I've been fighting (since April, jeezus) to get my heart medications properly.
The short version is that I take an extreme kind of rhythm inhibitor to keep my heart from racing off into ultraspeed thanks to years of abusing Caffeine, Abusing myself (overworking myself, and more), Abusing Energy Drinks, and generally just trying to grind so hard it actually did technically kill me. (twice!)
In April, that pill was suddenly cut off because of supply chain issues (thank you, you orange flavoured tacofucker), and then after that my health insurance repeatedly refused to pay for any part of the pill, and since I could not even afford the pills NORMALLY, the full price (measured in THOUSANDS of dollars for 30 days supply) was entirely out of my reach.
And the damn pharmacy wouldn't even fucking give me any, even if I DID have the money. Do not know why.
So really, I've been slowly dying for the last 90 or so days. The last straw came with my Cardiologist hearing this entire story, getting furious...and RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, he made a flurry of calls and basically chewed out my Pharmacy, my Primary Care Physician (who somehow wasn't aware of any of this? I don't even know), and the insurance fuckers.
GREAT NEWS, I now have the pills. In my hand. Been taking them for 2 days or so, and am now feeling the NEW pain of recovering from restarting a heart med that slows my heart waaaaaaaaaaay down. It's gonna take me a week or so to recover from that sudden deceleration. Maybe less.
Bad news. This is part of the reason I've had to stop doing stuff. Just doing the ASMR voice was taxing in a way I couldn't even describe to you guys, Let alone the Hypnosis stuff.
So what I've been doing since:
-Finishing up on a HUGE script that is going to involve multiple actors - Hindpaw themed group TF that will be available in SFW and NSFW endings.
-Writing the Prequel to this huge script for a solo role (me), also hindpaw themed, because yes, I'm that kind of freak. And so are you, probably. If not, then it'll be a full TF, so don't worry.
-Finishing the Hypnosis portion of the latest ASMR file, to release hopefully this week (the week of July 21st through the 31st...more than a week, yes, but I'm working as best I can in my condition)
-Writing a new Hypnosis script for a brain-scrambler/relaxation file that is intended to just melt you into a proverbial and literal puddle to get you to just be one with the world. I'm thinking of calling it the Fuckit Buckit or something witty like that. I personally kinda do enjoy the liquid shifter/goo concept, and have been a huge fan of like...Odo from DS9 or the T-1000 from TERMINATOR 2 since I was old enough to watch either movie. Probably earlier, it's been a long fucking life.
-Working on a new commission in the Equine Theme, something huge and definitely curse-related. I will give you an out, I will give you a way to turn it off, but it's gonna be the kind of thing that is meant to really REALLY screw with you, along the lines of "On All Fours" and "Assinine Behaviour".
-Wrapping up conceptuals on "A Date With a Werewolf", a female werewolf TF file where the listener is on a nice date and things get WEIRD fast, and I think I might actually have to cast for this one, so that'll be fun.
-and surprisingly, I do actually do work outside of my own, so I've been recording work for several OTHER creators, including people like Kashy, as well as some private companies, etc.
All of this to say, I'm not dead, I'm still TRYING, I know it's been a shitty fucking year so far, and it's just...just so hard for all of us. I deeply appreciate you all sticking with me through all of this.
I'm still doing my best.
~ARI