I’m back!!! 🙂

Wow…that was, err, frightening, to be honest, to be getting increasingly ill on holiday, arrive back only to go straight to the hospital and be admitted for surgery. Yes, it was scary for a while, not knowing what was going on.

But I’m back and mending wonderfully.

I’ve got my hair up in bunches in these photos to best show off my new tattoo. Yes, it was something I swore I’d never do, but a ‘dice with death’ has somewhat altered my mindset, so as soon as I was well enough, I booked into a tattoo studio and got myself inked with this exact tattoo in real life, although in real life it’s somewhat smaller than on my avatar. I resized it for a tattoo layer for my avatar to make it legible in SL.

It says ‘Every Moment Matters’, and it’s a forever reminder that we never quite know what’s around the corner, health wise, so it’s best to seize the day, every day.

I’m thrilled to say that normal blogging returns next week. It’s good to be back! 🙂

Ella

I have to say that being in hospital, unexpectedly, and under the surgeon’s knife gives you a different perspective on what you have. Particularly when you’re 41…and assume to be ‘halfway through’ this journey we call life, not at the end.

And you get a wake up call.

I’ve got a trio of young children who need their Mum, and despite something relatively serious by the time our plane landed, I’ve survived that, the surgery and am tonight (Friday) back home.

I’m tired, I’m sore (from surgery) and emotionally drained, I have to say, but to have Jim and the kids around me gladdens my heart this evening (and Jim’s chicken soup…even if only from a can, for dinner, brought tears to my eyes).

I’m OK, I’m fine, and mending. SLN continues. Life continues 🙂

In the end up, I had zero wifi in hospital, so I spent the time writing blog entries and doing more ‘tattoos’ similar to those I’d experimented with earlier this year (all done on Gimp, without having the opportunity to go inworld to test them out).

In hospital, I had also got limited music to entertain me. It didn’t matter, as I was essentially listening to Leonard Cohen on my iPod, all day, every day. Or reading a couple of his lyric anthologies.

So the SL associated time when I was in hospital ended up me making Leonard Cohen related tattoos 🙂

I WON’T be on SL over the weekend. I have children to catch up on. And a loving, wonderful husband. But I’ll be back next week, I think. What I can tell you is that when my surgery scar heals, I’m going to have it tattooed, to remind me how fragile life can be, to remind me how to live every day like it might be my last, and to remind me to give thanks for my wonderful husband and children. That has become my story now, and I don’t want to forget it, despite having previously been anti-tattoo.

My beautiful husband and children danced me through…not the the end of…but the continuing story of….love.

Ella

Hi everyone.

I hope Jim can post this properly when he gets home. I’ve been able to do a post on my laptop and hopefully all he has to do is press the ‘publish’ button when he gets home, as I’ve no wifi in my hospital room.

I’ll be offline for a few more days I think, but a little bit of surgery was required. Spain was a time of frustrating wifi, and when we did get it back I was beginning to feel unwell. We made it home without an air ambulance or a stay in a Spanish hospital, I’m glad to say, but on landing it was straight around to the local A&E (Emergency Room, for readers elsewhere) and immediate admission for some surgery. I’m on the mend now, but frustrated by the lack of internet and SL in particular.

The doctors don’t do ’rounds’ on a Sunday in the UK, so it’ll be Monday before they see me and assess me for release 🙂

Hope to be back online next week sometime, although sitting is quite uncomfortable where I now have a scar across my tummy, so blogging may be limited.

See you all soon! 🙂

Ella

Hi everyone. Ella is in hospital and has been since our return form Spain over a week ago. Nothing serious and she should be out later this week with instructions to take things easy and sit by her computer logged into Second Life so I hope she’s back home with me then and able to get caught up with her blogging.

Jim (aka Mr. Keng)