https://strawhats.rpg-board.net/t2466-a-daedalian-remedy#15835

Being a doctor wasn't an easy task. It was one of the most trying occupations around, as one more often than not, had someone's life hanging on the line. Any little mistake could cost a life and any little breakthrough could mean a life was saved. 
A doctor never stopped learning. No matter how experienced or talented said doctor was, there would always be a situation whereby he/she would be presented with an ailment that he had no experience with and would have to consult other doctors or make his research with books.
There were ailments that were difficult to treat, with the probability of failure extremely high and the probability of success extremely low. 
There were ailments that were simply deemed incurable. Doctors simply avoided even attempting to treat patients with such sicknesses as it would only harm their track record.

All that didn't bother Kouse Arima, more popularly known as Dr K. He had long overcome those challenges, smashing through the primitive boundaries set by ignorant doctors in the past, curing diseases that were deemed impossible, treating difficult cases with little to no complications daily. Hence making a me for himself in the world, as one able to perform medical miracles.

Unfortunately, even he had his challenges. Even he, seen as a prodigy at the tender age of 5yrs and further helped with his devil fruit abilities had ailments that left him confused.

Curing mental illnesses was still in it's infancy in the world, doctors had little to no explanation as to why people went mad or how to reverse such conditions. There was no certain cure to tackle mental degradation or mental disorders alike. No matter the books Kouse read, no one was ahead in getting a cure for it. It was all trial and error. Stories of lucky recoveries filled the books he read, but there was no certain cure listed in them.
Patients with mental illnesses were simply monitored, and advised to change their eating habits, environment, and sleeping times, in the hope that it would help out.

Kouse looked closely at his crew mate Elias, as he got into another playful banter with another crew mate, Madori.
It had been two weeks since Kouse had been studying Elias's frequent mood swings, and now he finally agreed it was serious enough for him to step in and help.

"Yo Elias!" Kouse would call out with an excited tone, not trying to worry Elias. "I've got something important to show you. Meet me at my cabin, whenever you're free this evening."
With that, Kouse would turn and begin a conversation with the Captain.

Being a botanist on the ocean wasn't an easy task. It was one of the most erroneous occupations to select on the great list of job classes! And, it just so happened that Elias lucked out in that he was a botanist through and through! More often than not, being a part of a wandering pirate crew, they spent most of their time on the ocean! But when they weren't, they were on lands that may or may not support plant life. It came with its perks though, he could study how plant life adapts to new environments.

A botanist never stopped planting, never stopped cross breeding, and never stopped learning about new plants. Especially when you worked with instant growth seeds that acted like grenades more than plants, in that you throw the damn thing on the ground and it doesn't even need soil, water, wind or sunlight! They just spring out and latch on to whatever they may! Some of them even seemed to have limited sentience. It begged the question as to whether these were actually plants, or some mutated animal life form melded with plants. It titillated the mind of the red eyed wannabe author, the runaway from home, the noble without nobility, Elias Weltenbauer.

There were plants that grew with care and time, effort and patience. Then there were plants that liked to sprout up when you chucked 'em through the damn air! Botanists simply avoided Elias' plants normally, the concept of risking the chance of being gobbled up by your favorite flower because you wouldn't sing to it while feeding it a crappy greaser barber, wasn't as appealing as it sounds, despite the catchy songs you could sing with the plant! The Nerve of some people.

Elias was busy in the crow's nest today, oddly enough. Though, busy wasn't the best word for this situation. He was more so, sitting in the nest, cross legged, and examining the collection of different seed species he had. He was contemplating the concept of cross breeding them, but that would only make similar functions that he already had. He needed some new ones. Either he had to grow them, or plumb the market of the world. If he could get a map to the island they were native to, that would be amazing.

But, alas, his thought process was interrupted. Kouse wanted to see him. Clutching on to the rim of the crow's nest, Elias peeked over it, his red eyes narrowed at Kouse while he responded to the doctor, "And why the bloody hell can't I just come now? You're a weirdo doc." Elias turned around and returned to the study of his seeds, jotting down notes in a little book before he would waste the hours doing this.

Later that evening, Elias knocked on Kouse's door, hands in his jacket pockets, waiting for whatever it was the doctor wanted him for.

Kouse calmly sat in his cabin, quickly reading through a medical book which was comprised of doctors findings from all around the world about some of the steps to take in treating patients suffering from mental illnesses.
It was a rather voluminous book, with over 900 pages, but still there was no sure way of curing such illnesses written in the book. This was the fifth such book that talked about ‘possible’ ways to treat patients with such illnesses; that Kouse had read.
He enjoyed reading, as no matter what topic the book was based on, he would always learn new things, especially when said book had any form of medical knowledge or information to pass on.
Kouse’s insatiable thirst for knowledge was what drove him into becoming a renowned doctor that he was now.
He hoped that the amount of knowledge he’d accumulated so far was going to be enough to properly diagnose and find a cure for Elias.
The Knock on the door was right on time as Kouse was just finishing up with his book.

“Come in.” Kouse called out as he slowly closed the book he was reading, he didn’t bother putting a mark on where he had stopped, because it was his third time reading it.

“Thanks for coming, have a seat Elias.” Kouse would point with a smile at one of the chairs in his room.
Once Elias complied, he wouldn’t waste any time with small talk and would jump right to the point.

“You’ve been having rapid mood swings for some time now Elias, and it’s been getting more and more frequent and extreme as time goes by.” Kouse would pause for a moment to stare directly at Elias before continuing. “I’ve seen it happen to patients I’ve treated……or should I say tried to treat, and it almost always worsens overtime.”

Kouse would then adjust his glasses and break the eye contact, relaxing back in his chair knowing the gravity of the situation must have been passed through to Elias.

“So tell me, are yourself aware of this?”

It was stated in the book Kouse had read a week ago, that the first real step to cure, is for the patient to be aware of the problem they had.
It wasn’t infrequent for patients to suffer from the earlier stages of mental illness without being aware of it.

“Oh, I Invited Harley, the other doctor in our crew to join us, she might have some input on the matter too. She’ll only come in if you’re cool with it.” Kouse would add.

As he was called in to the room, Elias would open the door and traveled on in to the room. Looking around briefly, Elias could see a great number of books were moved about, as if someone had been reading for a lengthy amount of time. He was then asked to have a seat, which he found a chair and sat down on, clutching on to the seat of it while his feet were planted on the ground.

Kouse then dropped the bomb on him, that he was having mood swings. He knew he was having mood swings, everyone knew he was having mood swings. But were they really getting so severe? As Kouse looked away from Elias to ask if he was aware of it, the sound of a thumping could be heard. Wood creaking against wood. Elias was lifting up off of his seat, picking the chair up against his ass with each time he got up on his feet, and set it down an inch away, tracking along with Kouse' eyesight.

"Yeah? It's been this way since I was a kid. I'm just prone to whimsy, like all the retired marines I grew up with said. There are times where I get a swing here and there in the middle of a day, and there are times where I go for two whole weeks without a change. It's no big deal. Peaks and valleys doc, peaks and valleys. Constants and variables. Constantly, my mood changes. Variably, the amount of time in between changes!"

He wasn't as torn up about it as anticipated, but then again, no one accused him of a mental illness. When he was asked if Harley could come in, he offered a cheeky smile with his eyes shut, and a big ol' thumbs up for the doctor!

Being somewhat skeptical at first of the new doctors medical abilities in the crew was something Harley Ashes felt was her responsibility to do.
The moment Kouse Arima joined the crew as a fellow doctor, Harley had watched him like a hawk, scrutinising his every medical job he performed on the crew members.
Harley was someone who took nothing for granted and everything she did, she did to the best of her abilities. She never joked about when she worked, nor did she fail to sarcastically insult others who weren't as good in their various professions as they should be. 
Harley was seen by the majority as disrespectful, cold and always too serious.

She liked most people and was often friendly, but when it came to her profession, she became a serious and focused person.

Harley had prided herself as being the only and leading doctor on the ship, without her, the crew would fall apart. Whatever she said was the problem with a crew member was law and was never contested......well until Kouse arrived.

He had started life in the crew by stitching back her decapitated arm, perfectly, and a not so easy thing to do. The warning signs were already there, but she ignored them.

Just after the first few weeks Kouse had joined the crew, Harley knew that things would never be the same for her again, and what hurt most of all was that Kouse was in fact a better doctor than her. She hadn't accepted that fact easily.
The similarities between her and Kouse were just too much, she thought she was watching him and scrutinising his medical abilities, but the truth was that Kouse was doing the exact same thing to her.
Like she, Kouse didn't take mediocrity for granted. Like she, he was a prideful person who was incredibly serious about his profession. Like she, he would put down people who he judged were not good enough, sarcastically.
Kouse came from a family of doctors just like she did. 
He was fatherless, just as she. Through the lost of loved ones caused by the Marines he came to hate them, just as she.
He was 20yrs, she was 19yrs.
Kouse Arima was such a perfect rival for Harley that it surprised her that the first time she truly realised that was when Kouse actually criticised her medical abilities. She had made but a little mistake in one of her surgeries, and Kouse didn't take that lightly.

Kouse's failure to save the life of Koneko, a crew member, had caused them to lock heads for hours, finding out what went wrong, and when she saw that Kouse did it all correctly, it caused her to acknowledge him even more. 
It didn't take too long before Kouse was preferred when the more difficult surgeries or diagnosis was needed.


When Kouse had approached Harley a week back to ask for her opinion on Elias's mental condition, Harley was both surprised and pleased. She did respect Kouse as a fellow professional doctor. So it was a soothing feeling when she realized that he too respected her.
Harley had readily agreed to study Elias's mood swings and read up on medical books just like Kouse did.

As she got her cue to come into Kouse's room, she stood straight and wiped the smile off her face. It was time to be serious. Then she entered the room.


*****

Kouse adjusted his glasses and nodded a silent greeting to Harley, their professional and unsmiling faces locked on each other for a moment, then he pointed at a nearby chair for her to sit.

"Alright Elias, I hear you, but I want you to hear what Harley has to say on the matter before I speak up."

Harley would only wait for Elias's consent before launching on a rather lengthy and detailed narrative of the likely causes of his unpredictable mood swings and possible treatments. Highlighting the fact that there was no certain cure yet for it, and that it whatever they would do would largely be experimental, but also assuring Elias of the high level of success they had in at least reducing the frequency of his mood swings and preventing it from becoming even more serious.


Harley was not just confident in her abilities, but confident that there was nothing they couldn't solve if both she and Kouse worked together.

Harley entered Kouse's office, odd for her considering that she had her own place on the ship to do medical work but he had asked her to look into the odd things that Elias did and his random mood swings. After exchanging a friendly glance and nod at Kouse, Harley took a seat and reached into a small doctors bag to pull out a pad and some paper. Harley wasn't by any means a mental disorder style of doctor, much more the type to do surgeries. But knowing a bit about mental issues helped her make some money while she was on Jaya. She listened to Elias talk about his mood swings and brushed a braided strand of hair out of her face then rolled up the white sleeves of her button down shirt and clicked her pen. Quickly she started to jot down notes on her pad of paper while looking up to Kouse then Elias from time to time. She cleared her throat and offered Elias a gentle smile.

"Elias, how are you today? Doing good so far?.... Kouse and I are both going to do our best to help you. It's clear that there is something wrong with you mentally but nothing too serious and nothing that can't be fixed with some good old fashioned Science, and a clear plan. I'm going to list a few words to you and I want you to tell me the first three words you think of when you hear those words." Harley wrote down a series of words, then made three hash marks under each word to mark each word. "Are you ready? It's very important you just say the first words that come to mind for each topic. First... Pirate. Mmmkay. Second, horse.... And last drown." Harley didn't have any reason for the last two words but she asked about Pirates first because she believed that Elias didn't actually know what they were.

After she finished jotting down the words, Harley looked up at Kouse and gave her a knowing frown. "Elias, Kouse and I need to talk alone for a little bit so we can decided the best tests to run, can you wait outside for say, ten minutes?" Harley asked then pointed to the door. She waited for Elias to do as she asked then turned to look Kouse directly in the face. "He might be suffering from something as simple as ADHD, but it's more likely he's got Bipolar Disorder and that could be dangerous to the entire crew if not treated properly, what are your thoughts?"

Elias spun about on his chair, swinging his legs around and doing a little shimmy so he could rest his chest on the front of the air when Harley came in. He was in a good mood so far, which made things easier for people to talk to and approach him. "Hey other doc! I'm doing quite alright! Thanks for asking. How about you? I feel like I don't see you unless Mashyuu is involved in something. How is the captain?  I haven't seen him in a little bit."

He held up a hand to Harley, turning around in his seat again while his other hand clenched in to a fist in front of his mouth, which he coughed in to and had her wait a moment, "Like I told Kouse, I'm fine. I've been this way since I was a kid, and things went fine back home! I don't remember anyone else having a problem with me. Then again, I was surrounded by marine veterans and war heroes. So they might have more patience. Funny, I'm a patient of you now, and they had pat-you get the joke probably!"

He acquiesced to the word play game with the doctor, and quickly got to listing off what he wanted to. Pirate, to which he replied, "Rogue." The next word was horse. "Cargo." That was really hitting the nail over the head, but, his mind wasn't thinking abstract now, it was thinking more on the literal sense. For drowning he listed off the following, "Fire!"

"I'm gonna go wait outside then!" Now, what did Elias do during those ten minutes?  what any good lad with Mania would do.  In his jubilant and euphoric state of mind, he fished out one of his pop greens, and chucked it hard against the deck, making a bouncy sap bed out of a Trampolia for him to jump on, and launch himself up to the crow's nest.  Next, he took out one of his Sargasso seeds and threw it at the floor of the crow's nest, making a series of long fronds of seaweeds that hanged down freely in the air. He grabbed on to one on his descent and started to swing around in the air freely, while weaving the seaweed around in to a message for Harley or Kouse to read when they came out.

When they did, they would find that the seaweed plant he grew was used to tie a message in between the diagonal rope ladders on the sides of the ship, and it spelled out the following: "Not Crazy. Thanks Though. Going for a Walk."

Elias wasn't on the ship any more, he really felt like he could go for a walk on this fine evening, smell the sea water, see how far he could leave his tracks in the sand before the water washed them away.  Maybe the doctors would be keen on finding where he went? He wasn't far, he was about three hundred feet from the ship, stomping his feet down in to the wet sand to make deep prints that wouldn't be erased by the tide so easily! Take that Poseidon! You jerk!

Kouse watched quietly as Harley took over and began talking with Elias.
The quick verbal test she performed was something Kouse approved of, it was smart,quick and conclusive.
It was time for the docs to have a talk.

Once Elias was out of the room Kouse would turn to Harley who immediately spoke to him, suggesting he could be suffering from ADHD or the more likely bipolar disorder.

Kouse disliked mental illnesses, they was no definite cure for them, only some ways to 'improve' the patients condition, and whether the patient gets better or worse is entirely random.

"Well, its best we assume the worst, so we don't get surprised in the future. I've had some experience with not treating this kinds of situations seriously, the outcome was not pleasant." Kouse adjusted his glasses. "The signs Elias has displayed points to him having Bipolar disorder. Unfortunately it currently has no sure cure. In all the several books I've read about the subject, I've surmised that the best course of action from here is to have Elias undergo daily therapy with either of us and also provide him with antidepressants and mood stabilizer medications to help reduce the frequency of his mood swings." 

Kouse would pause for a moment to lightly touch one of the medical books on his desk.

"Currently with what I've seen, Elias's mood swings are still at the 'hypomanic' stage, meaning they aren't all that severe yet, but if left untreated, it could get more serious, quickly. Also, after further research, I came up with some little additional things we could use to help Elias's condition 'improve' a little bit more quickly. 
His eating,sleeping and exercising habits should be monitored, all should be done and none in excess."

Kouse stopped to look straight back at Harley, there was another way, but he didn't like the risks.

"We could also create an actual cure for Elias. It'll have to be experimental and Elias would be our test subject. The risks triples with this idea, I personally don't like it, but if we are indeed successful, we'll both solve Elias's problem permanently and help thousands of other sick patients around the world. So what do you think Harley?."

Harley listened to Kouse give his point of view and jotted down notes, anything said in the moment might get forgotten later so it was best to have notes to fall back on if they needed to. It was true that they needed to treat Elias as swiftly as possible to keep him from getting any worse over all. She nodded her head in agreement then stood up. "You're right, keeping him on a daily schedule, or at least as daily as you can as a pirate, will help keep depression at bay, and give him a sense of purpose. The medicines are a good start but he's not someone who likes to do as he's told, still just a child in that way and we are going to have to make sure someone is there to make sure he takes the medications. I've actually got some anti depressants in my office. I can go get them, it will last him for a month before he has to restock them. As far as a cure goes.... That's risky. We can do it but I don't want to start here on Jordsand. It would be smarter to start working on a cure on whatever island we visit next. I think Mashyuu said something about Baltigo next. Maybe we should get started there?" Harley posed the question then made her way towards the door to let Elias back in once the talk was over.

Slowly, Harley blinked and looked around, annoyed at the sight of the plant. "..... He left. He's not here..... Stupid son of a bitch!" Harley snapped. She glanced back at Kouse, rolled her eyes, since arriving on Jordsand she was only annoyed. Swiftly she stormed off to her office, pulled a bottle of anti depressants off a shelf and walked back to Kouse and placed them on his table. "I'm a surgeon, not a babysitter. If he comes back make sure he gets these and I'll be at his room in the morning to force him to take them! I have others to take care of that actually want my help." Harley snapped, then flashed Kouse a smile, knowing he had more tact than she did. Swiftly she twisted around and headed back to her office to deal with the other injured men and women on the ship.

-Exit-