had to trib you for all that research and one doesnt argue with the NPF.

And as for the money, that was the payment for joining the "weird cult" Dwarrow delf got her in to, they search for the Silmarils :P I doubt he is wanting to continue on with the rp so we are on our own from here and can do whatever. It was a months wages (decent wages, not the underpaid one that Thea was getting from the Laundry) in that bag and meta gaming I didnt want Ms Irma taking it :P

Windy - fist thank you and the NPF fairy for the shinies

Re the money I wasn't really sure if it was from the "weird cult lady payment" or I reappropriated my wages stash so I kind of left it vague so Thea can always say: What money? No money here, sir. Never seen any stolen money, me no sir.

edit: NPF fairy, did fairy needed to be stressed twice? Yes. And typos fixed - don't post without your glasses girl.

The money is definitely from the weird cult lady lol, Thea only "re-appropriated" 2 coins from Ms Irma, who is actually stealing from the laundry girls, she gets a certain amount from the garrison to pay the girls and she short changes them and pockets some of it for herself. Thea found out and took her money back. Should have gotten the evidence instead! She was hungry though.. poor thing..

I stumbled on this gem on Twitter today and thought I'd share: cocotwistory or Coconuts in Medieval Europe. By the looks of things coconuts were used as medicine in the Emirate of Cordoba in the 10th century in all sorts of ways, so I suppose we can use coconuts in the Houses of Healing too. If you'd like, of course, no need to go coconutty about this

edit: Forgot to ask Windy, Pele do you have plans about taking over treatment for Fuin? If not, I can hop in? :-)

Oh my, Nessa! You are such a researcher, and I feel embarrassed about looking only at random things.

Hmm, maybe you can take Fuin, if you wish? I am a bit slowish lately, so it might take some time for me to get to HoH.

Pele - my day job is rather boring, so I have to keep the little grey cells active somehow. History research about my random interests helps.

Don't worry about being slow, slow is good. :-) #TeamTurtle :D I'll take over Fuin and if I'm in luck I'll have something this weekend. :-) Windy, you're more than welcome to join :-)

Im baking babies, its all yours!

*brace yerself for all the buns in the oven jokes/memes/whathaveyou*

@Fuin Elda - well you're not bleeding on the reception floor anymore That's always an improvement. I hope I got everything right and hadn't missed something glaringly obvious like a putrified poisoned wound or broken ribs. Let me know if I have and we'll work around it. Or on it. :D Somehow :-)

@Nessa Saelind No broken bones on my list there severe bruising though probably will be incredibly uncomfortable to lay down when she does finally wake.

Uhhh I don't think you've done a pupil check yet - they will be unevenly dilated - She kind got smashed into a wall by a fell beast tail so she's concussed because the tail seemed like a smarter option than the bitey venomous portion. But no poison, she managed to avoid the venom from the different critters.

I'll write up a response possibly later today? Maybe tomorrow? Depends on how well I survive my next work out.

@Fuin Elda - you're right, I did forget the glaringly obvious pupil check. To be perfectly honest I did put in my notes that I need to do that, but then I got distracted by some herb research and job application writing and it slipped my mind. I'll include it in the next post for sure. BTW, I know I sound like a broken record all the time, but no need to rush on my account. :-) #TeamTurtle

@Nessa Saelind Honestly I'm #TeamHare if anything, so it's more of something I like to do to make sure I've got everything done and then I get to have a nap while #TeamTurtle catches up (Okay I actually am sanding off 5 layers of paint from a dresser and making sesame ginger pork belly not napping but same thing). That said when I next post you will have an opportunity to do the pupil check for sure we're gonna do some creepy elf stuff.

@Fuin Elda - well we can't have a spooky month without having some kind of weird billferny (to use a Rivers of London phrase ) at the Houses of Healing. Have at it :-)

*settles down to read while sipping tea*

@Fuin Elda - I've just realised that I totally forgot to tag you or let you know that you have a reply to your post in the Houses of Heling And I was so pleased that I managed to write the response quickly before I had to start craming about Croatia's Education Law (and it's multiple revisions) in preparation for a job interview, that it just slipped my mind.

@Nessa Saelind No worries I had actually seen it - I however have been dealing with IRL issues (trying to get insurance to put in my new shop window post haste after a break in a month ago that was only suppose to take 3 weeks to get done)/Nanowrimo that I had not gotten to responding yet lol

@Fuin Elda - No problem, I'm not in a hurry. :-) It's just that sometimes I forget to tag folks in posts and I forget about it, because something distracts me and I remember days after that maybe I should have tagged the person because RL tends to swoop in and things happen :D

I stumbled on another interesting medieval recipe while reading Jark Hartnell's Medieval Bodies so I thought I'd share:

14. Item If the groze darm ['large intestine'] or the magen ['stomach] or the gederme ['entrails'] are injured, you can heal it thus: sew it together with a fine thread and sprinkle rot puluer ['red powder'] on it. The same powder is good for all wounds, and the best can be made thus. Take 9 parts of swartz win ['black wine'] that is the very reddest and 1 lot of hematite, 1 lot each of nutmeg and white frankincense, 3 lots of gum arabic, 1 lot each of sanguinem draconis ['dragon’s blood'] and mumie ['ground mummy']. Pound that all together, make a powder out of it, and keep it as needed

The recipe can also be found in Hartnell's article Wording the Wound Man in which he analyses the drawing of the Wound Man from an Englsih manuscript in the Wellcome Collection. It's an interesting read, regardles of your level of fondnes for the history of medicine. And the drawing of the Wounded Man can be used as a learning aid for trainee healars, since it was also a learning aid for the surgeons in the Middle Ages.

Awesome Nessa!! <3

Twins are coming! :D Both boys btw :P

Winddancer wrote: ↑Sun Nov 15, 2020 3:41 pm Twins are coming! :D Both boys btw :P

Not gonna lie, I was hoping for girls too many boys in that household I have an job interview at an elementary school tomorrow and I'm doing some prep for that, so I'll try to write something tomorrow afternoon, so delivery room Tuesday :D

Haha, was thinking girls, but nah I like that she is getting all boys :P

And no worries! It's there when you are ready for it and good luck with the interview! <3

Windy - it looks like it might be Delivery Room Wednesday because I got absorbed in research and I had some unexpected errands to run today since tomorrow is a public holiday in Croatia and everything will be closed.