> Errant Story

Print Collection Update!

April 24th, 2013 - by Impy

Time for another update on the books from your friendly neighborhood overworked editor!

At this point, Volume One has been expanded from about 140 pages to 192 PACKED pages. My part, the page layouts and editing and lettering, is now done on all 192 of those pages. About thirty of the pages are still waiting for some extra panel art from Poe, and all of them need to be shaded. They also need to be numbered and resized, because I foolishly decided to change the book proportions AFTER I’d already finished the first volume. Fortunately, that can be more or less automated.

Volume Two has been transcribed courtesy of Graybeard, and the first editing pass is done. Now I’m making sure that pages end up on appropriate sides of the book and that any excessively wordy pages I didn’t split on the first pass are getting split. I’m about halfway done lettering the first chapter of Volume Two, which now starts here. I’ve done a few additional pages from later in the volume, too, I was jumping around for a bit there because I was focusing on the split pages first.

Volume Three and Volume Four have also been transcribed. I need to finish the first pass editing, and then figure out how to rework the page counts because there are a LOT of split pages in Volume Three. Thank you, paedagogusi, your inane babble makes life so busy for the rest of us. Fortunately, Volume Three has already been lettered, so aside from the split pages it should be very light work.

So, at this point, I’m coming up on about the halfway mark editing-wise, and about the 1/3 mark lettering-wise. Thank you all so much for being patient while we work through this. I’m really not the fastest editor or letterer out there, and I’m sorry to be taking so long.

^-^’


Poe is home!

February 10th, 2013 - by Impy

Well, the good news is that Poe is home. They didn’t actually wait to even get all the test results before discharging him, they just sent him the moment he was stable, but he is stable and he is home.

Apparently, what happened is that he was sick (probably with this year’s particularly virulent flu, though we’ve yet to see results from any of his flu tests), that taxed his immune system, and then he got a pretty aggressive infection that worked its way into his kidneys. They shut down. He was also extremely dehydrated, which didn’t help. In theory, treating the infection and drinking tons of water should flush the system and put his kidneys approximately back to normal. So, they loaded him up with IV antibiotics and fluids for a while, and then ran some tests, and then sent him home with a prescription for a heavy duty antibiotic and instructions to drink at least half a gallon of water a day.

I am thrilled that Michael is home and that his condition is apparently reversible, but I am also really nervous about them sending him home so fast after having organs quit. In my experience, organs quitting is generally not an easily resolved issue (though I’ll admit my experience is a bit unusual and not entirely attached to reality, as magical multi-dimensional high speed hospital trains are not part of everyone’s organ failure experience, I’m sure). This is a very good hospital, though, and if they thought he was safe to leave he probably really was, it just… makes me nervous. “Acute renal failure” is a scary set of words, it doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that gets fixed by drinking lots of water and getting plenty of rest, not even with mega-antibiotics to help.

At the very least, Poe is going to need follow-up appointments, and now that he’s been sent home it’s going to be really hard to get him to actually go to them. Fortunately, Michael’s mom got here to provide reinforcements, so between the two of us I imagine we can get him to drink his water, take ALL his antibiotics, eat regularly, and at least schedule a follow-up appointment. It’s a start.

^-^’

Edit: We finally got the results. Apparently, it was not the flu. That’s… weird.


I guess we probably should have said something…

February 9th, 2013 - by Impy

Wow… people are appearing from the mists of time to wish us well, that’s amazing. You guys are awesome, thank you!

I guess I hadn’t realized, in writing that last post, that not everyone was actually aware of what has been happening in our lives the last couple of years. I guess we didn’t say all that much about it at the time, and people just thought we’d gotten out of the habit of updating regularly. I don’t want to be depressing or whiny and distract from what’s happening right now, but maybe it would be good to provide a cheat sheet, so here’s a rough timeline of what’s been happening the last couple of years.

Summer 2010 - Our house decides it hates us, and Poe has some kinda nasty though not dangerous health experiences.

June 2010 - I’m diagnosed with primary dysmenorrhea. This is the beginning of a lengthy diagnostic and treatment process which to this day has not been concluded.

November 2010 - Michael and I get a horrible flu which I guarantee everyone in Cincinnati remembers as that week where nothing stayed in their bodies. Ours lasts two weeks, sequentially.

December 25, 2010 - We get the call that Michael’s dad has died. Michael’s his next of kin, so all of a sudden we’ve got his affairs to settle. This includes a house packed full of a couple generations worth of stuff. In addition, I’m preparing for a diagnostic surgery.

January 2011 - I go in for the first of many surgeries, a laparoscopy to check for endometriosis. It’s negative, and I recover well, though it’s a couple of months before I’m back in physical shape to deal with all the new problems in Alabama. Poe is still pretty out of it.

February 2011 - Poe’s honorary stepfather dies of lung cancer. Also, his uncle died that same month. Also our good friend’s father died that same month. It was a really crappy month.

April 2011 - My Grandma died. We couldn’t go to the funeral, but at this point I can’t remember why.

June 2011 - I start getting occasional weird, sharp pains and feeling sick all the time. Among other things, this causes me to miss most of Akon, which is unfortunate both because it leaves Poe the hearing-impaired introvert handling the table by himself, and because there were people I wanted to talk to but couldn’t. I still regret not getting back to the Studio Foglio table.

August 2011 - Sick time and the estate stuff in Alabama has left us stretched too thin. We have to shut down all aspects of the business that aren’t the comic while we try to catch up. The plan is to do the catching up over the fall, and come back better than ever. Still working on that.

September 2011 - It turns out I need to have my gall bladder removed. The surgery is scheduled for October 3.

October 2011 - I get my gall bladder removed. Everything goes EPICALLY WRONG. Poe has to spend every single day at the hospital so that he can consent to treatment for me.

November 2011 - I’m still in critical condition in the ICU. At the time Poe made this post, they only thought I was awake, in fact I was still hallucinating really badly and only occasionally got the data around me, with no comprehension of the actual situation.

December 2011 - I finally get out of the ICU and into a rehabilitation hospital. Poe gets sick, but because he’s always keeping me from freaking out at the hospital, he doesn’t get a chance to recover.

Time becomes glacial, but on the 28th I finally get to go home to be sick in my own bed, with kitties to keep me company. Poe no longer has to commute, but with no nursing staff that doesn’t mean much of a break for him.

January 2012 - I was still relearning that whole walking thing. I spend most of the month obsessed with becoming strong enough to stand up from the floor without assistance. The rest of the time I spend feverishly attempting to figure out how to pull us out of our now much-advanced tailspin. Poe is still so busy taking care of me that he has no time for anything else.

February 2012 - The months of stress catch up with Poe, leaving him severely depressed. I start trying to talk him into seeking some help with it.

April 2012 - I’m feeling better and am back in physical therapy, Poe is getting treatment, and things are optimistic enough to try to let you guys know what’s going on.

May 2012 - Poe’s uncle dies. My physical therapy runs into constant issues with my insurance and financial aid that to this day I haven’t had the energy to sort out yet, even though I think they actually are supposed to give us back some of the copay money.

July 2, 2012 - My best friend commits suicide. I am shattered, and accomplish nothing for three months, and to be honest not a whole lot since, either. Poe spends a lot of time taking care of me instead of being able to do anything. Again.

October 2012 - Semi-truck retread shreds the underside of our car, forcing us to rent one for about two weeks while it’s repaired.

November 2012 - Poe gets a cold, I get it nastier. It goes away mercifully quickly, but cancels some of our plans regarding finishing the stuff in Alabama.

January 2012 - I get another nasty cold thing, just on New Year’s Eve. It keeps me from breathing to the point where I go to the doctor. On the way home, the car that we just repaired gets banged up by a hit and run driver. It’s drivable and we’re sick of putting money into it, so we haven’t even filed a claim because we can’t spare the deductible again so soon. Poe catches my nasty bug thing a day or two later, kicks it, and then catches another one right on its heels, not realizing that he isn’t just taking a long time to get better. Also, I have another surgery, this one to remove my thyroid so that in theory I can breathe again and get my voice back. Guess who takes care of me?

February 8, 2013 - Poe finally goes to the emergency room after weeks of nagging from everyone he knows. He is admitted with acute renal failure.

So now you’re all caught up. I’m sorry it took so long, but, well… I guess that’s kindof the point, isn’t it? I really do wonder whose luck we’re balancing with all this, and I definitely wish we could someday get to make a list of spectacular lucky things that happened that isn’t really just a litany of, “It could have been worse.” Maybe we could accidentally discover a cure for cancer, or learn that Poe’s ability to speak with his eyebrows has won first prize in the secret intergalactic talent competition, and now we get a TARDIS. Something, ANYTHING. We just need to catch a fucking break.

-_-’

Edit: Oh, there were links to some newsposts in there, but it seems they don’t show up. I’m too tired to fix it, they’ll highlight if you mouse over them. I’ll give you an update on Poe’s condition in the morning, when I’m not so tired and pissed off at the universe that I can’t see straight.


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