Leave of Absence

I’ve been gone for awhile. It wasn’t intentional. Been an interesting time.

Quick version: They determined there was severe infection in my jaw. That required dental surgery, the removal of all my teeth and a denture. Okay, not so bad. I couldn’t talk for a while, but still survivable.

Of course, then the antibiotics they game me caused an allergic reaction. So we had to start on a different set. Those knocked me out. And neither did the job; the infection decided it would spread. Cue the next three months where they couldn’t decide what was wrong with me, but had reached the point where they were talking spinal taps to figure it out; all this while I’m unable to eat, unable to sleep properly, barely able to talk, and running to the toilet every few minutes to vomit.

That may have been slightly over-descriptive, but c’est la vie. My lack of activity was not voluntary. They finally killed it by shooting me up with some kind of super antibiotic mixed with steroids, but that has its own problems; the city of Salem has been suffering from an overabundance of algae in the water supply, toxic on its own right and only made worse by the chemicals they started dumping in to kill the algae. Normal people are recommended to stay away from the water, and for those with compromised immune systems – such as, say, someone who is on three different steroids normally and is extremely prone to bronchial infections, has just completed three different courses of antibiotics, and has two extra steroids mixed in there, too – it’s damn near deadly. Found that out when I drank a pot of coffee the day after they lifted the water advisory only to discover they slapped it back down that afternoon.

So, yeah. Been having a lot of fun trying to just keep breathing and functioning. Haven’t gotten much writing done as a result. I was doing well to be fully conscious for five hours a day or so, most of that hiding in the bathroom with my Vita or an old paperback.

Things should be going back to normal, now. Fingers crossed.