Not normally the type of thing I post, here. I tend to leave AGameAWeek to the gamey stuff, but folk keep inquiring, so I guess it's something that some people seem to love to know about!

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Pre-2012 : Neck Cramps

All my life I've coped with migraines, and over the course of my life I've learned to deal with them in a very matter of fact way. I can generally start a day with a migraine, and "get over it" by mid-afternoon. But from about 2009'ish, I started to get a strange pain in my neck, which flared up my migraines, and generally left me in a mostly useless state for most of the day.
I visited the local GP and he suggested it was my posture, since I typically sit about at a computer all day.
Painkillers were taken, Tiger Balm was used to ease the neck cramps, and life continued.

On and on it went. Most days I could cope, some days my neck was stiff, and about once a month I was pretty much out for the count, and spent the day in bed nursing the severe migraine which was coming from my neck pains..

By late 2011, the neck cramps were getting worse. I'd tried a variety of different desk heights, chair types, monitor levels and more. More doctors looked into it, and the GP even sent me for an XRay.
By February 2012, the results were all in, and they knew the exact cause.
"Posture : You spend too much time sitting at the computer."

In March 2012, the neck cramps had become much worse, and on one occasion I actually started vomiting blood. If that's not a warning sign, I don't know what is! An ambulance was called, I was taken into hospital, they performed a CT scan, and that's when they found the tumor. A small lump of "something" nestled between my brain and my spine.

2012 : Brain Surgery!!!

They opened up my head, stuffed a few tubes in me, spent months draining fluid from my head, and generally did everything they could to save my life.
Much more indepth stuff about all of that..

Going in, I knew there could be complications. I knew how badly things might go, if they did go wrong..
Thankfully, I came out the other side with my mind intact. I'm still able to spend hours coding, sitting with terrible posture, and making awful games.
I'm incredibly lucky that I'm still able to do that, and I'm thankful to all who helped me on my way.

Midway through the whole hospitalisation, I started to be sick. There didn't seem to be any reason to it, I was just sick one day, and then the next, and then the next...
This went on and on, and the doctors went through a variety of different anti-sickness tablets, desperately trying to figure out why I was being sick.
Once they'd tried the 7th or 8th different tablet, I kinda got the feeling they were simply trying to plug a hole, rather than work out why the hole was there in the first place.. And yet they continued.. Anti-sickness patch... Anti-sickness injection.. Try two tablets! Tablet at night!? Is it his stomach? Shove a camera down his throat!!!
...

In the end, they literally gave up trying to figure it out, and opted for the "It'll probably go away..." method of healthcare.
I guess I should be annoyed that they didn't look into other options, but in all honesty, I'm just glad that they finally let me go home!!!

Post-2012 : Balance

As time went on, the sickness issue became more obvious. The more I moved, the more I was being sick. I've mostly settled into a "sitting about, and not doing much" lifestyle, and although it works to ease off the sickness, it's not exactly the world's most exciting lifestyle.
I try to go on short walks around the street, a few times a week, but they're mostly a case of stumbling about and being dizzy.
The dizziness is the current cause of concern. The more I move, the worse it gets. And the movement doesn't even have to be too much. Simply standing to have a shave leaves me off balance for the next few minutes. Taking a bath usually results in me needing to rest for a good hour or so. Short walks usually leave me feeling queazy and occasionally even being sick. I've become very much a "sitting in a chair all day" type of person, even more than I used to be!

In recent visits with a Physio specialist, she's putting it down to the number of migraines that I have, combined with my current lack of movement. I've been given a set of arm, leg and body exercises to do, which should help to retrain my brain to cope with all the movement, and hopefully allow me to deal with my new situation. Only time will tell if this will make any kind of difference. I'm hopeful, but it's been a heck of a long road up to now, and I don't think it'll be a quick fix of any kind.

..And so I continue. With any luck, things might actually start to ease off a little, but if it means I can walk down the street without having to concentrate on keeping every step in an approximately forward'ish direction, it'll be worth it!

Meanwhile, AGameAWeek continues.... Because I really have nothing better to do!!