I know, it’s been awhile since I last posted and that I haven’t posted any new writing exercises or Word Wars. There’s several reasons for that. This blog was turning into all writing exercises all the time and that wasn’t what I wanted. There are tons of other blogs out there who cover writing exercises, many far better than I can. For people who might be interested, I’ll put together a list of my favorite writing exercise spots in another post.

So I’m making another go at this, going back to what I originally intended: a place that covers writing, particularly my writing, both in fiction and in RPGs. I haven’t given up on writing and I haven’t given up on this blog. In fact, the main reasons you haven’t heard much from me here or on Facebook are 1) because I’ve been knee-deep in How to Think Sideways (HTTS) homework and 2) life events in general, including an emergency room visit that’s currently having me running from one doctor to another.

Yup, it looks like the medication that supposed to keep me going and functional sent me to the ER. I woke up two weeks ago with some heartburn. That’s not unusual: I’ve been on anti-inflammatory medication for over twenty years now and it really chews up the stomach lining. I’m taking two major antacids to help keep that from happening. Usually with heartburn, if I sit up and wait a little, it calms down enough that I can get to my medication, including said antacids.

Not this time. When I sat up, my upper chest area muscles contracted. Hard. Right behind the breast bone. It felt like my body was trying to squeeze my heart and lungs out through my esophagus. I starting to have trouble breathing. I was also taking a antibiotic I’d never taken before–generally not a good thing: they tend to land me in the ER as I discover I have to add something else to my list of known allergies. But I needed to take them in preparation for oral surgery I was supposed to have–well–that morning, actually. John called the oral surgeon, then bundled me into the car for the 40-mile trip to Wake Med.

Fastest admittance I’ve ever had to the ER. Even faster than the last time I tried a new antibiotic and had a throat that was swelling closed. The woman at the front desk looked at me, asked “Chest pain?” I nodded and she and a nurse who appeared at my side took me straight into triage. I wasn’t in triage very long before they ushered me into a room. By this point, my chest pain had eased up some. They stuck me with an IV and started pouring all kinds of things into my body. I don’t remember exactly what they gave me. I did refuse the morphine. I’d had enough narcotics last year as I prepared to test for my second degree black belt (a story I’ll tell another time). Apparently few people do that, since all the hospital-related people in my room seemed shocked that I didn’t want it. That, or it was my insanely high pain tolerance poking it’s head up again. They asked me several times if I was sure.

To make an already long story short, after a whole battery of tests, including a trip through the Stargate (MRI. Does anyone else get the urge to shout “Chevron One encoding” as they slide you in?), it turned out I wasn’t having a heart attack. It was severe acid reflux and my esophagus was extremely raw, hence the chest cramping. But since my family has a history of heart disease, I have to go through the Parade of Specialists to make sure everything is completely okay. They’ve taken me off of my current anti-inflammatory and put me on a new one (which means I have the fun of having no anti-inflammatory in my system for about a month as Celebrex builds up to “therapeutic levels”.

But I’m actually doing really well, apart from the odyssey I described above the aforementioned oral surgery, now rescheduled for next week. I suspect it was time for me to switch anti-inflammatories. The last time I had to switch, I (and my doctor) thought I had appendicitis. My life is nothing, if not colorful. But even with all of this, I’m still writing and haven’t fallen too far behind my HTTS homework. And I’ve even come up with an idea for a line of jewelry based on the Major Arcana.

I’ll keep y’all posted as things develop.

Live boldly. There may not be a later.

[Photo courtesy of postmemes.com via Flickr Creative Commons]

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