Hi everyone,
Some of you may remember me, I don't know. I joined the forum a couple years back after a renewed interest in scale modeling. I fell out of my pursuit of the hobby due to the convergence of establishing myself at a new job and a rapidly deteriorating health issue. I never lost interest, but my energy after work was simply depleted. It took everything I had to make it through every shift, and many times I wasn't even able to do that. I am blessed that my employer has been understanding enough to stay with me. I firmly believe my work ethic of not giving up, trying to stay positive, and caring about the work I do is what saved me from being let go. After each shift, I would return home, shower (if I had the energy), then would eat and plant myself in front of the television until I fell asleep. On the weekends when I had no shift, I had little energy to do anything else than lay around and nap all day in an effort to build rest for the coming work week
Fast forward to about a week and a half ago... I was at work, struggling, coughing my lungs out as usual, trying to focus on my work with a throbbing head full of blunted nerves and starving for oxygen, my back screaming at me to sit or lay down. This had been going on for almost two years, getting progressively worse, and including a trip to an emergency room and several doctor visits with no end in sight. I had reached the end of my rope. I stopped what I was doing (in the middle of a high-priority job) and resolved to myself that I could go no further and must get whatever I had treated, even if it meant losing my job or going on government assistance or whatever. I went to my boss and told him I had to leave and fully accepted and disciplinary action he had to take. He said he understood and told me he would work with me and gave me some advice on how to go about things. He is a terrific boss, and I am lucky to work for such a man
To save this from being a long-winded post with unnecessary detail. I changed doctors, and the new one promptly and thoroughly treated my condition. I began to see almost miraculous improvement immediately, and after only a week and a half, I feel literally like I just woke from a bad dream. The improvements are too many to list, and the level of recovery has been astounding. My productivity at work is through the roof. My boss is shocked, as well as myself. I am burning through projects around the house that had been piling up due to my lethargy. I honestly do not remember ever feeling this well. I knew I needed to get better medical treatment, but I didn't expect such a dramatic change
I wanted to post this because, as Jack Nicholson said - or maybe it was General MacArthur - "I'm baaaack". I began working on a 1/35 Tamiya M113, and it simply froze in time from where I left off. I'm picking up at that point. I'm also putting together a spray booth and have been arranging a dedicated work area. I've been lurking on this site, marveling at the builds, soaking in the vast knowledge, getting inspired by the inventiveness, and so forth. I'll be ready to post some progress pics soon
Cheers til then!