AWOL and Ramsay-Hunt

Wow. My previous post got quite a bit of buzz...well more than I normally get. I'm glad for this and glad for all the people that got a head's up out of it. We artists have to stick together, right? Right?! haha. Right. So yeah, keep spreading the word and I'll keep posting anything I happen to come across.

In the meantime, I'm kind of on a fine-detail hiatus. It's a strange story really. I've had sinus issue my entire life, and finally had some corrective surgery done in July. Yay! Great! And really, THAT part has all worked out wonderfully (...well...except for the bill I got today, even AFTER insurance... *gulp*). I can breathe, I can smell stuff I haven't been able to smell for a long time (which is a mixed blessing sometimes!) and all that part is all healed up.

And then? AND THEN...And then I had August's First Friday. I had kicked my own butt to get myself healthy and ready to go for it. It takes a lot of energy to do First Friday right, even when you're not featured! Part of art is the business side of things, and without sounding too retail, that means good customer service, a good attitude, and just having fun! So, mucho energy involved there. Even on the day before, things were picking up! I got to stop into the Space Camp micro gallery in Fountain Square to help with a show load-in (very cool place) and then got a call to be a last-minute fill-in at the Mass Ave Wine Shoppe, near the Art Bank, as their featured artist (great place, go there--there's wine!).   But I started to drag and my left ear started to hurt.

I had seen my ENT (Ear-Nose-Throat specialist--the lady that did my surgery) earlier on Thursday and she just thought it was a little boo-boo but gave me a z-pack just in case. Then on Friday my ear had swollen up so bad it was incredibly painful. I trucked through First Friday, got to see a lot of friends and supporters and even ran into some old friends I literally hadn't seen since my college graduation. Really, very much good times. But by the time I woke up on Saturday, I was in serious pain and something was seriously wrong. I checked into an Immediate Care center and they thought, since the z-pack was obviously doing nothing, that I had MRSA, a drug resistant staph infection. Yipes! I went home with enough antibiotics in me to make me impervious to all problems and rested.

The next day... At work, I'm doing my thing, working with the videos, and my eye starts to blur. My eyebrow goes numb and the lack of feeling spreads up my forehead and down the left side of my face. WHAT. So I scurry back to the Immediate Care. They still think it's MRSA but that the lymph nodes under my swollen ear have compressed the cranial facial motor nerve, which controls half my face and runs along my jaw, and that's causing me to, you know, not be able to move my face. Just keep taking the antibiotics, as the swelling goes down, the pressure will subside. Oh yeah, and tell your doc what's up.

I call the ENT during the week and she orders me in immediately. She takes one look at me and declares it NOT MRSA (Yay!). It's called Ramsay-Hunt Syndrome (What?) Basically, much like shingles is a reawakening of the Chicken Pox virus I've carried in my system since I was 4, Ramsay-Hunt is a Chicken Pox sleeper cell that hung out in my facial nerve and waited for my immune system to be weakened just enough to strike. Opportunistic bastard. My sinus surgery was all the distraction it needed.  And if we hadn't caught it in time (within about 7 days) my face would have a way less chance of regaining its control. Swell.

The open-eye side is immobile!

So now, I'm about 3 weeks into all this and I'm trying to keep my spirits up. I've finished my antiviral medication. I've made faces and stuff (even though, most times, people can't see the movements on the outside and I'm moving the muscles as hard as I can on the inside) and I have be careful of my left eye, because I can't blink well or shield it from the sun. I was supposed to speak at a local high school art class, but had to postpone that for a few weeks, because, you know, partial facial paralysis and a room full of high school kids usually doesn't mix well. I also don't eat in public as that's not to pretty either.

Murals and Toad-Stool DIYs

As far as my ART blog side of this: I can't do fine detailed artwork. Oh, sure I can do 'broad stroke' type projects, which so far has been DYI things I've been putting aside, but projects where I have to sit and concentrate and stare for long times to make sure my drawings are accurate...are just not happening. It's that left eye that just won't let me do it. I see spots. *sigh*

"Broad-stroke" project: Table Restoration

So this is like my suffering for art moment, right? Like, my stuff is now more worth it from before, since I can't create now, right? It's more rare now!

Or...I just have some forced down-time to catch up on the broad stoke stuff, (computer stuff is even a tiring thing--looking at the screen and such--this is tough to write) and I get to load up on ideas for when I can, you know, blink.

So that's it. I'm AWOL, painting-wise, until my face heals. Or at least my eye blinks. Ramsay-Hunt WHAT???