Word of my demise
exaggerated, and at
most, inaccurate
To say I've been gone far too long is an understatement, and part of the reason was our loss of my beloved Bear, pictured in the photo above. He was my friend, my furkid, my love, and my familiar, and one of the wisest old souls I've ever known, even when he was a kitten.
We lost him a year ago on 12 May. I will miss him always.
And, fittingly in a way, I am writing this - my reintroduction to this awesome Hive community - on the birthday of one of my closest friends, whom we lost twenty years ago last March. He and Bear would undoubtedly have been fast friends.
Bear's loss was a blow, even though I knew it was coming, and was and remain grateful that I had him in my life for over sixteen years.
But although Marek and others complimented me on how well I was handling his loss, I was in reality settling into the downward slide of depression, which as those who've been there know, make it not only difficult to reach out to others, but even to function well on a daily basis.
And so, I all but ceased to write, pretty much with the exception of grocery lists, and entirely inconsequential social media posts.
Then, as the year wore on, Marek's health began declining, so when he came home for Christmas, he took off an additional three weeks to give himself time to really recover.
Except that he didn't.
We drove up to see his dad in New York, and by the time we got home, rather than feeling better, as had always been the case before, he was getting progressively worse.
When the time came for him to go back to work, he was unable to, and finally returning home from the store one day, he overbalanced on his way up the three steps to our front door, and fell. Hard.
The short version is that he spent the next SIX MONTHS being transferred between four different hospitals, during which time we had zero income, I was traveling from home almost daily to spend as much time as possible with him; first to Cookeville, half an hour to our north, and for the next three months to Chattanooga, over an hour and a half to our south.
Just the life flight from Cookeville Regional Medical Center down to Erlanger Baroness Hospital was over $69,000.
And that doesn't count the DOZENS of x-rays, MRIs, CT Scans, Ultrasounds, and other medical tests and treatments that he received over the course of his stay.
Meanwhile, I was ridiculously overstressed, not sleeping, barely eating, and my health started spiraling downward as well.
At this point, he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which the doctors admitted is a placeholder diagnosis, as there are over 100 syndromes which fit his general set of symptoms; while I now have a diagnosis of advanced Rheumatoid Arthritis, clearly stress induced, which I am determined to beat as naturally as possible.
More on that later.
The wonderful news is that Marek is doing FAR better, to the extent that many of his doctors and other health providers started calling him "Miracle Man," and despite our symptoms being largely similar, he is now walking and getting around far better than I am.
And he's getting passionate about his music once again, which is a wonderful thing, and his band, King Poyaviack, is getting noticed on Spotify.
Their newest track hit yesterday, appropriately titled, "The Evidence of Hope," which you can listen to here.
For those with Spotify accounts, please include it in your playlists, which would help them out a lot. Thanks very much.
So for me, the bottom line is, as always:
Life is wonderful, and getting better, better, and better.
This is my story, and I'm sticking with it.
So for now, I am going back to starting my posts with a haiku, which I still find to be a great writing prompt, and we'll see where it goes from there.
I'm not promising daily posts, but I am promising that I have NOT given up on Hive, have really missed our community, and am here for the long haul.
Love you all.
And yes, my banners are WAY out of date, so I'd appreciate some assistance in updating them. ;-)
#earthtribe #tribevibes #naturalmedicine #tribegloballove #poetsunited #isleofwrite #tarc #yah #ecotrain #smg #ghsc #spunkeemonkee #thirtydayhaikuchallenge #teamgood #steemsugars #teamgirlpowa #womenofsteemit #steemusa #qurator #music #rock #steemitbasicincome #bethechange #chooselove #photography #beauty #love #culture #peacemaking #peacemaker #friendship, #warmth #self-respect #respect #allowing #animals #community #unity #love
CommunityIIDiscord
Dear @crescendoofpeace,
May I ask you to review and support the Dev Marketing Proposal (https://peakd.com/me/proposals/232) we presented on Conference Day 1 at HiveFest?
The campaign aims to onboard new application developers to grow our ecosystem. If you missed the presentation, you can watch it on YouTube.
You cast your vote for the proposal on Peakd, Ecency,
Thank you!