Since I've Been Gone...

I'd like to apologize for my long, unexplained absence. Partially to blame is my health: I've spent the last three weeks in some stage of one flu or another. (garden variety flu so far, luckily) Trying to take care of myself resulted in deadlines piling up that I had to then scramble to meet, which in turn wore me down until I got sick again. It's kept me from most of my usual activities, including sex, until this past weekend.


A few weeks ago, I switched to a new pain medication. Instead of a general NSAID that could be given for a multitude of ills, it was an NSAID specifically developed for people with my set of problems. It's been a godsend in that it brought my daily baseline pain level from 5/10 down to 3/10. It's been a frustration because I have a suspicion, but can't be sure, that it's contributing to the exhaustion that's been plaguing me since I got sick.

This weekend, I slept 16 hours a day. For the two previous weeks, I was sleeping 12-14 hours a day, and before that it was 10 hours a night; any less and I was a zombie all day. This from the girl who, two years ago, lived quite comfortably on 6 hours a night. I've been falling asleep at my computer in the lab, even though it's the most exciting part of my day to be involved in such fascinating research.

With so much of my usual free time devoured by extra sleep and catching up with deadlines, very little time has been left over for blogging, or tweeting, or testing items for review, much less writing the reviews. When I got sick, I had a whole batch I was just starting to work my way through. While I was sick, there was no sex, and when I wasn't, I was alone; the only toy I used while sick was a sterilizable one.

I didn't feel comfortable writing reviews of a group of well made, wonderful toys on one use, or reviews of toys that looked awesome after no use at all. I hated to do it, but I decided that a late, but honest and thorough review would be better than a half-assed shpeil I threw down when the deadline neared. That wouldn't be fair to the store I was reviewing for, or the manufacturers whose products I would be presenting. And, I personally wouldn't be alright with the idea of giving them something I wasn't able to stand behind, and say "I did the best I could for you".

Hopefully I'll be able to get back in the saddle later this week. I've missed you all, and wish I'd been coherent enough to do more than mumble that I was miserable on Twitter.