Burnination #2 on Friday

I still don't feel any pain in the spot where they did it the first time around (T6-T9) and since this area (C7-T2) is where everything is emanating out of, this could be a massive improvement.  The temporary branch block gave me two months writing at 10k words a month.  If the burnination manages at least that for the 1 to 2 years its suppose to last, then...eventually we'll have books getting finished again.  I'm hoping for a bigger improvement, obviously, since burned nerves should trump a temporary anesthetic.  Big month in turning the tide against all this pain for sure.  Since they start with the left side then in two to three weeks do the right side, it will be a month long ordeal, with about a week in bed after each procedure.

So wish me luck, send the good vibes, and all that!

Update:  Back home.  Very sore and lots of pain.  But it's in the right area of where my worst pain has been up until now.  Upper back then up into my neck, my shoulder, and down into my elbow and wrist.  So that's a good sign once things flip around.  Icing it down, drinking plenty of coffee, and got about twenty seasons of TV I finally need to get to.

Backpack Battles

 Anyone else got a new addiction to this game?

My doctors have completely overloaded me with appointments in the last couple weeks (will be 6 appointments between Oct 12th and Nov 3) and I'm just...like beaten down with a screaming back at this point.  Tramadol is literally the only thing keeping me standing.

Or...sitting on the edge of the bed playing Backpack Battles.  Which I can't stop playing.  It's especially great for my crippled ass since you only need to use a mouse to control everything and it's untimed.  Basically an inventory management, crafting/item combiner, auto battle game.  There's only two classes at the moment, it's nothing but a demo actually, not even early access.  So it's FREE (on Steam).  And I've put in like 30 hours already getting both classes into Diamond Rank, and...it's really good.  Check it out.

So My Uncle Ben Died

He was less about the "with great power comes great responsibility" and more with the "hey, try this homemade wine I brewed up" or "so I caught myself on fire last week, can you believe that shit?!?"

Fought with alcohol his whole life and it finally got him.  Like his father and his father before him, go Team Irish!  Never knew when to stop for just about anything else, including telling one story after another that would have us in stitches.  Made many a holiday extra fun for me growing up.  One of my earliest memories is him dressing me up in a tuxedo for me to be the ring bearer at my cousin's wedding.

So it's not this crazy shocking thing, but it was sudden.  It wasn't cancer or some problem we were expecting.  Just us wondering why we hadn't heard from him in a couple days and finally news today that his apartment neighbors had found him just now.  It's all very fresh, so no idea how tough things might get with my poor mom.  I'm okay, I think.  Sad, but...seem to be okay.  But, another crucible to deal with here in Raley Land.

I've picked up another couple stupid things to do with doctors pre Burnination Two, Electric Fuck You Nerves.  Which is why I'd planned to write this blog post today before all this happened.  Writing a little bit here and there, nothing crazy.  Did come up with a FUCKING AMAZING IDEA that ties like 2 or 3 plot lines together.  But, uh...it's not until like FM9ish you're going to get the payoff for that.  So...I mean...I might be laying the groundwork in War to End All Wars though...so I look all smart when you get the reveal and all that.  I would NEVER do that...in the first few chapters of the entire series for something that won't be revealed until the last few chapters of the series...as an example...

Or did I?

If only I got paid for rereads...

Love you all, stay safe, talk to you all post Burnination.

Burnination #2 Incoming

C7 to T2 spinal ablation.  Middle of November.  If it provides the same relief as the first, in a more needed area, it could be pretty huge to my quality of life, pain reduction, and of course...writing output.  Just like last time, we're talking about a month long process of getting one side of the spine done, then two weeks recovery, then the second side, then two more weeks recovery.  So we won't see the full effects of all this until probably around Christmas.

Until then I'll just be managing what I can manage texting out on the phone for the most part.  Only managed a disappointing 5k words in September.  Why, you ask?  You were so hopeful, RR!  You had three free weeks!  Did you waste your time playing the new Hearthstone Battlegrounds update?

Yes, yes I did!  At night, when the house finally cooled down because the day after I posted that last hopeful message my almost brand new just installed two years ago AC stopped working.  During Fresno's last big heatwave of the year!  Why did it stop working?  Because Fresno is a horrible, inescapable vortex of evil!  Also a dustbowl since our last drought.  It clogged the blower motor so bad it shorted out and NO COLD AIR.  Did they have the part ready?  NO!!!  Are you not paying attention to my luck lately, Noble Reader?!?

So...instead of getting all that free time writing, I spent about two weeks sweating profusely and drinking large amounts of Gatorade in a nearly completely dark room all the hopes of avoiding another bout of heat exhaustion.  Which I did!  Yay me!  But...not much writing done.  Just me and the television...oh, I started reading Tony Hillerman because he's my Mom's favorite author and she guilt tripped me into it.  Point is this:  three weeks free became one week free.

I don't think I get to post positive thoughts about my writing again.  I think the jinx is very real.  I think some other author got so jealous of how awesome I am they did some voodoo shit.

So...life is Paine!  Woah is me!  I bow before you Great Blighted Potato who wiped out so many of my ancestors!  Give me mercy and mediocracy!  I pledge to the Way of the Grasshopper!  Ignore the next two weeks until my next doctor appoint, nothing will get done.  Ignore the whole month after that with nothing until the burnination itself.  Don't worry, there will be no progress!  I will play nothing but Football Manager!  I'm not at all interested in who wins the 2015 Camping Test as King Henry gets to watch on behind the scenes!  No, no!  I have no interesting ideas at all!  Writing?  So boring!  All I care about is sixteen-year-old Brazilian wonderkids!

You guys think...you think the Potato bought it?

First Edit as Red Ink

Yes, I ran out of room.  The circled numbers are for corresponding paragraphs on the back of the page that you can't see.  There will probably be four or five more versions of this section before I get to the final one that will be published.  I suppose you can consider this a tease for you maniacs that want to try to decode it...

As far as new writing, after a dreadful back half of August and start to September, I am free from doctors (and the car drives to their offices that destroys my back for two to three days) until the 27th.  Hopefully I'll have second burnination plans made then.  But until then, I have 3 weeks free to try to finish this chapter and start in on the second half of the novel.

Wish me luck!