Ok, I’m not going to say more than that about their scene, since it’s too early for spoilers. For those who saw it, one question:
Was it:
* A dick move?
* Toxic Masculinity in action?
* A completely understandable reaction?
Note that this question is somewhat tongue in cheek.
So, I’m still off work recovering, not so much from the surgery (which was simple) but from the abuse of my body wreaked by the infection. As my urologist said
, “I’m not trying to scare you, but yes, I’m trying to scare you…you were within a day of dying when you went to the ER.” He said I was perhaps, too stoic in the face of pain. I didn’t bother to disabuse him of that notion — there wasn’t that much pain at any point; maybe a “4”. But I’ve been extremely tired since then
, worse that anything I’ve had except the worst flus or mono. I have some better spells, but not many, and tire easily even then.
At this point, I’m waiting to hear from the urologist regarding the post-event blood tests; I had to wait a week after the stent was out (which made sure my kidney didn’t seal shut from scarring after the laser busted up the stone, which was 6mm). I’m showing some outward signs of kidney damage, most of which I never associated with kidneys at all, but had suffered for the last year without realizing what it was: the shortness of breath, random itchiness, rashes, and “foaming” urine in the bowl (I thought that was sugar?!). On the good side, I lost about 20 pounds on the hospital diet, and kept most of it off–so far. My blood sugar is under tight control for the first time, too. Ironically
, that’s also a possible cause of the tiredness; your body can become accustomed to the higher sugar level and “need” it. It’s still bad for you.
And, just talked to the doctor after that paragraph above. Off work for two more weeks, it’s the after-effects of the infection. A1C is way high, based on pre-hospitalization sugar levels, should be nosediving soon (daily sugar level has run 99-118 since discharge, usually towards the low end). But everything else is great; no overt signs of kidney damage. Yay!
And as a reward for reading my troubles
, I’ll post something about anime tomorrow. Probably…. 🙂
Yesh, I wasn’t expecting my next badly-overdue post to be about this sort of thing, but apparently my run of bad health was due to be interrupted by a run of really bad health.
So I spent most of November, December, and the first part of January trying to figure out a chronic shortness of breath that was utterly unrelated to my perfect EKG, clear lungs, reasonably clear sinuses (it is Houston, you know). I got over that and was barely back to work a full week, when things went south, while I was up north. So I was in Dallas, hanging with some old, old friends from the college days
, and doing some GURPS Space roleplaying. It was the 10th of February, a date that will live in no more infamy than any other, when I noticed I was urinating unusually often, and was feeling some pain in the left kidney. Just enough to get my attention, and I started seeing traces of blood.
Now understand, none of this was terribly unprecedented. If I’ve had one bit of luck after ten years of stones, it’s that I’ve easily passed gravel with only minor problems.. until 4am Sunday morning , when the bill came due. I started peeing nothing but blood, and lots of it. This went on until 8am, when it finally clotted enough to let me get some sleep. First thought was “ER”. Second was that ERs are full of sick people with nothing more than the flu and a (bad) excuse to give it to everyone else.
Third thought was that an ice storm was on the way, and an ER visit would result in being iced in. The extra delay due to the sleep almost did the job. (Residents of Duckfort and Brickmuppetville may laugh now.)
Ice, Ice, Baby
So we decided to head back to houston and hit the doctor’s office first thing Monday AM (12th). He went “Hm. Urologist
, now.” an emergency appointment later, the urologist said “Hm. CAT scan, now.” Only i wasn’t reminded “no water at all” and chugged a few glasses to rehydrate. And the insurance was being snippy. So that Tues.AM i get the scan, which means I have to wait until Wed. for results. Two hung stones, one causing issues (total blockage) with the left kidney, including infection. Meantime
, the blood tests come back to my first doc, late on Wed. White blood cell count 17,400, E.coli “over 100,000” My PCP is really weaselly.. “Most people would be in the ER.”
Since I had the surgery planned for Friday (16th), and being as I was not thinking clearly, it was another half-hour before the fact that I was losing control of my right side made me decide to put up with a hospital ER. We went to the one the surgery was going to be at instead of the closest, which was a great decision. They don’t seem to have the crowding problems. Still took 30 min to get in, at which point they looked at my vitals, the information I passed on from my doctor, and then shit started happening fast. Short version is I was going into septic shock, which was why i was losing control. New CAT scan, check. X-ray, check. The infection was so out of control, it was producing gas in the kidney. Nephrostomy tube to drain kidney, check. three liters of saline, check. Massive antibiotics, check, Port for drawing blood and putting in more antibiotics, check.
Somewhere during this, my brother asked, “Are you going to keep him overnight?” Heh. Bad thing about mass saline IV; raising the liquid level in the blood that fast causes fluid to start crossing the plenum wall — in the process of keeping me from heart failure due to dehydration, they gave me pneumonia. So, several days in ICU to get the infection(s) under control and kidney drained, Surgery was this Tuesday (20th), and home yesterday.
This was NOT my idea of fun, but it looks like I should recover well enough. Next tuesday (27th), I go back for a checkup and to have the temporary stent removed. Hopefully soon, I won’t need the handy emergency urinal….
Emergency pants are always a good idea. Emergency urinals are just tacky.
So rather than anime, lately I’ve been spending a lot of my leisure time reading Chinese web novels, Korean, and very occasionally, Japanese light novels. For some strange reason that I’m nonetheless grateful for, there’s an entire cottage industry around people taking donations to translate these posts from the Chinese (or Korean/Japanese) into more-or-less English. Of course, if they’re not Chinese, they’re not Wuxia or Xianxia, two terms which I’d never heard of before I started reading them. Full definitions and a lot more can be found on WuxiaWorld, but the short version is that Wuxia is “low fantasy:” it literally means “Martial Heroes”. Fictional stories about regular humans who can achieve supernatural fighting ability through Chinese martial arts training and internal energy cultivation. Xianxia is “high fantasy:” it literally means “Immortal Heroes”. Fictional stories featuring magic
, demons, ghosts, immortals, and a great deal of Chinese folklore/mythology. Xuanhuan is more fairy-tale (though darker); it literally means “Mysterious Fantasy”. A broad genre of fictional stories which remixes Chinese folklore/mythology with foreign elements & settings.
Having ignored the website (except for hurricane blogging) for months now, I’m finally going to write a few reviews of the stories I’ve been reading. Bear in mind that the Chinese stories are extremely formulaic. Some are little more than collections of tropes peculiar to the form. It’s pretty much guaranteed that the hero will be:
That’s not all. The stories tend to be rather violent, with people fighting to the death at the drop of a hat
, even the teenagers (way different from wussy power-of-friendship Japanese heroes!). Some of the worst offending authors must have depopulated their worlds. (Well, actually one did. Several times.) Others merely depopulate the leaders; one just offed about a thousand top experts in the world, but don’t worry, plenty more to be found. Enemies seem to have a limited repertoire: They viciously attack and when tables get turned by the hero, they accuse him of being the aggressor. “Are you seeking death?” “You brat, how dare you!” “I, your father, will teach you not to be so bold!” etc. etc. Logic plays little part, and if the hero actually has to be the evil aggressor, then the author makes sure it’s clear that the targets deserve it. Oh, and the hero’s women are always the hottest babes ever; each one more beautiful than the others. I can’t explain it; I’m rolling my eyes as I read this stuff
, and yet read it I do. It’s the textual equivalent of Nartuo, except the quality isn’t as high. And it’s a lot more violent. And sometimes there’s sex.
So, onto specific stories below the fold…
Continue reading
I mean, it’s only been two three months to the day… I guess I’ll complete the one I started a couple of months ago. Maybe.
Edit: Counting to three is hard. And I’m working on the article.
I was busy admiring (or should that be ‘admiraling’?) Bob Marley.
Courtesy of the Texas Highway Patrol site:
