Date Posted: 20th Jul 2021 at 8:39 PM

If you just want cc updates, see the post after this one. This is more of a life update to provide context for my absence and what can be expected moving forward. tl;dr at the bottom.

Well, it has been a very long time since I gave any kind of update, because the road to recovery from intracranial hypertension was...not what I thought it would be. I was originally told it would resolve in like, 3-4 months, but it took over a year and a half. I had to get two more spinal taps (last one landed me in the ER), and was put on two more medications that made me super tired and weak all the time. I got referred to a neurosurgeon, who referred me to a neuroophthamologist, who took me off of two of the three meds. The remaining medication ultimately made me lose 70 pounds over the year and a half I was on it.

Like, less than a month after feeling like I'd finally recovered from IH, my parents brought home covid, and despite being 23, I was far from being asymptomatic. Nothing hospital-worthy, but it put me through the ringer. After that I had a standard appointment with my GP, and he found that my kidney function was abnormal. Ultimately I got referred to a nephrologist, who has diagnosed me with stage 2 CKD and metabolic acidosis. Based off of the research I've read, it seems possible that it was caused by the final medication I was on (I was still on it when I did my labs), but ultimately it's up to the nephrologist to come to that conclusion, so it's a waiting game for now.

I'm not sharing all of this for pity, but as context as to why I didn't update or say anything for so long. This whole fiasco has been so much more draining and exhausting than I ever could have imagined it would be, and after updating a few times, the idea of further updating was just depressing when it would be a continuous stream of 'I'm still sick guys'. In hindsight, I wish I had just said I was going on an indefinite hiatus. I can't say I'm really back 'for good' yet, because I don't really know what to expect from this CKD shit over the next several months, and I'm still trying to figure out my ADHD meds. I'm really, really hoping to be able to return to school this fall, but I also have little idea of how that's going to go either.

tl;dr: recovering from intracranial hypertension took way longer than expected, and while I have recovered from it, I got covid and later diagnosed with stage 2 CKD and metabolic acidosis, possibly as a result of a medication I took for intracranial hypertension; the CKD symptoms don't disrupt my life, so I'm really hoping to go back to school this fall

This is already super long, so I think I"m just going to put cc updates into another entry.

Date Posted: 16th Sep 2019 at 11:15 PM

So I got the spinal tap and I'm currently recovering.

Unfortunately they screwed up the first attempt and basically just stabbed my nerves a bunch, so I had to go get a fancier x-ray guided procedure done instead the next day. Other than being told by several people that I'd get a sedative up until I was in the room for the procedure and then being told I wouldn't, procedure went well. I do have a 'spinal headache' as they call it, but this isn't unusual or concerning after a spinal tap. It just means I can't sit up for very long without getting a massive headache. It should be better in a few days.

My fluid pressure was over twice of what's considered high, so thankfully they were able to take care of that. The procedure should help me feel better for a while, but the headaches are probably going to come back for a while unfortunately. I'm on medication to help with the pressure, but it generally takes a few months for it to fully go back to normal.

I'll be back to making cc once I can sit up normally, so hopefully within a week or two ^^

Date Posted: 20th Aug 2019 at 10:57 PM

I've been wanting to work on cc for the past month and a half now, but I've made very little progress on account of my current health. I've been getting daily headaches ranging in severity from mild nuisance to please-kill-me-now, and using my laptop generally seems to make them worse.

So far, I've been to the eye doctor because while I'm technically supposed to wear glasses, I haven't in three years, and figured it might be eye strain. Unfortunately, they found swelling behind my eyes and the eye doctor thinks it's a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid, which is fortunately not uncommon or difficult to treat. However, because it does involve my brain, they need to be absolutely sure it's not something worse before officially diagnosing me.

I've been in for an MRI which came back normal for what they think I have, and there wasn't anything else overtly alarming about the results. Now I'm just waiting to be referred to a neurologist which is apparently a process and a half, and I likely won't be able to get an appointment for at least a month. Luckily, my psychiatrist was able to get me a prescription for a very low dose of the medication that is used to treat my condition as a trial, so we'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, I'm supposed to be starting my senior year of college in less than a month, but it's looking like that's not going to happen because this issue will not be resolved before then. Not only can I barely use my laptop for more than an hour at a time, the headaches show up randomly throughout the day and because they aren't caused by inflammation, pain meds do virtually nothing and I just have to wait for them to go away or eventually fall asleep, though they don't seem to always go away when I'm sleeping because I've dreamt of having a headache a few times now. There's not really any feasible way for me to handle going to school when I can't really do anything to manage my pain.

The bright side is that I'll likely be feeling a lot better within a month or two, and won't be at school and will have ample time to work on my cc. Hopefully, at least. For now I've just been playing a lot of Fire Emblem Awakening on my DS when I can stand to have my eyes open, and watching my bf play Three Houses. I'm like this close to learning how to mesh hair just so I can make male Byleth's hair and put it in my game. That probably won't be for a long time though

Date Posted: 23rd Jun 2019 at 7:18 PM

I am planning on making default replacements (as well as contact versions) of the alien, vampire, and mermaid eyes. I won't be able to make the mermaid eyes until I get Island Living, but I'll probably start on the alien and vampire eyes today. They might not be up for a bit though because I'll have to decide how much I want to base my designs off of the original ea ones, at least for the alien eyes.