Some background before I get into recent events
In February of 2008 my husband contracted diverticulitis. He had a colostomy for six weeks, then was put back together and sent home. Within days he was suffering pain and fever and had to be hospitalized again. After a course of strong antibiotics, he came home, only to develop a fistula connecting the bowel where it was sewn back together to the incision site. There are few things more terrifying than seeing poop come out of the front of someone's stomach. Once again he was hospitalized and given antibiotics, then they sent him home, hoping that it would heal on its own. By this point it was late March. DH is an accountant and in the US our deadline to file taxes is April 15, so he was feeling the pressure to get back to work ASAP. He tried to work, but after two days he fell very ill, this time with peritonitis. There were so many infected cysts in his abdomen they thought he might die. He got another colostomy, then spent weeks in the ICU. I had him transferred to the Cleveland Clinic to consult with a specialist, who insisted that he wait another seven months before having the surgery to reconnect his bowel again. So DH spent the better part of a year pooping into a bag on his belly. Once he was reconnected, we crossed our fingers and hoped that it was over.
Nope. In February of 2011 he complained of severe abdominal pain. A CT scan in the ER revealed a ventral hernia --basically, he had been cut open so many times that the inside of his abdominal wall is like swiss cheese. Sometimes his small intestine pokes through one of those holes into his muscles, requiring an operation to fix. This time, he was able to come home right away and he was back at work in a week, but the surgeon warned us it could happen again.
The weekend before Christmas, it did. Another ER visit, another hernia. But it's not an emergency, and the earliest available date for surgery was Feb 5. So DH has just been making do with strong pain meds. He tried to work, but he got so exhausted that his performance suffered. His firm offered him short term disability leave, so he's home until the surgery. This time, though, they will implant a mesh, and that will hopefully prevent future hernias.
I have been working part time since last August, from home, which sounds great on the surface, but I underestimated how much of my free time it would eat up, especially when I take on extra work. I barely keep up with everything else, like kids activities and chores and showering.
And on top of all that, both of us are trying to repair over ten years worth of damage and no dental visits on our respective teeth now that we finally have some dental insurance, but of course it can't be simple. I need something like twelve fillings, a root canal, my wisdom teeth removed and a cyst on my tongue removed. But hubby's problems are worse--crowns, implants, root canals, it's nuts--so I have to put my needs aside until we finish taking care of him.
With all this my passing desire to find a new fandom to get into has died. It kinda sucks. I still have fic ideas and stuff I wanted to talk about, but I just can't find the time. I am doing my best to finsh the beta of
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ljwrites 's mega-opus Shadow of the Dragon King because we are soooo close to the end...but I can't do anything else.
So I dunno. This account will be open. Maybe I'll come back, once I fall head over heels with something wonderful and need an outlet for the squee. Until then, take care.
