Comic 1395 - Memory Shard - Noctis/Aurelia page 3 ( Guest comic by argylefox )
Author Notes:
Indifferently Evil
Oh and a side note! Yes im doing well. I start re-hab for my heart tomorrow yay!
I'd picked Terri up around 6:30 PM to go get a chest X-ray done (checking the progress of the sternum healing), only to find that the Radiology department at the hospital closes at 4 PM. Terri mentioned then that she'd been doing renders during the day, and in place of going out for a smoke, she'd been getting up from her desk and puttering around doing a little cleaning. She then mentioned that she had been having some mild pains in her chest, but when I pressed her to analyze how she was feeling and if she wanted to go to the ER, she said no. She went with me on a few errands, and started to tire during the last of them; she had to stop and catch her breath while I did the last bits of running around, but reported that she had recovered during the short rest period and felt okay.
So about half an hour ago, I got a call from one of Terri's roommates, telling me she was being loaded into an ambulance for a trip to the ER due to chest pains. I'm now waiting for Terri herself to call and update me.
I'm really, really, really fucking hoping that this is just her having tired herself out more than she realized.
UPDATE: Terri called. The EMTs gave her nitroglycerin in the ambulance, and within 60 seconds, her chest pain dropped from about an 8 to 0.
This does NOT automatically point to an infarction; nitro treats angina pectoris, which is caused by an inadequate flow of blood and oxygen to the heart. It could be that she just overexerted herself today. She had to get off the phone because the doctor came in to get blood, but she's going to call back with further updates. She sounded alert and calm, and said she didn't need me to come sit with her at this time. I am tentatively calming the fuck down a little.
SECOND UPDATE: The hospital's keeping Terri, presumably for observation. I wasn't able to get any information beyond this fact out of Terri (such as results of blood tests and so on), because they'd given her an Ativan by the time I got hold of her and she had the attention span and coherency level of a drunken goldfish.
THIRD UPDATE: Terri called me to let me know that the troponin test came back negative. (Troponin is the protein released when cardiac muscle is damaged; the absence of it means that there's no sign of a heart attack in her bloodstream.) She's still in the hospital and doesn't yet know if they're going to release her today or not. She may wind up getting some form of nitro added to her regular medication regimen to deal with angina pectoris, but that's not a certain thing at the moment. Thanks for your good wishes, folks.
FOURTH UPDATE: Terri's still in the hospital. Her vitals have remained steady and stable, and she has not had any recurrence of chest pain. An echogram has been done, but they have to wait for the cardiologist to look it over; if that looks good, Terri may be released.
FIFTH UPDATE: Troponin was detected in a second blood test. The cardiologist ordered an angiogram to check the bypass and verify that it's holding, which will be done at noon. Goddammit. She's in room B-415 at Banner Desert Medical Center (the main number of which is (480) 412-3000).
SIXTH UPDATE: I got a brief call from Terri. She said that she's out of the cath lab now, but they put a stent into one of the blood vessels in the heart. This information is subject to correction/expansion when she's able to get more details from the doctor.
SEVENTH UPDATE: The circumflex artery got the stent. Terri will be posting an update of her own when her tablet's finished charging.
for any one that wants to talk to terri her phone number is 480-412-4575 in the hospital .. room b415 we are hoping that they will release her tomorrow if she doesnt have any more probelems...
Comments:
This NOT being Decimus says some horrible things about the mold in which Decimus was made. If the orders to do this came from his daddy, then we have to imagine Deck was not having a very happy childhood. Sociopathic parents are bad news in every possible way.
Alas, Decimus. When they made you they broke the mold and it immediately grew back.
"Prince Valerius had been a good man, a very good man, who strove for fairness and decency in all his dealings. There are people who will never appreciate a truly good man, however, and many times, a good man dies by the machinations of evil men. Good men have trouble recognizing such antithetical beings.
That was why the Cassians continued to exist during his reign. To deal with the evil. To make examples of them. To ensure that evil did not think itself beyond the reach of the Imperator, good and wise and kind though he might be.
Noctis dreamed of evil. Of a man, his wife, and their adult son, all three engaged in a treasonous plot directed against the Imperator. Kali had given the order, and Noctis, most senior among the Cassians save for Kali herself, had carried it out.
She killed them first, of course--quickly, cleanly. Torturing them to death in private would have been pointless, a waste of time. Their corpses, bearing all the hallmarks of a slow and agonizing death if not subject to the reality of same, would be a lesson to the Imperator's enemies. The mutilations were performed with attentive care; as necessary, she had even reached into the chest cavity to manipulate the heart, to pump it by hand, in order to force the blood to flow as needed. The stage must be properly set, after all."
... although it seems to be fairly sticky.
This poor girl!
(For example, do Preatorians quit smoking?)
As far as art forms go though, I would have to say that hanging corpses from chandeliers is kind of hard to appreciate.
Bravo, Argylefox... Pretty damned close to how I envisioned it when I read it.
I won't say it's the most gruesome arc in DC, because the "Mockingbird" arc still creeps me out a lot too. but this definitely ranks a very close number 2.
If Connie knew about this, Aurelia would get *so* many hugs !
Great to hear, Cent... ♡
You can tell when you are worried, Krissy. You forget to cuss. ::HUGS::
I suppose it is a back-handed compliment that people get so 'out of sorts' as Rose put it -- it means they love their DataChasers and want more story.
BUT...
Come the heck on. One of the authors is in the hospital. Grow some empathy and compassion.
I hope Cent is fine and this is all a false alarm, and from where I sit, I am much more concerned about her being OK than I am about when the next 'regular update' is going to come. I love DataChasers and all, but it's a comic. Cent is a human being.
Well put, Steven Vincent. I couldn't have said that better myself.
I'm praying for you, Terri! And you was well, Krissy... and for all the PEOPLE that are directly connected to the two of you as well, I know it's hard on all of you.
Mr. Black, Marcus Ramesy, etc... I know there are more, I just don't know who they are. If I'm missing anyone, it's from ignorance, but it would be cool if you could all chime in and let us know who you are.
I suppose the Daz3d equivalent would actually look more like the stick-and-ball models of molecules, leading to all sorts of nerdy pick-up lines ...
"Hey, sugar. How about you and me find someplace private and form a complex carbohydrate?" ^_^
"Hey, baby, are you into bondage? Ionic or Covalent?"
Oxygen: "Hey, Hydrogen? Why don't you get one of your sisters and we can have a threesome? Does that get you wet?"
And my favorite, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate." ^_^
Thank you for the update Krissy.
Prayers for Terri, and you too Krissy. Please take care, both of you!
Krissy, I don't think a smack up the side of a very hard head followed by a strong Slow The Fuck Down will hurt her rehab at all suggest you ask the Doctor to prescribe that on a use as needed basis.
Edit Note: Glad to hear she's not in danger, however Krissy think you should get that script written and filled so she doesn't overwork and push herself into a problem. Further comment, Nitro works like a charm, but if you need more than two doses get to the ER STAT! Also Nitro leaves you with one hell of a headache.
As for the patient that refuses to take it easy, I have a tranquilizer gun and I'm not above loaning it out to Rose.
I'm the one with the exact same bypass operation 12 years ago. I have had a few heart attacks since then and now have 8 stents. With the wire brace on my sternum and all those stents, I can't get through airport metal detectors :).
I just saw my cardiologist this morning. She said everything looks good and sounds clear. She only asked me to lose some weight over the next 6 months before my next appointment.
Good luck in rehab. I will pray for you.
I will add my own prayers tonight and will stress to her that patience is good and that as amazing as her recovery has been so far, she is not yet ready to jog five miles a day.
As for DC I am willing to wait. As much as I enjoy it, I also recognize that the authors health simply has to come first. I don't think an "Or Else" needs to be added.
PS. Beautiful artwork argyle!
And Thank you, rose for the updates on your fellow creatrix's condition.
Get well soon Cent!
Please, oh great creatrix, take it easy and don't stress yourself! We, your loyal readers are quite willing to wait as long as it takes for you to recover sufficiently to safely resume your role in producing this tale so don't push it!
Let your friends and fellow artists fill in as they can and at their own speed to keep some new content coming in by all means, but don't you harm yourself!
(And anyone who feels like arguing the point can meet me on the Levee at dawn with their SCA approved broadsword.)
For the guest comics Argyle has been doing, they're amazing! *_* Man, the choice of tilting the panels and angles for this page was genius. Gosh darn these are difficult, nightmarish scenes but Argyle's doing a fantastic job!
Thank you for keeping us updated.
These memory shards are eerie as heck though. Kudos to Argyle for drawing them, they look good with the heavy use of black and limited views.
Thank you for the update, Krissy. Though it is NOT what I was hoping for. ::HUGS:: More prayers for you both.
Best of wishes all around, and hugs galore !
*careful ones, that don't hurt*
From what I've heard it's not uncommon for there to be a weak spot at the ends of bypassed blood vessels that needs corrected with a stent later. Sounds like that might be what happened. From what you said it might have been accelerated by not taking proper care of her activity level, but it might very well have happened in a couple of years regardless. As long as it's been caught and repaired and there wasn't too much tissue damage, all should be fine.
Terri is hypersensitive to anything that even feels like a heart problem; this has probably been to her advantage, since it means they're catching this shit before major damage to the heart occurs. As an example, during the incident that led up to the bypass surgery, her troponin level was something like .02 percent, where they normally see people come in with it riding at .60 percent and a major infarction. (I may be misremembering the exact numbers that Terri mentioned, but the point was that she's coming into the hospital *before* severe damage has occurred.)
I'm hoping Terri gets to go home, as soon as it is SAFE for her to do so!
Good to hear from you, CentComm! :-)