AuthorHouse author M. West continues her fascinating series of articles about her experiences at the PitchFest Los Angeles 2012. We left her yesterday wondering “if this was the right step to take” for her book Solace?
In part two of her AuthorHouse Author’s Digest series, M. West has to overcome the agony of a kidney stone and surgery before she can make up her mind about her book’s future.
Not Even Pregnancy, a Kidney Stone and Surgery can Stop this AuthorHouse Author
By M. West
So I threw in all my chips and decided to go for broke.
As soon as I made that decision all kinds of creative ideas came to my husband and myself on how we could raise money: hold a raffle, or a bake sale, or a yard sale, or a car wash. Verbal pledges of support came in so fast I could almost see the dollar bills floating down from the heavens and raining all around me. And as all of this excitement, the thrill of brainstorming plans that were sure to work, was buzzing around in my head something was shaking loose around my middle–a kidney stone the size of a nickel.
I raced into the hospital two days later, throwing up mid-sentence as I spoke to the doctor on call. I had experienced pain like this before, but that was when I was in back-labor and I wasn’t supposed to be in labor at 34 weeks.
As anyone who has ever had a kidney stone can attest: the pain is exquisite. Whatever was in my head before I went into the hospital the torture of that awful stone sent it packing. One week and one semi-successful surgery later (I say semi, because not only was I too infected to have the stone removed during that surgery, but it added a stent in my already over-crowded ureter … and somehow I managed to break a whole lot of blood vessels in my eyes. My son told me I looked cool–like a zombie. Great.)
I came home with far less enthusiasm for… just about everything. I still hurt, there was blood in my urine… I just didn’t want to do anything.
But that wasn’t an option anymore. Back in the hospital (and on high doses of pain-killer) I spoke to Dominic. “YES!” I told him enthusiastically, “We’re doing this, we’re going to L.A.”
It was a combination of that yay-I-have-plans excitement and the fluster of holy-cow-I-haven’t-thought-of-this-once-in-a-whole-week. After all, I felt like this was a step in the right direction, but that was before I knew I had a gigantic kidney stone, before my urine was the rich color of a brick, back when I had enthusiasm.
Now what?
M. West’s AuthorHouse Bibliography:
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