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Duck Tape
12 years ago
I almost died last night in one of the stupidest accidents imaginable.
If you've been in the fandom long enough, you probably know what a "Duck Tape Dummy" is. I plan on getting a new fursuit made for myself and the maker had asked that I provide one. For those that don't know, it's basically a shell you make of yourself with some long underwear and a lot of duck tape. You cut the tape into small strips and cover your entire torso, then make a few cuts along the sides to get back out. You're left with a shell of yourself that enables the fursuit maker to have a readily available "dummy" to tailor your suit to. You can find examples by doing a google search.
So last night I was at a friend of mine's house to watch the last episode of Breaking Bad with a few friends. My roommate offered to help me with the dummy, so we decided to do it there before the show started. There would be a few other folks there that could help with the process and make it go quicker.
Things went pretty smooth, and it was a really fun process up until I had to get cut out.
Something very few people know about me is that I don't handle the sight--or even the thought--of my own blood very well. Never have. I'm fine with seeing others', and I can typically handle myself given enough fresh air and a little cold water, but last night something unexpected happened.
As my friends were about 80% of the way through cutting me out, one of then happened to knick my arm. It felt a lot worse than it actually was, but I couldn't see it so I started to get worried. I could feel myself starting to go into "squeamish mode". Unfortunately for me, there was no fresh air available with all the duck tape still around me. I started to get hot and dizzy. I needed to sit down and breathe or else I was going to throw up. My friends quickly grabbed a chair and set it behind me.
This is where it gets scary. The dummy was still taped up around my neck, so when I sat down it put pressure in all of the wrong places, cutting off circulation to my head. I was too concerned with the dizziness to notice, and wound up blacking out.
Fortunately for me, I have awesome friends. Two folks at the party were EMT's and knew what was happening immediately. They worked quickly to get the dummy off, and within a few seconds I was back to consciousness. My vision came back first, which was extremely blurry, followed by a lot of strange noise in my ears as the blood flow returned. I couldn't move any part of my body for another few seconds.
When I could finally see again, everyone in the house was circled around me, looking panicked. I had no idea what had happened, but apparently I did a lot of strange things (noises, twitching, etc) while I was out. I felt like I had the worst hangover in history. My entire body was shaking, my head hurt, and my stomach was the most nauseous it's ever felt in my life.
After my friends finally got my cut out of the dummy, I ended up in the fetal position on the kitchen floor with a bucket for the next hour and a half or so while I calmed down. As of this writing, my stomach is still bothering me.
I have to be thankful for the friends I have. Everyone there was really supportive of me.
A note of advice for anyone planning on making a DTD for the first time? Do the neck last, and cut it first.
If you've been in the fandom long enough, you probably know what a "Duck Tape Dummy" is. I plan on getting a new fursuit made for myself and the maker had asked that I provide one. For those that don't know, it's basically a shell you make of yourself with some long underwear and a lot of duck tape. You cut the tape into small strips and cover your entire torso, then make a few cuts along the sides to get back out. You're left with a shell of yourself that enables the fursuit maker to have a readily available "dummy" to tailor your suit to. You can find examples by doing a google search.
So last night I was at a friend of mine's house to watch the last episode of Breaking Bad with a few friends. My roommate offered to help me with the dummy, so we decided to do it there before the show started. There would be a few other folks there that could help with the process and make it go quicker.
Things went pretty smooth, and it was a really fun process up until I had to get cut out.
Something very few people know about me is that I don't handle the sight--or even the thought--of my own blood very well. Never have. I'm fine with seeing others', and I can typically handle myself given enough fresh air and a little cold water, but last night something unexpected happened.
As my friends were about 80% of the way through cutting me out, one of then happened to knick my arm. It felt a lot worse than it actually was, but I couldn't see it so I started to get worried. I could feel myself starting to go into "squeamish mode". Unfortunately for me, there was no fresh air available with all the duck tape still around me. I started to get hot and dizzy. I needed to sit down and breathe or else I was going to throw up. My friends quickly grabbed a chair and set it behind me.
This is where it gets scary. The dummy was still taped up around my neck, so when I sat down it put pressure in all of the wrong places, cutting off circulation to my head. I was too concerned with the dizziness to notice, and wound up blacking out.
Fortunately for me, I have awesome friends. Two folks at the party were EMT's and knew what was happening immediately. They worked quickly to get the dummy off, and within a few seconds I was back to consciousness. My vision came back first, which was extremely blurry, followed by a lot of strange noise in my ears as the blood flow returned. I couldn't move any part of my body for another few seconds.
When I could finally see again, everyone in the house was circled around me, looking panicked. I had no idea what had happened, but apparently I did a lot of strange things (noises, twitching, etc) while I was out. I felt like I had the worst hangover in history. My entire body was shaking, my head hurt, and my stomach was the most nauseous it's ever felt in my life.
After my friends finally got my cut out of the dummy, I ended up in the fetal position on the kitchen floor with a bucket for the next hour and a half or so while I calmed down. As of this writing, my stomach is still bothering me.
I have to be thankful for the friends I have. Everyone there was really supportive of me.
A note of advice for anyone planning on making a DTD for the first time? Do the neck last, and cut it first.
I think it reminds us all to just be careful and mindful that something like this could happen to anyone in the future.
I've taped up a lot of people since then, my mate and I have gotten really good at it. Also thanks to the duct tape dispenser I made, we can tape someone up, from start to cut-out, in about an hour.
I remember when my hubby got stabbed while on duty (LE), we were all the at the hospital and in great spirits, he was the cracking all the jokes off and making all of us laugh. Then the Dr. came by and briefed us on what was going to happen, and so 1-2-3 out it came. We all thought everything was fine till his speech started to slur, his pupils fully dialated turning solid black, full body sweat, ghost white, and going completely limp (and at 200+lbs of solid muscle, he ain't lite). He only remembers the count down and then waking up, but everything in between he has no knowledge of.
So yeah, glad to hear that you're ok and safe.