Toolkit Redo
Today on For Better or For Worse, John Patterson goes shopping, gets confused, and buys a toolkit and lunch for some ladies. I had no idea how to play this one initially, then the thought occurred to me that I could have a lot of different characters having received a toolkit from John and the variations which would make it work. The reference to Puerto Rico and tortilla for Luis Guzmán comes from a conversation I had with one of my coworkers, who is from Puerto Rico and commented to me once that he never ate a tortilla until he came to the United States, because it was not a common food in Puerto Rico. However, because he was in Arizona and spoke Spanish, people assumed he had. Since John has taken so many Mexican vacations, I thought a toolkit with a tortilla would fit that situation nicely, even though the joke was an inside joke for me. My hope with all the character toolkit postings, the other regular posters to April’s Real Blog would take the toolkit giftings to heart and apply them in/appropriately to their characters. But apparently this was one of those days where the other posters had better things to do than play a toolkit game.
As for me personally, it was another big music day. 2 of the church choirs in which I participate performed in an afternoon concert in which my wife did a brief solo, and my kids’ church choir and my church choir did a number together in 2 worship services during the day. The kids did really well, and I was quite the proud papa. And my wife did very well also, even though she could not match the kids for cuteness.
There was not really any time to do any more posting, and considering the readership level of April’s Real Blog today, it would have been a waste of time. Sometimes it is best to save my energies for times when people are more active, although considering the days for Howard Bunt and Constable Paul Wright are fast coming to a close, so I hate not to use them while I still have a chance.
Tuesday this week, sees my boy getting his tonsils out. It should be an interesting week for me personally. My boy has had a surgery before (getting tubes put in ears), but he did not take them well.
Tomorrow’s strip: The doctor’s office that Grandpa Jim visits employs a male cheerleader, while the millions of elderly women who read this strip are remarking to themselves about how nice Grandpa Jim looks with his legs shaved.
Edited to add: qnjones came through and provided a toolkit for Becky McGuire. Thanks qn.
As for me personally, it was another big music day. 2 of the church choirs in which I participate performed in an afternoon concert in which my wife did a brief solo, and my kids’ church choir and my church choir did a number together in 2 worship services during the day. The kids did really well, and I was quite the proud papa. And my wife did very well also, even though she could not match the kids for cuteness.
There was not really any time to do any more posting, and considering the readership level of April’s Real Blog today, it would have been a waste of time. Sometimes it is best to save my energies for times when people are more active, although considering the days for Howard Bunt and Constable Paul Wright are fast coming to a close, so I hate not to use them while I still have a chance.
Tuesday this week, sees my boy getting his tonsils out. It should be an interesting week for me personally. My boy has had a surgery before (getting tubes put in ears), but he did not take them well.
Tomorrow’s strip: The doctor’s office that Grandpa Jim visits employs a male cheerleader, while the millions of elderly women who read this strip are remarking to themselves about how nice Grandpa Jim looks with his legs shaved.
Edited to add: qnjones came through and provided a toolkit for Becky McGuire. Thanks qn.
posted by howard at 9:14 PM
4 Comments:
I haven't been feeling too creative, but I decided that if everyone else was getting a John Patterson tool kit, then the Strumpet of Milborough would get one too.
I decided I'm finally in a better frame of mind to tell you all what's been going on with me. When I had the stomach flu a week and a half ago, I couldn't take my regular medications. One of them is a drug called Lamictal. When I started to feel better a week ago Sunday, I started taking my medicines again as usual.
This was a big mistake. A big jump in dosage with Lamictal can trigger a severe allergic-type reaction, causing a severe rash called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. You can check it out at Wikipedia if you're curious. The gist of it is, SJS is when the top layer of the skin (epidermis) detaches from the lower layer of the skin (dermis). SJS starts with a fever, sore throat, headache, and rash, and progresses from there. If a person develops full-blown SJS, it is fatal in 60% of cases.
By Thursday morning of last week, I had all the symptoms of early stage SJS. I hadn't realized that missing my meds for 4 days was enough to trigger this reaction when I restarted. I should have gradually tapered up my dose, but I didn't, and I take a very high dose. My prescribing doctor told me to go to the ER and ask to be admitted for observation. She told me she had no doubt I was at high risk for developing full-blown SJS.
So I spent most of Thursday in the emergency room. Unfortunately, repeated experience has taught our family that ERs in Des Moines are not staffed competently. The PA and the doctor did not know much, if anything, about Lamictal or SJS (as they told me). They did not take my condition seriously and told me there was no reason for me to be admitted.
The attitude of the hospital staff was tinged with a couple of ugly biases: one, they didn't like me walking in with a predetermined diagnosis by a "big city doctor;" and two, they decided I was a crazy person just looking for attention.
So I was sent home with only Benadryl. The rash continued to spread, and my other symptoms got worse as well, over the weekend. My prescribing doctor and my sister, who is a doctor, were both very upset. They believed I should be in the hospital and on steroids. But there was nothing they could do because they're in Minnesota and Virginia, respectively.
Essentially, I've been sitting home hoping I would not end up dying because of my own stupidity, and the stupidity of the doctors at the ER. I've been not only feeling tired and uncomfortable, but very very angry and frustrated as well.
I'm still not well, but things seem to be getting a little better. I mostly look like I had a really bad sunburn. It's very uncomfortable, and so I'm still not feeling in a very good mood for writing. But I'll try to show up.
Paul's post about getting his transfer because of a cop getting a divorce and moving back to London really did make me laugh, which was much appreciated. :)
Wow! qnjones, that sounds awful. I'm glad you have a relative who is a doctor. I can definitely relate to having to deal with incompetently staffed ERs, since the time my wife passed out in the middle of the night, and the frustration we had with that ER; but I would hate to think they would not take you seriously with a potentially, life-threatening condition. I am glad to hear that you feel like you're getting better. I appreciated your Becky post last night, I will look forward to when you can trade your Stevens-Johnson Syndrome with a Lynn Johnston Syndrome.
How frightening, qnjones, and enfuriating to hear the way you were treated in that hospital! I'm glad your condition is improving.
Howard, even though traffic generally drops on weekends, we did have 72 unique visitors yesterday. :)
72 unique visitors? It's good to have fans. That's a nice ego boost, aprilp_katje. Thanks.
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