Hello faithful,

I hope you're all doing well! The world is a scary and difficult place for many of us these days and I sincerely hope you've been able to dodge the worst of it. It's been a while since I posted much about myself (or any original work, really), so I wanted to check in and give you guys some insight into what's going on.

About a year or so ago I started noticing some changes to my health, specifically my mental health. I was feeling more anxious and upset, to a point that it started getting in the way of my work and personal life. Most notably it started to bleed into my physical health: my anxiety would translate into shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness and vertigo, vomiting, numbness in my limbs, even migraines. You name it, it's probably happened. I've ended up in the ER a few times, mostly to check out my heart (nothing significant has ever been found, thankfully), gotten scans and procedures done, even ended up with a lovely (unironically) ambulance ride about a month ago. I was already in therapy, but ended up seeing someone weekly just to try and get by. I tried taking leaves of absence, but that has done little. It's gotten to a point where it's often difficult to do basic things, though my current job gives me a lot of flexibility, better or worse, for how I deal with that. Said job is no small contributor, though; my boss is probably the number one stressor affecting my health. I recently made the decision to seek more intensive treatment, and I'll be going on FMLA next month in order to enroll in a program for at least four weeks. It's either that or the hospital, and all my doctors agree that that might not be the best option for me.

Beyond the simple stress of the experience is the fact that it's gotten rather expensive; not even accounting for the therapy (which I can't even account for until it's done) I'm already about $2500 in the red on treatment. I've had to adopt a "damn the expense" mindset because I can't afford to not get treatment (some of this stuff I've put off for literal years) but it is gonna be an expensive venture for sure. I was hesitant to do so, but I bit the bullet and opened a Ko-fi if anyone would like to support me there: https://ko-fi.com/kami89220. As I said before, I know that things are difficult for many, so I don't want to try and twist anyone's arm to do anything. If anyone has the desire and the means to do so comfortably, though, I'd appreciate any help anyone is able to provide.

Love and Peace,
Kami