Staff?

I got the doctor who knows what he's doing, huzzah huzzah. I leave in an hour. I hope he does something because this just can't go on. I'm going to have to push on this whole "if it is an infection, would antibiotics help?" issue, I think. With luck, this will clear up with antibiotics and I can go back to work on Monday and not piss my boss off any more than I already have. This whole thing blows. Oh well; I will think positive.

Drop approached me last night with the idea that maybe he and I could run the currently-staffless Mortals section of the Charleston by Night board. Which was amusing because I'd already been thinking about a few Mortals ideas - some carry-overs from when I wanted to run nWoD and some just my usual welter of "what-if?" thinking. So he's talked to Kyr and she wants us to come up with a list of plotlines and so forth. I'm thinking the spooky Lovecraftian library, a few nibbles I got inspired by from "Mysterious Places" (most of that stuff carries over extremely well to old WoD if you do it right, as I've seen from personal experience) and possibly something in the vein of Needful Things. Anything else is going to have to wait until I know what kind of character base I'm dealing with.

One of the things we were discussing was whether to include consorts, kin and ghouls under Mortals or leave them in their respective systems. Now, ghouls are difficult in a Mortals setting because of the advantages of sucking down vitae, but kin and consorts really are just mortals with heavy connections, and I know kin in particular feel like they've been getting a bad deal in the Werewolf arena - something about "Too many plots centred on 'The kin are in trouble; let's rescue them' and not enough kin actually doing anything". Now, I know from experience that kinfolk-centric games can be a whole lot of fun, and having them and consorts involved in Mortal plotlines could be advantageous. For one thing, they're liable to know a little bit more about what to look for when things start going Twilight Zone. For another, it's entirely possible that STs from the other systems might look at a Mortals plotline and negotiate expanding it for use in their own system, and having the kin and the consorts involved would open that to at least the Garou and the mages. It's one of the reasons I'm not 100% adamant against ghouls, actually - it'd be nice to use that kind of thing to get the vampires active again. I just worry about them overpowering the system. But we're still in the negotiation stages there. First I must come up with more solid plotlines. Then I will probably have to write up the proposal email to Kyr because ... well, all props to Drop for decent IC-ness and probably good plotlines but, all false modesty aside, in the actual execution of writing something down and getting the point across (and grammar and spelling and stuff), I kick his arse.

Me, a staffer. Who'd have thunk?

My Diagnonsense

So the basic situation is this: Dr Bez doesn't think it's an infection per se; apparently the results of my last set of bloods are not clinically significant and they were just something the other doctor brought up as something to say. Everything else is clear for the time being, so infection - and thus a quick fix via antibiotics - is out. Still, it was ever so helpful to have him go through the blood test results step-by-step and not treat me like an idiot. Of course, he knows my job history and therefore understands that I am not one to be fazed by medical terminology.

However, we are getting somewhere. Recent symptom developments have brought him to a slightly more fruitful-looking (if slightly more worrying) line of diagnostics on the premise of inflammatory bowel disease. So I'm getting a gastroenterology referral and have to hand in a stool sample and ... well, generally mess about. And of course, still off work with instructions to tell my boss "I'm sorry, I can't tell you how long I'm going to be away because the doctor doesn't know; I'll keep you informed." I'm to mention that it might be Crohn's Disease, which apparently ought to shut him up. We're kind of hopeful that it's giardiasis, though, because that's easy to treat and can be diagnosed in a few days rather than having to wait for two months for a gastro appointment. And yes, that is with 'Urgent' written as the priority. Gods bless the NHS.

In the interim, I asked him what I could do regarding anti-inflammatories, as my right knee and sinuses suffer abominably when the weather starts getting colder and the not being on ibuprofen has made life difficult. He asked me if there had been any improvement in the symptoms after having been off the ibuprofen for a month and I said no, so he told me, "Screw it; go back on the ibuprofen because it obviously isn't that". He's also taking me off the Lansoprazole as that isn't helping either and the side effects are only adding to part of the existing problem. And he lauded my decision to start taking multivitamins on the grounds that I'm probably not getting a lot of benefit from what food I am managing at this juncture.

In short, at least I have a clearer picture of what the fuck is going on with me right now, which is useful. Now I have to spend the best part of the afternoon on the phone to the Royal Free, who will probably be able to fit me in for an 'urgent' gastro appointment in 60 days rather than the 77 days offered by Barnet. Of course, this may be difficult as a lot of times these people need a referral letter before they can do anything (so sayeth the woman who had to deal with this shit all the time at Barts) so ringing today is probably not going to yield me any results, but I can try. Then I'm supposed to ring Microbiology at Barnet and work out if I can deliver the stool sample (which is supposed to be as fresh as possible on receipt and can I just say EW?) direct to the lab instead of to the surgery. I really don't want to do that, but ... argh. Gastroenterological disorders are so damn embarrassing.

What A Bunch Of Characters Redux

This'll be interesting; I'm not even sure I've ever played 12 RPG characters long-term. I'll have to delve into the one-offs if not, I suppose, but one thing at a time...

Name 12 characters you have played in RPGs, before looking at the questions that follow. List your characters numbered 1 to 12, with the name of the RPG you played them in. Once you've picked your 12 characters, look at the questions and answer accordingly. (No peeking until you've picked your characters!) Put your answers behind a LJ-cut.

1) Aidan McIntyre (Highland Invisible Collegiate, 7th Sea)
2) Alison Smith (Avalon/Vodacce Sophia's Daughter and Jenny, 7th Sea)
3) Bera (Vesten Rune Mage, 7th Sea)
4) Kayla (Zenith Solar barbarian, Exalted)
5) Grace Curran (Glass Walker Galliard, Werewolf)
6) Lorrie Briggs (British Corax, Changing Breeds)
7) Nina Gordon (Voudun Dreamspeaker, Mage)
8) Leah Burden (Pyrokinetic, Angel)
9) Violet McLean (Wicca, Buffy)
10) Solita Li Halan (Duchess, Fading Suns)
11) Sgt Beth Taylor (Void Engineer gun-bunny, Technocracy [one-off])
12) Moira O'Malley (Kinfolk doctor, Werewolf [one-off])

( Questions and Answers )

Okay, that meme was just on crack.