Dragon Con 2018 - Friday

Because of my kidney stone surgery, Todd had to switch his days off so he had to work the Thursday before Dragon Con. We got up in the middle of the night on Friday, got our car loaded up and headed down to GA.

We got Emily dropped off at my aunt and uncle's house, I got changed into my Alice Angel costume and we were on our way down to the con by 9:30 am. I was a little worried about several things. Mostly my stamina and partly my costume. My character is from the video game "Bendy and the Ink Machine" and it's honestly the shortest, most cleavage bearing, sexiest costume I have ever worn.

But it ended up being comfortable, and my dress had deep pockets which was great. And someone knew who I was on the train down to the con! Several people during the day knew who I was, and one person even asked for my picture!

We made it to the con and walked to the Sheraton to get our badges. The walk isn't long but it involves a giant hill of doom. But we waited about a minute to get our badges, and I got to see my friend, Jessica because she was volunteering at badge pick up. We then went to disability services to get my sticker. I always get the 'seat in line, end of row' sticker and it always helps my con be better. But I could not have done Dragon Con this year without it and the many chairs that it let me sit in.

From there, we went to the Peachtree Center to get some food. They are renovating the Peachtree Center and it's a massive project, suppose to take 18 months. The seating was a lot less and the ceiling was completely open so you could see wires and tubes. Because of the ceiling it was much darker than usual. Every time we went in there, it was post apocalyptic food court, which kind of fits for Dragon Con.

After we ate, we headed to the dealer's room. I went right to the BPAL booth and talked to Beth (the owner of BPAL) mostly and got some hugs. Todd had wandered off because he knows that I tend to spend some time there just gabbing. None of my non-labbie friends were there, so I also wandered off.

When we were in the food court, I hadn't been able to eat much. The kidney stone had made me so sick before surgery that I hadn't eaten really anything for a week. My stomach was still recovering

Catherine Tate!

from that. But as I was walking around the dealer's room, I started feeling really light headed and felt a little freaked that Todd wasn't answering his phone.

But finally I got a hold of Todd, met up with him, and then headed over to the Walk of Fame, where you get to meet the celebrities and can get autographs and selfies. The Walk of Fame wasn't open up yet, but the line had formed to get in so we joined the line. As soon as it was 1 pm, the line started moving and we got in.

There wasn't a lot of people there yet, but Nick Frost was right by the entrance and had almost no line so we got his autograph. We took a lap around the room, seeing who was there and if there were signs on when other people were going to be there.

Gina Torres had a sign on her table and she was going to be there in a couple of hours. I had time to go upstairs for the Catherine Tate panel. I wanted to see the panel but I also really wanted to sit down too.

When I got to the handicap corral, I saw my friend Joey and her husband Matt. I talked her to her some, and got a badge ribbon from her. She had decked out her scooter with a unicorn and also had cosplay repair supplies. She had a giant D20 that I got to roll too!

I got to sit down and it was so nice. Once we got loaded into the room, I sat by Joey and her husband. When they let in the regular line, we saw more friends - Chris and Tina so they sat next to us too! It was fun! I generally don't see friends that much at Dragon Con, let along have anyone I know to sit next to.

Catherine Tate was a hoot! So funny and nice! While I had been waiting for her panel, Todd had gotten her autograph, but I would get to meet her on Sunday. I slipped out early and found Todd in line for Gina Torres.

We were in line for a while, but we were by someone I had kind of known online. Chuck, who is the mod for the unofficial Dragon Con Facebook, was in line right by Todd. I asked him if he had any of the over 40 badge ribbons (which is another Facebook group) and he did! We ended up talking him about quite a few things while we waited for Gina to arrive.

She did and we got the last autograph we needed for my Firefly poster! She was super sweet and I was super, duper geeked to meet her!

After that, Todd came with me to the con suite. He said he wasn't going to do it again because it involves climbing stairs, but I was happy to have some snacks and another chair to put my butt in.

We went back to the dealer's room, but I was shedding spoons like crazy at that point. I hadn't slept very well the night before and I was teetering on the edge of exhaustion. So we headed back to my aunt and uncle's house.

Despite the lack of stamina, I had a really good day. I basically took a shower and then passed out once. I slept for nearly 10 hours, and that helped a lot!

• Up Next - Saturday!

The Summer of the Kidney Stone

Image - dinodaloo.blogspot.com

Kidney stones kind of took over my summer, and admittedly the 2nd part of the saga was partly my own fault.

I've already written the beginning of the story in a couple of other post. The pain started when I was at Camp Thanks a Lot with Emily and then I ended up in the ER right before our Michigan trip.

When I was in the ER, they told me there was another stone just hanging out. I kind of forgot about it after the whirlwind Michigan trip, though I did go off soda and started drinking a lot of water and lemonade. I had read that sometimes lemonade can cause stones to reduce in size.

I made it about a month and a half before stone number #2 started its' journey. I had been working and all of a sudden, I had intense pain in my side again. I still had medicine from the ER, so I got logged out of work and took the medicine.

It didn't stay down, so I tried again, and again, I was unable to keep it down. It was a Saturday and Todd and Emily had been out shopping. Once they got home, we were off to the ER again. And it was the 2nd stone - they gave me medicine and another prescription and sent me home to call a urologist on Monday.

This stone was different and the pain didn't go away. I started a cycle of pain, take medicine, go to sleep once the pain was a little less, then wake up and start it again. It was wretched. I got an appointment for Tuesday, and the urologist gave me some options. The main option was to have a procedure done that would break up the stone so I could pass it, but the machine that did that was only available on Mondays.

So home I went again to go through the pain cycle. And it was only a day or two after that I got a call from the office that the break up procedure wasn't an option and I would have to have surgery to get the mega awful stone out. And I'd have to have a stent in for a couple of days.

While I was pretty upset by this news, I was also really ready to not be in horrible pain anymore. Thankfully, as the week went on, the stone moved some so the pain was much more bearable. Todd took the day off and he and Emily went with me to the hospital to have surgery. Surgery went fine, though I really hated the stent. Totally annoying and by the end, it was painful.

Also surgery took place a week and a half before Dragon Con. We still went to the con, and I'll get into how this effected my con when I write my recap posts.

Todd and Emily were great while I was dying of kidney stones. And they even got me a bear - they gave it to me after I woke up from surgery.

As of now, I'm trying to be as proactive as possible. My urologist is having me do some tests to figure out how to avoid the formation of stones in the future. My stone was strangely formed and chances are I'll have to go on medicine and cut down on my salt intake.

I'll do it, even though I love salt. I don't want to go through that again. Kidney stones are more painful than childbirth!

Michigan Trip 2018 - Part Two

To read the first post of this series, click here!

We got up bright and early, got the car loaded up and then went to Denny's with my dad for some breakfast before we made the trek across the state. We opted to not visit with my (Great) Aunt Jackie who lives in Bay City because I still wasn't feeling great.

We did stop in Mt. Pleasant / Central Michigan University but it was mostly just a potty break. We got to Todd's parents in the afternoon, and soon after we arrived, Emily's cousins came over. We gave them their birthday / Christmas presents and Emily got presents too from my brother and sister in law.

The kids played until it was time for dinner which was steaks and a variety of sides. The kids sat in the living room and the adults, including Todd's grandmother, ate in the dining room. Emily and her cousins get along really well, so they had a lot of fun.

After dinner, we went over to Todd's brother's house. The kids wanted to go swimming in their pool so they did that for a while. I got in for a bit too because it was really hot

out and I love swimming. It also gave Todd a chance to hang out with his brother for a while.

We went back to Todd's parent's house and watched some tv before heading to bed. I was pretty wiped because the drive across the state is long, especially after only have a couple of days without driving at my dad's house.

The next day, Emily's cousins (also my niece and nephew but it's easier to say Emily's cousins) spent the whole day at Todd's parent's house. They played with toys, worked on putting together the Pokemon lego-type set we had gotten Austin, and had a water fight.

The children had asked Todd and I to join in the water fight. We had these squirter things, and the kids took the long ones which held more water. Todd and I were stuck with shorter ones, and the kids, of course, targeted the adults. I got really soaked!

Todd and I quit after a while so the kids chased each other. They got bored of the squirter and switched to water balloons after a while. They all got wet but had a lot of fun.

We had another yummy dinner, and then went out to get ice cream. The Thumb of Michigan is an odd place. There can be fields for miles - all that you can see besides the many windmills that dot the landscape. And then all of a sudden there is a little church or store, with nothing else near it. It's weird to me.

The ice cream place was one of these and it was packed! Of course, it was the day before the 4th and very hot out. We got our ice cream and ate it up, then headed back to Todd's parent's house. Em's cousins went home and we watched some tv before turning in.

We got up early again, because it was the day that Todd and I were driving home. Emily stayed for another week and a half - she had a great time.

The drive was pretty uneventful, though we did stop at Red State BBQ in Lexington, KY. We had eaten there when we went to Lexington Comic Con in March and had discovered our route to and from Michigan took us right past there.

They were packed but we got a seat, and had yummy, yummy bbq nachos before we got back on our way. We did see some fireworks from the highway after it had gotten dark, which was a bit fun.

It was a whirlwind trip, like we normally have but it was good to see our family!

Michigan Trip 2018 - Part One

The story of our Michigan trip starts a few days before we left. I mentioned in my last blog post that I had been suffering from cramps that I thought was ovulation related. But two days before we left to drive up to Michigan, I got very sick. The pain in my right side was off the charts and I couldn't keep anything down.

I had sat in the bathroom for a while, and when Todd got home from work, I made the decision to go to the ER. Todd woke up Emily and off we went. We spent several hours in the ER - an actual emergency came in after they had put in a room so it took them a while to get me some drugs. And the stuff they gave me at first didn't touch the pain so it was morphine time.

They did a CAT scan and it was a kidney stone that I was close to passing. So they gave me all the drugs, told me I should pass it soon and sent me home. I spent the majority of the next day sleeping but once I woke up, the pain was gone. My arms were super sore though, from all the heaving I had done, so Emily had to help me pack.

But we got everything packed up and we left in the middle of the night on June 30th. Todd drove and I napped since I was still really wiped. We got to my dad's house, got our

stuff unloaded and then went to meet my friend Rebecca - we were good friends in high school and are still Facebook friends We ate at the Russ' that was near the house I grew up in, and it was exactly the same as it was when I grew up. It was nice to hang out with Rebecca!

Once we were done with dinner, we went back to my dad's house and he was home - he had been in Bay City for the day. We talked with him and just hung out watching a movie. I was getting really tired so I ended up going to bed.

The next day, we got up and got ready to go to the beach. We swam and Emily played in the sand. Todd ended up having to go stand in the shade because even with sunscreen, his poor ginger self was

getting burnt up. As we were leaving, Emily stepped on a stick and got a sliver / cut on her foot. She was very upset about this.

We went back to my dad's house, got showered, checked out Emily's foot and got a bandaid on it. Then we went to Captain Sundae for ice cream. I was starting not to feel very good, so I skipped the ice cream. We went back to my dad's house and I took one of my pain pills because I was having pain in my side again. I took a nap and I felt much better after I woke up.

Todd and I went to the movies at the theater I spent a lot of time at when I was younger. We went and saw Incredibles 2 since Todd hadn't seen it yet. We don't get a lot of time without Emily so it was nice to go on a date night.

We turned in early again because we had a long drive in the morning to go to Todd's parent's house.

Up Next - Michigan Trip 2018 - Part Two!

Camp Thanks A Lot

Emily has been a Girl Scout for several years, but this past cookie seasons she sold her all time high and sold enough to go to the special overnight camp called Camp Thanks A Lot. A parent has to attend as well, so I went with her.

Since we only have one car right now, Todd drove us to Camp Pisgah so he could have the car while we were gone. After he left, we got signed in, got Emily signed up for an archery class and then went to take some of our stuff to our cabin. We were told the rest would be taken up for us We were assigned to the Misty Mountain area and we could pick whatever cabin in we wanted. We picked the closest one and got changed into our swim suits.

There wasn't a lot of time before lunch so we found the dining hall and just hung out until lunch was served. Since we were one of the first people in there, we finished quickly and went to go swimming in the lake.

We had to swim in the lake because the pool was closed. Since it was just a one day/night camp, they made everyone wear life jackets to swim because there wasn't time to give everyone swim tests. We were the first ones in, and Emily was a little unsure at first but then just swam and swam. The water was rather cold though, but I swam with her too.

After a bit, we had to get out because it was Emily's archery time. The archery range was pretty close to where we were swimming in the lake so it didn't take us long to get there. Emily took a couple of turns - she tried but her arrows didn't get near the target. It was her first time ever shooting a bow though and she had fun.

She dragged me back to the lake to swim some more. At this point, I was starting not to feel very good. I was having a cramping in my side. I thought I may be ovulating but it was actually a kidney stone. That would be a saga that would take over my summer, but I'll cover that in future posts.

I sat on the deck and took pictures of Em while she swam. There were other activities going on, but she wasn't interested. She wanted to swim, and swim, and swim. After a while though, she got out and we headed back to the cabin, where our stuff had been brought to us. I was surprised that they knew what cabin we had picked.

We went to the camp store and I attempted to buy Emily a small stuffy and a patch, but their credit card reader wouldn't read my card for some reason. If we go back next year, I'll definitely bring cash. They also had a slip and slide set up right next to where the camp store was, and Emily took a few

turns.

My kid though, isn't great at the slip and slide. First couple of times, she went too slow and then had to push herself down. The last time, she ran to slide but ended up going down at a weird angle and hurt herself a little.

We went back to the cabin and changed, then went to dinner. I was not able to eat dinner because the pain in my side was getting really bad. I hadn't thought to bring any pain medicine with me, so I asked one of the counselors if I could get some ibuprofen.  It took a bit because she had to go get the key for the nurse's station but I got some medicine. After taking it, I felt a little better. Dinner was still going on so we went back and I ate a little.

I had to convince Emily to go to the campfire singalong, but she went and we sang along. She didn't

want to stick around when the songs started getting slower since the sun was setting. We missed out on smores because of that, and she was a little bummed.

We went back to our cabin, and we had several cabinmates. The girls in our cabin were all younger than Emily but she hung out with them some. But she had brought some books so she was happy to hang out in the top bunk and read until we did lights out.

Now the area we were in, had a circle of four or five cabins with a fire pit in between. Some of the other parents had started a campfire out there, which was fine. Our cabin did lights out about 10 pm, but the people outside were extremely noisy. Yelling kids, and we could hear the parents talking as if they were right next to us. This didn't phase Emily at all, she conked right out. Probably because of all the swimming.

But one of our cabinmates was a little girl who kept complaining to her mom that she couldn't sleep because of the noise. I wasn't sleeping at that point either, mostly because I still wasn't feeling great. But I was just playing on my phone, waiting for the ruckus outside to settle down. But that other mom went out several times to ask the others to quiet down, finally they did after a while.

I slept poorly. Partly because of the kidney stone and partly because my old body doesn't handle camp mattresses very well anymore. One of the other moms had brought a twin blow up bed to put on her bunk - I need to do that if we go next year!

We awoke the next morning and I was really sick. I spent a good deal of time in the bathroom thinking I was going to start throwing up. While I was in there, my sweet child actually packed up 95% of our stuff! I was really proud of her.

I managed to keep down some more medicine and we got breakfast where Emily ate about a whole pig's worth of bacon. We then hauled our stuff down the hill to wait for Todd to arrive. He got there sooner than I thought he would, thankfully, and was able to buy Emily her stuffed animal and her patch so she was very happy.

All in all, it was fun... for Emily. I had bits of fun here and there, but mostly I was sick. But I'm glad we went. Emily worked very hard to sell enough cookies to get to go, and she had a blast!