The good with The bad

So, do you want the good news or bad news first?

Oh man – I was hoping you would say that. Okay! Good news it is. Here we go.

Remember that book I was telling you about, the one that I was planning to write? Well – I finally started it! It took some cunning, telling myself I was going to sit down & write something else, but at the last second I told myself I was going to at least start the book – and that’s what happened.

It won’t be like anything you’ve read before. Unapologetic, authentic, moving & inspiring, it’s going to finally put into words the wild & often hilarious adventures I’ve had over the past ten years, from when I decided to give up everything & chase down my dreams… and it’s going to be entirely true. Wish me luck.
Now, the crappy news I just received this past Friday from my doctor.
It’s likely I’ll get denied the surgery I’ve needed & been hoping for for over five years.
Quick back-story: When my ascites (the abdominal swelling) was at its worst, the pressure was so severe that it actually pushed my insides outside. Squeezed a part of my small intestine out of my navel.
Over time, it’s grown. The skin has stretched, and even more of my intestine is on the wrong side of me. As a result I need to wear a hernia truss every single day, from the moment I wake up until I go to bed. If I don’t, the intestine stays out and even after putting the truss on, the pain lasts the rest of the day.
Now that I’ve fought so hard, and, with your help, been able to bring the swelling back down – my doctor told me on Friday that my platelets were so dangerously low that the surgeons told him they would likely deny me the surgery I need to fix it.
Thismeans never going anywhere, ever, without having to wear the truss. Beach, sunny park, anywhere I want to soak in the sun or just fucking be comfortable again.

These pictures disgust me. As superficial as it is, I’m insanely (irrationally?) self-conscious about the way my hernia looks.
To think that I may have to live even longer with it is unbearable.

Even a simple small cough causes pain – with or without the truss. It feels like my guts are going to rip through the thin skin & go shooting across the room like one of those trick peanut jars… so I need to raise my platelets, or this is going to be my life. There are a few things that help, the best being papaya juice and wheatgrass/chlorella – but as usual, I don’t even have money for healthy friggin’ food, much less indulging in things like taking my health back & being able to live a life that I used to take for granted – and so many still do.
So again, as degrading as it is, I have to ask for help. Right now I can’t even get to the pharmacy to pick up a needed prescription, because I don’t have the $2.25 for the damn bus. I don’t have money for food, for the coconut water that keeps away the bone-crushing cramps and keeps me hydrated as the other fluid is flushed out…

***So please – share this & give whatever you can. I’ll admit – though I’m grateful for anything, it’s horribly disheartening when I lay it all out there, force myself to ask again, and help just barely trickles in – like it has the past couple of times I’ve had to ask. Please. Help me get what I need so I can not only get healthier, but get the surgery I need for my hernia while I can. I have an appointment with the surgeons on January 14^th. There is no time to waste.

My PayPal address is ksea@culturefluxmagazine.com, which is much preferred to the GoFundMe page – but if you wish to give there, the link is www.gofundme.com/fightingkflux .
Thank you.

Ah, but that’s right – I promised you some more good news.
The herbs are WORKING, and the swelling in my legs & abdomen is going down, much to my delight – and thanks to you. I’m finally able to consistently make it not only up the stairs without getting winded, but to the BIG dog park at the top of the hill, which for a while I could only get within two very steep blocks of. This, of course, is much to Ruby’s delight – but we’ve been hit with some pretty steady and much needed rain for a number of days now, and she isn’t to thrilled with that wet stuff from the sky. Still, I try to get my exercise in where I can – not only to build my strength back up after my muscles atrophied in the hospital, but it helps with the edema (legs) and ascites (abdomen). In the past 21 days, I’ve gone from 191.6 lbs. To 168.2 – with maybe 10 more to go. It’s slower, but much healthier than the prescription drugs, and well worth it.

We’ve accomplished some incredible things together. Without you there would never have been any possibility of getting better – no reason to fight, because I would have had nothing to fight with… but damn, look how far we’ve COME!
We’ve gotten this far. I promise that if you don’t give up on me, just hang in there for a short while longer – I won’t give up either.

I love you.

~ Casey

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better than I am, I am.

I read the me from a year ago & realize in dismay & frustration how little has changed.
Lately – for weeks, if not months, I’ve been feeling like all I do every day is pound my fists against this chrysalis I’m in, feeling as if I’ve been stuck in here far too long. I am formed & waiting to stretch my wings, but have somehow created walls in my mind that prevent me from breaking through the shell & feeling the air lift me again.

I begin to resent myself – partly for letting me become this way, partly for my inaction, & partly because even though I *know* how to break out of it I have myself become one one of the types of people I tend to scorn – those who talk and seldom, if ever, act.

That is unlike me, who has jumped into everything most of my life – from moving blindly to cities where I didn’t know where I would sleep & knew no one, to creating an online magazine, to driving across the country & changing the weak plans I had to live in a tent for four months, volunteering for Katrina refugees in Austin… and so much more.

So who is this person now? WHAT is stopping me from moving forward… except for simply moving forward?

I never have before, but now… I think I need someone. To help, to meet with & inspire me to get this book & bio & description done, to bounce words off of, cheer me on, and hold me accountable… but I can’t seem to find them. Everyone else seems too busy with their own things. Their own agendas. Their own lives… and while I can completely understand…

it sure does get lonely.

I simply used to jump off the cliff and wait for the wings to unfold. They always did.
These days however, I don’t seem to be able to find anywhere to jump from.
I just need help to get running, to start moving…

and to change this fear into excitement.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
kSea Flux
December 4, 2014 ·

I look at old videos that I took while in Maitri. Things I haven’t seen since recording them, “footage” that no one else has seen, nor likely ever will unless you ask – and I don’t think you want to.
Better to hide behind the hint of truth that you already know.

These are the things I need to remember when I see other friends going through the hells that they do – so few of us tell the whole story. We’re afraid to.
We aren’t looking for sympathy, not looking for “oh, you poor thing…” We know. We know how you feel because we feel it more. We feel it more because we have that badge sewn into our flesh. Trust me, this is nothing against you… in fact, I hope you never do understand. I hope that you never have the capacity to empathize on that level. Your well wishes *are appreciated…

But what we truly seek is understanding. A person to cry *with* – not someone who cries for us. Only in those (thankfully) few people can we find some sort of twisted kinship.

Please don’t get me wrong – I love you. GODS, how I love you, for your caring, for your support, for the way that you *don’t* understand…

But I watch the videos, and even I, who have lived through that time, am disgusted at what I see… the decomposing flesh, the blood, the “fluid” that stained everything I slept in or wore, frequently soaking through the three layers of gauze & bandages to the pants Nd dripping on the floor of the cafe… And for the greater part of five years (the decomposition began *long* before I went into the hospice) – that was just another part of daily life. Brush my hair & remaining teeth, splash water on my face, peel the dressing and flesh from my legs try not to scratch because GODS they itched from the poison seeping out… and what do I need to do with CultureFlux that day?

THis seems like an entirely different life, the one I am living now… an entirely different person – finding my Birth Mother, being solid and “stable” enough to at least let a dog “think” that everything is wonderful… – even to the point of daring to offer my heart to another…

And remembering how wonderful that feels, even in the pain that it has brought.

Recently a friend said to let go of the past and focus on the future. I understood what was meant, and in many situations the person woulld be right – *IF* my past – this *particular* past were holding me back from myself and who I continue to become – but as I said to the person after a bit of thought – “In order to see where I am going, I cannot be blind to where I’ve been.”

We all go through what we need to, so we can give the lessons we have learned…

and I think I pretty much lost my train of thought… if there was one to begin with.

Perhaps the most important thing however – as grim as it may look to others, keep fucking smiling – and to everyone who *can’t* understand… please keep it that way.

You’ll find out enough about it in my book. That’s as close as I *EVER* want you to get…

I love you.

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