Stardate 62885.83 - Medical Report

As many of you already know, I had surgery last Wednesday for a Right Inguinal Hernia. This is something I'm pretty sure I've had for over a year, but as the doctor told me, "Hernias never get better, they can only get worse." So I finally scheduled the surgery at NYU Medical Center (same hospital where Loren was born).

I know some of my friends and co-workers have already had this procedure, but for anyone else who may need it now or in the future I wanted to briefly talk about my experience. People with no interest in this type of thing can stop reading and hope for a new picture of Loren tomorrow. Some people may feel this is too much information, but I found it very helpful to talk to people who had already been through the procedure so if my experience can help set people at ease who are anticipating this procedure then that is what I want to do.

I had to go in 10-14 days in advance for a pre-surgery screening and other than a 2-hour wait that was uneventful - drawing some blood, an EKG, and a lot of questions. The day before the surgery I received my instructions and my time - no food or drink starting at midnight Tuesday and report at 0730 Wednesday morning. After meeting with every single person who would be working on me (and even the people who clean the room, I think!) and answering the same questions over and over I was finally ready for the procedure. The doctor was running about 30 minutes late, but I was quickly taken into the surgical room around 0900 and climbed up onto the table. There was some small talk, I was given an IV and oxygen, and then I don't remember anything until being woken up post-op and asked to help move off the table onto a gurney.

I was wheeled into recovery and asked if I wanted anything to eat or drink. I was very tired and groggy, so I asked for some decaf coffee. As soon as I drank a sip, I realized I was very nauseous. After lying on the bed for 30 minutes or so they moved me into a chair. They asked me about the pain - on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst pain ever (the time I broke 3 ribs and the morning after when I sneezed both came to mind). I replied the pain was a 2 or a 3, but the nausea was overwhelming. They gave me something in the IV for that (along with a lot of fluid), but it didn't help. Later they gave me a shot of something in the leg that was supposed to help. It helped me enough to get into a cab with help from Cheryl and get home around 1330, but I felt like I had the stomach flu. I went to bed and didn't get up until the next morning. I would sleep for 2 hours, get up to use the bathroom, and go back to sleep.

The nausea didn't dissipate until Thursday afternoon, and I didn't completely get my appetite back until Sunday. The entire time from the surgery through today the pain has been around a 1-2. The pain was completely dwarfed by the nausea, which I understand can happen from general anesthesia. In fact, the pain was so low I didn't even use the Percocet they prescribed for me and instead just used over-the-counter ibuprofen. In fact, I haven't even taken an ibuprofen in more than 24 hours as I write this post.

My friend Brian Hampton told me that the worst part would be getting up in the morning, and he was right. Everything is just sore and it is hard to get out of bed, but once I am up I am fine. I have an appointment this Friday with the doctor for a follow-up and I'm hoping the dressing gets removed--think about having a few napkins held on you by plastic wrap. Lets just say the itching really started kicking in yesterday.

So I spent Thursday and Friday off of work and watching nearly an entire season of Star Trek: Voyager (most of season three and the start of season four). Saturday I took it easy with the family, and on Sunday Cheryl took Loren to New Jersey to her parents' place so I could have another day with minimal activity. I worked a half-day from home on Monday and was back up to a full day yesterday (I'll be telecommuting through the end of the week). I should be able to go back to work in person the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Overall, it wasn't too bad. The pain was a lot less than I anticipated but the nausea was much, much worse. Apparently being under a general doesn't affect everyone the same, but for me it was so much worse than any other part of the procedure. I also recommend people really listen and take it easy for several days so that you have time to recover and heal up -- I was pretty tired for the next few days and was in bed by 9 PM for a few days afterward.

NYC

Stardate 62160.20 - Voyager

Star Trek: Voyager (VOY) ran from 1995-2001, for the most part concurrently with Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (DS9). I've spoken before about how I feel that DS9 is the superior of all the series and how VOY ranks dead last, but I just started watching VOY again and I have to say that had the two series not been running simultaneously I believe I would have appreciated VOY more. I received the first season on DVD a few years ago and just got around (thank you, writers' strike!) to watching them. Unlike Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) or The Next Generation (TNG), I haven't seen any episodes of VOY in re-runs on TV since the show went off the air 7 years ago. I find that I have zero memory of some of them, while others I can remember quite well.

For those who never watched, the crew of the Starship Voyager are on a mission hunting rebels when they are pulled 70,000 light years away from home and they spend the next 7 years trying to get back. There were some missteps in the first season (which I am most of the way through), such as screwing up Tuvok's and Paris' ranks for half the season, or having your first two episodes after the premier both be about time travel, but it has not been as bad as I remember. Perhaps that is because I am starved for Star Trek right now (has it really been 3 years since Star Trek:Enterprise (ENT) went off the air)? Perhaps it is because I am not comparing it week after week with the vastly superior DS9, as I did when they were on the air. Whatever the reason, I am actually enjoying watching it through again.

Perhaps I was a little hard on VOY when it was on the air. At the time, TNG had ended, DS9 was on the air also, and we were in year 8 of an 18-year stretch of Star Trek. We could afford to be a little more critical. If it were to come on the air today after a 3-year Star Trek dry spell, would I still rank it dead last? I'm just not sure.

Seasons One through Seven of Star Trek: Voyager are available on DVD.


NYC

Stardate 61788.09 - All Good Things...

I own the entire 7-series run of both Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Other than Buffy the Vampire Slayer, these are the only 2 television series I own on DVD.

For the record, ST:DS9 remains my favorite of all the series, but ST:TNG as the first of the modern (post-1960s) Star Trek television shows holds a special place in my heart. Especially since it was on from 1987-1994, and I was in college from 1987-1992, it evokes strong nostalgic feelings in me.

About 5 or so years ago I worked my way through all of the DS9 episodes, start to finish. It took a couple of years because I only really watched them when I had spare time (and/or when television was in re-runs or I was stuck on a plane). A few years ago I started my way through TNG again and finally watched the finale, All Good Things... I will say that the series holds up remarkably well, even the special effects, considering that the first episode was on television 20 years ago.

It is hard for me to wrap my head around that fact - that the first episode of TNG was on television for the first time 20 years ago, and even the finale premiered 13 years ago. As I close in on 40 years of age, I tend to think about these things. Maybe that is why I keep maintaining the crew roster and my USS Excalibur pages, because I am trying to keep hold on a part of my younger days.

Whenever something ends, it always makes me a bit sad. Cheryl jokes that I always need a "what happened to them afterwards" part of any movie I watch, so that during the credits I find out how everything ends years later. Maybe why that is why I liked the last chapter of the final Harry Potter book when no-one else seems to have liked it.

And that is why I liked that Star Trek kept going - the timeline kept marching on with DS9 and then Star Trek: Voyager and the movies. Star Trek: Enterprise jumped back in time, but in a way things were still moving forward. But the movies ended, Enterprise ended, and there was a lot of nothing. Yes, there is a new movie due out at the end of 2008, but it also jumps back into the past and won't actually advance the time line. So still, for now, Star Trek has ended.

And that makes me a little sad.

NYC

Stardate 60914.64 - USS Excalibur

As we approach Stardate 61000.00 (and the start of a new year), it is time for the annual explanation of how this blog got its name and the annual crew roster update.

In 1989, my college roommate, Cheryl Wimer, and I were sitting around watching reruns of Star Trek: The Original Series (ST:TOS), and we started talking about what "our" ship would be like, if we existed in that "alternate reality". :-)

Before long, we were drawing up our crew roster, with our friends as the crew. During our tenure at Virginia Tech, we updated the roster each year. My friend James and I even wrote some "fan fiction" about our ship, which we placed in the time frame of ST:TOS. With my interest in fantasy, we decided to use the name Excalibur, which was actually a starship destroyed in a ST:TOS episode. We decided that we would be the new crew for the rebuilt ship.

Later, we decided to update the time frame to that of The Next Generation (ST:TNG), but we kept the name. Imagine our surprise when the Excalibur appeared in a TNG episode! So we have had to fudge our history a little, but we kept the name.

After graduation I continued to update the crew roster, adding and deleting people as friends and friends' significant others came and went. The core crew has remained on the roster, however. I even attempted to roughly follow the US Navy's time frame on promotions (thanks to Major Denise Donnell, currently of the New York Air National Guard and formerly of the US Navy, for technical assistance). As command staff (line officers) have reached the rank of Captain, they have been given their own command. So now there are several ships on the roster.

So here we are, 18+ years after the first crew roster was created, and I am still updating them (some would say I am still wasting my time, but I have to put that creative writing minor to some use).

So here is where you can find the latest roster - be advised that I do tweak the roster somewhat throughout the year, but the roster found here is the definitive roster.

NYC