A New Beginning

This post is Part 1 in a series about my forced break from writing and a new vision for the future...

It's been a long time since I added any new posts to this blog or did any real writing, at all, but as some who may be reading this know, there's good reason for that. Not only have I now officially come to the conclusion that it's time to revive the blog and my life as a writer, as a whole, but also to explain a few things relating to my absence and the new direction I intend to take. What better way to do all of that than the series of new blog posts that begins here?

Strap in, you're about to join me on what's been a seriously bumpy ride.

At the start of Labor Day weekend 2022, I started experiencing some things that I knew weren't right. My neurological state was beginning to obviously deteriorate and I knew from experience exactly what was going on. It started with just a little bit of dizziness and memory issues, but that quickly progressed into what I knew was yet another shunt malfunction.

As I mentioned in my book, Nothing Worth Doing Is Easy, I've had several such malfunctions over the course of my life and I know the symptoms, so it was never a mystery to me what was going on, right from the moment it all began to set in. At first, I held out hope that I was wrong, even though I never have been in such cases, but in the back of my mind, I was always sure. I tried not to make things too public immediately, but I was forced to cancel a Bible study I was supposed to lead within the first couple of days of symptom onset. From there, I had no choice but to simply hold out hope that my neurosurgeon would listen to me and the resolution I didn't want, but knew I needed would come quickly.

Within the first week of my condition beginning to go downhill, I went to the emergency room for the first time and it was then that I found out I had an adjustable secondary gravity valve added to my shunt the last time I had the same issue I knew I was having this time. Awesome, the surgery I was sure I needed might be avoided after all. Well, after a pressure adjustment, I was symptom-free for two days, but then, everything came back with a vengeance. That set me off on a nearly year-long saga of trying to convince the doctor that I needed a new valve, while dealing with more and more debilitating neurological symptoms.

By the time all was said and done, I ended up having a total of nearly half a dozen ultimately useless adjustments done to my gravity valve before I finally did end up having the surgery I knew I needed from the beginning. In the midst of all of that, I lost my ability to write and even function independently. I won't get too deep into the weeds of that whole saga, but keep an eye out for my next post where I'll take you all on a deep dive into the struggles I faced and the impact they had on the last year of my life.

On another note, this site and blog will not only be coming back to an active status as of now, but you'll all begin to notice some changes coming in the near future. Up to this point, this site has been focused more on me than anything else, but moving forward, I intend to transition into more of what it should have been from the start. Yes, I will continue to use this platform to promote them if and when I do end up writing more books, but as a blogger, I will be focusing more on theological concepts, Bible study and matters of Christian living.

As an extension of that, don't be surprised if you see a change in not only design, but in the site's URL in the coming weeks. It might be a jarring change to some and if that's the case, I understand, but at the same time, I hope it's a change for the better. Feel free to join my email list to stay up to date on when I publish new posts or any other changes that may come in the future.

Lord willing, I'll be back for a good, long time and my medical condition will remain as stable as it has now become. My only hope is that I can regain and continue to enrich my former audience in even better ways than before, while growing and providing a positive environment in which to learn and grow with God. If that sounds like something you're interested in, any feedback or topic requests are always welcome in the comments and I look forward to the opportunity to embark on this new and exciting journey.