Blue Milk Special

Due to health considerations, Leanne and I have had to cancel our plans to appear at Southern Maryland Comic Con this coming Saturday 9th November. We apologize to anyone who was planning to meet us, especially to anyone coming specifically to see us. We are deeply sorry at this late change of plans. Waldorf, Maryland is right on our doorstep and we had been looking forward to this show for months! I highly recommend anyone who lives in the region to check out the website and consider going for a few hours of fun!

On Thursday, 7th November, I have the second part of my outpatient surgery to cauterize the rest of the nerves in the cervical spine. I’ll be recovering and I know a convention less than two days later will not be possible. That said, we’re not ruling out stopping by for a few minutes to show our support. But everything depends on how I feel on any given day at the moment.

Lately, I’ve needed my distractions. We should be debuting the children’s storybook that Leanne has been working away on very soon. We’re both very excited about it and it’s a positive thing to be doing right now. As mentioned last week, I have set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds to help me in my battle with spinal arthritis. I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has already contributed! THANK YOU! Many of you I do not even know, but would love to thanks to your kindness. It’s encouraging to see the support and the vote of confidence it gives me in my goals to keep being creative and being me. I’ll elaborate a little below so anyone who is interest will understand a little should they want to help.

The doctor is using radio frequency ablation to basically burn the nerves down both sides of the neck. This causes the nerves to die away within a couple of weeks and the pain signals from them stop. They take up to a year to grow back, which means in theory I should be free of the pain from my neck for a nice long stretch. It’s not a cure, but it might stop me being so grumpy from the constant pain and therefore stop annoying Leanne. I’ve had a cervical fusion screwed into my neck, multiple cervical facet blocks, epidural injections and have not noticed any significant improvement. All I can do is try to keep positive, do physical therapy, and hope that in the short term, the pain block helps.

Since 2009, nerve problems that stem from my neck and from arthritis have grown to the point I had major surgery in January 2012. Sporadically, the nerve problems effected the use of my hands and arms, shooting burning pain down my arms or giving me sharp, broken glass discomfort in the joints of my hands and wrists. However, my chronic pain is in the neck and surrounding muscles where I get deep muscle tension aches and stabbing spasms. I have trouble sleeping, driving, going to the bathroom, contributing around the house… all sorts of basic things. When the pain and side effects are at their height, the stress from frustration and self loathing is tough to deal with.

We decided to set up the GoFundMe: Cartoonist’s Spinal Arthritis Battle as a way for friends, family and supporters to contribute toward my medical expenses fund. I’ve gone through all manner of pillows trying to find a way to sleep with as little pain as possible and I need to buy a new mattress, most likely a sleep number bed. These things, along with ongoing physical therapy are part of the plan to keep on fighting so I can keep on doing what I’m doing… trying to enjoy life! 🙂

If you’d like to help us out your words of support always mean so much to us. If you would like to purchase a Blue Milk Special logo T-shirt, or simply make a direct contribution to our GoFundMe it would be of huge benefit to us right now. Writer and cartoonist fights back GoFundMe campaign.