Health update

So I saw my pawdiatrist again today for a followup.

First, the good news: I'm feeling much better than I was 4 weeks ago, thanks to the diagnosis and physical therapy. I'd classify the pain as about a 3/10, whereas it was about a 6/10 4 weeks ago. And if I do have a flareup in the cuboid muscles, applying the heating pad for about 20 minutes is sufficient. (Protip: secure the heating pad with a belt for maximum effectiveness.)

Now, the not so good news: I'm still having some pain, along the side of the feet and in the balls of both feet. It's a very light tingling, that turns into more of a burning sensation if I'm on my feet for some time (like say, at a convention). I can also feel my pulse in those areas of my feet. My pawdiatrist found this very interesting, since those are no blood vessels in those parts of the feet. He flat out said that he has no idea what is going on there.

At this point, since the pain is minor, and I'm "functional", we're going to play "wait and see" for 3 months and see what happens. If I'm still having pain, then we might look into things like acupuncture.

When I asked him about what happens if I ever switch jobs/insurance, he remarked that I can still be a patient of his, even if I don't have health coverage, he'll just charge me the co-pay. When I looked at him like he was crazy, he uttered this quote:

"I'm not here to get rich, I'm here to help you get better".

-- Dr. T, my pawdiatrist

Holy. Crap.

Anyway! At this point, I'm well enough to attend Midwest FurFest (ordered plane tickets today) and to go see a knee specialist about my knee issues, which I'll try to make an appointment for tomorrow.

A con report for FurFright is in the works, with plenty of pictures. Watch for it soon!

FurFright 2010 Con Report!

FurFright was a fun convention this year! It started off with a bang in my first security shift on Friday afternoon. I got a call for "first aid in the parking lot", which cliff_husky and I responded to. Turned out that "first aid" was an understatement. We arrived on the scene of an MVA (Motor Vehicle Accident) at the entrance of the parking lot, with one person injured pretty badly. We attended to him, with Cliff taking his vitals and history and me holding his neck in the c-spine position for a good 10 minutes until an ambulance arrived and EMTs relieved us.

That was the first ever auto accident that I worked. Was a little nervous afterward, but not nearly as shaken up as I thought I'd be. And what did I learn from this? Get first aid training. You never know when you'll need it.

The rest of the shift was uneventful, other than trying to figure out the hotel's weird layout. Apparently it was added onto twice, and had been rebuilt after a fire at least once, so the layout was very... unplanned. Hallways that had multiple ramps on them, stairways that only went up 1 floor or even skipped a floor, and ramps that went in circles. It was like M.C. Escher himself designed the hotel!



Saturday afternoon had me killing time with P-Kitty and other folks, and somewhere along the line it was suggested that I borrow a fur named Manik's fursuit. He was cool with this, so I put on the head, paws, and my overcoat, and walked around the con for about half an hour. I went up to several folks I knew in personal and said hi. Poor protocollie... I think I broke his brain!

That's right: it was the first time I ever fursuited. And in a cheetah fursuit, at that. Draw your own conclusions.

On a related note, I went and registered the domain cheopard.com. Be afraid.



On Saturday night, I dropped by the Gun Furs panel, hosted by cliff_husky. It was pretty informative, and I learned quite a bit about all the different details that surround guns, and the legal aspects of them.

On Friday and Saturday nights, I went to the dances, and played around with the ISO and shutter speed settings on my camera. I got some pretty interesting pictures:





The whole set of dance photos can be found here.

My birthday was also on Halloween, and the first time I celebrated it. shortwave81, ferian, and others bought me drinks at the bar, an acceptable birthday present! chefmongoose also got me a bottle of cider called "Lucky Lion", that I hope to enjoy with some friends soon.

As the con came to a close, I realized what an awesome time I had. Between the health issues I've had the last several months, and some other personal issues I had to deal with over the summer (which I now call "the lost summer"), I'd say that FurFright was a high point over the last 6 months or so. And I hope that this uphill trend in my mood and life in general continues.

Extra special thanks to athauglas for the repeated doses of coffee. The stuff I had at 2:30 on Saturday morning was a huge help. It kept me up through 8 AM when my shift ended.





For the rest of my pictures, they can be found here.

Total attendance for the con was 1,284 attendees, as announced at closing ceremonies. The count for fursuiters in the parade was 287 coming out the ballroom, though the official count of fursuiters who actually made it to the end of the parade was about 40 lower. (don't have that number handy)

Finally, there were a few folks I was hoping to get contact info for:

- P-Kitty (Nevermind, he's pkitty1)
- The guy I did first aid on (anyone know if he was okay?)
- Manik (the gentleman who let me borrow his fursuit)
- Clementine (Nevermind, she's mixed_kitten)

If anyone knows of online contact info for these people, please let me know in the comments!

Next con for me will be Midwest FurFest. See you all then.