1st Day of Bedrest

Another Chapter, another bit of exposition, this time we are discussing Bandersloop Medical Care.

The Bandersloop Empire, as one might expect of an empire basically set up by Paladins, has universal healthcare and excellent coverage for hospitals, police, fire, and education services. Of these, we are primarily concerned with hospitals at the moment.

For all that the Bandersloop Empire is at a late-medieval/early-renaissance level of technology, they have a very advanced grasp of disease vectors and surgery and so-forth: their medical knowledge is First Rate for their era. They have simple sanitizers such as Lysol and distilled alcohol-based ones and are constantly researching new non-magical treatments (or preferably cures) for various diseases.

Now, "why don't they just treat with magic?" I anticipate someone asking in the comments, so I will explain.

Magical treatments for disease and other ailments ARE employed, but sparingly. You see, while a dose of Remove Disease will cure someone of most infections, it will not allow their body to develop resistance or immunity to that pathogen. Therefore, the standard approach for the past 200 years has been vaccination and then palliative care if they become infected anyway, except with magical infections such as mummy rot, devil chills, and lycanthropy.

In a side note, I feel now is a good time to mention that a huge percentage of the human population of the empire is infected with ursanthropy, and no one cares as it is seen as an advantageous condition since it renders the infected individual Lawful/Good in alignment over time and gives them several other advantages such as increased strength and stamina. In fact, there are "Ursus Parties" at many schools during secondary education, where students deliberately get bitten by natural were-bears in safe and controlled environments. Back to medical care, however.

One great advantage of magical treatments is the assorted "cure (blank) wounds" spells.

While natural Healing from infections and injuries comes with a host of benefits such as natural immunity, and increased bone density, many people just don't have the time in their lives to take to their beds for a month or more to rest up after a major trauma like our protagonist experienced in the last chapter. While, (due to the need for herd immunity,) they don't just magic away most diseases, with regard to injuries, they are more sanguine about curing magically, largely because of violent traumas from war and the like.

Now those of you who know D&D might be thinking that clerics are going to be the major players in providing this type of care, and while, yes, clerics provide all of the major treatments, the general practitioners for curing spells, are actually Witches, from Pathfinder.

Witches you see, can get a 'hex' which allows them to cast "cure light wounds" on a theoretically infinite number of people each day,(subject to the limits of time management), so in hospital situations where you can have thousands of patients in one day, they are far superior to any cleric in terms of the raw VOLUME of patients they can treat. To picture this in easy to understand terms, witches with the Healing Hex mostly become Nurses, clerics and oracles become Doctors. An RN can deal with most situations by herself: sprains, setting bones, flu; but for gunshots and the like you need a trauma surgeon.

Anyway, that's a good basic overview of medical care in the Bandersloop empire, on to your regularly scheduled diary entry.

4th Argentum, IRSY 1066

Hello again, my lovely Diary, have I mentioned lately that I love my husband and daughter?

Now normally, it's my job to make breakfast, I'm always the first one awake, but today I was sleeping in order to heal, and Mars a Madness made me breakfast-in-bed! Blueberry cornbread with eggs, corned beef hash, yogurt, and a tall glass of my own milk! Love them so much!

They made sure I didn't have to get out of bed for anything today, except going to the bathroom, and I was grateful. The coven of witches came by at noon, did the three curing spells and left, after which I felt much better. They say it's going to take at least three days for me to fully recover, and no activity that is avoidable until I do! You know what that means...?

No sex for three whole days! Argh: I want to fuck! But, Doctor's orders, no sex until I'm back into the green zone. I just hope Mars will understand... (Probably, he's a good man.)

Anyway, not that much to report today, Madness nursed three times, Mars didn't, even though I offered, and I stayed in bed doing Crosswords and Sudoku.

By all the gods being laid up is boring.

Oh, how could I forget? I sent a letter to the constabulary telling them what I told you last night about the two men and the trunk, and got a sending in reply saying they will look into the matter, so that's dealt with, for now.

Anyway, back to sleep for me, tomorrow will be a new day. (And I'll still be laid up, grrr...)