Where I've Been and Where I'm Going

Quick summary, since attention spans aren't what they used to be:

I've been sick and/or injured in some way, shape, or form since about May. I'm well on the road to recovery and perpetual observation. Shop isn't closing. I've still been making some art (not as much as I'd like, but...) and now I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things. New releases are coming soon.

The attention span thing is a joke.

Sadly, everything else is not.

I don't wanna go too deep into it. I already wrote a very long, more detailed version of this and I stopped halfway through because I didn't know if I wanted to reveal that much personal health information. I was worried it might be a little... TMI.

That and honestly? This is really hard to talk about. I'm still processing everything.

To broad stroke it:

1. I injured my hands in May overdoing it while painting and drawing.
2. Found a lump on my body where there shouldn't be one.
3. Doctor, ultrasound tech and surgeon don't know what it is.
4. I get surgery. Had some inflammation that was so bad that I had to go to the ER about a week after.
5. Turns out, I have a very rare disease called Extranodal Rosai-Dorfman Disease. About 1 in 200,000 people get it. Basically, my body likes to make a lot of a certain white blood cell and these cells like to group up and form benign tumors. That's what they took out.
6. They don't know why people get it. It works differently for everyone who has it, so I had to have a battery of tests. Blood tests, scans, physical exams, etc. Loooot of testing and uncertainty.
7. Right now, it's lookin' like I have to be monitored because there aren't any more significant lumps. Unfortunately, the specialist said it's likely that I'm gonna have to be monitored and tested for the rest of my life.
8. It's been a lot.
9. Oh, and right when I was about to come back in late December/early January, I got COVID. Then that turned into some sort of (or perhaps I caught?) some weird illness and I was on antibiotics for awhile.
10. Since then, I've been recovering and slowly getting back into a proper routine. 

I feel like this list made everything sound really bad. I'm relatively okay now. My stamina still needs some work, but I'm handling it.

I have follow-ups and blood tests to look forward to next month, so there's that. Tooootally looking forward to telling my specialist that I got COVID. Hooray. 

I thought about saying something much earlier, but I didn't really know how to handle it.

I had no idea what was going to happen. RDD affects everyone differently. There isn't even a definitive cause for it. I wanted to keep everything as hush hush as possible. I guess... I thought if I kept it quiet, I could just bury it and pretend none of it happened.

But it did. 

Hell, I didn't even want to tell my friends and family (outside of my mother, which is unavoidable, because we live in the same house). I did, and I'm glad. I have the best support system I could ask for. I love my friends. I love my family. They've been amazing. So has my therapist. Had him before all of this, and I've still got him now. 

So... now what?

Um, well. I've somehow managed to make some art during this very weird time period that'll be released soon. I also have a bunch of things I was planning on releasing before my life went haywire. In short:

I'm back, taking orders, making art, and doing it at my own pace, one day at a time. 

Anyway, this blog post is significantly longer than I intended, so I'm going to wrap things up.

Thank you for reading.

I adore you all.

I missed you all.

I can't wait to hear about what's been going on in your lives.

Love,
Rese