I actually got interaction today! I saved up my walking/standing time to go to casual night MtG and make a few trades/drop off a few cards/look at some Alt 4th edition stuff. It felt good to get my mind off being in bed for a while. Nothing shocking or crazy today, except the fact that I WANT TO MOVE! I hate being restricted. I have so many things I would like to do, but even my computer situation is limited. I am using a laptop that is about 5 years old (ancient in technology standards) because sitting at my regular PC would be painful after a while. I guess it will all be over soon and I will be back to the grind, so I shouldn't complain.
I want to say a big thank you to all the guys at casual MtG for the well wishes and putting up with my disgusting looking midsection. A HUGE thank you to my wife for braving the storm and in general for everything else she has done for me this week and everything she will do for me in the future. In particular, thank you Misty for going along with the diet change as well. I could write 5 pages on how much I have learned in the last week about foods and how they relate to fat content. The best way to sum it up and not bore you? Stop eating out. Best think you can do for your life, trust me.
I was posting some fun stuff on mtgfanatic.com for a while I feel that I want to move them over here occasionally. Adam got me into building a Pauper Cube and I wrote a short take on the issue with putting one together.
Everyone has been there. You are in round 3 of an 8 round grinder and nothing to do after the end of a quick round or you are preparing for a pre-release or a qualifier and are burned out on the tier gauntlet. In that down time, friends and myself always found creative ways of passing that time, while still keeping limber mentally in the Magic world. We played group magic before it was ‘hip.’ We traded crazy decks to see how the other team mates thought about decks. We even took a stack of about 300 extra cards, threw them in the middle of the table and the same stack and graveyard. In that format, any card could be turned upside down and used as a painless City of Brass. Sometimes we would play mental magic where you could cast any spell you could think of that was the same casting cost as the one in your hand OTHER than the actual card you were holding. I miss those days and now with a much larger pool of cards, some of which I am not familiar with. I am slowly getting back into the world of playing both competitively and for fun and stumbled onto the Cube idea through a new work friend. An actual Cube is a little too much thought, so I chose to dig into the pauper variety. I totally underestimated the thought process that would go into such a simple sounding item.
I didn’t dive right in; I played with my work friend over lunch in a Winchester draft of a pauper Cube to get my feet wet. I was hooked instantly, but had a lot of questions. The basics of the Cube is a stack of 360 to ‘whatever number you choose’ individual and unique cards (in this case, all commons), a good mix of each color, non-basic land, artifacts, and multi-color cards, and a lot of patience and time. You can draft it with 8 people, you can two person draft it, you can even play like I used to…both right off the top with unneeded cards as land. There are a myriad of articles that give you more details of the Cube and the theories behind certain cards out there. This musing, however, is more of the angle of a novice and how it has spurred my interest and excitement over Magic the Gathering again.
In sitting down to a Winchester draft of my first ever Cube, I was as attentive as I could be and brought away what I could from the table. I saw some old staple cards, as well as some new ‘soon to be’ classics. Cards like Nightscape Familiar are very powerful when drafted correctly and Repulse becomes almost as good as removal when splashed. I went away from the experience enlightened and confused at the same time. “Why not play this card” or “what is wrong with X card.” Little did I know that it would consume a lot of my human RAM for the next week?
Through this process, I made a challenging discovery. You cannot just dig into your extra commons and take and stack of each color and throw them together. I came up with three major areas to be concerned with when looking through the stacks of commons available.
Creature/Spell Balance
Each color needs to have a heaping helping of creatures and not too many spells/enchantments. With too many spells/enchantments, the color becomes only a splash. Keep in mind that you will use the Cube in a general setting where you will most likely be playing with someone (or multiple someones) with whom you don’t know their playing style. When you are attempting to appeal to a general market of potential players, you don’t want to put off the blue mage by throwing in 10 blue creatures and 30 counterspells. Depending on the usability of the spells/enchantments, about 10% to 25% of the color should be spells/enchantments with a focus on handling creatures or controlling the deck or hand (yours or your opponents.) Land destruction is hard to support unless it is the focus of a color and then it gets narrow for the red or black mage. Discard is a good splash, but not as a main focus. Balancing out the creature to spell ratio is a not a high focus, but will help control the speed of the games.
Power
There is a LOT of powerful commons throughout all the sets available and some tend to stand out as splash cards or a sure bet to be put in. Not so fast, though. Some of them may be too powerful for this environment or too weak in only a single copy. Dark Ritual is notably one of the best commons in the game of Magic, but a wasted card in this environment. Accumulated Knowledge is a great drawing card…in multiples of 4. So consider that the environment will be middle speed and that you want good matches, not an overbearing color or deck, and then choose your spells accordingly. The same can be said of creatures. You don’t want evasive creatures like Trespassing Souleater that are going to ping your opponent in 10 turns without a solution and conversely, you don’t want cards like Shield of Oversoul that slow the game to a crawl.
Fun
The last part is easy. Once you have balanced out all the colors and spells to creature’s ratios, have fun with it. I got partially through the Winchester draft with my work friend and an Unhinged card was flipped over. I actually chuckled out loud and then realized it wasn’t a joke. The format is open to all cards and how you put it together is up to you. You can put conversation pieces in, signed cards, alternate art cards, even the silly Knight of the Hokey Pokey card from unglued if you want. The format is loose in the truest sense of the word and a great way to pass time between the serious playing with friends, acquaintances, or players you just met.
I have been told that even when I finish what I think is my pauper Cube, that it will evolve drastically after the first few trial runs and slightly there-after. I am looking forward to that process and encourage you to explore the idea as well.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
A little fun Magic Math
I wrote this a few months back and wanted to share on my open forum. Enjoy!
Unwritten rules of Magic:
You should not get more mana out of something than you put into it.
Drawing cards is an advantage and should have an equal cost.
After that, it is pretty much fair game. Wizards has put a lot of time and effort into creating new cards and making sure they are balanced for both Standard play and the other 15 or so formats floating around. They take care to catch cards that may become too powerful or not see any play at all. Even though they go through great lengths to do this, cards still make into the environment that fit both ends of the spectrum.
With the two major unwritten rules above, I would like to throw a little new math out there that may explain some of the reasons cards are graced with the title “broken” and highlight a few cards that either come close to breaking the unwritten rules and some that even, based on the new math, break the rules, but are overlooked.
Lets look at the basics as it applies to mana production.
First remove all costs. Not just overall, but colorless for colorless and a single color for a single color produced. +1 if the item can be used the turn it comes into play (i.e. an artifact that is not a creature). +1 for each color it can produce. -1 for each requirement item involved (-3 if it has metalcraft, -3 if it only has three counters, etc.) +X, where X = Average Power/Toughness if it is a creature. – casting cost at 2 to 1.
Lets start with a creature like Llanowar Elves. Remove the cost (one green mana and it produces one green mana) and he is at 0. Add the average of power and toughness and Llanowar Elves becomes a 1. Sphere of Suns is a two color casting cost artifact that produces one of 5 color mana. Removing cost makes it a 3. Add one for being used the turn it comes into play and subtract 3 for the counters drawback now makes it a 1. If you look at a big rule breaker like Sol Ring, you remove casting cost and it is a 1. It produces an extra colorless mana after the cost is removed (+1) and can be used the turn it comes into play (+1). Sol Ring is a 2 on the new math scale. The Moxes would be a 2 based on the math. The granddaddy of them all, the Black Lotus, is a 0 casting cost that produces 3 of any color mana and can be used the same turn it comes into play BUT, it has the sacrifice drawback. So, on this math, it is a 3 due to its drawback. Only slightly better than a Mox. Many people may argue that fact, but if you look at the long game, a Mox, although limited to one color, will net the player more use to cost. Speed certainly can be a factor in Magic, but speed does not factor into this math.
Let’s take Lion’s Eye Diamond. In the right deck, it is extremely useful, but the difference in usefulness in the same situations as the Black Lotus show in the math. Lion’s Eye Diamond is a 0 casting cost that gives you three of any color mana. It has two drawbacks, one of which is an immediate -1, the sacrifice effect. The second subtraction comes in how many cards you are discarding. At best, Lion’s Eye diamond is a 3, at worst it is a -4. So, the new math is totally based on usefulness as opposed to speed or casting cost.
This new math for mana producers is not perfect, but it is a guide I have went by for years when choosing the most powerful cards for a situation where I could not make a decision between a few choice cards to fill a spot or two.
Unwritten rules of Magic:
You should not get more mana out of something than you put into it.
Drawing cards is an advantage and should have an equal cost.
After that, it is pretty much fair game. Wizards has put a lot of time and effort into creating new cards and making sure they are balanced for both Standard play and the other 15 or so formats floating around. They take care to catch cards that may become too powerful or not see any play at all. Even though they go through great lengths to do this, cards still make into the environment that fit both ends of the spectrum.
With the two major unwritten rules above, I would like to throw a little new math out there that may explain some of the reasons cards are graced with the title “broken” and highlight a few cards that either come close to breaking the unwritten rules and some that even, based on the new math, break the rules, but are overlooked.
Lets look at the basics as it applies to mana production.
First remove all costs. Not just overall, but colorless for colorless and a single color for a single color produced. +1 if the item can be used the turn it comes into play (i.e. an artifact that is not a creature). +1 for each color it can produce. -1 for each requirement item involved (-3 if it has metalcraft, -3 if it only has three counters, etc.) +X, where X = Average Power/Toughness if it is a creature. – casting cost at 2 to 1.
Lets start with a creature like Llanowar Elves. Remove the cost (one green mana and it produces one green mana) and he is at 0. Add the average of power and toughness and Llanowar Elves becomes a 1. Sphere of Suns is a two color casting cost artifact that produces one of 5 color mana. Removing cost makes it a 3. Add one for being used the turn it comes into play and subtract 3 for the counters drawback now makes it a 1. If you look at a big rule breaker like Sol Ring, you remove casting cost and it is a 1. It produces an extra colorless mana after the cost is removed (+1) and can be used the turn it comes into play (+1). Sol Ring is a 2 on the new math scale. The Moxes would be a 2 based on the math. The granddaddy of them all, the Black Lotus, is a 0 casting cost that produces 3 of any color mana and can be used the same turn it comes into play BUT, it has the sacrifice drawback. So, on this math, it is a 3 due to its drawback. Only slightly better than a Mox. Many people may argue that fact, but if you look at the long game, a Mox, although limited to one color, will net the player more use to cost. Speed certainly can be a factor in Magic, but speed does not factor into this math.
Let’s take Lion’s Eye Diamond. In the right deck, it is extremely useful, but the difference in usefulness in the same situations as the Black Lotus show in the math. Lion’s Eye Diamond is a 0 casting cost that gives you three of any color mana. It has two drawbacks, one of which is an immediate -1, the sacrifice effect. The second subtraction comes in how many cards you are discarding. At best, Lion’s Eye diamond is a 3, at worst it is a -4. So, the new math is totally based on usefulness as opposed to speed or casting cost.
This new math for mana producers is not perfect, but it is a guide I have went by for years when choosing the most powerful cards for a situation where I could not make a decision between a few choice cards to fill a spot or two.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Day 4
If you have ever been put in a situation where you have to stay home from your regular life and sit in a bed, you will understand some of this post. If you are a geek you will understand some of this post.
When put in a situation that is outside of your normal everyday life, you begin to think different. It can be temporary or permanent, based on the circumstances. Take vacation for example. You are in a different town, staying with family or in hotels, and you are experiencing different cultures, foods, interactions, and sights. It begins to make you think different about things. Sometimes those thoughts are good and sometimes they are bad. Being confined, for the most part, to a bed (hospital or home) for the last 6 days has put a new shade on a few things in my life. I have recently jumped back into playing Magic the Gathering again after about a 4 year hiatus. I missed a lot, but the idea is still the same. Through that, I have meet some wonderful people like Don of Don's Magic and Sundries and Adam Styborski. Great people and great company and I wouldn't trade them for the world. What I have slowly discovered is the darker side and the reason I got out in the first place. Well, not the only reason. The band I helped start began to take off (www.myspace.com/contrastband).
I digress. I began to meet people in the tournaments that were, for lack of better words, bad. Bad in different ways. Mentally degrading to their opponents to get any advantage they could over them. It can be as small as "how many cards in hand" after every play to throw my rhythm off to blatant badgering about how bad my deck was and shouldn't even be in the field. It is a fun game to me, but the competitive side contains degenerates and cheaters. I made a few bad trades on a local casual Magic night. Neither of which I am proud of, but one was done in sheer honesty and lack of checking, the other was a blatant case of being taken advantage of. This is a swinging market and if you do not keep on top of prices, they get away from you fast. That event has caused a domino effect and is changing my view of my place in the local gaming community. I watched as the reports of the thefts rolled in from GP Baltimore while attempting to draft sucessfully on MTGO to pass my bed restricted time and it got me thinking.
Going back in time, I was becoming a pro level players. No, really, I was. I have a top 8 pin and a few high finishes in some major events, one being a second place finish in a PTQ. In that PTQ, I had to play against a child (I use this term here for a 16 year old because he was a child in every other sense) that I, as a level 1 judge, had given him a game loss for cheating just a few months earlier. I lost to him in the final match and his deck was very popular. I had faced 3 of the exact decks earlier that day and beat them with no issues 2-0. Why is this important? I can't prove he cheated, but I had that feeling. That was the feeling that got me out of Magic at that time. I realized that not playing for fun meant dealing with individuals like him and the aforementioned players as well.
I build and play for fun, but I like competitive play. Those two have a hard time living together. It was that way when I was playing years ago and now-a-days it is even worse. Live streaming, instant decklists, net deck copies, over priced Mythic rares, and a whole myriad of different things factor into those two ideas not being able to live together. It is like we all want to hate each other, but we are being cordial until the flag drops. Not everyone fits this mold, but it is looking more and more like that for me. In watching the thefts in GP Baltimore, one think hit me. This isn't a game anymore, it is a sport. The definition of sport starts with "an athletic activity requiring skill of physical prowess." I used to hate when people called things like chess a sport. I have since changed that attitude and think that the definition should change. Let me take a shot:
Sport: Any activity that puts one or more individuals in a competition with another one or more opponents with a pre-determined way of deciding a clear victor.
Much better. Magic the Gathering is a sport. I don't think I want to play any more. Or, maybe I am not qualified to play anymore. Either way, the consideration is in my head to back out now while I can and salvage my affection for what the game once was to me. I don't want to be made to feel stupid for trying something new or not remembering what a card does or not making a good trade, either way, I just want to enjoy the game.
That is not the bottom line, but it is weighing heavily on my mind and I am sure with 5 more days confined to a bed for sure, that more will come out of it.
The geek part? Well, if you are into Magic the Gathering, that is geeky enough, but I will share the nostalgia that surfaced while sitting with my son and watching Spiderman the movie.
I grew up reading comic books with friends. I had a subscription to about 15 titles each month and even worked at the comic book store to pay for some of them. It was a world of wonder to put yourself in the shoes of Spiderman, Batman, Superman, or even some of the odd books I read. I read Watchmen when it was a monthly book. I cannot tell you how nerve-wracking it is to have to wait for a month to find out what is going to happen to the Comedian. I miss that. I bought the first Magic the Gathering comic book the other day and I have also been reading a free subscription I got my son to Batman and Robin. Both have put me back in high school, traveling 20 miles with my friend Patrick to pick up books and stop at McDonalds on the way home to read. I am a geek through and through and I am lucky enough to have a great geek wife to share my life with. I tend to look for those things that make me feel nostalgic on a regular basis and I know this is one of my weaknesses. I think that is why I am so enamored with the current rash of comic book movies until they are over and I think "man, what a great story. It would have been better if I had to wait a month for each section of it." Lets face it. We are in a fast world and we all want to be spoon fed with a shovel.
Maybe what I am learning from this confinement is that things are going on quickly around me. It is cliche to say that if you don't slow down, you might miss it, but isn't that what cliche is for? I mean, it doesn't make the sentiment any less important, it just means it has been said before. So, I am taking the time to do those things. To absorb slowly the things that are going on around me. To not rush to the next best thing to buy or place to be. To appreciate the small things that made me "me". If it means digging back to who I was from time to time to be nostalgic, I will and I will NOT feel bad for it. If it means creating a Magic deck that is purely out of fun and taking it to a level 5 tournament, I will and enjoy the looks. If it means sitting with my son and reading his comic book to him and watching the look on his face when I tell him "you will have to wait till next month to find out", I will and I will explain why. If it means I begin to remove myself from things, places, people that make me feel less that who I should. I will.
When put in a situation that is outside of your normal everyday life, you begin to think different. It can be temporary or permanent, based on the circumstances. Take vacation for example. You are in a different town, staying with family or in hotels, and you are experiencing different cultures, foods, interactions, and sights. It begins to make you think different about things. Sometimes those thoughts are good and sometimes they are bad. Being confined, for the most part, to a bed (hospital or home) for the last 6 days has put a new shade on a few things in my life. I have recently jumped back into playing Magic the Gathering again after about a 4 year hiatus. I missed a lot, but the idea is still the same. Through that, I have meet some wonderful people like Don of Don's Magic and Sundries and Adam Styborski. Great people and great company and I wouldn't trade them for the world. What I have slowly discovered is the darker side and the reason I got out in the first place. Well, not the only reason. The band I helped start began to take off (www.myspace.com/contrastband).
I digress. I began to meet people in the tournaments that were, for lack of better words, bad. Bad in different ways. Mentally degrading to their opponents to get any advantage they could over them. It can be as small as "how many cards in hand" after every play to throw my rhythm off to blatant badgering about how bad my deck was and shouldn't even be in the field. It is a fun game to me, but the competitive side contains degenerates and cheaters. I made a few bad trades on a local casual Magic night. Neither of which I am proud of, but one was done in sheer honesty and lack of checking, the other was a blatant case of being taken advantage of. This is a swinging market and if you do not keep on top of prices, they get away from you fast. That event has caused a domino effect and is changing my view of my place in the local gaming community. I watched as the reports of the thefts rolled in from GP Baltimore while attempting to draft sucessfully on MTGO to pass my bed restricted time and it got me thinking.
Going back in time, I was becoming a pro level players. No, really, I was. I have a top 8 pin and a few high finishes in some major events, one being a second place finish in a PTQ. In that PTQ, I had to play against a child (I use this term here for a 16 year old because he was a child in every other sense) that I, as a level 1 judge, had given him a game loss for cheating just a few months earlier. I lost to him in the final match and his deck was very popular. I had faced 3 of the exact decks earlier that day and beat them with no issues 2-0. Why is this important? I can't prove he cheated, but I had that feeling. That was the feeling that got me out of Magic at that time. I realized that not playing for fun meant dealing with individuals like him and the aforementioned players as well.
I build and play for fun, but I like competitive play. Those two have a hard time living together. It was that way when I was playing years ago and now-a-days it is even worse. Live streaming, instant decklists, net deck copies, over priced Mythic rares, and a whole myriad of different things factor into those two ideas not being able to live together. It is like we all want to hate each other, but we are being cordial until the flag drops. Not everyone fits this mold, but it is looking more and more like that for me. In watching the thefts in GP Baltimore, one think hit me. This isn't a game anymore, it is a sport. The definition of sport starts with "an athletic activity requiring skill of physical prowess." I used to hate when people called things like chess a sport. I have since changed that attitude and think that the definition should change. Let me take a shot:
Sport: Any activity that puts one or more individuals in a competition with another one or more opponents with a pre-determined way of deciding a clear victor.
Much better. Magic the Gathering is a sport. I don't think I want to play any more. Or, maybe I am not qualified to play anymore. Either way, the consideration is in my head to back out now while I can and salvage my affection for what the game once was to me. I don't want to be made to feel stupid for trying something new or not remembering what a card does or not making a good trade, either way, I just want to enjoy the game.
That is not the bottom line, but it is weighing heavily on my mind and I am sure with 5 more days confined to a bed for sure, that more will come out of it.
The geek part? Well, if you are into Magic the Gathering, that is geeky enough, but I will share the nostalgia that surfaced while sitting with my son and watching Spiderman the movie.
I grew up reading comic books with friends. I had a subscription to about 15 titles each month and even worked at the comic book store to pay for some of them. It was a world of wonder to put yourself in the shoes of Spiderman, Batman, Superman, or even some of the odd books I read. I read Watchmen when it was a monthly book. I cannot tell you how nerve-wracking it is to have to wait for a month to find out what is going to happen to the Comedian. I miss that. I bought the first Magic the Gathering comic book the other day and I have also been reading a free subscription I got my son to Batman and Robin. Both have put me back in high school, traveling 20 miles with my friend Patrick to pick up books and stop at McDonalds on the way home to read. I am a geek through and through and I am lucky enough to have a great geek wife to share my life with. I tend to look for those things that make me feel nostalgic on a regular basis and I know this is one of my weaknesses. I think that is why I am so enamored with the current rash of comic book movies until they are over and I think "man, what a great story. It would have been better if I had to wait a month for each section of it." Lets face it. We are in a fast world and we all want to be spoon fed with a shovel.
Maybe what I am learning from this confinement is that things are going on quickly around me. It is cliche to say that if you don't slow down, you might miss it, but isn't that what cliche is for? I mean, it doesn't make the sentiment any less important, it just means it has been said before. So, I am taking the time to do those things. To absorb slowly the things that are going on around me. To not rush to the next best thing to buy or place to be. To appreciate the small things that made me "me". If it means digging back to who I was from time to time to be nostalgic, I will and I will NOT feel bad for it. If it means creating a Magic deck that is purely out of fun and taking it to a level 5 tournament, I will and enjoy the looks. If it means sitting with my son and reading his comic book to him and watching the look on his face when I tell him "you will have to wait till next month to find out", I will and I will explain why. If it means I begin to remove myself from things, places, people that make me feel less that who I should. I will.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Day 3
So, day three on my home healing actually feels worse than day two for a few reasons. First, I physically feel worse. Not sure if the healing factor has kicked in or I am overdoing it by my daily movement, but I am going to try and take it a little easy the next few days. Second, my MTGO draft record went from Hero to Zero. Yesterday I was 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and pulled a Sorin in the last one. Sold the Sorin online today for enough to draft 3 more times. I finished last, last, and, oh yeah, last. Miserable passes, people next to me changing colors mid second pack, and really bad match-ups. Am I whining? Yes. Read on or remove me, it is my blog and I hope you stick it out, but I understand.
I have considered selling my MTGO collection again and putting it back into the paper stuff. I sold it about 6 years ago and made about $800 off it. I don't expect to make that much now, but I would be happy with $500 and it is worth more than that, but the market is the market. Input? It has been nice to have this outlet while laid up in bed for a week, but it is like jumping into a GP online every time I go. Maybe I don't play enough of the casual environments (ghost drafts, commander, singleton, pauper). All I do is get really happy or really pissed off.
On a side note, I am going to be putting my "foils I don't think I will ever use" collection up on Ebay soon. I will be making the list tonight and I may post to see if anyone is interested. No singles, but if a close person wants the whole thing, I may work out a good deal, even in trade.
Resting again before I pass out. Eating is a lot less stressful than I thought!! Fat free does not mean taste free. I do have to be careful not to assume Fat Free is Sugar Free, but for the most part I have transitioned into fruits, veggies, yogurt, and trimming down the usual stuff I eat (insert FAST FOOD). I will miss Taco Bell the most.....they may miss me too....
I have considered selling my MTGO collection again and putting it back into the paper stuff. I sold it about 6 years ago and made about $800 off it. I don't expect to make that much now, but I would be happy with $500 and it is worth more than that, but the market is the market. Input? It has been nice to have this outlet while laid up in bed for a week, but it is like jumping into a GP online every time I go. Maybe I don't play enough of the casual environments (ghost drafts, commander, singleton, pauper). All I do is get really happy or really pissed off.
On a side note, I am going to be putting my "foils I don't think I will ever use" collection up on Ebay soon. I will be making the list tonight and I may post to see if anyone is interested. No singles, but if a close person wants the whole thing, I may work out a good deal, even in trade.
Resting again before I pass out. Eating is a lot less stressful than I thought!! Fat free does not mean taste free. I do have to be careful not to assume Fat Free is Sugar Free, but for the most part I have transitioned into fruits, veggies, yogurt, and trimming down the usual stuff I eat (insert FAST FOOD). I will miss Taco Bell the most.....they may miss me too....
Sunday, February 26, 2012
...funny thing about my gall bladder....
So, one would not think that such a small organ on the right side of the body could cause so much chaos. I, for one, found that to be totally true over the last 48 hours. I actually had my apendix removed a few years ago in an emergency situation, so I know what having parts of my body remove feels like. Little did I know that years later I would go through almost the exact same situation with my gall bladder.Ok, for those of you that do not know what the function of your gall bladder is, I will bore you:
The gallbladder is a hollow system that sits just beneath the liver.[2] In adults, the gallbladder measures approximately 8 centimetres (3.1 in) in length and 4 centimetres (1.6 in) in diameter when fully distended.[3] It is divided into three sections: fundus, body and neck. The neck tapers and connects to the biliary tree via the cystic duct, which then joins the common hepatic duct to become the common bile duct. At the neck of the gall bladder is a mucosal fold called Hartmann's pouch, where gallstones commonly get stuck.
And get stuck, they did. 6 of them. The pain was like bad gas. Really bad gas that would not go away...for four hours. I finally had my wife take me to the hospital at 2 am. I was admitted and given some pain killers and a full regiment of tests that included a sonogram. Toward the end of the sonogram, the tech asked what I though was a probing question; "do you have gall stones." I answered no and chuckled. She said, "no, I am telling you that you have gall stones. A lot of them."My heart sank. With lack of knowledge, I began to think of what caused them and what it was going to mean to my life from this point on. I had no clue on either question at this point. Misty and I prayed together and they took me back to the waiting room. It was explained to me that the little sack pulls away the bad fatty stuff out of things you eat. Great, so now I have to stop eating the stuff I like....or, I get to stop eating the stuff that is killing me.
I think my life is going to change after this. It was a good jog of my faith, but an even better eye-opener to what life brings us in the way of food. I am not going all Knives over Forks or anything. That stuff drives me nuts in a bad way. But I am going to change what I eat. I will not be eating for convenience anymore, I will be eating for my body. I am also not warning you of the dangers of fatty foods, but it wouldn't hurt to take a peek at what you are eating some times.
As a side note, the Dr. came into my room the next day. His first words out of his mouth were "you must be a rock." He went on to explain the there were multi-stones of a large size and the bladder had become gangrene. He said that he did not know of anyone personally that could have taken the pain I must have been suffering. Hmm. Have to remember that one for later.
The gallbladder is a hollow system that sits just beneath the liver.[2] In adults, the gallbladder measures approximately 8 centimetres (3.1 in) in length and 4 centimetres (1.6 in) in diameter when fully distended.[3] It is divided into three sections: fundus, body and neck. The neck tapers and connects to the biliary tree via the cystic duct, which then joins the common hepatic duct to become the common bile duct. At the neck of the gall bladder is a mucosal fold called Hartmann's pouch, where gallstones commonly get stuck.
And get stuck, they did. 6 of them. The pain was like bad gas. Really bad gas that would not go away...for four hours. I finally had my wife take me to the hospital at 2 am. I was admitted and given some pain killers and a full regiment of tests that included a sonogram. Toward the end of the sonogram, the tech asked what I though was a probing question; "do you have gall stones." I answered no and chuckled. She said, "no, I am telling you that you have gall stones. A lot of them."My heart sank. With lack of knowledge, I began to think of what caused them and what it was going to mean to my life from this point on. I had no clue on either question at this point. Misty and I prayed together and they took me back to the waiting room. It was explained to me that the little sack pulls away the bad fatty stuff out of things you eat. Great, so now I have to stop eating the stuff I like....or, I get to stop eating the stuff that is killing me.
I think my life is going to change after this. It was a good jog of my faith, but an even better eye-opener to what life brings us in the way of food. I am not going all Knives over Forks or anything. That stuff drives me nuts in a bad way. But I am going to change what I eat. I will not be eating for convenience anymore, I will be eating for my body. I am also not warning you of the dangers of fatty foods, but it wouldn't hurt to take a peek at what you are eating some times.
As a side note, the Dr. came into my room the next day. His first words out of his mouth were "you must be a rock." He went on to explain the there were multi-stones of a large size and the bladder had become gangrene. He said that he did not know of anyone personally that could have taken the pain I must have been suffering. Hmm. Have to remember that one for later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)