Sorry for the delay, troops! Big storm here yesterday (check out the radar animation they put up on Washingtonpost.com- the storm looked like an explosion on the radar. Anyhow, no internet here at Hubris central. I’m doing a workaround by running up giant bills on my cell phone.
Let’s say “thanks” to all the worriers of the world. They’re the reason we have helmets, inspections, accountants, public address systems, insurance, and people minding the store. And ulcers. They also gave us all ulcers. They had them first, of course, and wanted to make sure the rest of us had them, too.
Also, Thanks to you guys for the birthday wishes, and thanks, Bic, for resubmitting your application!
I’m skirting the edge of the kind of sexist joke I typically don’t bother with.
You’re welcome.
Jumped out of another plane.
It was actually the same plane, but you get the idea.
The first time? Your brain is micro-memorizing things, and you do stuff wrong.
The second time, you have your little list of ‘to-do’ and your brain has something other than panic to work with.
This time went a lot faster, I can tell you.
But I did steer better. Though I might have steered us toward some of the other skydivers. The guys in charge won’t tell you, but my instructor dude (Christian Young, this time) sure made a yelp and steered us around again when I suddenly made a hard left that one time, and my uncle passed through my wake, apparently. Never knew parachutes caused much of a a wake, one way or the other. How about that.
Don’t forget to click on a couple of project wonderful ads… They close up shop in a week or so.
Also, finally getting around to the site upgrade, and fixing some of the broken links you guys have pointed out to me. Waiting on prices for various things. I apologize that I haven’t given time to the business end of Hubriscomics.com lately, but you know how it is… life and all.
And thanks!! I see that two people have bought Stanky Creek Outdoorfest T-shirts off the Zazzle page (it’s the button down the left side of the site that says ‘Outdoor Galore Store’) Wear ’em with pride! I assume you’re also part of Team US, or one of the other nice folks who’ve sent in applications. I’ll be including everyone at some point or other.
Finally got back to the job today! Here’s your cartoon.
Look how hard I make it for these imaginary people to compete and how easy I’m making it for you guys!
I’ve received several more entrants since posting the application again. If you haven’t applied, you can scroll down, and make the Herculean effort required to download, fill out, and attach a photo to the application while still retaining the ability to email the thing to me afterward. That’s so easy compared to these poor lost souls that Paste can’t fit onto his coattails.
Motivation is fun to write about.
So I’ve gotten to the point in my recovery where all the blood that escaped a vein and poured into the interstices of my hip and other bits has, because of gravity and other irritating realities, pooled in my calf and ankle.
It was less uncomfortable when it was spread out through my whole leg and hip. I mean, it’s a lot of goo to fit in such a little space where it doesn’t belong. Also, while I’m probably getting better at the same rate I’ve been tripping along at, the bit that’s still healing is more and more localized as I go.
I’ve seen the comments you guys have made, and I realize that I don’t have it a fraction as bad as a lot of people, and of course, I sit at a drawing table and a computer on many days, so it’s not like I have to load tractors with sacks of barley or something…
What it all boils down to is that I needed a thing in this space and all I can think about is how much my dang calf aches.
Okay, yesterday was kinda self-indulgent, but today we’re back to our story.
Just in case anyone missed any details, I’ll tell ya what went down. If you don’t want to know (because, “Bleaaah” feel free not to read any farther. Take a walk outdoors. That’s my advice.)
Thursday morning, I run the dog and do a little workout. Taking a shower afterward, I realize that my ankle and knee are kinda swollen. Weird. Later that night, I ask my wife (a nurse) to have a look. She says it’s not her usual area and kinda jokes that the only thing she knows that makes your leg swell up is a blood clot. (It was a joke because she assumed there were lots of other things that would, too. Ha. Ha.) End of prologue.
Friday morning, when I assumed I’d wake to a normal leg, I woke to an even more swollen leg. So I called the doctor’s office. I went in, they had a look, and said they were going to send me in for an ultrasound to see anyone could spot a clot or anything wrong with my leg. I ran home, did a couple of hours more work on a comic book I’m desperately trying to finish, and then ran off to the ultrasound appointment.
The ultrasound tech got really quiet and polite and asked me how I felt as she led me to a chair to await what the doctors decided.
The doctors decided to have her tell me to go straight to the emergency room without stopping anywhere. She then scared the begeezums outta me by looking earnestly into my face and saying, “But really… How ARE you?” before letting me go out the door.
I got to the emergency room, explained why I was there, and in a very short span of time, I was in an exam room. Many people asked me if I’d made any long trips or had a fall. My butt went numb from sitting on the gurney-style bed.
Someone eventually got some CT work back that showed that the blood clots had already gotten to my lungs. I was sent to ICU. Things slammed into motion then.
A hell of a lot of blood was taken, an ultrasound of my heart was performed at some point, I was asked many more times about pain, about long trips and about falls.
Eventually, they knocked me out, ran a tube up the inside of my leg, placed a filter just south of my lungs and started pumping me with some high-quality clot-busting drugs that work in tandem with a radio transmitter. I staying fixated in that rig for the next 39 or so hours.
There were tubes and catheters and tests and more blood taken and more CT scans of contrast chemistry…
…and a bleed.
Apparently, that would be the worst? The bleed in my right hip. I felt weird, put my hand under my covers and said, “I think this is a problem.” The problem was an enlarging lump forming where my right leg met the rest of me. Now, this was the few minutes of total overdrive. Lots of nurses and shouting (shouting and cursing on my part) my wife offering at least twice to hit the ‘code blue’ button on the wall, and all the while the nurse Noel’s fist socked down on that bleed trying to hold pressure on a rupture no one could see but only guess at. My blood pressure and heart rate tanked bad, but came back after they had the bleed under control. My right leg (and other bits) were now filled with darkening blood that would pool in some pretty unfortunate ways for days and even now still make me look like I bathed with some leaky Sharpie markers. My thigh is pretty much a rich red-purple trending finally this morning toward the yellow/green bruise color people have been gleefully predicting for a week now.
After the aforementioned thirty-odd hours on the clot-busting system, I had another procedure to remove all of that except the filter, and had two stents added to two veins in my leg.
By Monday night, I was moved from ICU to Stepdown. I was already a day late on my Hubris cartoons, but I’m ashamed to admit I was finding it hard to care at that point. Something to do with answering basic questions about who and what I was in order to rule out brain bleeds and other near-death fears left me ambivalent about drawing in a way that I haven’t otherwise ever felt. Low point.
Step-down is nice. There was a couch for my wife or my mom to sleep on. I improved in stages and was working on yesterday’s Hubris cartoon by the time anyone mentioned going home in a way I believed and that finally made me realize that the entire ordeal would end up taking slightly more than a complete week of my life.
Also, there was an esophageal endoscopy that was re-scheduled to fit in with my stay in the hospital… y’know, so I wouldn’t have to have it done in two weeks when it was originally on the calendar. I dunno. Complicated. I will tell you guys, though (and some of you know this much better than I do, after hearing the merest details of your stories) it’s awfully nice to walk yourself to the bathroom without a robot attached to any veins.
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