Tubes unhooked!
Tubes unhooked! (well, except for the one that’s still ticking out of my neck) (And yeah , lots of tubes) on the road to recovery I think. Soon will be getting up and about to see how the surgery really went. But in the meantime –and most important of all– LOOK WHO CAME TO VISIT me in my room at Cedars!!! — at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Rebuilding The Machine
In early July, 2013, I finished the draft for my first book, “Little Big Man.” Psyched up to get it edited, get it into print and begin to kick ass on its marketing, I moved from Big Bear –where I had isolated myself to write—to North Hollywood where I took up a killer loft. Days after I moved, my back –which had been bothering me on and off for a couple of years—completely went out. Thus began a 7 month ordeal which included a cerebro spinal fluid (CSF) leak which sent me to the ER and very nearly killed me, 3 major back surgeries and a series of “imminently life threatening infections” (my doctors’ words, not mine), which put me even closer to death. Seven hospitalizations and several months living at in-patient rehab later, I am back out in the real world, and working toward getting my life back.
Little Big Man revolves around an “8 lives” theme. One where I illustrate how I’d metaphorically lived those many lives during a 30+ years period, and had “died” just as many times. The cover design actually features the #s 1-8, each with a slash mark through it. After the number 8, there is a question mark symbol over the number 9.
With this recent ordeal, I feel like I’ve given up my 9th as well.
Does this mean that I’m borrowed time? I’ not sure. Does it mean that death will come when it comes, and as such, I still have a chance to live the best part of my life.? I’m hoping for…praying for…counting on…the latter. All told, I just don’t know. It’s been –and continues to be—an up and down, and back and forth battle. I do pledge this much…I WILL DO MY VERY BEST.
This Blog – entitled “Rebuilding The Machine”—picks up part-way through this ordeal. In other words, I didn’t even THINK of writing about this part of my life until I was well into it. As I’m writing this introduction on March 1, 2014, this stuff is all in the past. Slowly but surely, I will catch up until we’re in real time. Ultimately, I expect that Rebuilding The Machine will see me through to the best shape of my life –mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, financially—and onto a big wave on the north shore of Oahu during high season and into the cage for one final battle. And with that, my second book will have been written.