Spent two days in the hospital... getting back up to speed

 I got sick last week, and thought I had caught cellulitis.  For those not aware, cellulitis is a group of infections people with diabetes often get, which often leads to swollen, red lower legs, or maybe arms.  These infections, like MRSA, kill a lot of people, they can be incredibly serious. I don't have diabetes, to the best of my knowledge, but I started getting cellulitis when I gained all this weight as a taxi driver, back in 2007.  So I'm prone to this illness, and thought that was what was happening.  

When I actually got checked out by a good hospital, they thought I might have appendicitis.  I spent two nights in the hospital, and they took really good care of me.  Ultimately, they weren't sure exactly what I had, some kind of serious infection causing a lot of abdominal pain and overall sickness.  It's been six days since this started, my appetite is coming back, and I'm getting better.  

I didn't do any blogging or social media for a few days, so I'm getting going again today.  A huge thank you to all the doctors and nurses who took care of me, and to everyone who wished me well on Facebook.  I'm not 100% yet, but I'm doing better, and will get back to blogging, drawing, and everything in coming days.  On the bright side, I've used this illness to stop drinking Diet Coke, which was my worst vice/addiction.  So hopefully that will help me in the future.  I'm "methadoning down" to iced tea for my daily caffeine fix.  Still need that wake-up caffeine.

A weird side note involving the number 43. You Old School BMXers know that 43 is the "lucky number" for BMX freestyle, going back to the NorCal crew/Curb Dogs in 1986.  That number's been one of my favorite numbers to me since I was a little kid, and became my top lucky number when the BMX thing happened.  So when this blog was about to hit 43,000 page views, I got cellulitis, and went to a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, where I was living homeless then.  They unknowingly gave me a medicine I was allergic to, and I damn near died.  The hospital spent the next 7 days bringing me back from that accidental incident.  This blog hit 43,000 page views, while I was in the hospital.  So a week or so ago, this blog hit 143,000 page views, and I wound up in the hospital again, and things looked pretty dark at one point, though not as serious as back in 2018.  43 pops up at another transition point in my life.   Weird coincidence.