Life Update December 2022

Okay. Okay, I know it's been a while, and that's absolutely on me. I had no intention of going dark for so long, but good lord, I swear to god November was trying to kill me. 

I'm gonna start by saying that no, this will not be my final 'update' of 2022. I'm finishing this year on a high note... I was gonna say 'if it kills me', but last time I said that it damn near did. So. Uh. Yeah, will post a happier update around New Year. 

I'm not gonna beat around the bush here, but I can't promise I'll get another chapter done by the end of the year. I'm trying. By god, I'm trying. But, well...

This all sounds like excuses in my head, but as I always say, I promised transparency, so. Let's talk about November. It started with me coughing up blood one morning, because the painkillers I have to take to remain functional had turned my stomach acid up to 11. Fortunately, this turned out to be the lesser of two evils, and was my throat being burned, not a stomach ulcer. Still scared the hell out of me, though. We changed the painkillers to something a little easier on my guts and added a medication to help neutralize the stomach acid and stop the reflux while I'm sleeping, which sorted things out nicely. Then, just as we got all that sorted, I caught fuck-mothering COVID. Which was not fun. Y'all know what the 'rona is, I don't need to explain it. It sucks lol. 

It also occurred to me the other day while I was talking to MinuteRice and TheRealOG that I've never actually specified what's wrong with my back to them, and if I hadn't told those two than I sure as shit hadn't told y'all. 

This is, uh, kinda not nice stuff, and I'm not gonna sugar-coat it. Feel free to skip the italics if you're not down to listen to me complain lol. 

I basically have three problems. At the top of my back I have arthritic damage to the spine and ribs under my right shoulder blade. This one is actually the easiest to manage, but it can pull down on the muscles in my neck when it gets tight, which causes nasty migraines. This one is basically degenerative, it ain’t gonna get anything but worse as time goes on, no matter what I do. In the middle I have a scoliosis twist at the base of my ribs. Again, pretty easy to deal with, and not anywhere near bad enough to warrant the invasive surgery to fuse the vertebrae to straighten it. Only problem is that when it gets irritated it locks up the centre of my back and limits my range of movement pretty badly, but again, that’s not so hard to fix. Then, there’s the problem child, the herniated disc at the base of my spine where it connects to my hips. This little fucker sits on the nerves that run down into my legs, so before I got the cortisone shot into it in June/July, I’d actually lose feeling in my right leg when it got really irritated. Worst of all, because of the placement of the disc, it limits certain thrusting motions, which means I’ve gone from “I am ready and willing to perform every position in the Kama sutra, how many holes would you like filled, and have you tried shibari, because I’ve got some soft rope around here somewhere”, to “I hope you’re satisfied with what I just did with my mouth and hands, because now I have to lie here and pray to god that it stays hard long enough for one of us to get off, and I sincerely doubt it’ll be me.” They could technically cut the herniated section out of me, but again, because of the placement of the disc, there’s gonna be complications either way. On their own, these would be all totally manageable, but add them all together and you get Ben's Personal Brand of Ouch. 

So yeah, not fun times. But, such is life, and I do my damndest to stay positive. It's not easy some days, but I do try. Also, probably a little over-sharing, but hey, it feels good to get it off my chest. XD

The good news is, I have actually made some progress on the next Self Insert chapter, and I do have a significant chunk of the next Dark chapter written. Unfortunately, nothing actually happens during that chunk. So, posting it would be like posting filler, and I feel bad enough about what I've been posting lately. So, I'm gonna keep plugging away, and hopefully, hopefully, something worth posting happens before the end of the year. 

I wish I had better news to write about. I really do. But, well, all I can say is "I'm not dead, and I'm still plugging away at these chapters", and offer my apologies for not having any actual content for y'all. 

I wish you all a merry and safe festive season, however you choose to celebrate, Happy Nagamas, and Nagaspeed!