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Current State of the Artist
Sep. 25th, 2012 10:28 amSo, it's been a hell of a summer.
As most of you probably know, I left Texas in May to work a summer job near Yosemite, after spending some time with family helping to care for my grandmother, who has Alzheimer's. I went with the expectation of putting off the artwork for awhile, but I didn't expect to be unable to keep in contact with my friends here on Live Journal. I'd worked at the Green before, and the internet was iffy then, but nowhere near as bad as it was this year. I barely had enough bandwidth and signal strength to post to Facebook every now and again. So, I put most of my focus on my job and, unfortunately, let the art take back burner for awhile.
Then my body decided to turn on me about a month and a half ago.
It started with a trip to the ER for extensive bleeding. By the time the bleeding stopped, my hemoglobin count was at 8.8. The ER did a bunch of tests, everything but what I asked them to do (an ultrasound), and did nothing at all for me. I went to a clinic a couple of days later, which didn't even examine me.
So, I was out of work for a week, barely able to get up due to the blood loss (they didn't even transfuse me at the ER). After a week, I was still feeling iffy but went back to work for five days, and promptly went down again with a flu.
Then my left leg began to hurt like a bitch. By this time, I was so tired of all of this health-related crap that I tried to ignore it and let it go away on its own-- the absolute worst thing I could have done, really. I'm lucky I'm still alive.
Finally I decided to go to the hospital-- a different hospital this time. They almost immediately did an ultrasound on my leg and found a sizable blood clot. They admitted me and set to treating it with blood thinners for a few days, and when I told my doctor about the bleeding incident, he had a CT scan done on me. They found a huge, benign mass on my uterus which was pressing against the vein in my leg, causing the clot.
So, they had to do surgery to remove the entire uterus, because the mass was so extensive.
After the surgery, it's been taking awhile to recover. The blood clot has been slowly dissipating (they started up the blood thinners again after the surgery), and my leg feels much better. (I have lost about twenty pounds of leg swelling weight in three days) I'm currently in a rehab facility, and restless as hell, ready to leave.
I'm going to be flying back to Texas as soon as I am released.
Also, once I'm recovered, I have a few promised pieces to catch up on for people, and then I'm going to start working with the art and the crowdfunding again, at long last. More on this later.
Anyway, feel free to comment and say hello and such. I'm stuck here in rehab with little to do, but I do have WiFi! (what a novel experience after this summer) So I should be able to respond in a more timely manner now. :) Hope everyone has been well!
As most of you probably know, I left Texas in May to work a summer job near Yosemite, after spending some time with family helping to care for my grandmother, who has Alzheimer's. I went with the expectation of putting off the artwork for awhile, but I didn't expect to be unable to keep in contact with my friends here on Live Journal. I'd worked at the Green before, and the internet was iffy then, but nowhere near as bad as it was this year. I barely had enough bandwidth and signal strength to post to Facebook every now and again. So, I put most of my focus on my job and, unfortunately, let the art take back burner for awhile.
Then my body decided to turn on me about a month and a half ago.
It started with a trip to the ER for extensive bleeding. By the time the bleeding stopped, my hemoglobin count was at 8.8. The ER did a bunch of tests, everything but what I asked them to do (an ultrasound), and did nothing at all for me. I went to a clinic a couple of days later, which didn't even examine me.
So, I was out of work for a week, barely able to get up due to the blood loss (they didn't even transfuse me at the ER). After a week, I was still feeling iffy but went back to work for five days, and promptly went down again with a flu.
Then my left leg began to hurt like a bitch. By this time, I was so tired of all of this health-related crap that I tried to ignore it and let it go away on its own-- the absolute worst thing I could have done, really. I'm lucky I'm still alive.
Finally I decided to go to the hospital-- a different hospital this time. They almost immediately did an ultrasound on my leg and found a sizable blood clot. They admitted me and set to treating it with blood thinners for a few days, and when I told my doctor about the bleeding incident, he had a CT scan done on me. They found a huge, benign mass on my uterus which was pressing against the vein in my leg, causing the clot.
So, they had to do surgery to remove the entire uterus, because the mass was so extensive.
After the surgery, it's been taking awhile to recover. The blood clot has been slowly dissipating (they started up the blood thinners again after the surgery), and my leg feels much better. (I have lost about twenty pounds of leg swelling weight in three days) I'm currently in a rehab facility, and restless as hell, ready to leave.
I'm going to be flying back to Texas as soon as I am released.
Also, once I'm recovered, I have a few promised pieces to catch up on for people, and then I'm going to start working with the art and the crowdfunding again, at long last. More on this later.
Anyway, feel free to comment and say hello and such. I'm stuck here in rehab with little to do, but I do have WiFi! (what a novel experience after this summer) So I should be able to respond in a more timely manner now. :) Hope everyone has been well!
