InsaneJournal

Who: Jane and Christine
What: Christine has treatment options
When: During Jane's hospitalization
Rating: Red for medical issues

Jane tapped a few keys on her laptop and the conical projection emitting from her phone changed shape. She studied the funnel hovering in air above her, reaching up to spin it with a swipe of her fingers. Something was wrong. Gravitational warping around the edge would pull mass into the center. Instead passing safely through, anyone trying to travel through this wormhole would be crushed to death by their density. How had she gotten so far afield in the equation?

Jane tapped again and the model of the wormhole winked out, revealing her empty hospital. Thor had left not long ago to run home for a shower, change of clothes, and to pick up a box of Cheez-itz, which Jane was craving and had promised she would actually eat. It was just Jane, the occasional hum from the IV machine, and the woman in the doorway. Not one of the nurses, who Jane recognized by now and not one of her oncologists or hemotologists. Maybe the doctor on shift?What were doctor shifts? Donald had talked about them, years ago.

Oh right. Rounds.

"Hello," she said and readied herself for the usual questions. "Jane Foster, 6/19/82."

"Great," Christine said, striding into the room, her usual blue scrubs on. It was surprisingly easy, getting ‎attending privileges but hey, when Stephen planned for something, he never missed a detail.

Walking to the chart, she opened it and made a few noises before she plopped herself down on the chair next to the bed. She didn't like standing over her patients and even though Jane wasn't one, she was a human being and should be treated with respect.

"I'm Dr. Christine Palmer. Has Stephen explained anything to you about me?" She paused before correcting herself. "Doctor Strange, I think is how you know him as."

Thor had spent the past couple of days in the chair the doctor was now seated in, small and comfortable where he'd been hunched in the shoulders and crammed at the elbows. It looked out of place. As out of place as hearing anyone call Doctor Strange by his first name.

"Yes. He mentioned asking a friend to look at my case. Something about comparing it to those who were exposed to Chitauri weapons?" Jane's thoughts had immediately gone to Erik. Her next worry was what would Loki do when all this brought back up again. The New York City invasion was Loki at peak crazy. He'd been trying to turn over a new leaf but e'd never exactly apologized either and Jane wasn't sure how he'd react to having it brought up again. The same worry likely wasn't far from Thor's mind,

"I'm guessing you know what I was exposed to and want to see if it has similar results to the Chitauri cases?"

Just a few days ago, Christine wouldn't have had a clue what 'Chitauri' meant, but now? Well. She didn't quite know all the nuances, but she knew enough. "Yeah, basically. And I'll be honest, Dr. Foster -- your case is one of the worst I've seen. Some of the other patients, they had limited exposure and we were able to treat it successfully using some aggressive chemo. From looking at your file though, I see they've tried several things, and with very limited results." She gave Jane a rueful smile. "It's not looking good."

There were some things that Tony Stark had been working on, things that Stephen had filled her in on, plus her own research though.

"What are your thoughts on medical nanobots? Or would you prefer to stick with strictly medically sound procedures? There's a current immunotheraphy clinical trial, specifically known as a tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy, which essentially means you're treating yourself with your own proteins that have been modified.." She paused. "I do have to caution that both the immunotheraphy trial I'm thinking of and the nanobots...well, they're both in testing stages with some fairly impressive results....but in your weakened state, I'm not entirely sure which would be more effective."

Jane was immediately grateful Thor wasn't here to listen to how poorly things were going and at the same time, she missed the warm comfort of his supportive hand around hers. No one told her how isolating cancer would be. The way so many people talked about Jane instead of to her. People tended to look and speak to Thor for answers, as if they were having a conversation with Jane herself. Jane was avoided or worse, congratulated as some sort of inspiration. Not for her contributions to astrophysics but because her headscarf marked her as a cancer patient. People came up to Thor all the time for being a hero but it was for his actions, his choices. Strangers were doing the same simply because of the way her body reacted to a high dose of radiation from a cosmic stone (and then they often gave advice - had she tried acai berry?). It was lonely. Bad enough it was harder and hard to even go out, so much that her friends had basically given up and moved on to suggesting video chat instead of expecting to make it out. She felt small and alone and Thor's hand would have helped.

"I'm not - " she stammered and then started again. "I'm not a medical doctor. I have no idea which one of those is going to be better. I do have access to some, I guess the best term is alternative medicine. Something to give my body a boost so the treatment works."

Christine nodded sympathetically. It was hard, even for a doctor, to make these decisions. "I can't tell you what choice to make." Leaning forward, she handed Jane a few pamphlets, one with scribbles all over it. Unlike most docs, she actually had legible writing. "These are to do with the trials I was talking about. It can give you more information, and I've tried to ...well, decode the med speak into regular language. My number is on one of them," she pointed to a blue page,"and you can give me a call anytime. I'm not the only one working on this, I think you know that too. I've been speaking with Dr. Banner and with Tony Stark on this matter."

Her life was getting so weird now.

"Do you have any questions?"

"You mean besides what you would do if you were me?" Jane sighed. "Sorry. I'd ask if you ever get tired of making decisions but you're a doctor. I've just had a lot of really big options handed to me in the past couple days." She reached up to push a strand of hair behind her ear that no longer existed.

"I wasn't exposed to anything Chitauri but what worked for them?"

"The immunotherapy," Christine answered back. "But again, it's tailored to your specific proteins so what works for one person won't necessarily work for another. As you're no doubt aware, I've been speaking with Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark. I want to re-iterate that everything I'm proposing is still in test phases, and that I don't really have specifics yet." She gave a soft smile. "I can't make a decision for you, Dr. Foster. This is your life. There will be side effects from anything, I'm sure, and only you know what you can live with. All I can do is follow your course, and do the best I can in making sure you're comfortable and supported along the way."

She sat up a bit straighter in her chair. "You have a lot of powerful, immensely educated people on your side. You're very lucky to have this kind of support."

Jane understood the implication. She was lucky to have to have powerful friends. Without them she was probably going to die. It was an option most people never had. "Then let's do that. With the boost I'm hoping to get from Asgardian technology, maybe that will be enough for my body to start fighting back. If not Tony can have his nanobots. My oncologist knows about all this?"

Christine nodded. "And I just want to make it clear, I need to talk to Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner. I mean, by the time we're done talking, I'm sure they've cured cancer or something." She leaned forward, her eyes glittering with amusement. "They're so smart, and way smarter than me. It's kind of intimidating." She grinned and straightened up. "And so are you. You got this, Dr. Foster. You'd be surprised how much a fighting spirit can add to the whole medical process."

"Do you have any other questions for me?"

"I have a big alien guy with an affinity for electricity who's committed to me not dying. I kind of don't want to let him down." Jane smiled a little, thinking of Thor. "Outpatient? Or am I going to have be a guest of Columbia again?"

"We'll have to figure that out once we know what's going on." She gathered her things and stood up. "It was nice speaking with you, Dr. Foster, albeit until less than desirable circumstances. I'll be in touch." Christine smiled and left the room, thinking to herself that she was slightly in over her head. But there was something about the spunk in the astrophysicist that Christine liked.