TCon Saturday – The Crud Strikes Back
Saturday I woke at 8:30, thought to myself “no way, not on a night where I have to stay up ’till 2” and went back to sleep. I woke again at 10:30, went to sit up and was assaulted by nausea and headache. Not, “Oh, I feel like crap, oh well,” but “oh God I think I may need to run for the bathroom RIGHT NOW.” In the hopes that more rest would help, I rolled over until noon. Couldn’t put it off any longer at that point, and made it to McBryde in time for kittykatya and impink‘s Fragile Gravity (http://unseenllc.com/) panel. That was fun, especially when Barb had to change a DVD and Chris was forced to improvise for several minutes. I look forward to Book 3!
Well, you know you’re at a real con when two good events are going on at the same time, and much as I wanted to see the General Webcomics Panel, the Spin Doctor had a date at Filking 1025. (Tech uses 4-digit course numbers.) I contributed a couple lines to the weekend’s official filk, which we actually finished nice and early! What a concept! An impromptu rendition of “The Dragon and The Lady” followed (NSFW), with joking comments about the fact that the local fandom children are being raised on this stuff. To quote a song that Keith often covers, we’ll have a generation of well-rounded outcats.
I dropped by rattrap and drich‘s “First Ones” panel – they are the only attendees who’ve attended every Technicon. I’d prepared a button that read “Technicon Fourth One” (the best I could do). Lots of old memories flew around that panel; hard to believe the con’s 25 years old. I’m fairly sure that’s a Virginia fandom record, unless you count RoVaCon / Rising Star as one entity. Still, though, the pain, nausea, and light-headedness continued to build. Barb and others started telling me to Go Lie Down. I talked to Starr a bit – she was having appliance issues at the house right before she had to attend a wedding – and finally gave in and went back to the hotel.
Good news of the evening? While I was semi-comatose, colleenk gave birth to a little boy. Gratz to her and yubbie! (Unsurprisingly, this made the con accountant unavailable for the rest of the event.)
I really regret missing the Costume Call and southernsinger‘s performance. Every few years at Technicon, I seem to come down with something on Saturday; perhaps I need to start over-medicating the week before, or something. I wasn’t the only one, either: shrewlet had a rough day, and there were bleary eyes elsewhere at the con. However, with modern technology, it’s likely that the evening entertainment was all taped, and I’m hoping that someone posted pictures somewhere.
Fortunately, I woke up in possession of a far stabler head and stomach before my evening panels, and headed down to the Microtel conference room. Those panels… are a filtered entry.*grin*
My brain hurts
Eight hours of sleep…
… didn’t help a bit last night. I woke up this morning with a thickly fogged, achy head, which only a lot of liquid did anything for. I also had a bad dream last night that I threw panels for Technicon and nobody came 🙁 Or maybe they just sucked, I can’t remember the dream that well.
Starr has jumped right back into her work. Her co-workers attempts to take it easy on her first day back failed miserably – such is the nursing profession, I guess. We had a nice couple of hours last night before she succumbed to the lure of sleep.
I found a nice sentence on a link from Tobold’s blog about certain types of gamers, WoW hardcore raiders especially, that relates to my ‘poker deck’ post: “For some people it isn’t enough to have achieved something first, they must also make sure that nobody else gets there, or it tarnishes their leet shine.”
Catching up
Good morning, all.
My apologies for leaving everyone in suspense about Starr. I’ve pretty much had no Internet access since my last post. (It wasn’t down, I have just had higher-priority matters to handle. Given how high-priority I usually make the Internet, that’s saying something. But anyway.)
Starr is back from the hospital and is doing quite well – well enough to wear me out this weekend staying up late and getting up early. She’ll probably be back at work tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest – I think she’s pretty excited about it. Her doctors say that her condition has probably been present since she was little and masked by other issues, so her treatment might actually leave her healthier than ever. Part of the priority issues from the last week was me being a bit of a jerk – I’ve not been handling events too well the last fortnight, and I needed a bit of a talking-to – but I think I have it under control now. Saturday night we were having a good time together, and she looked happier than she has in a long time. (The hew haircut’s darn nice too!)
I’m preparing for Technicon – as I’ve said, I refuse to do seat-of-the-pants this year – but just last night got a new schedule change, and am trying to adjust for that. (I actually agree with the reasoning behind it – I’m just laughing at Murphy.) There will be a post with further discussion of the TCon panels under my Lifestyle filter. I’m kinda hoping to get a little gaming in this year with jsciv – last year I was so busy, I barely laid eyes on the man. It’ll be awesome getting to see everyone who can attend.
Preparing for Return
Starr should be coming home tomorrow, or Saturday at the latest.
Her various chemical levels are stabilizing, and the new meds are doing the trick with her digestion. She’s itching to come home!
She’ll probably still be kept off work for another week or so, but that’s cool. I am so pleased that she’s getting well and will be back where she belongs!
Midori will be THRILLED!
Bugs in the System
First, the very good news. Starr called this morning to tell me that the doctors have figured out exactly what she is suffering from: Microscopic Colitis. The short version is that it’s definitely intestinal and quite treatable; Starr will have to go on a 6-12 month course of medication, after which the problem will probably go away completely.
Suddenly, my own breathing and heart rate are much improved.
I ordered a pizza last night because I needed comfort food. Usually, I eat half of a large for dinner. Last night, I had to stop myself at three-quarters. Starving much? I tried to game a little to relax and get some endorphin production going, but my brain wasn’t functioning enough for anything more ambitious than the WoW fishing mini-game. Jumped from skill level 155 to 190 yup yup.
I am not a fan of this early Daylight Savings thing. I hate getting up before the sun; just when I was getting used to seeing daylight out of my bedroom window, boom I’m back to darkness. Now I have to wait for the season to catch up again.
Starr should be in for a few more days of observation. Thank you very much to everyone who has already, or is planning to call or visit. It’s been gold to us.
Tail-chasing whee!
Starr had a rough night: discomfort, poor sleep, and more back-and-forth from her doctors on the probable cause. We had hopes that she’d be home by now, but that’s clearly not working out. Continued good thoughts, and maybe a phone call or three would help a whole lot right now.
Midori is still freaking, and I’ve been feeling a bit unwell the last few days myself (due to stress, no doubt). Last night I was supposed to send out some e-mail and phone calls to concerned family and friends, but I lost consciousness before I could wake the laptop.
In happy news, Collegiate BattleBots events will be airing on ESPN2 and ESPNU (http://www.battlebots.com/news_home.asp) this summer. This is great news, but the sad thing is that I don’t think I have either of those on my channel lineup. I may have to get someone to do some ‘time-shifting’ for me.
Also, I have confirmation of my TCon timeslots, and I have the theme for my panels ready. I kinda like this one, and I hope some people show up!
Another Bug Hunt
Starr is still in the hospital, being pumped full of fluids. Her color’s improved greatly, though she’s still tired most of the time. They have ruled out a long list of possible issues, and are now fairly confident of the earlier guess that it was a bug. Now her doctors are running tests to see which antibiotic’s the best shot.
Meanwhile, she’s keeping herself busy with crocheting when she’s awake. This hospital has some decent TV channels and limited wireless access. (No WoW, she tried. If I knew Windows software better, I’d try to work around that for her, but she’s content with her hook-work.) If anyone wants to give her a call or swing by, drop me a note and I’ll pass along the room number. I’ve been by every day and twice yesterday, but more company is excellent medicine.
Her hospital is something else. Curving, gently lit, modern-decorated corridors; a huge atrium with a fountain wall; display cases of expensive art donated by the founder. I’ve taken to calling the place “Federation General Hospital.”
Thanks for everyone’s support. It’s been helping a great deal. You guys rock.
Stellar Hospital
After two weeks of “we can’t really find anything wrong,” Starr’s cardiologist read her 130 bpm pulse, her 90/60 blood pressure, and her severe anemia, and said, “Okay, we’re admitting you.” This is actually something of a relief, as both of us want this fixed, whatever it is. The leading theory is still that it’s a bug which has dehydrated her to this point – the nurses last night had a heck of a time getting an IV needle into any of her veins. I went to see her last night, and will go again today. Right now, we’re hoping that she might get out by Monday, though I rather suspect that her hopes for getting back to work on Monday are a bit optimistic.
More rain this morning, including some of that weird rolling rumbling thunder we get so close to the water. On the other hand, it’s 70 degrees again.
Time to pull myself together and start the errands of the day.
