True story.

When looking into this ‘too late for an epidural’ thing online, I actually found that it’s yet another one of those totally grey areas of medical science where there’s no such thing as consistency. Some hospitals refuse to administer an epidural to a fully dilated woman in active labour, though other hospitals apparently don’t have that rule and give epidurals whenever the heck they want. Why? No one seems to willingly provide that information.

I can report that the hospital my wife delivered her babies at DID have this rule, and it came into play on her second kid. After they broke her water, the labour was fast (we’re talking Hollywood fast) and the powers that be deemed it too late for an epidural. It sucked, but it did give her eternal bragging rights. She’s now able to say that she’s given birth without any form of pain killer whatsoever, and that’s a big trump card in mom circles. Ever since then, she’ll periodically try to explain the level of pain she felt through creative metaphors, but it’s something mere mortals (men) can’t fully comprehend. I’ll just acknowledge that such things are beyond me, and that she’s a better person than me for having survived it.

FYI, Puck almost never hurls the epithet thrown in panel four, but I thought this was a situation where she was under extreme duress, so all the chips are down. Also, I have to say that I think that the nurse in this comic probably has the worst job in the world. (She was warned in strip 177, but still. Worst job ever.)

July Voting Incentive NOW UP!!!

It’s July, and that means Puck’s pulling out ALL the stops by giving you a voting incentive that has everything you ever wanted! And when we say everything, we mean EVERYTHING!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR PUCK!!!

ALSO…

I realized that I’d really fallen down on the whole incentive availability thing in the store. People have been making a rather large number of purchases made lately, and none of the voting incentives from November of last year onward were available. Shame on me! I’ve made all of those pics (14 in all!) now available for two bucks. Or you can get all the pics for a fiver. (The money, by the way, all goes to the comic to pay for hosting costs, advertising and the like. I promise you that I don’t buy KFC with it. Most of the time.)