Not a number I ever thought I’d see. Seems like yesterday I was just tossing out stuff on FA just to see what’d stick, and now here we are. Before I go any further with this journal, thank you. I would not have gotten this far without your comments and support.

Now I've been debating for a while now on whether to explain my sporadic lack of activity over the past two years. Initially I thought maybe I should just put on a strong face and pretend it wasn’t that bad, but now I think I owe you all an explanation on what’s really been going on behind the scenes. Even now I wonder how much of this is gonna be in “too much information” territory, but hopefully this’ll be enough to paint the picture without making people reel from their screens.

So back in mid 2020, I had to have some surgery done in order to counteract some potentially worse issues from going down (in a word, torsion). It was supposed to just be a one and done procedure. Though as with all things pertaining to Murphy’s Law, nothing quite went according to plan.

All during recovery and after, I was wracked with constant pain. At first I thought it was just par for the course, but it didn’t seem to be letting up well after things had healed up. Naturally I started reaching for the Tylenol but unfortunately I’d come to find out that can lead to its own share of problems as by January of 2021 I now had pain “down low” and up top in the form of piercing rebound headaches. Naturally, such a physical state didn’t leave me in a very productive mood for writing, or much else for that matter. By September the state of things hadn’t improved and in fact was deteriorating to the point I finally went and sought help (a saga in of itself)

I was able to get the headaches and the funk in check, but unfortunately the mystery pain remained. After a constant back and forth with the local urologist basically going “we didn’t find anything wrong with you, see you in two months” all while suffering with a sensation that felt like someone was trying to pull one of my “two veg” through my pelvis, they finally just went “well we don’t know what's wrong with you, let's get you one painkillers.” Not quite what I was looking for, I wanted answers, not more drugs. So I went and sought out the best professionals in the state. Finally in May (yes, this May) I was able to net an appointment with them and get some tests done. Turns out it was caused by inflammation brought on by an infection (the other possible theory was “failed surgery” which I don’t dare ponder too hard) that had stuck around for almost two years. Turns out if it’s not directly connected to your urinary tract, it doesn’t pop up on those sorts of tests. So with the culprit narrowed down, I was handed some antibiotics and sent on my way.

So after all that you’d assume this is all finally done and sorted, right?

No.

While the antibiotics cut the pain down, it’s opened a whole new can of worms. Instead of a few days of absolute agony and a few days without, it’s now every day, just much lessened. And just to add salt to the wound, the professionals are booked to the point I won’t be able to see them again in person until October. There are some “scorched earth” options they put on the table but I’d rather not contemplate them right now. So yeah, a saga of pain that still hasn’t quite wrapped itself up. When will it end? I’m not sure, but I figured you at least deserved to know what’s been going on.

Addendum: Ok, after a brief ponder, I figured maybe I shouldn't end the journal on that bleak of a note, especially after just uploading the lion tribe thing. Fallout Commando is still being poked at, I just need to make up my mind exactly how I want some interactions to pan out. Also keep an eye out for some new commissions I ordered up in the near future