Sort of.
Apologies to my readers for the year long silence in the blogosphere. Here's a quick update of what has been happening in my life (Haa! As if you're interested, really! -- Or maybe you are?).
In November 2012, I had to quit my environmental laboratory job due to poor health. Little did I know that this "poor health" flare up is likely to be a permanent thing. Before some people chip in and say "Suck it up, Buttercup!" let me give you a brief overview -- I was feeling SHITTY literally and metaphorically. Yup, my gastrointestinal symptoms just wouldn't go away -- so it was a pretty foecal situation to be in (i.e. I cannot wander far from a functioning bathroom, or at least have a shovel handy when outdoors).
Along with this colicky tummy, comes the incessant fatigue, the fluey all body pain, vomiting, nausea ... the whole works. And weird weird rashes that gets mega-infected, and does not respond to antibiotics.
From a person who is a certified workaholic (I used to clock 40 to 80 hours a week back in the UK, and up to when I quite from my job in Calgary, I clocked a respectable 40 hours a week) to needing maybe 10-14 hours sleep a day, and constant rest, it was (and still is) very very depressing.
In May this year, we (my other 2/3, myself and my cat) uprooted from Calgary to Yellowknife. My other 2/3 had a job offer that he couldn't refuse. Where I got progressively sicker, probably from the stress of the move, and the constant worry of "why can't my doctors fix me?" and wondering if I'll ever get back to my hobbies of tanning deer hides, hunting and identifying wild fungus, photography, incessant babbling on the blog, etc etc, ad infinitum.
In July (by this time I was shitting blood, and intermittently going into shock), finally a doctor decided to test me for parasites, coeliac disease, Crohn's Disease, colon cancer -- and lo and Behold, I have a massive C difficile infection and on my way to develop Toxic Megacolon. Well and truly emergency. No shit, Sherlock!
Now, 4 months later, several emergency admissions, powerful antibiotics, various scans, I am still no closer to what I can normally identify as "normal health for someone with connective tissue disorder". And doctors are still not too sure what is wrong. The C difficile is gone (so far), but my immune system is now attacking me. More doctor trips and feeling like a hot potato being passed from one clueless Medicine Man to another.
So there, I hope this sort of explains why I've disappeared from my page for so long.
I'm still hanging on, though. Friday just past, 25th October, marked my one year anniversary of being really really deathly sick. I've kinda come to terms to my different level of abilities, for now. But for now, I've turned to literature and poetry as means to "vent out".
Memento Mori**
===========
The fallen leaves have done their tasks
In summer sun they did all bask
To ground they fall amongst dead grass
Broken down, ground, turned to dust
The trees they kept fed and hale
in turbulent winds, and falling hail
It makes me easy to believe
I will fall one day, like autumn leaves.
** Memento Mori is Latin for "Remember, for one day you will die"
Apologies to my readers for the year long silence in the blogosphere. Here's a quick update of what has been happening in my life (Haa! As if you're interested, really! -- Or maybe you are?).
In November 2012, I had to quit my environmental laboratory job due to poor health. Little did I know that this "poor health" flare up is likely to be a permanent thing. Before some people chip in and say "Suck it up, Buttercup!" let me give you a brief overview -- I was feeling SHITTY literally and metaphorically. Yup, my gastrointestinal symptoms just wouldn't go away -- so it was a pretty foecal situation to be in (i.e. I cannot wander far from a functioning bathroom, or at least have a shovel handy when outdoors).
Along with this colicky tummy, comes the incessant fatigue, the fluey all body pain, vomiting, nausea ... the whole works. And weird weird rashes that gets mega-infected, and does not respond to antibiotics.
From a person who is a certified workaholic (I used to clock 40 to 80 hours a week back in the UK, and up to when I quite from my job in Calgary, I clocked a respectable 40 hours a week) to needing maybe 10-14 hours sleep a day, and constant rest, it was (and still is) very very depressing.
In May this year, we (my other 2/3, myself and my cat) uprooted from Calgary to Yellowknife. My other 2/3 had a job offer that he couldn't refuse. Where I got progressively sicker, probably from the stress of the move, and the constant worry of "why can't my doctors fix me?" and wondering if I'll ever get back to my hobbies of tanning deer hides, hunting and identifying wild fungus, photography, incessant babbling on the blog, etc etc, ad infinitum.
In July (by this time I was shitting blood, and intermittently going into shock), finally a doctor decided to test me for parasites, coeliac disease, Crohn's Disease, colon cancer -- and lo and Behold, I have a massive C difficile infection and on my way to develop Toxic Megacolon. Well and truly emergency. No shit, Sherlock!
Now, 4 months later, several emergency admissions, powerful antibiotics, various scans, I am still no closer to what I can normally identify as "normal health for someone with connective tissue disorder". And doctors are still not too sure what is wrong. The C difficile is gone (so far), but my immune system is now attacking me. More doctor trips and feeling like a hot potato being passed from one clueless Medicine Man to another.
So there, I hope this sort of explains why I've disappeared from my page for so long.
I'm still hanging on, though. Friday just past, 25th October, marked my one year anniversary of being really really deathly sick. I've kinda come to terms to my different level of abilities, for now. But for now, I've turned to literature and poetry as means to "vent out".
Memento Mori**
===========
The fallen leaves have done their tasks
In summer sun they did all bask
To ground they fall amongst dead grass
Broken down, ground, turned to dust
The trees they kept fed and hale
in turbulent winds, and falling hail
It makes me easy to believe
I will fall one day, like autumn leaves.
** Memento Mori is Latin for "Remember, for one day you will die"
Look into shamanism. See if anything, especilly anything in your ethnic or regional backgrounds jumps out at you. If so start looking into it. That should actually connect just fine with your skinning, tanning and hunting.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love your blog, especially the salt drying and bark tanning. Fantasticlly informative. Thank you!
Thank you for your comment. I was thinking along those lines, sort of. I was brought up a Muslim, so I'm still leaning more into the monotheistic concept (more mystical Sufism branch appeals to me -- Monotheism to me means "Oneness with the Universe), but I've been getting comments from some First Nations friends that my "totem speaks so loud it shouts" LOL.
DeleteNot too sure what that means, but I guess I'll find out!
Looking forward to getting a portion of moose hide to work on from a fellow hunter friends in YK this year, so will post my attempt to work it!