Hello! It's been almost six months since I went inactive. Unfortunately, a bunch of things got in the way of this account, and I had to extend my hiatus, which was meant to end in mid-August-

As my Twitter/X followers may be aware, our household was hit by some mild floods back in August. We're perfectly OK now, and thankfully this did not end up in any big losses; however, this resulted in everything getting dirty, and having to disinfect the entire place. Needless to say, this was VERY exhausting (especially for me, for reasons that I'll get to in a second).
Once we got our footing back, I underwent some long-overdue medical studies, as my body had been strangely weak and fatigued for over a year now, with no apparent sign of improvement. It was quite stressful, but my doctors were absolute sweethearts, and made the process as comfortable as they could. I was dealing with a lot of anxieties while navigating potential diagnoses, and to my relief, a lot of the scarier options were scratched out. Now, I wasn't as lucky as I wanted to be, and I did end up with one diagnosis in particular, which I want to talk about:

I was recently diagnosed with Idiopathic Dysautonomia, an autonomic nervous system disorder. This means that there is a defect in the way my autonomic system works, and it results in my body not being able to self-regulate like it should. If you're familiar with POTS, ID shares a lot of symptoms with it, as they're both forms of dysautonomia. This has caused me a lot of problems in the past: tiredness when doing simple physical work; weakness in my legs, sometimes to the point of struggling to stand up; tachycardia, vertigo, tremors... I could go on, but I think you get the point ദ്ദി╥ ᴗ ╥)
There's no cure, so this is something I'll be dealing with for the rest of my life. A bit of a bummer, I know, but it's not all doom and gloom (I promise!!). I'm currently undergoing treatment to relieve my symptoms, and it has helped, even if just a little bit; I still feel weaker than I was a few years ago, but it's something!

Obviously, all of this has meant a lot of changes, both for me, and my family. This is also not the only thing I'm being treated for, my other "issues" have become much less of a hindrance as of lately, and for that reason, I feel confident enough to return to this account, once again! Seeing how everything's going, I hope this is the last hiatus I take for a very, very, long time. I'll keep on drawing, wonky nervous system and all!

Cheers for the new year, and please stay tuned for more art from your favorite squid-cat! :3