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respoftwI’ve been toying with an idea for SGA fic for a while but I’m trying to get it straight in my heads as to what the SGCs policy on sending people with a need for long-term medication would be.
We know that the first Atlantis expedition was expected to be a one-way mission. (Let’s ignore the fact that they were woefully under resourced for that for now)
How would that affect the approval of expedition members with medication needs?
Diabetics and insulin? HIV positive people with their meds? Trans people and their HRT? Someone who’d had a transplant and needed anti-rejection meds?
Would they be refused or would the SGC just give them a years supply and wish them well? (I mean, it’s the SGC so it would probably be like a month supply lbr. Where was their stores of food? Or stuff to trade? Ugh! But I digress.)
Anyway, I’d be really interested to hear other people’s opinion
We know that the first Atlantis expedition was expected to be a one-way mission. (Let’s ignore the fact that they were woefully under resourced for that for now)
How would that affect the approval of expedition members with medication needs?
Diabetics and insulin? HIV positive people with their meds? Trans people and their HRT? Someone who’d had a transplant and needed anti-rejection meds?
Would they be refused or would the SGC just give them a years supply and wish them well? (I mean, it’s the SGC so it would probably be like a month supply lbr. Where was their stores of food? Or stuff to trade? Ugh! But I digress.)
Anyway, I’d be really interested to hear other people’s opinion
no subject
Date: 2018-03-21 07:54 am (UTC)Frankly, if I were O'Neill or Landry, I wouldn't send anyone to Atlantis who needed that kind of long term support. Most people in military with those needs wouldn't be at SGC in the first place, if they remained in the military at all. (FYI, I believe the military won't even accept someone with only one working kidney, let alone a transplant.) So on the military side, it wouldn't come up. In addition, trans people were not openly serving in 2004 so anyone trying to hide would have been found out in the vetting process.
On the civilian side, they'd have to think long and hard before assigning someone to Atlantis who needed therapeutic support. Not because of that need so much as the strain on Atlantis' limited resources. That may have played into the small number of people they sent on the expedition: it's hard enough to find volunteers for a one way trip; finding perfectly healthy people would have been a nightmare.
After they reestablished contact, I would think people who needed long term chemical support wouldn't be sent out unless Atlantis had a working ZPM to send them back to Earth in case their meds ran out or their conditions changed and no ships were available. Shelf life for most meds is two years--technically. Quite a few last much longer than that with proper storage. Others, like insulin, tend to be highly problematic. Even McKay's Epi-pens are proving to be an issue these days.
The situation may have improved after the gate bridge was built but still, it's asking an awful lot of the medical staff to monitor patients with chronic health conditions when they're operating what's essentially a M*A*S*H unit in a forward operation base in the middle of a three sided war. So, no, even people with relatively minor health concerns like thyroid problems or hypertension would be excluded, at least initially.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-21 08:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-21 01:06 pm (UTC)I don't think anyone who relies on medication for chronic health issues would volunteer to go to Pegasus. I personally wouldn't want to be cut off from my supply of meds when there was no guarantee of ever getting them again. Basically I agree with everything
Rodney's allergy might have been a sticking point, but his benefits to the success of the expedition outweigh everything else. And they could've packed food supplies with his allergy in mind so it would be less of an issue.
When I think about that first year I also wonder about dental care, gyno care for the ladies (tampons!), birth control, even something simple like who is cutting everyone's hair. There are clothes that need to be mended. What are they plugging all their electronics into?
So many questions!
no subject
Date: 2018-03-21 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-21 08:47 pm (UTC)As a woman? I really need an answer on the tampon issue.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-22 02:11 pm (UTC)Let's break this down:
Dental care: they probably sent a Maxillofacial specialist who could do basic dental work. For that matter, most MDs can do basic dental work such as pulling teeth. But they'd need a surgical specialist for trauma cases so that person would double as the base dentist.
OB/GYN: again, most if not all MDs do an OB/GYN rotation so that's covered. Birth control, tampons, pads, and other basic supplies? At least a couple of those big boxes they pushed through the gate held everything they'd need for a couple of years; everything from toothpaste to tampons, everything you'd find in a small drugstore. The problem with that is the US military doesn't do name brand and what they do provide is lowest bidder. This came up for women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. There were several services that connected women without families at home with people in the US who would send care packages. Those women would make lists of what they needed and the brands, and people like you and me could provide the funds to purchase them. The service would buy the items and send them. So you know the SGC started out with those nasty cardboard tampons until Elizabeth stepped in and got what everyone needed sorted out. :D
Atlantis Hair Salon: the military is actually pretty good about making sure someone--or several someones--is trained to cut hair. It's just one of those additional skills you tack on by trial and error. Lots of bad hair cuts and close shaven heads until someone gets the hang of it.
Mending: this is a given, or used to be. My dad told me stories about mending his uniforms and darning his socks. All the guys did it and were required to do it. I'm fairly sure this still holds true.
Electronics: gang plugs, lots of gang plugs and extension cords routed to the naquadah generators. OMG, Atlantis must have been such a fire hazard!!! :D
no subject
Date: 2018-03-22 02:32 pm (UTC)We don’t really know how bad Rodney’s citrus allergy is and there’s never been any reference to epi pens, so maybe that wouldn’t be a problem for him?
Could be they sent the women along with menstrual cups, or maybe they outfitted them all with some kind of birth control that stops periods altogether. Might have been the easier option.
I remember hearing one time that my husband’s grandpa was the barber for his unit on account of his growing up on a farm and shearing sheep, so maybe someone just got drafted into that kind of duty, but given that haircuts are kind of a regulation thing, you’d think they’d have sent someone appropriately skilled along.
Could be the SGC sent a lot of solar chargers for devices along? Wander the balconies of Atlantis, see a veritable Best Buy of personal devices out charging.
Given the huge risk that the first year could have been a one-way trip, they probably would have tried to structure personnel like a new colony or something. People with multiple skill sets. Send along Marines to be boots on the ground who are also small engine mechanics, that kind of thing.
The point about the glasses is well-made. Zelenka, Kusanagi, and Grodin all needed glasses, right? Could be their brilliance - and the hope that they’d be kept far from combat - made them worth that risk. Granted, they sent Daniel through the gate on a potential one-way trip with glasses, so. Could also be that maybe they could survive kind of okay without their glasses for a while.
Did people on alien planets have glasses? Could be someone had the skill to maybe make new ones. Perhaps another MD doubled as an ophthalmologist.