'Where the hell have you been, Kad?!' Well, funny you should ask...

It's been a while since I last did a journal. I've been pretty quiet the past few months, and I have a lot to cover, so I'll just get started!

Health Issues

Since late March, I've been dealing with some issues in my leg. I had some muscle aches and swelling behind my left knee. I went to the doctor and he said it was tendinitis and prescribed me some anti-inflammatory meds. I went through those and a refill pack, and while it got better, the swelling and aches returned, and got worse. I went to a different doc and she said it was possibly a baker's cyst, and scheduled me with a specialist. At this point I couldn't even sit at my chair for more than a few minutes without being in pain, which effectively ground my drawing to a halt. I saw the specialist and she said I had no noticeable issues - no inflammation, cysts, muscle, bone, joint or ligament issues. She did an ultrasound on my leg and found no problems. She wondered if it was a pinched nerve, and prescribed some oral steroids.

I finished those as of yesterday, and despite making me incredibly moody/depressed, I don't know if the meds really did as much. What I think *did* help was a rigid schedule of bedrest, walking, stretching and strengthening exercises, hot baths and using hot and cold compresses. I did some of these before, but now I'm doing them consistently and spending little (if any) time at my desk, and now I've noticed a marked improvement.

I've been told by friends that I may have sciatica, but that usually involves a herniated disc or a lower back nerve having issues - and I have zero problems with my lower back. The real trouble spot is my left pelvic joint, and the thigh, and that's where I've been concentrating the healing procedure at. The more that spot gets stretched or warmed, the better I feel, so I think it's possible I have a pinched nerve in the joint, or the muscles just got super tense. At least, I'm hoping that's it, and it's nothing that requires surgery. At least I'm feeling better, so that's a good sign.

This whole thing was started by the chair I was using at the time. It was an old chair, and the seat was flat. Despite adding a pillow for cushioning, it was still awkward, forcing me to sit in ways that would either make me slouch or put more pressure on my knees. I think this just gradually caused the issues I've been dealing with this year. I got a new chair, too.

So, that's why I've been so distant the past 4 or 5 months. It's been tough for me to sit for more than a few minutes without distracting discomfort/borderline pain. I had to buckle through it to get my Anthrocon books ready in time, but that really made it harder on me. I apologise for not getting back to people's comments or questions sooner.

Anthrocon

I wanted to give a belated thank you to everyone who stopped by the dealer table or otherwise hung out with Kaylii and I at AC 2013! It was a pleasure talking to many of you, and I had a great time, and was able to keep my mind off my leg problems during most of the con. The whole weekend is kind of a blur for me, but it was because we were busy but having a lot of fun. Hope everyone had no issues arriving home safely after the con!

Website

So I launched a website the day the convention started, but... I'm actually shifting my digital comics and such over to a different site. A lot of people are asking about this, but I can't say much at the moment. I'll be doing some promotions for it when it goes live, which should be later this month. Please stay tuned for news!

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So, that's pretty much what's been going on this year for me. It's been pretty rough at times, but I'm hoping things are finally all calming down and I can get back to work as normal. I've got some pretty sweet stuff I'm looking forward to sharing with you, so I hope when things get back on track, I can start showing updates on some of these projects I'm working on. Thanks for reading!