Rebooting 1: The Sabbatical and Bad News

Does anyone remember when we first had computers at our desk and we would have to insert a floppy disk to "boot" it up?  If the computer hit a snag of any kind, you would have to "reboot" the darn thing.  It seemed to take an eternity (and it was nearly) to boot up or reboot a computer in those days.

Well, I am in the process of rebooting acrylic/mixed media painting in my studio.

I will give a little background since I haven't talked about some of the things going on with me publicly.

Last year in April I was preparing for an art show and painted some small canvases with birds.  They were fun and I did 5 of them.  Here are a couple:

After the art show at the end of April, I found myself completely wiped out physically.  I couldn't seem to get energy for painting. Soon after, I had a lump appear on my neck and I had it checked out. I was referred to a specialist and had tests done.  Based on a fine needle aspiration showing an abnormal number of lymphocytes, the Doctor ordered a biopsy of the lump.  

Meanwhile, unable to get the energy to paint, about June, I decided to own it and call it a sabbatical.  Now this seemed so backwards.  I had "retired" from teaching, was working a more flexible schedule so that I could paint more!  Nonetheless, I determined to "sabbatical".  I only allowed myself pens and pencils. (No paint.)  

So in August I had a biopsy of the lump in my neck, and by the end of August, we had a diagnosis of a low-grade, B-cell lymphoma.  By September, we knew it was in three areas of my body but not in the bone marrow (thank God for that!)  By December, we had confirmed that it was not growing.  In fact, the largest areas which were in my abdomen, had become slightly smaller.  I still felt more fatigued than ever, nevertheless, we rejoiced for the good report!  Yay!

To be continued...