MMM

Hey, so you might be thinking that I gave up on my Happy Week quest, but unfortunately I had some interference, by my body. Yeah, I had to go back to the hospital for another transfusion (I got my transfuse on!). Waa waaaa. Whatever, it was fine. Annoying and lame of course, but it's done. I feel better, stronger. Not exactly ready to lift the world stronger, but not exactly standing up and walking across the room makes my heart pound either. So that's good.

One of the pleasant surprises was that the ER has TVs now, for each individual bed! Part of what made my last trip suck so much was that an entire room full of ailing people, left only to stare at the ceiling, will generally act like crazy assholes. I mean, I still had my share of shrieking old ladies and whimpering grown men, but add Monday Night RAW and Murder, She Wrote into the equation and the cacophony drops tenfold. Also, Mell was with me pretty much the whole time so that made it infinitely better. It really helps having another person there, especially when I'm weak from the HHT - it can kind of cloud my head. The last time I went I described my condition as "Severe Anemia", and spent hours in the waiting room. We got there on Monday evening and the place was more packed than I have ever seen it. I had Mell fill out my description and she wrote: "Rare blood disorder, requires immediate transfusion". We got in there in about 20 minutes. Awesome.

The rest of the stay was as usual: tedious, frustrating, boring, lotsa pokes by the needle, lotsa doctors, lotsa Cartoon Network. I spent a good deal of it writing Sibelius parts for The Little Death, feeling a little like J Dilla. They gave me one unit of blood on Tuesday, which made be feel better. My blood count was consistently higher than it felt, which was odd. It dipped down to an 8.5 at it's lowest point, which is by no means good, but not as bad as it has been (I've been down to a 4.5 before!). When I left the hospital it had come up to a 9.9 and I felt better, but still pretty weak and loopy. I'm on a heavy red meat diet (could be worse!) for the next week or so while I try to pull it up further. Normal for me is around 12. 13 is great.

Anyway, I'm spending most of my time at home, resting up for a crazy next week. This is giving me a good chance to do some mastering of some of my tracks, so I'm planning on releasing a few new songs from The Little Death, in advance of my Saturday show at The East River Music Project, on Monday so keep an eye out!