Malfunction. Stop. Restart.

Ah, non-existent online friends!

When last I left you, I had been feeling quite under the weather, and had gone to the doctor's. Looking back at my last entry, I had forgotten all about this step I'd taken because not but a few weeks after that adventure, my friends, Roze and Lea, having not heard from me or seen any evidence of me online, had mounted a search and rescue campaign that involved the police knocking down my door and taking me, blissfully unconscious and near death, to the hospital. I was first taken to St Mary's because it's near my house, and then transported to UC.

They identified a major infection that had attacked my heart and brain, so a valve replacement and two cranial surgeries later, I was deposited into my own hospital bed, and the recovery began. It took awhile for my brain to come back online, and I remember trying to explain something about work to Lea and Mia when they came to visit me in the hospital, and it was quite off course.

A call had been made to my poor mom in the middle of the night, and with the help of her cousin, she booked the next flight to SF. In my state of ignorant euphoria, I'd just decided that all answers would come later, and I would enjoy the ride for now.

Another two back to back surgeries were done, and then I was shipped off to ghetto rehab in Vallejo. The tragedy of this whole experience was that I had no contact lenses in the whole time, so I was seeing some weird, but interesting stuff while in the hospital, and creating some pretty vivid and frightening tales in my mind about what was going on.

Back at rehab, I did not know the rules or hadn't paid attention when they were explained to me, but I got in trouble several times for getting up out of my bed on my own. It was also a mildly useless endeavor as I couldn't see properly, so the speech therapy was mostly for nought, even when I pressed my nose as close to the piece of paper with the little drawings and words on it. I was desperate to escape, but my stay coincided with Thanksgiving, so that stretched it out to a full week, even though I asked to be released earlier.

When the time came and I was picked up by my mom and Aunt Sandra, we drove back to SF, and I wasn't home for even a week before the pain started up in my leg. It was then back to the hospital for another surgery to correct the blood flow in my leg. Followed two months later by eye surgery to remove lesions behind my eye. Followed then by a trip to the ER to fast-track connecting with Neurology to address the nerve death sensation in my extremities. I've also been back to UC for two IVMF infusion treatments to relax the milon in the nerves so feeling will return, and am due to return next week.

It has been a very slow, but steady recovery process, but I lost a ton of weight while ill, so it's like I got free liposuction. And I'm coasting on disability, and will be pursuing permanent disability through my employer, so will most likely not have to work ever again. I've reached out to City Impact to offer to volunteer, and am just waiting to hear back from them. And I'm due to get some retro Social Security payment in several months.

I got baptized shortly before this all went down, and can't help but think that, yes, Jesus had a role in bringing me down low and then lifting me to these current heights. I've been rebooted, and am so grateful.