Hi Rachel, I knew that you'd pull through and post up as soon as you could. It sounds like a mess down there and starving in a McDonald's is no way to go out.

I have to remark on your reference to chain mail. When I was young I belonged to a group or club called the Maryland Medieval Mercenary Militia. We did dark age battle recreations like Stamford Bridge, Hastings and the slaughter of the Burgundians by the Huns. One of the members used to make suits of chain mail out of coat hangers by wrapping them round a dowel, clipping the rounds into links and soldering them together. It took about 100 hours to make one, but they looked pretty authentic and weighed about 30 lbs. We looked down our noses at the Sealed Knot as being effete with all of their aping of the High Middle Ages and courtly love etc. It was a lot of fun. You probably would have preferred being a shield maiden in a scrum to the Rennaissance Faire.