{"id":3285,"date":"2019-08-18T20:16:15","date_gmt":"2019-08-18T19:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/?p=3285"},"modified":"2019-08-18T21:51:50","modified_gmt":"2019-08-18T20:51:50","slug":"where-things-diverticulated%c2%b9-from-the-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/?p=3285","title":{"rendered":"Where Things Diverticulated From The Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

May as well cover this one.
Fair warning, there will probably be awful pictures, starting with the selfie I don’t remember taking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Taken sometime in the ER, though which room I can’t tell.\nI have a vague memory of intending to take a selfie, and maybe of taking one, but this image, when I found it, was a total surprise to me.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Timeline, As I Somewhat Recall It<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Started to feel unwell on Saturday the 3rd of August, day 3 of Gen Con.
Not too bad at first, and I assumed it was a combination of too little water & too many badly-timed poorly-chosen bar food meals causing some issues in, as it it were, the waste-processing zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Took some Tylenol ( paracetamol ) to dull the symptoms and upped my water intake a bunch to try to flush the system. It seemed to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of my second game of Saturday, at 6pm or so, things weren’t great. I’d been OK seated at the table, but walking back to my hotel I just felt awful, and in some pain; Enough that being able to lean against the wall of the elevator and not move came as a relief.
Fortunately, the game ( Part Time Gods ) was way the hell out at the raggedy end of the ICC, so my hotel was pretty damn close.<\/em>
Drank some more water, took some more Tylenol, went to sleep for a few hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woke up at midnight.
Went back to sleep again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Sunday I felt better; Not 100%, but the general sensation of “things ain’t right” had decreased, and I assumed that sleep + water + Tylenol had done the job, and I was on the mend.
Well, we know better now<\/strong>, don’t we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday morning, at maybe 2am, is when things got bad.
Woken up by intermittent stabbing pains.
I did look up the bladder & kidney stone symptoms, as well as re-familiarising myself with how orchitis presents, but none of those seemed to fit.
Said pains did not seem to be easing by morning, which I was, to be honest, hoping for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d had plans to hang out with my friend Frank on Monday, and when I mentioned that there might be a problem requiring a doctor, he … Well, he basically took care of it.
Picked me up from the hotel, took me to a hospital ER where he knew they’d have no issues with me being a foreigner, and stayed with me during the day. Also teamed up with our friend Kevin to go and clear out my hotel room once it became clear that I was not <\/strong>going to be checking out in person the next morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the hospital ( Eskenazi ) ER, I was issued with a nifty wristband as soon as I was registered, and got to see an array of medical types pretty quickly.
Getting in was a little interesting, as they had a metal detector and bag scanner in operation, which was a new one on me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My assumption was that I’d get some antibiotics & be sent on my way.
This was not the case.
Instead I got a doctor who, after saying that he could listen to my accent all day, explained that he was worried about diverticulitis, and sent me off for a CT scan. Somewhere in there there was also a visit from their HIV screening folks ( they try to scan everyone, with the goal of getting the entire population scanned once a year, towards the aim of getting the transmission rate to zero ), and I think there was a visit from someone who took my health insurance details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n