End of the year. Personally? It was enormous. I learned way more than I expected. I grew and developed significant relationships. I healed parts of myself that had been sorely neglected. Professionally? It was pretty cool. I published one book in 2018. Sushi and Sun Salutations. Maybe you read it. I joked with my friends about how I should have really titled the Soaring Bird series "Heidi Works Out Her Issues." Because for real, so many issues. I used to deny putting too much

This blog comes to you in the midst of one of the worst colds of my life. Though, to be fair, nearly every cold I get these days is the worst one ever thanks to my compromised immune system. My writing has slowed down considerably over the last couple of years due to both health and personal reasons. You, the greatest readers of all time, have been amazingly understanding about that. Because of that, I want to give you more and more things. This has led to a problem. I have a

We always start in the same place. Here. We can't start there. Only here. Where we are. The place we occupy in space and time when we make the very important decision to start. And I am here. I've been here a while. Years. Some days the start is difficult—nearly impossible. And some days the start is calm and sweet, filled with peace and possibility. This was originally going to be my "year-end" end blog post. It was going to discuss all the things that I learned in 2017 and

I had planned on writing this post the night before release. But I had the flu. Or something. I still have it a little bit. It's probably some mild cold, but with my compromised immune system it may as well be the plague. So the night before release, I was at the doctor's office with a raging fever. A fever I had had for 10 days. I know, I know. The husband already frowned a bunch and the doctor was very cross with me. But I have a good reason! It was for the book! I needed t

If you've been following my journey with health issues at all, you probably already know all the things. But I'll recap quickly for the newcomers and forgetters. *I have gained 100 pounds in the last ten years despite healthy eating and consistent exercise *numerous doctor's appointments were a bust until I went to a rock star endocrinologist *I have a benign brain tumor that causes my hormones to do the wacky *my treatment began last November *my thyroid is also being a litt

As I get closer to finishing the first draft of this book, my fear and excitement have both doubled. Fear because this will be the first book I've written since the discovery of the tumor. Wondering if my brain has changed dramatically is constant. I wonder if my writing will be any good. And yet, the words won't stop now. I fought for so many months for every single word and now the dam has opened. The words are continuous. The story is ever present in my thoughts and dreams

I had my 6 month check up today with my endocrinologist. First of all, can I just say I really like my doctor? Like, this guy knows his shit. And he listens. AND TAKES NOTES. So all through my appointment he was asking me about symptoms I had only briefly mentioned during our initial consultation. Things I had completely forgotten about. Because, you know, brain tumor. So here's the update. Since I know that's what you're all really here for. The tumor is responding as it sho

I've almost reached the 6th month mark of tumor treatment. For those of you just joining us, I have a tumor. It's on my pituitary gland. Which happens to be housed in this cavern behind my eyes. So... the brain-ish area. I technically can't call it a brain tumor because it's not touching any brain tissue. But it is really, really close to it. And my mom doesn't seem to care for it when I try to differentiate the terminology. But she's my mom. She's totally allowed to call it

Don't freak out. The good news is, it's not cancer. I feel like I need to tell everyone that right away. Not. Cancer. I also keep telling people it's not that big of a deal. Because, in all reality, it's not. It's a very small deal. 4mm to be exact. Just a tiny little deal that's affixed to my pituitary. I'm not sure how long it's been there. My guess? A long time. Judging by my ongoing symptoms. But the stress of the past year or so seems to have really punched those symptom