update: i went to the ER! (i'm totally fine now!)

hello friends!!!

i'm so sorry for my radio silence on here this month — i was quietly working away on new products for the shop, but last wednesday i got a gnarly stomach pain. (i also spent a lot of time in the bathroom..tmi, but that was my reality) i thought that maybe it had something to do with something i had eaten, but connor and i had eaten the same stuff and he was totally fine! the stomach pain got worse and worse over the day, and i couldn't leave the bathroom, so connor urged me to go to an urgent care center — he took me, and then i got hit with waves of nausea and cold sweats. the urgent care doctor said, "i think you're gonna need to go to the ER, babe" which made me VERY NERVOUS but he was concerned about the placement of the pain in my abdomen and wanted to make sure it wasn't appendicitis or something surgical. he also said "you look sick honey, they can at least get some fluids in you" so connor took me to the ER! 

got checked in, everyone was so lovely and sweet, and i had my first IV and my first CT scan! there's a first time for everything !! they also gave me painkillers and prescribed me stuff for diarrhea and the abdominal cramping. the results of the CT were super vague — it looked like the place where my large intestine meets my small intestine was inflamed, but they were confident it was a bad infection that would sort itself out within a couple days. they told me to come back if my symptoms got worse. 

we got home from the ER at about 10, and i spent the next 7 hours on the toilet — i couldn't leave the bathroom. i was at one point curled up around it with a robe over me, to try and get some kind of rest — sophie was even perched next to me for part of the night, purring away like a good nurse. so when connor got up at 7, and heard about my night, he immediately took me back to the ER. they gave me two liters of saline fluid (which worked WONDERS), along with antibiotics and more pain meds. we had a nurse named Ken who was SO KIND AND WONDERFUL (he does pre-revolutionary war roleplay stuff!!! and collects old knives and does leatherwork and has a wood shop and seems like just a very cool kind dude) i also got an official diagnosis of colitis, the non-chronic kind 

so this second round in the ER left me with two antibiotics to take home, and those, along with fluids, rest, and tiny tiny meals, have helped me heal up! i'm still trying to take it easy (ken made a really lovely point that we never give ourselves time to properly heal before throwing ourselves back into work again, so i'm trying to head his advice), but slowly get back to work. my insides are still definitely swollen, and my stomach is still sore — i've got a follow up with a gastroenterology specialist on wednesday to ensure this isn't a chronic condition like chron's or IBS. but at least i'm not in excruciating pain and i don't have to live in the bathroom anymore :D i also need to say that connor is the real MVP — hospitals are so scary and i don't know what i would have done had he not been with me. i probably wouldn't have even gone to the doctor in the first place, so thank you my love <3

all that being said! i basically haven't get any work done since Wednesday morning (funny thing is, i had a headshot photography session that afternoon and i don't look horrifically ill in the photos which is amazing) so i'm a bit behind on things.

for my $10 patrons — would you still be interested in two podcast episodes, even though they'll be fairly close together? (posted on 10/23 and 10/30) or do you want one podcast and then something else perhaps?

and for my $5 and $20 folks, your rewards will be coming this week and next! worry not. thank you for your patience and your kindness and ur support! my swollen tummy and i are very grateful. i'm gonna go eat a plate of grapes and drink some herbal tea while i slowly start to edit a new vlog~ (the footage is two weeks old at this point, oops! but it's still good so i wanna stitch it together)

i love you very much!

also sophie got a new cat tree and she LOVES IT