Taboo subjects

Like everyone else, I have the aches and pains that come with growing older. Just after Thanksgiving I went to get a cortisone shot in my bad knee (it’s been my “bad knee” since I was 20 and banged it on the corner of a concrete wall jumping from one platform to the next. You know, the way one does when one is 20 and invincible.). My doc said he had good news and bad news. Good news? It wasn’t so far gone as to need replacement. Bad news? It was too far gone for a shot of cortisone to have any effect. Only arthroscopy was going to take care of the arthritic buildup.

So, a week before Christmas, in I went for the surgery. I’ve had it done before. Twice. Once on each knee. So I knew what I was in for and wasn’t worried much. He found a small rip in my meniscus while he was in there and took care of that as well. Gave me pain meds and sent me home to heal.

Now, I hate taking pills. Passionately. Not because I’m against modern medicine (I LOVE modern medicine…it’s what makes me grateful to be born now and not a hundred years ago) but because it’s physically difficult for me to swallow them. I never got the hang of it. My husband and I made a pact: when it came time for the kids to learn how to take pills, he’d teach them. I suck at it.

As a result, I got off the pain meds as fast as I could. More because I hate taking pills than because I have some deep-seated need to be a martyr.

That surgery was another reason I worked so hard to finish THE REVOLUTION OF CLARA SIMPSON (formerly known by the working title: Revolution). I wanted a good, clean draft out to my beta readers to work on during the holidays—time I knew I’d be using for recuperation.

And then came the second surgery. I’ve not posted much about it because I was embarrassed. It involves a part of the anatomy no one talks about. Even with all the erotica that’s moved mainstream, this one part of our bodies still remains taboo: the ass. Yes, I had a hemorrhoidectomy.

My doc told me it was the most painful surgery that he knew of. I didn’t bother reading anything about it on the web ‘cause I didn’t want the horror stories. My parents both told me it was going to hurt, based on their knowledge of people who had been through it.

But I have a high pain tolerance. I’d been through two childbirths—one of which was induced (petocin makes for VERY painful contractions). I wasn’t scared.

Okay, I was a little scared.

But determined. Those same childbirths that gave me beautiful children, also gave me hemorrhoids. Lots of them. Told you this was still a taboo subject.

The surgery was January 14^th and the first week, I relied heavily on the drugs to keep the pain under control. I have a marvelous husband who has put up with not one but two recoveries back-to-back and he hasn’t gotten impatient with me even once. I’m nominating him for sainthood. The second week was better and I’m down to one pain pill a day, plus a ton of ibuprofen. Even that, I’m starting to wean myself from. Remember, it isn’t the pills I hate, it’s taking them that gives me grief.

So why am I sharing all this now? To explain why I’ve been mostly absent from all social media, from this blog…from everything. Life got in the way of writing for a few weeks. It’s also my excuse for not getting many new words written this month, when my goal is pretty lofty for the year.

 

CLARA is back from the beta readers and I’m getting the mss ready. Still haven’t decided if I want to self-publish it or send it out to other publishers. I’m leaning toward the latter, but am open to suggestions (email or put them in the comments). By the way, Lynn LaFleur came up with the ultimate title for the book and will be getting a free copy of it when it’s published. Thank you, Lynn!

 

I’ve also gone back to my fantasy story—the one I’ve been working on for years. Did some work on it today, weaving together the hero and heroine’s stories. I’d originally planned it to be two books: one for her story and one for his. As I’m going through this, however, I’ve decided to tell both at the same time. I created a timeline back in October and today pulled in the last piece of what I had written for Martin’s story. From here on out for him, it’s all new writing (Kiera has another section finished, so it’ll be a while before I write new for her).

Basically, I told you all this to explain why, at the end of January, I have only 2743 words written so far (that’s blog writing and new/editing combined). That includes two short scenes I wrote as part of a writer’s challenge. I posted one of those scenes; will post the other here soon.

Let the healing and the writing commence for February!

Play safe,

Diana