Health and Other Updates

February is nearly over and we’ve just endured a major nor’easter here in Massachusetts. It’s quiet outside now with only a couple rabbits and a skunk trekking into the snow on the hunt for birdseed and a rotten squash that was thrown beneath the feeders yesterday afternoon. It is hard to believe that spring is just a few weeks away.

I have been taking my time in these last days of cold and darkness to recuperate after a major health episode just over a week ago. Whilst waiting for a takeout delivery on the night of Valentine’s Day, I collapsed with a tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizure just as I was walking to the window to see if the order had arrived. I was perfectly fine one second, then everything turned into a brown and cream coloured swirl, and the next thing I know I’m in the back of an ambulance with the EMTs telling me what had happened.

Several tests later and there are no signs of bleeds or aneurisms, and I am finally discharged after midnight with nothing but socks and a sweatshirt with which to stay warm. I’m fine now, but a little paranoid when taking care of the house with a nagging thought that it could happen again, usually when I am standing over the corner of a table. The earliest I can see a neurologist is December of 2026 so this is going to be a fun wait.

I have begun to rebuild a set list at the piano with the hopes of returning to public performance for the first time in years. I had taken a break from the gigging scene in the mid-2010s to focus on studio work, only beginning to reemerge in late 2019. The ensuing pandemic put an end to that goal.

I am now waiting for the weather to clear enough so that I can get my glasses repaired (they were broken during the seizure) and readjusting to contacts in the meantime. I figured it was best to provide an update after a health scare and use this newsletter as, well, a newsletter rather than just a place for old articles and short stories to dwell. Hopefully I’ll see you soon from behind the keys, and it’ll be warmer.