Well, all things considered, 2008 kind sucked...
A lot of wonderful thing did happen this year, and all in all I have moved forward in a lot of ways. But then again I also got cancer, and there's nothing like it to eat up a whole year like getting cancer, lol! To think I was diagnosed in Feb, and just had my last treatment check up a fortnight ago, it was a year of travelling to hospital, being at hospital, or recovering from being at hospital.
A run down of my 2008...
January I was getting into planning my wedding. Had all gone as planned, I would be married now! We were thinking a late spring/early summer date at that time. I bought my dress and all. Of course, once I lost my hair I've postponed the event until I feel pretty again :S
February of course is when it all began. There were the tests and the scary waiting, then after that it was all go-go-go.
March I had my surgery, and became blonde again for the first time since I was 5! I was also working on the Wychwood brewery beer labels at the time. Since then they have released my Goliath artwork on their products, but they've used someone elses version of the White Wych. Suxors.
April my hair went to pink! In between surgery and chemo, I did a round of IVF. I didn't talk about it much, kinda private, but it was a safeguard against the possibility of chemo killing off my fertility. I'm the proud mummy of 15 frozen baby pops. I've considered naming them (*puts on best hillbilly voice* Jimbob, Jennifer, Jay, Johnny, Julie, Jamie.... hehe). I also learned how to give myself needles during this time. Ick.
May, my chemo started, and I went to bald. Don't want to talk or think about chemo much anymore. It's all good as long as I don't remember it. But still just a smell or feeling can trigger majorly vivid flashbacks, ugh. While all this was going on, I did however also manage to develop and release an Australian range of products for Jessica Galbreth, as part of a plan to start representing a bunch of other artists through my business.
June was also made of Ugh. I did however get my set of fairy queens painted. It felt good to paint.
July- I think it was about here that David got his full time job on All Saints (aussie tv show), post production job on Channel 7! Go Him! Despite everything going on, both of our yearly goals were progressing, things were good. I painted FIVE paintings this month. Awesome. I also received my shipment of the journals I sell this month. Might not seem a bit thing, but it was my first forray into importing proper. Sea cargo shipping, customs, quarantine inspections and all. Also awesome.
August- I can't really remember, short term memory and all kinds of thought process got seriously screwed up with chemo, but sometime during the year I hired my first employee! This was a big acheivement for me. Even though it was a close friend to start with, we treated the whole thing fairly professionally, and I sure made her work (Hey Megs?!). It was a bit of a milestone, and really made things so so much easier for me during my treatments. Towards the end of August was my last chemo, yaaaay!
September I began radiotherapy. Easy Peasy compared to chemo. My skin reaction also went really well over all, no blistering or peeling or anything. Still even now it's a bit pink, and itchy, argh! But still, anything is better than chemo!
October, still in radiotherapy. Lost all my eyelashes and eyebrows post chemo, they just couldn't hold on anymore! But my hair overall had started to grow back, slowly slowly. I've gone into major painting mode to get work done on my Faery Oracle deck that I had been signed for someway through the year. This was also a big milestone for me! My first kinda solo art publishing... not written by me (could have been, but I opted for getting a pro in!), but all my art, and beautifully published. Now it's almost done, it's very, very exciting!
November marked pretty much the end of my treatments! Just a bunch of "X weeks after treatment" checkups to make sure I was recovering proper and then I was free for a few solid months of non-hospital time! I feel so institutionalised though, hospital kinda became my second home, and as much as I DON'T miss it, I do miss it, you know? Like prisoners not knowing what to do with themselves when they leave prison... I need to go build a boat with Morgan Freeman or something...
November was also my 27th birthday! My mum put together the most awesome party for me ever, with almost my entire extended family, which is of quite decent size! It was a wonderful wonderful night. I took a quick break from painting fairies and painted my set of angels. Also kicking into fair season.
December- And here we are. Doesn't feel like I did a lot this year, but on the other hand I guess I did. Many of the goals I had set for myself before I ever thought I'd get cancer, I still managed to acheive between it all. Hired staff, launched our other artists range, got lots of awesome business functionality set up with databases and such, got into the Rocks markets (it was on my goals list!), got a proper publishing deal, got my art on beer labels! Didn't get married, but hey, I'm going to be with David for evar & evar, so we're not in a huge rush, and certainly don't want to do it when I'm feeling like a pudgy army recruit.
I'm looking forward to doing some major regrouping, refocusing and replanning over the coming weeks. If I could get all of that done while getting treated for cancer, damn I'm going to get a lot done next year!
1 comment:
You are such an amazing girl. You have accomplished so much. Your passion and talent, your inspiration to keep going forward.
Next year will be a terrific year and I am sure you go much further again more than you could dream.
So proud of you.
Post a Comment