Vik-Thor's Journal

Well, I survived my first WorldCon!:)
Met ferretthimself, rowyn and haikujaguar. Rowyn and Maggie were at the Furry meetup, along with several others (including at least a couple of other authors (Watts Martin and Tim Susman) who I need to look up. Dunno if they are on LJ or not.) Ferrett was signing his books at the same time as the meetup. (I got his autographs in the 3 'Mancer books, then headed to the meetup. I probably would have stuck around at the signing table and chatted a bit other than that. :)

Quite a few costumes were seen, including Rowyn @ the meetup. (I liked your dress!) I wore my horns pretty much the entire time I was at the convention center, and even a couple of nights on the bus back to where I was staying.

Got books signed by Ferrett, Robin Wayne Bailey (whom I used to live couple houses down from, and hung out with sometimes at the bar behind the houses, when I lived in KC), and George R.R. Martin grrm, and several other Wild Cards authors. I missed getting signature from Larry Niven by two people. The last person he signed for was 2 in front of me. (His back was giving him problems.) Jerry Pournelle was signing at the same time as Ferrett and the furry meetup, so I skipped trying to get his autograph. Kurt Busiek's signing was canceled. so I ended up with 50% of the autographs I was looking to get. (Got a couple of CDs signed by Alexander James Adams, that I wasn't planning on getting. I enjoyed his concert!)

Went to some readings, including Ferrett, Robin, and David Gerrold (who read from an in progress work with Ctein, abut a major eruption of Kilauea which causes major tsunamis.)

Went to several other panels. Unfortunately, the panel on the Legion of Super-Heroes, the moderator never showed up. :(
Attended the WSFS Business Meetings Friday, Satyrday and Sunday, and even spoke once. (though my question was ruled out of order, it was brought up by someone else when it was in order…)

Didn't get to any of the filk circles, because I was to tired and had to take the bus back to where I was staying. If I was staying in the hotels, I would have gone for a bit. (The Marriott had an interesting elevator system. Doesn't have regular UP / DOWN buttons. It has a touchpad where you select the floor you are going to, and it tells you which elevator to take. When you get in the elevator, you don't have to push another button, it automatically stops where you selected. [dunno how it works if you get in the wrong one…])

Would be interesting to go to next year's WorldCon in Finland, but I think the only way that will happen is if we win a lottery. I'm thinking seriously about attending WorldCon 76 in San Jose (2018). Might be interesting to attend next year's NASFIC in San Jean, Puerto Rico.

Well, need to start packing for WorldCon. Or at the very least planning on what I will be taking.

Books to take (for autographing):
One of my books by Robin Wayne Bailey. Probably the Brothers of the Dragon trilogy.
Flex and The Flux by theferrett
One or two of the Wild Cards books. to get George R.R. Martin's autograph. Probably the first one or two. (maybe I should get a ticket to this…)

I don't think I will take my kilt and pirate shirt. Not sure if I would feel confortable taking the bus in a kilt. Plus I think it looks better with my boots, and not sure if I would want to be wearing my boots all day. my feet get sore if I wear them for too long. Maybe I need to get new insoles…

Will be taking my Grand Comics Database tshirt, and my Woot! tshirt with an astronaut watching the world end.

Well, there's no real change in status. Still healing as expected. My exercise walks are up to 20-30 minutes. (No, I don't play PokémonGo, yet. I'm thinking about it. I do play Ingress, PG's predecessor on them. I have 5 portals I can get to on my walks.)

A chunk of the surgical glue has come off, so most of the sternal incision is now visible. My first followup visit with doctor was yesterday, with my primary care physician. She took one of my prescriptions down to half. (I have a total of 7 daily prescriptions right now, and a couple of pain scripts as needed.) I actually haven't been needing the pain pills much this past week.

I've been working on reorganizing my comics, breaking the long boxes down into short boxes. Seth has to get the boxes set up for me, as they are well over the 10 pound limit.

Well, last Tuesday (21 June) I went into the hospital to have my bicuspid Aortic valve replaced with a tissue tricuspid valve. I don't remember much of the day (which is a good thing!) The surgery went perfectly by the book., I think I was told it took about 2 hours out of an expected 2-4 hour time frame. The surgeon did not replace any of the aorta itself, just the valve. That was the one thing he was unsure of until the actual surgery.

Chest tubes HURT!!!!

Once the chest/drainage tubes were removed, I was in much less pain, and could move around easier.
I was downgraded from ICU to (I don't remember the actual term) CCU during the day Saturday, but they left me in the ICU room, because there wasn't a room available in the CCU. Then they transferred me at 5AM Sunday morning. after finally getting asleep about 3:30AM. (I did not sleep well during the entire time I was in the hospital.)

Walking in the ICU was more regulated, I had to be accompanied by a nurse at all times, which is understandable. Once I woke up Sunday, I did a round with the physical therapist, using the walker that had been transferred with me from ICU, and was told no longer needed to have a nurse with me, could walk around the floor whenever I wanted. That felt so freeing! I still couldn't leave the unit, so I was walking around a lot, going back in to room to watch some TV, then walking some more. at some point in the early morning, after being cleared to walk by myself, with a walker, the floor cleaning crew came through. The first time I went out after that, the walker was no loud. it was no longer sliding smoothly. And the nurses said I was steady enough, don't even bother with the walker any more, just take is easy.. Endless to say, I went walking quite a bit. And was smiling a lot, because of the freedom, (one of the nurses even took to calling me Smiley, because I was smiling most of the time as I "made my rounds". And in fact did let the nurses know a couple times when someone was verbally calling for a nurse rather than using the call buttons, so I was useful. :)

There was a death in the unit sometime late Sunday. It was the first time my nurse had ever lost anyone under his care. There was one gentleman at the opposite end of the floor from me, who was in for basically comfort care, to keep his passing as tpainfree as possible. He also died at some time while I was in this unit. Another gentleman was in for cancer, and I talked with his wife on one of my rounds (she didn't want to stay in the room when they were doing something to him.) She wondered why I was still in the hospital, since I seemed to be doing so good. (Basically, they don't release heart surgery patients on the weekend.) every other day I was in there, my surgeon or someone from his practice had come around to my room by 9AM at the latest. Monday, they didn't get there until 12:30.

Paperwork for checkout started @~1:30PM Monday. We finally rolled out of the hospital door about 5:30 PM.

and time to take the last of my scheduled medicines an head to bed. as it is getting hard to keep my eyes open.

I had a panic/anxiety attack this past Sunday (08 May 2016). First one I've ever had, and it was enough that ended up going to the ER via ambulance. (NOT looking forward to that bill… though I beleive most, if not all, will be covered by insurance.) They gave me a prescription for generic Xanax, to take as needed. Haven't used any of it yet, but if I had them with me here at work, I think I would be taking one now. Instead, you get a post. :)

Saw heart surgeon Wednesday, 11 May. Seems a good enough guy. Our dentist has had friends (or relatives) operated on by him. (Found out from javarod after he had some cleaning done on Monday.) They quite like him, which is a plus, someone not directly affiliated with the hospital giving him a good review.

Will be seeing another surgeon on the 31st. Or at least that is currently the plan. I am sorta thinking just going with the one we saw Wednseday. Going with him would mean the surgery happens at SSM DePaul, which is where everything has been done so far. The other surgeon would be at a different hospital, east of us. (DePaul is southwest of us, but between Seph's work and home.)

At this time, the only real voice for major delay is our chiropractor. He says that people live full lives with leaky bicuspid aortic valves. Or at least should wait until I'm having major symptoms. But according to cardiologist & surgeon, by the time I'm having major symptoms, my heart muscle will have irrevocably enlarged.

The second surgeon was originally scheduled on the 18th, but got changed to the 31st. I have an EchoCardioGram on the 20th, at the request of the surgeon.

I actually hung out at the mall in Carbondale quite a bit when I was in high school. Primarily at the WaldenBooks store. You would think I would try to get a job there, but for some reason I never did. The mall bookstore I got a job at was when I was living in Champaign, over 15 years after I graduated HS. I wish now I had tried getting job at WaldenBooks, because of the benefits of cheap books! :) My college job was working at the Lesar Law School Library, which is where my mild interest in the law came from.

Another store I would hang out quite a bit was an import store. I always liked looking at the stuff, but I very rarely bought anything.

It may sounds odd for someone who is involved with Where's George? to say they really wouldn't mind if the $1 bill was discontinued, but truthfully, I wouldn't. Seph and I already use uncommon denominations to a very large extent already. He tends to pull his allowance from the bank as mostly $1 and 50¢ coins, whereas I tend to do $2 bills and $1 coins, with a smattering of 50¢.

One of the main arguments for discontinuing the $1 bill is the cost savings, since a coin would last significantly longer than the current average of just under 6 years for the $1 bill. After all, the US Mint hasn't produced the quarter with the eagle back since 1999, so the youngest is 17 years at this point, and they are still easy to find in circulation. Heck, even finding Bicentennial quarters isn't all that uncommon! Whereas any $1s earlier than 2009 series are becoming somewhat rare in circulation. (You can use the tables @ the US Paper Money site to figure out when your bills were actually printed. [that is NOT a Federal Government site!])

The only way for the official cutover to $1 coins to happen is going to have to be a cold turkey approach. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is going to have to actually stop producing $1 bills and let the ones currently in circulation wear out. Other countries have switched over easily enough.