Health News

Some of you have asked questions about how I'm doing physically. Traditionally, this has been a very difficult topic for me to discuss, as my role in life has always been that of peace-maker and trouble-soother: I don't like raising additional difficulties and hate to be the center of anyone's attention. :)

But as I've aged I've grown a bit wiser, and have begun to be a bit more open about things. I've been writing up a 'so you want to create a Kickstarter' style article for a while, and it's made me think about my recent struggles, so I feel comfortable sharing a few details/ideas.

(So be warned, the following text details my recent health issues, so if you're just looking for game news, scroll down quickly!)

About two years ago I was diagnosed with type II diabetes. I'm a big guy, but this was still something of a shock. No one in my family has ever had diabetes, and I'd been tested many times before and showed no signs of the disease. But I'd been experiencing numbness and tingling in my feet for a while, combined with a general feeling of cruddiness before the blood tests finally indicated that my blood sugar levels has risen into diabetic range. I immediately made some diet changes, lost 25 pounds, and got my A1C (long term glucose levels) under control. Within four months I was telling folks that if I hadn't been diagnosed, you would never have known I'd had the disease in the first place! I was wrong.

Last spring/summer, I got really busy. I'd launched Purple Sorcerer Games, and completely coincidentally, work-work suddenly picked up with some extremely important and high-profile months-long projects. Also, a family move was approaching, and during the height of the madness, I decided to mount the Crawler's Companion Kickstarter, thinking it wouldn't require that much time to pull off. (!)

I'm approaching 50 years of age, and the days where I could sustain 80-90 hour work weeks are looooong gone. But sustain them I did for nearly 3 months leading up to our move, after which my body crashed, and crashed completely.

I don't even remember much from last September and October. Somehow I managed to complete all my work-work (which I do from home remotely) but basically outside of that my life involved hobbling from my bed to the bathroom and back. Looking back at my messages during that time reveals a black hole. Truly, I can't remember much of anything other than the pain I was experiencing.

Over the past six months though, we've slowly started to get a handle on things. The first step was going on powerful painkillers to help manage the pain. This is something I had strenuously resisted, as I don't like the way they make me feel. I've never drunk or done any sort of drugs, and was uncomfortable with taking anything that altered my mood in any way. But we finally realized that the pain was so bad that it was already clouding my thinking to the point that functioning properly was impossible. We've reached a good compromise where I take the minimum strengths required to keep me on my feet, and many days I'm able to work mostly normally.

We're meeting with a specialist, and diagnostic-wise it seems I'm suffering from four things simultaneously: Diabetic Neuropathy, which irreversibly causes pain and numbness in my feet (and recently, and disturbingly, hands), gout (high levels of uric acid in the blood) which can cause severe pain in specific joints), nerve damage in my knees and elbows, and a form of arthritis related to auto-immune system issues.

It sounds horrible, and really it is, but I am feeling better as time goes on and we're looking into new treatments. I have a great specialist and I'm confident that we'll figure something out. On days when I feel like myself I'm able to produce tremendous amounts of work, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of those days!

Now obviously, the up and down nature of my health impacts my ability to make accurate predictions about how much I'll be able to do during any particular period, and it frustrates me to no end, as I've always been a 'meet deadlines or die' kind of guy. But I hope you'll humor me and allow me to make one poor prediction after another - because they help me.

When I'm feeling particularly lousy, it seems that often only a deadline (even self-declared) can motivate me to push through the discomfort and continue working. I'm confident that as we move forward, I'll be able to have a more predictable schedule, but for the meantime, please continue humoring me. We're getting there.

And finally, if you're approaching middle age, especially if you're a bigger guy, get your glucose checked regularly. As I stated, the damage caused by Diabetic Neuropathy is at this time irreversible. Once you lose feeling, it's never coming back. So stay on top of things and make whatever lifestyle changes are necessary to avoid such troubles. My symptoms were very subtle for a very long time, and I never had test results that indicated a major problem - so you have to listen to your body very, very carefully.

So that's my story for the last year. I'll let everyone know if I undergo significant shifts in either positive or negative directions health-wise. I truly appreciate everyone's support, and I'm glad I'm slowly feeling better. I'm learning how to manage the creative process from within the boundaries set by my health, and I look forward to creating lots of fun new stuff for decades to come.

Take care,
Jon