Biting the Bullet: Help

Over the past couple of years that I've been writing this blog, I've been reluctant to well, talk about myself. Of course, this meant disappearing for months at a time with only a trickle of posts, then a flood of posts, then another disappearance, and so on. I've also mentioned my dislike of taking donations, instead pointing readers to other sources who needed it more.

Well, now I'm having to bite a bullet here and actually ask for help.

Short version is, I'm not exactly healthy. I wrote about one of my major problems back on live journal several years back, where I was determined by the Augusta Neuroscience Doctors to have a pinched nerve, one they couldn't locate, and one Blue Cross / Blue Shield wasn't willing to continue to fund treatment for. The basic problems of the pinched nerve is that my legs will cramp up, and my muscles can quite literally rip themselves apart. Other symptoms include prolonged work leading to my legs locking up and my knees turning purple. I don't like to talk about this because I'd rather not admit that I'm injured, or go through the hassle of filing for a disability since I'm not really disabled... as I see it.

The second major problem, well, I think I've mentioned here, is my blood pressure, which has normally been high. Earlier this year I came down with an illness, and was thrown into the hospital for intense dehydration and a blood pressure systolic reading of 80. Which caused a couple of double-takes from nurses, at least one "you should be unconscious" statement, and more than a few "you walked to your hospital bed?" questions.

Also, over the past couple of months, my bad legs and back and have, well, come back to haunt me, causing their own pain and driving a bad case of insomnia. So, I've been on and off stuff like Fioricet, Ultram, Mobic, Flexeril, Naprosyn, and Ambien.

Which brings me to the problem of... now. Since I was dismissed from AC, I haven't been able to find another job local to me within the realm of tech support or computer repair, outside of a part-time job as a family systems administrator. Immediately, this means I have a still looming hospital bill that I can't pay.


Which means I am now at the point of, well, needing help.

I really wanted to have something more to show for this post, which is why I kept putting it off. My, direct intent, had been to work on getting a proper book published, and to that end I've been putting some of my old Callaer stories together. I've uploaded the progress that I've made on piecing these stories together to Google Docs:

Forward
Part 1: Origins
Part 2: Exit
Part 3: Roxanne

From this point though, I don't know where to start with to get a publishing deal. The last time I had anything published in a proper book (mostly poetry), my English teachers took care of all the details.

My, immediate plan of action then, is to finish editing the first few parts I have now and create an Ebook on Lulu. I had wanted to have an Ebook ready for purchase, but the more I put off making this post, the more difficult it is going to be for me to make this post.

I am also, at this point, willing to do something I haven't been willing to do in the past, which is move. I haven't been wanting to leave the Augusta area largely because of my health issues. There is a certain amount of comfort being in a hospital town, and with doctors being somewhat familiar with my medical background.

I think that's really all I have to say for now... I'll try to get back to posting opinion pieces on tech and finishing up several game reviews I've had on the table.

Meanwhile, I can hope that a game studio decides they need another writer or somebody to handle tech support... maybe I should go poke Valve.