My Health, Painting, and Other News
I thought I would write an quick update to let everyone know what’s going on and what’s coming up.
Probably the biggest thing going on right now concerns my health. The short version is, I have a brain/pituitary gland tumor, it isn’t cancerous, but it is causing (or has caused) a whole lot of health issues. Doctors are still determining exactly how they are going to approach treating me, most likely starting with drug therapy, moving to radiotherapy if that isn’t successful, then onto surgery if need be. I’ll know for certain how they’ll start approaching it on Wednesday
I am certain the drug therapy will do the trick. Apparantly it usually does. But it could be a nasty couple weeks or so as things get going. And there are some other issues cause by or aggravated by all this, so the bottom line is, lots of trips to the hospital. I am very fortunate though…as a veteran the Veterans Administration is taking care of me, and the doctors and staff at the VA hospital are simply fantastic. They really seem to be pulling out all the stops, and I truly think I’m getting the best care possible. I have no doubt this will all be fine in a couple months.
In the meantime, this is all probably going to put a big slowdown in my painting. But I still have a couple pokers in the fire. So I may have something done soon. Most of my painting focus this year will 28mm Napolionics, 28mm English Civil War, and a little dabbling in a couple other eras. I may also put everything on hold for a couple months and paint a 1500 point Flames of War company, just to get back into the game.
I am finished with painting for competitions for now. I guess I just burned out on spending 2 months of my painting time, twice a year, on one or two pieces that only win silvers (if I’m lucky), and never seem to get much game figures painted. Plus, I end up just feeling bad about my painting anyway. So my new rule is… paint for the games I want to play, if I happen to paint something I think is good, I’ll enter it in a competition…otherwise, I’ll skip it. I’ll most likely be doing just that for GhengisCon ’12… skipping the painting competition. Though I will be helping out judging an army painting competition at the Con. I’ll post pictures of that in February.
Other news, I’ve added a couple links this month, most importantly the one to the blog of my good friend Kris. His site is called Wargames and Railroads, which should give you a good indication what his interests are. Kris is a great painter, but he is also a brilliant painting teacher. Much of what I do i was taught by him, and he continues to be my go-to-guy if I need any sort of painting advice. Kris also organizes and runs many of the painting events at the conventions here in Denver as well as painting get togethers and workshops all over eastern Colorado. Definitely take the time to check out his blog.
That’s all for now. Thanks everyone for stopping by, and thank you for any comments you leave.
-Scott
That sounds awful!!! I hope all goes well, look after yourself and keep painting!
I hope you see a speedy recovery.
CS
Hope all goes well, my thoughts are with you! Take care of yourself.
Re painting competitions, I think they do more to discourage, but your stuff is fantastic!
Good luck Scott! We will all be thinking of you. My dad has gone through a lot with the VA and I agree. They are top notch and really try and take care of you guys! Keep us posted.
Scott – I have enjoyed your blog for a while now. Your excellent painting is an inspiration to me. My prayers are with you for good news this Wednesday. – Jeff
Dear Sir,
I am sorry to hear the news and i wish you a speedy recovery. I suppose at a time like this painting figures really does come into its own as an alternative focus. Please keep painting you are such an inspirational painter to me.
My kindest regards to you and your family.
Lee
All the best wishes for a complete and rapid recovery.
Richard
Thanks everyone for your kind words. I don’t have anything to report, like I hoped I would. The doctors think there is much more involved than they originally thought. It’s tumor, but now they aren’t certain exactly which kind and exactly what the effect it’s having is. More stuff is shutting down or just not working than they had assumed.
So… more bloodwork, more tests, more x-rays, more MRI’s and more waiting. It’s probably going to take them a month (The VA is very helpful and thorough, but not very fast). I was pretty frustrated when they told me, but at least they want to make certain they know what they’re dealing with and get things right.
Thanks again everyone. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some painting done here soon.
-Scott