Smog.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

There's no end to the smoke, the haze, the smog right now.

And it's not just the literal kind. I am so disgusted by what passes for "healthcare" in this state (and country, frankly) right now that I could scream.

I got a call last night from the imaging place (which, I might add, serves one of the state's major hospital systems directly, as well as the cancer center), telling me that their MRI machine had broken down and the tech was unable to repair it, so they needed to reschedule me.

For between three and four weeks from now.

For scans to rule out [or rule in] a disease that moves fast and aggressively, that nearly always results in early death, and that I am currently six weeks out trying to get pinned down and, if positive, treated.

One fucking MRI machine?  That's all y'all got?  And people can just wait a month, and what? Is this pre-Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come Scrooge?  If you're going to die, you'd better do it, the, and decrease the surplus population? 

Y'all first, colonizers.

It's enraging.

So, anyway. Back to limbo. FWIW, I'm telling myself that, given how dismissive some of the medical personnel are (who probably have never seen a case of IBC, incidentally), maybe this is the spirits giving me time needed to show something on the scans that they can't minimize. Because what often happens with this particular disease? Inept staff don't see anything they think matters, ignore the skin changes that are actually the determinative factor, and deny DX and treatment . . . and then the patient dies. Probably to the tines of the same idiots saying, "Why didn't you come in soooooner," as though they didn't and were not dismissed with a pat on the head and told to come back in two years for a regular (and utterly nondiagnostic) mammogram, by which time they're dead.

Yeah, I'm bitter. But if another month is what it will take for them to take this shit seriously, then I guess it's a bright side of a sort.

For those of you who don't know what all this means, you can read about it here. You can read why my main concern now is just the potential DX, treatment, and survival (i.e., not the medical bills themselves), half-way down the post here.

But, yes, we still will need to make consistent sales. I'll have travel costs coming up, plus, if the DX is worst-case, there'll be a lot of days (weeks? months?) when I won't be able to work, which means no chasing sales or patrons to pay regular bills and expenses. And as I said, Wings will have several new pieces out soon, too, possibly as early as the end of this week: at least one major necklace, and a minimum of four new Warrior Woman and three new Pueblo pins (those last three, with a very cool new twist). I posted the first two Pueblo pins two nights ago; one has already sold, but you can see the other here.

I'm skipping all the rest of it because I'm tired constantly, and frankly I don't have the focus right now for anything else. Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are LaminaSaver for Miika [she's set until August] coffee & metal/glass/dishwasher cleaners);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And if you've been contemplating a purchase? This would be a very, very good time to do it; I've got to make up this staggering outlay somehow. There's lots of fabulous new work, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.