Just when Christmas lulled us into a false sense of security...

Yes, I did have a lovely December 25, mostly spending time at home with Lucas, whose Hairy Pothead movie website is up and running. He even bought me some gifts important to my career such as painting supplies and a handheld stereo podcasting microphone.
` Both easy to carry around when interviewing people, and vastly more reliable than my laptop. And it's stereo! In case that counts. Eeeee!
` The cats even got some toys from my mom, and I bought another laser pointer for Dilly and Christina ("The gray dot is back!!").
` All in all, it was a warm and fuzzy Christmas this year, so imagine the change of pace next morning while taking Lucas to the Emergency Room for the nth time.

This, of course, is just another aftershock from Our own biggest insurance fraud ever.

Just after 8:30, I was faced with the task of both taking the garbage out and getting the Lucas to the ER without him vomiting on the inside of my car. This was difficult because his hands were numb and curled up and he was having trouble walking.
` Although he is still in the Emergency Room, I have come back home for a while and re-written my schedule because I am just that determined to focus on my own projects, like this blog. Which I haven't been at all for some time.
` Therefore, why not blog about what I'm so wrapped up with in meatspace? Let's go:
Apart from our usual relationship-type time together, Lucas and I spend about six hours a day doing various chores and other manual labor, with me doing all the heavy lifting and him taking frequent breaks to lie down. That is the enormous disparity in our levels of strength.
` I also spend additional time helping him keep himself from going to the Emergency Room, and we haven't been too bad at it.

The last ER trip was the day after the CFI summit in October, which was supposed to be a day I would spend resting and editing photos. Instead, it only compounded my ability to recover from the stresses accrued during the CFI weekend whirlwind.
` At least I can say that Lucas was not kicked out of the ER that time, and was able to get more information that would help build a case for opening his insurance claim for the injury, which he sustained in September of 2012.

Although we have since figured out how to manage and control these attacks, that means a lot of extra work for me.
` A lot of this stuff is just boring labor that I would rather pay someone else to do. However, I wouldn't mind it if I only had to focus on abating the attacks with "Medicinal Hugs" and massage with "Sarahcin".
` It's not as sexy as it sounds, especially if you consider Lucas on the edge of throwing up, falling asleep and asking me if I had achieved my cinnamon degree, followed by, "Wait, that didn't make any sense!" to have such appeal.

Another really large portion of my time is spent elsewhere spending time fixing my mind and understanding better how to communicate with other people.
` Indeed, not only have all the crazy roommates left, but so have effects of the PTSD-inducing decades of life which I've had so much trouble dealing with when living with crazy people.
` It's nice to have two different situations to go to when one needs it.


Later:

Around two in the afternoon, Lucas called to tell me he was being discharged in a half hour, and I headed straight down. So, let me fill you in on that situation:

In the ER, he was shaking and vomiting uncontrollably, falling asleep while talking, and had outbursts of exaggerated affect.
` It was so bizarre that one nurse told another nurse that she would buy her a coffee for taking him as a patient, or some such.
` Lucas even found that giving his information and extending his arm for the IV was a real challenge through the symptoms (and the bile).

It's somewhat surprising that this happened, since he has been able to afford some massages lately, has added to his physical therapy regimen, and overall has been doing much better than he has for months.
` He says the attack was probably brought on from being all dozey and missing a dose of pain meds on Christmas. He took them too late, alas.
` As for what causes these attacks, it seems to have less to do with the spinal injury/vomiting trigger point thing and more to do with physical stress and what appears to be multiple sclerosis.
` Apparently, the "injured Lucas walk" is similar to the "MS walk", and he even has MS-looking tremors unless he is medicating with cannabis. We won't know what it is for sure until next month.

On top of this, I would like to mention that I occasionally go to movies, and that sometimes, the movie is so bad that I really feel disappointment at the utter consumption of time and money it has cost me (as they are at a premium!).
` On Christmas Eve, Peter Jackson's Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug got to be one of those movies.
` I shouldn't have listened to any good reviews: Jackson evidently disregarded the original story and added such ridiculous and pointless twists as an elf-dwarf love story.
` In the movie, the scene where Gandalf has to carefully introduce the others to Beorn has been replaced by an entirely different scene where Beorn tries to rip off their faces -- no subtlety at all!
` Most confoundingly, Jackson has changed the part where Bilbo seals the dwarves in the barrels and they wind up beaten up on the river and are taken in by the Lake Town people:
` Instead, the river trip consists of killing orcs via barrel martial arts, with elves helping, and then being considered criminals at Lake Town. By Stephen Fry, no less!

After so many scenes of avalanches that no one is hurt in, and characters being saved from an orc by someone shooting an arrow from offscreen, I almost walked out of the theater.
` But, just in case the end was hilariously dumb, Lucas and I stuck around anyway, to find that Jackson evidently has a fetish for CG gold-covered dragons:
` Since we know that Smaug is going to be around in the third movie, the added scene with the molten gold can only serve to make him look really shiny. Well, shiny doesn't cut it for me!!
` On top of this, Lucas felt the need to read the book as an antidote! He even thought about writing a letter:

"Dear Wingnut Studios, thanks for rejecting me as an actor in this film, as it is that embarrassing to watch. I am going to make my own movie called The Real Hobbit to make up for your stunning incompetence."

And maybe he will, despite all this drama, which I keep getting wrapped up in. For now, we're working on Hairy Pothead. That, and making it through another day.