Hello again you fountain of awesome people.
I have been remiss in my updates - a fact that I will be trying to correct right now
My Big Floppy HeartAfter seeing a cardiologist we are not really closer to definitively saying that "Event X" triggered my sickness. For my age, the most likely cause was a virus that attacked the muscle of my heart leaving it weakened and stretched out. the other less likely option was some kind of mild heart attack.
The end result is that my heart is pumping at 50% efficiency and it knows this - so it's also trying to pump at twice the speed to compensate. This causes all the fluid circulation of the body to be thrown off. A side effect of this makes a foamy spit like substance seep into my lungs - the cause of my hack and cough, while more fluids leak into the soft tissues of my legs and feet causing them to swell. Overall this condition is called
Congestive Heart Failure. Wheeee.
The best option right now is medication. I'm taking a cocktail of med's to lower my blood pressure in the Doctor's hope that my heart can just heal itself. Right now we are trying to acclimate my body to the medication so that the dosages can slowly be increased. Since I started the med's my appetite has been easily cut in half; and some days it is hard to eat anything. On the upside I've lost 25lbs.
Super Awesome People Are Super Awesome Again I want to thank all the people that have gone out of their way to stop by, offer help, car rides, company, and generally just
been there for Eli and I
The various spontaneous fund raisers blew me away. Thank you's go out to everyone who felt the need to pitch in (even if you couldn't - I TOTALLY understand - the compassion and urge to help is a sign of your better nature and I want give you all a cookie). Special Thanks to
Whimsy Beading , Joel and
the fine folks at Studio2/PEG and of course
Phil and Kaja Foglio, without whom I would be a curled ball of panic.
I have applied for kind of "charity care" which we hope will mitigate the costs of the hospital stay. We still haven't seen any of the actual bill's yet so we don't know how deep I'm in for.
The Future - Where We All Will Spend The Rest of Our LivesAs I write this it is 13 days to a super clogged convention weekend. Phil will be down in San Francisco for Wondercon - a convention I often would attend with him in the past. Meanwhile - Kaja will be holding down the fort at SakuraCon here in the Seattle convention center. And Eli's
Handmade Horrors line of crocheted Cthulhu's and beholders will be making their Norwescon premiere.
I don't know if I'll be at any of these (Wondercon is right out) but I want to be at all of them. The summer gaming cons (Origins, Gencon) are probably also out of the picture for me this year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Comic-Con International in San Diego. I'd hate to miss that - although my usefulness is greatly diminished and SDCC does demand all of your soul.
One con that I am locking in, and will not miss -
Steamcon 2. After the fantastic job they did last year I was already sold on it this year - but with Jake von Slatt coming back, and my buddy Shane "Deadlands" Hensley as the games guest.... well I've already booked my room reservations.
