I am Still Here...

i am sure that those of you who regularly stop by have just about given up on me this time..i am sure that i would have...i do have a good excuse for being awol...i have been really ill...

butterfly outside studio the day i got sick

when i was teaching a weekend class and a week-long class in north carolina the first of august, i developed bacterial pneumonia that turned into toxic shock syndrome (the one that killed jim henson of muppet fame)...

students from my weekend class

according to emedicine.com mortality is high with toxic shock syndrome or septicemia - "a toxin-mediated multisystem disease precipitated by infection with either Staphylococcus or Streptococcus. The clinical syndrome is characterized by a rapid onset of high fever, hypotension, diffuse rash, severe myalgia, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, and nonfocal neurologic abnormalities."

according to my doctors, if i had waited another hour to go to the emergency room, there would have been nothing they could have done to save me...it was very scary because i was fine at dinner (6:30 PM)...during dinner i started to feel chilled...and for me that is very unusual because i am hot flash hot most of the time!!!

by 8:30 PM i was too sick to call for help or get an aspirin...i had body-wracking, teeth- chattering chills...severe pain throughout my entire body...i was confused and dazed...thank heaven someone returned to my lodging and helped me get to the hospital...and thank heaven the doctors and hospital were quick to act...

an angel watched over me

earlier in the day i thought i was getting a kidney infection...i was going to the bathroom a lot...and it was hurting worse than ever before with an UTI...i was teaching, so at noon i went and got some cranberry juice and some AZO tablets...they helped me make it through the rest of the class day...i was so very tired that i almost fell asleep at the teacher's meeting after class...i left early and went back to my room to rest...

i tell you about the UT symptoms because sometimes you can get referred pain from the lungs in the urinary tract...who would ever know that???

the first round of antibiotics and fever reducers did not work...i got much worse with a temperature over 104 degrees...that is when the ER doctor decided to get a chest x-ray...and the rest is history...i had to be in the hospital three days on two intravenous antibiotics... oxygen...fluids...and rest...

rest is the cure for pneumonia...and rest i am getting because i can't seem to do much else...

JCCFS musical saw students in concert

needless to say, i could not finish my week-long class...my students were wonderfully gracious and the staff at John C Campbell Folk School caring and kind...

i am back home in florida...recovery is slow...i am very weak and dizzy if i overdo...i am coughing a lot still and have chest pain...and lots of body pains due to the toxic shock...

a study for a portrait

however, i have been getting lots of work done for my future classes and workshops...writing a new book and starting a new magazine...and readying for a move sometime this fall...est of all, i have been doing lots of artwork and journaling...very therapeutic and meditative for me...

a self-portrait of me with my beloved sir chancelot

i am blessed to be alive and on the mend...and i have missed each of you...i will be around to see you soon...