I spent the whole day at the hospital today… I thought it would only be a half hour thing but it was quite lengthy. I got x-rayed a bunch and talked to a variety of doctors. In a bit under a month they'll be both removing the bone tumor and doing exploratory surgery to see if there's anything obvious they might be able to find in terms of a ganglioneuroma which may have resulted from nerve damage done in the first surgery. I guess the technical name for the main thing bothering me is allodynia. The anaesthesia doctor I talked to today seemed a little pissed off at my regular doctor for not dealing with it because it's so obvious (they have “philosophical issues” with painkillers) and offered to write them a letter about it.
I had some blood taken, got tested for antibiotic-resistant bugs (hello butt-swab), and all that. I had to wait for a long time in a room that would have gotten any tattoo shop shut down — the sharps container was not only filled to past the “full” line, but it even had a bloody needle just lying on top of it out in the open, and I noticed (after it blood was taken, eww) there was blood on the pillow that they put your arm on when they take blood… Seems like of dangerous.
I stopped by the eye department as well and they took a quick look at the eye and all's good in that department. Oh and this surgery is going to be done under a local probably so that'll be fun because I'll be able to watch them take out the thing. Anyway, I'm pretty tired out and pissy from having spent the day talking about pain and surgery (and without painkillers because I had to drive) so I'm going to take one and lie down for a while now.
I wanted to do some painting today but I don't think I'm up to it (like I said, I was expecting half an hour at the hospital, not eight hours)… but I think maybe I'll draw out some paintings because I have a big stack of mini-canvasses that I can do pretty fast.
And I love hiscommentary on eyeball tattoos. Way too funny (and completely good natured — and I have to admit that I do get a kick out of reading Wil Wheaton calling the three of us stupid while I'm simultaneously watching him as Wesley Crusher on TV, haha! — I mean that in a fanboy way to be clear, not in a mean way):
“Now, apparently corneal tattooing has been around for ages, covering up scars and leucomas and other disgusting shit. But it took Shannon Larratt, of the indispensable ModBlog and the BME online community of body-modification fanciers, to ask the question what about scleral tattooing? Well, a specialist told him that tattooing your eyeball is basically dangerous and stupid. Shannon, being Shannon, decided that this was Condition Win and set out along with two friends to get stabbed in the eyemeat.”
Here's a photo I took a few minutes ago. It's healing nicely, no problems at all, although I'm so jealous of how Josh's turned out and can't wait to get more done. I am over-the-top into this modification and am so thrilled we finally did it.
Anyway, with some help from Tan0k, ModBlog finally restarts later today (I apologize for the extended downtime) in part thanks to my Dr. House cocktail of opiates and stimulants, und meine persoenlichenschreiben (ist das ein wort?) hier fortfahren auf Deutsch.
Heute erhielt ich mein neue Health Card. Ich geglaubt dass ich muessen ein lange warten… aber es war sehr schnell (zwanzig minuten? — und ich denke, dass die leute vor mir waren IAM Members, aber ich sagte nicht hello… entschuldigung). Manchmal Brokratie ist leistungsfaehig?
Anders als das ich fast kaufte heroin (todungluecklich, hoffen fuer ruhe), aber anstatt erhielt ich ein glckliches [doctor's prescription]. Ich denke pillen sind besser als nadeln — fr medizin, nur nicht fuer BME/HARD, haha!
PS. Ich wisse mein schriftlicher Deutsch ist schlecht; moeglicherweise verstehen leute, oder moeglicherweise nicht… Aber ich verstehe, und manchmal ist es einfacher zu denken in meiner ersten sprache. Fuer jetzt…
Meine chirurgie ist am acht August. Ich wissen nicht wenn ich kann den lang warten. Die schmerz uberwaltigt mich. Ein tag hintereinander, eine minute hintereinander, eine sekunde hintereinander… es beendet nie, aber es must beenden.
You know, I've got to admit that even though I had a specialist doctor give my eye an intense check-up and got a clean bill of health (if not sanity, ha), it's so freaky looking in terms of “holy hell that thing is rotting in your skull”, and I'm such a paranoid guy, that I do still have moments where I'm totally convinced this is going to go terribly wrong. It's a bit sore this morning, maybe a little swollen, so I hope I didn't rub it in my sleep or something, or — god-forbid — pick up some infection at the gym.
I don't think my eye has ever been this bloodshot in my life! Maybe I should just stop typing and drawing (I wrote a couple of limericks for Nefarious and drew matching cartoons on the latest postcards) and otherwise incessantly straining my eye. I'm not very good at taking it easy. Speaking of, within the month I should have all the hardware I need for making custom carved frames for paintings, custom carved ear plugs, and whatever (I got a low-end CNC router for wood and plastic work — once I get it, I'll post some example work because I have to make a few grand to pay for it!).
Other than that, it's now less than a week before my pre-admit for my procedure to remove the bone tumor from my leg. I'm not sure exactly when the date for the surgery is. It could be as early as Friday, most likely next Monday (as in the 16th). It'll be very nice to get that over with…
