all good things must come to an end...(or how my marathon tattoo day ended with a trip to the ER)

not my most flattering pose...but you get the idea. closeups coming soon! i'm still too swollen...

stats? wouldn't be a tattoo post without them...drumroll please!

• 4.5 hours (19 hours total)
• $250 work ($1295 total)
• $50 tip ($355 total...although he absolutely insisted i not tip him this time...)
• 1 goshen iced coffee...made with the fabulous toddy system. which by the way, autumn and i now have our hands on our very own toddy each. hehe. oh...back to stats! 1 four cheese, roma tomato, mushroom and rosemary individual pizza baked to perfection in a wood burning oven.
• 6 breaks. 1 break was spent with trevis disassembling his gun to clean out some sneaky yellow ink that threaded up the needle past where it should have...a 20 minute break for freehanding waves and planning the final portion of the tattoo. the other 4 were for him to smoke. by the time we were done, we were both spent!
• 40 miles (320 miles total)
• area worked on: remainder of koi body and tail fin. plus...another segment of water which he freehanded...the final balancing act of the tattoo so to speak
• colors used...blues, greens, white, black, yellows, oranges, reds...

and so how did i end up in the ER? wasn't 4 and a half hours of sitting enough? why would i think to spend 2 or more hours sitting in an ER? well...

anyone familiar with the tattoo process knows that application is sometimes a bitch. i spent the majority of the 19 hours sitting straight up, side saddle on his chair, leaned over to stretch the skin on my back taut. sometimes i would sit cross-legged and lean over the same way. keep in mind all the previous tattoo sessions have lasted no more than 2.5 hours. for the 4+ hours i was under the gun, i was mostly laying flat on my stomach. a portion of the tattoo required me to sit up and lean over. after 10 minutes of my legs hanging over the side, i decided to move into a modified lotus pose. big mistake. huge! i spent a comfortable 45 min to an hour like that. little did i realize that my feet fell fast asleep. i was after all leaned over against them for that amount of time. fast forward to paying, saying goodbye and driving the 20 miles home. sitting yet again...

i pull into the driveway. park. hop out of the vehicle. ouch! i seemed to have a strong, dull pain in my right groin. it hurt worse with every step i took. hm. palpating the area...it felt warm. swollen. a well defined lump. my first thought was DVT. especially after sitting so long. my medical background affords me some luxuries others have difficulty getting over the phone. i consulted with a friend that has plenty of experience with angiograms/pulmonary embolism studies and she thought the symptoms odd. i felt waiting this one out could prove dangerous.

so i headed to the ER. when? at about 2 am. after much mulling and consideration, i decided to put up with long wait times and stage my own ER waiting room germ warfare. no...i am not hiding WMD anywhere. i just popped an airborne! two hours later...i was on my way home. discharge papers in hand and a warm, fuzzy feeling to boot from the wonderful care i received while there. and 2 hours is a ridiculously short ER visit! my diagnosis? i irritated my round ligament. a few days of moist heat, some NSAIDS and 2 stretching exercises and i would be good as new. phew! so much for the small bag i packed for a short hospital stay! :)