Try to contain your shock at a new post.

It’s not as if I’ve wanted to let things languish for the past four months. But some things have been going on that kept me away, and instead of getting terribly in-depth at the moment, I’ll summarize:

• Real Life Work (TM) has been busy and some projects were taking up my time and mentally draining me.
• Health issues arose. I spent the 3 weeks out of commission at the end of April and  half of May in and out of the hospital with a bout of acute pancreatitis. This included a solid 2 weeks at two hospitals, losing about 20 pounds (actually more, at one point). I was discharged initially with orders to have an IV at home. Those 4 days were some of the worst I had ever experienced. I could barely walk, I grew very dehydrated (which wound up being due in part to a PICC line that was not properly fixed after a minor mishap at the hospital) and lost 12 pounds in those 4 days. By that 4th day I was vomiting bile (I hadn’t eaten or barely drank anything in almost 2 weeks by that point) and went to another hospital for a second opinion / better care. What a difference that made. I was there another 5 days and by the end I was feeling so much better. Then it was home to recover, and I was surprised by how much of a hit my stamina took. I could get up and around but got tired very easily and couldn’t be up for extended periods of time.  I am very grateful to my boss at work and co-workers for their concern and flexibility in dealing with my illness; it definitely helped.
• Getting back up to speed and back to feeling normal took a bit. I’m on a low fat, low carb diet that I am trying to follow and am on some meds to help with my diabetes and cholesterol. Being in the hospital was a profound experience and made me examine some things about my life, my choices, and my health that were hard but for good reasons. I’ll probably write about that experience at some point down the road…
• My wife went to Los Angeles to visit a friend for 5 days, so I played Mr. Mom. That was nice spending that kind of time with the kids but also a little stressful. I’m a worrier, so having Karen away for that amount of time (for the first time ever since we’ve been together) and my ever-present anxiety about flying had me a bit distracted, but she’s home now, so it’s all good.
• My entry in the Dome audio drama series was released! But that deserves it’s own entry…