Lord help me, I'm going to try to use the new dA Watch and Nav for three days.
My initial reaction is "Oh, dear God."
It's going to be a long three days.
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Error, Error
For the longest time, I've kept forgetting that "Mirror, Error" is one of the chapters yet to come in Day Two. I'm not sure if it's chapter 8 or chapter 9, but it's before the events of "The Fox and the Snake," and probably after "Time Out." I've been working on its plot, so do better than I do and include "Mirror, Error" when you read the list of upcoming chapters 😅 Oh, and in case it's not obvious, the title is a reference to "Mirror, mirror [on the wall]." And story-wise, it involves [redacted] [redacted] getting [redacted] and then [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]. So now you know.
An Answer
Well... we have at least the beginnings of an answer on my health. I spoke with my doctor this morning. We've done test after test throughout June. And one of the tests (a renal ultrasound) has identified that the arteries leading to my kidneys are damaged: The kidneys are fine, but blood can't get to them. This explains a lot of the symptoms, especially the crazy high blood pressure. Next up is a specialized CAT scan to better locate exactly where and how the arteries are damaged (no, it's not from cholesterol). Then, likely in August or September, some kind of surgery to fix them. I have an appointment with a kidney specialist next week, and a vascular surgeon at the end of this month. So... on the plus side, yay, finally an answer for why I feel like garbage all the time and my blood pressure is through the roof: It's not salt, it's not coffee or sunlight, it's not diet, it's not exercise, it's not vitamins, it's not allergies, it's not sleep or stress, it's not
Updates
It’s been a little while since the last update. I’m not dying… probably. But we still don’t know the cause. I’ve found that if I guzzle protein shakes like they’re the last food on Earth — every meal I normally eat every day, plus the equivalent of a 12 oz steak every day — I can sometimes operate at half of normal, with less chest pain and headaches and fuzziness and weakness. Not zero, but less. I’ve seen lots of doctors over the last month or so, and had lots of blood work, a CAT scan, and an echo of my heart. The current running theory among the doctors is that maybe it’s kidneys or adrenal glands. I see lots more doctors this week, and next week, and tests and tests and tests. Those of you who had money on a stroke or heart attack can change your bets, at least. I’m arting very slowly, when I can. I have a few pages of Day Two chapter 6 drawn. WhenI can do a page, it takes the usual time, a half hour or so per panel. But I don’t have the constitution for the character portraits I used to do; sitting for even a few hours and focusing is almost impossible right now. I wrote even this on my phone in bed, after one of my regular daily naps. Schedule-wise, I won’t start posting chapter 6 here until I can be sure there won’t be any interruptions in it — it needs to be posted weekly or not at all. That said, I’m going to start posting pages on the Patreon as I draw them, so there’s at least some content that appears there. You can decide for yourself if you want to wait for it all at once however far in the future, or have a slow trickle now for a little cash. …which sadly is likely to be spent on medical bills instead of art tools, but that’s life now for a while. Anyway, there you go. Content, of a sort. Less than usual, but more than nothing.
Issue
For the last several weeks I’ve been dealing with a bad and mysterious growing medical condition. Despite the doctors’ best efforts, it is continuing to worsen. I was in the hospital two weeks ago from it. My employer has now suggested I go on disability. The major symptoms, so that you have some understanding of what’s going on, are stratospherically-high blood pressure (212/134!), headaches, chest pains, fatigue and low energy, wooziness/lightheadedness, and brain fog/fuzziness. Some days are better, some days are worse. Right now, I’m writing this in bed on my phone and can barely move. The doctors have run tests but still do not know the cause, and the various medications and treatments we’ve tried seem to have little effect. The effects of this seem to get overall a little worse every day, and there doesn’t seem to be any way yet to truly slow or stop whatever this is. These symptoms now make it very hard to draw. Or write. Our focus. Or, honestly, to walk across a room without falling over, or to focus well enough to answer many questions in complete sentences. I really want to be doing stuff here again — I would love to be starting chapter six — but there’s a good reason you haven’t seen a lot of new content from me lately. Until this is resolved, I’m on hiatus of some kind for — however long it takes. I don’t want to be. But I have to be. (And please don’t suggest causes or treatments in the comments: Even if you mean well, I get far too many “helpful suggestions” already that just waste what energy I have left.)
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Well, three days have passed. Any word/words?