It's time again for one of my year end review things. Health wise, it's been generally good the entire 2018, punctuated by horror and near death. You don't remember the good things, it's the bad things, specially if they're horrible, that will stay with you.
My dad passed away in February. I don't feel like I'm ready to talk about that. But since my mom had passed on back in 2014, 2018 marks the year I officially became an orphan. When I started making Elmer in 2006, my heart was still full of fear of losing my parents. That actually reflected in the plot of Elmer #1. That entire issue was me expressing my fear of losing my parents. Flash forward to February 2018, I guess I had grown stronger and more mature and I was able to handle it really well.
I was in and out of the ER towards the end of April until I was finally admitted in early May for bloody ulcer. It took a while to diagnose it, so I had been slowly losing blood and steadily getting weaker. Transfusions couldn't keep up with the blood loss. That last night at home I was so weak I thought I was gonna die. I had no idea that I was that close to dying if I had waited much longer. It took Ilyn to iron will me to the hospital. I couldn't walk, literally. They had to carry me. Ilyn saved my life that night. I'm eternally grateful to her. After medications, I started to get better and I was out of the hospital a week later. It took a long time to recover at home. About a month. That's why I wasn't able to ink Captain America #2. My old buddy Leinil Yu really stepped in with help of all kinds. We've known each other for so long. We had fought, we hung out. I watched his concerts. He attended my comics events. I never realized I would be meeting a friend for life. Thanks man. You're the best.
After I got better from my ulcer, everything started to generally get better. I was fearful of the holiday season and the change of weather because that usually brings sickness for me. But in spite of the many activities, meetings, komikons and so forth, I didn't get sick at all. Well, 2018 just won't let me go without a last hit. A few days before the end of 2018 I got fever and I still got fever and I don't know when I'm going to get well from this. On top of this my left foot started hurting really bad. My knees already hurt, my damn left foot had to join the fucking party. I might be admitted tomorrow, depending on my doctor so just in case I do get admitted, I won't be around to write this on New Year's Eve like I usually do.
The good things I can talk about in this post is I found out who are the friends I can truly count on and they're so few. I will treasure them forever. I also have a new comic book out: "Dead Heart #1" which seems to be doing well. And of course, Ilyn is such a gem. She has truly fulfilled her promise of "through sickeness and in health, for richer or for poorer". There's nobody, nobody I'd be willing to spend the rest of my hopefully long life with.
