Sorry about my silence the last couple weeks.

Alright, now that I'm through 'the darkness' I'm getting caught up. Gotta say December through February is rough for me mentally with mental illness.

A great benefit of online play is that you can do everything at a pace comfortable for you. Step into character when it helps relieve stress and know that as much or as little as you interact with us only serves to enhance our experience, it is truly a pleasure to glimpse your beautiful soul :)

More health issues. Been in hospital for past 11 days. Transitioning to rehab soon. Will update when I can.

A ice storm took out my home internet. Typing this from cell. Will update when fixed. Hopefully by the time I get of eork tomorrow morning.

Stay warm and safe.

Ok....home internet is still....down. But I am now using my cell phone as a hotspot so I can at least start typing up a post. :)

So while I was stuck in the hospital bed for two weeks, I wrote and rewrote this post in my head several times. Don't remember any of it now, so here's the newest version.

THE NEVER-ENDING STORY...

The Missing Chapter: when I was discharged from the hospital back in January, I was sent home with a Foley catheter, which was more of an annoyance and handicap for my home rehab at the time. Managed to get an appointment with the VA  urologist two weeks later. He thought I should never have been sent home with it, but it was time to get it removed. Took a week of scheduling shuffles but finally went home without it on the following Thursday.

That Friday night when getting ready for bed, I lost my balance while setting something on the floor and fell over on my back onto the concrete floor. My housemate helped me get up and everything seemed fine once I was back out in the recliner. Nope. Come Saturday, I was in excruciating pain across all the muscles in my chest and back. Doan's, Aleve, Tylenol didn't help at all. Monday added a heating pad... better. Wednesday, switched to BenGay... better, but still couldn't sleep, so Thursday went back to the VA for some stronger pain meds.

That doctor saw the previous records and thought I might be having a pulmonary embolism and immediately did an ambulance transfer to the ER. 6 hours later the ER doctor decided that wasn't the case and sent me home with vicadin. Didn't do anything but pharmacy was closed so had to wait till the next day to get more.

After that, everything was fine for a few hours. Mid-afternoon, I suddenly couldn't move my legs!

EMT/PD shortly had me back in the ER. MRI of head and neck revealed a tumor in my C2 vertebra. Had spinal surgery next morning! Being the weekend, it took 4 days to get the pathology back which identified it as prostate cancer. Caught it early and getting chemo, and now in rehab to walk again.

Other than that, I'm in great health (for my age)! Probably 4-6 weeks in rehab before I go home.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 11):

Dang, man, and I thought I had bad luck. I'm very glad they caught it and I hope things continue to improve for you!

Wow  yea, at least it was found early. Prostate cancer can easily have no noticable symptoms until the late stage so all of that misfortune might be the better path in the long run. I hope you see a full recovery.

Hi team,

It's been a good game for the short duration I've been in, but sadly I've decided to leave.

Best wishes for the future, and I'm happy to consider that Sala has found his way back and donated his received items back into the party treasure pool.

Too bad!  Best of luck for the future, Sala.

Good god. I was leaving due to lack of action. Now the game goes mental...

Mostly it'd cooled its jets because I've been having Health issues since the beginning of December.... just one thing after another. Still recovering, but getting back into it.

Is it ok if I rescind that withdrawal? I don't think I missed too much other than this latest fight

Absolutely. Welcome back!

This is a slow burn game. Sometimes it goes quickly....sometimes its an update twice a month. I get my fix by roleplaying in another game that has a higher tempo. This game is mostly laid back and relaxing. :)

Sadly, my life is getting increasingly busy and I find myself unable to match even the pace of this game.  I am going to retire for now, hopefully with the option to rejoin at some point in the future.  I appreciate being able to be a small part of this while I lasted.  Take care everyone, especially you StarMaster.  I hope you get better and stay well!

“Sorcery, thaumaturgy, enchantment, and mysticism — STEM

“That’s where the gold is.”

Hysterical.

Ero may be a jerk, but his player is a gem :)

Yes!

Despite the fighting between Ero and Nyssia, the player and I are having sooooo much fun with this.

I'm enjoying it immensely.  I'm glad I gave up his flowery speeches though.  It was taking me an hour to write posts because I had to replace every simple word with the most complicated I could find.  Thesaurus.com was even sick of me.

Feel free to pick on him as much as you want.  Just remember he is a wizard with a penchant for fireballs.

Then again, what wizard doesn't?

Rolled up 3 rounds in case things moved while I was off-grid, forgot to clarify that but I'm back now.

Hi all

Just wanted to drop in and say hi and give an update to my extended absence. My 14yo son passed away suddenly and unexpectedly over Christmas. Needless to say this was a huge shock and we have had a lot to deal with. I am hoping to be back at some point, but as to a timescale I couldn't say.

Happy for GM to NPC Willem as needed, but can be removed if necessary.

I'm so sorry to hear that, Willem.  I can only imagine what you're going through.  My deepest condolences.