Sorry I've been offline — I made the mistake of seeing if the dual boot on my Ubuntu laptop (to XP) worked. Well, XP loaded just fine, but somehow in the process destroyed the boot sector and both OSs along with it. But it's back now (as a Windows machine for the time being) and I'm back at work. Big image update last night, and I'm putting together experiences right now, and ModBlog's been updated, and tomorrow I'll be able to do the form for the year end award addresses and all that.
I finally got a call late afternoon today from my surgeon because I've been concerned as to what's normal, what's not, and so on (seriously folks, the body piercing industry's knowlege in terms of its accessibility to clients as aftercare sheets, in depth explanations online and offline, and so on, is vastly superior to what I've experienced in all sectors of the medical community other than maybe mental health and addiction centres) — as much as I appreciate the mini-sadhu experience of going a week without straightening your leg, I'd rather not do that right now. Anyway, I described the various things I'm experiencing to my doctor and he said they were all within the range of normal but he was a little concerned that I wasn't walking fully and thought rehab might be required.
I told him I didn't want rehab because I prefer DIY solutions — I just wanted his permission to do stretches and otherwise be active (because no one had told me where to draw the line pain-wise — I don't know if it's perfectly acceptable to do a stretch on a muscle that's been cut through and is thus painful to fully extend). He told me I had to wait until after I see him next week for the followup before I actually go back to the gym proper, but that until then I was welcome to stretch and exercise the leg, and shouldn't worry unless there are either signs of infection (which there are not) or constant elevated pain (not really — the only really painful thing right now is this sort of phantom nerve thing that happens up my shin if I do any sideways motions with my knee).
So yeah, I hate just lying around, computer or not, so I'm pretty glad to have permission to hurt myself a bit. Definitely I'd rather be sore than bored. And as I understand my genetic code, attacking Larratts with cancer tends to make them stronger and crazier rather than weaker and more submissive to the darker twists of luck. Other than that, I have an idea for a BME shirt that I'm going to draw up in about half an hour while the experience update is building.
I think my leg is getting better on the whole because it doesn't really hurt particularly badly (I hope I haven't just gotten used to it) other than the occasional shooting pain down my shin (like a nerve pinch sort of feeling). That said, it's still kind of swollen and I'm still missing most of the sensation in the left half. So I don't know. Until I crack a temperature or something like that I'm not stressing it, although I hope it hurries up because it's very boring not being able to walk quickly or particularly far.
I'm changing the dressing after I post this so maybe I'll post a shot of the bruised up incision.
I finally finished off that painting, which Nefarious sketched for me something like six months ago. I took a few pictures along the way (not on a tripod and with lighting that's different in every shot, oops), and made a video… You can watch the YouTube version below, or download a high-res WMV if you'd like.
That painting was a present for Jon (which reminds me, if you haven't already, check out the article on Jon's site that Adam wrote about catching and eating fresh fugu in Japan) because he's been helping me like crazy what with the gimpiness and all, and next (I'm catching up on presents long promised!) one we're wonding on is actually a triptych of the three sons of Hypnos, the Oneiroi — Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos (that's for Saira and Michael). I've decided from now on to start framing all my paintings as well because they look so much nicer… I still have to frame this one. I'll post a final shot of it when I do.
My leg felt a lot better today so I blasted through putting the undercoat on a painting that Nefarious sketched (on that canvas, at full size) for me something like six months ago — maybe not such a good idea because my leg, while not particularly in pain, is very swollen now. The incision is healthy looking and has no discharge or anything else that's a bad sign. I'll probably finish this painting tomorrow, but here it is about 75% done — it's not lined yet in this photo, and some of the colors may still change.
An old friend of mine, my first boss (co-boss actually) in this industry, and the first person to do a cutting on me, died very young today after smoking-related cancer took him over completely. It's weird because I saw him a week ago just before my surgery and he seemed so healthy, or at least so far from being dead. Stefan among other things taught me to always pay attention to the way people smelled during procedures, both because pheromatic response tells you things that you can't sense easily any other way, and because it enriches the experience. I don't know if that's a weird thing to remember.
Hey, check out what I got in the mail! This is a little model of the BME logo (the original by Scott Fox) was carved years and years ago by Jesse Jarrell (the original grandpappy of 3D bodyart as a true artform due to his pioneering work with Steve). It's tiny — not much bigger than a quarter — and the photo really doesn't do it justice. Very cool, thank you!
Other than that my leg is feeling much better — the muscle pain is down dramatically and that's the main thing that was bothering me. I outlined an old drawing that Nefarious did about six or seven months ago that I hadn't gotten around to painting. I think I'm going to do it in a different (less graphic/cartoony) than the previous ones. We'll see… That's my plan for Saturday.
