So. Deep breath. Breathe In. Breathe Out. Repeat.

Ignore the half-skulled man in the previous Hallowe'en post below from October 31st. The following day, November 1st, was one of the most f*cking scary moments in my entire life - and remember, I’m a guy who has so far lived through being nearly fatally poisoned, shot, threatened and interviewing Britney Spears.

Let me be blunt: last weekend there were several hours when I literally thought I was going to die (and if you believe everything on Wikipedia, I probably should have). Late Saturday afternoon, I suddenly got a headache that within a few seconds I knew wasn’t JUST a headache. Not even a migraine. Fortunately, I knew my parents weren’t far away and called them - explaining I thought I needed help and if they arrived to find me unconscious (a real possibility) they should call the paramedics. Within an hour, and amidst bouts of pain and vomiting, the ambulance got me to the hospital. Amazingly fast tests were done (God, I love the NHS!) and I was admitted to a ward. The following day I had a further scan (and angiogram) which confirmed I’d had a sub-arachnoid haemorrhage and there were ongoing discussions about the severity and the consequences. While the images were analysed etc I was confined to a bed and unable to even turn my head without more intense pain and body spasms. Hell of a weekend.

On Monday I was told that as far as haemorrhages go, I’d effectively been hit head on by a Ford Cortina rather than an Optimus Prime juggernaut. For those who need to know specifics, this was a bleed outside the actual brain, pushing against the skull (if I’d been more like Eli Stone and his George Michael musical ‘visions’, it would have been an aneurism inside the brain itself) and so the essential efforts were sorting out if this was a one-off, an underlying problem or something that required further surgery. After another twenty-four hours it appeared the first situation was the case - that there was no sign of further bleeding and that there appeared to be no rhyme or reason to the event. Layman terms: shit happens and a mixture of luck, cleanISH living and fast enough reactions meant that after some convalescence I should make a full recovery.

Right now, it looks I’m going to be ensconced at my parentals’ house until Christmas (simply as a sensible precaution), limiting my workload to the minimum and working my way through continued severe headaches/dizziness (safe, if nothing to be sneezed at - literally) and hobbling around (due to similar conditions to meningitis, there’s some linked general swelling and stiffness in the shoulders, back and legs) and for this week at least, largely just confined to bed and hellish Daytime TV - though I could watch that Obama acceptance speech over and over again.

It’s annoying I won’t make the Thought Bubble event and panels with Mark Millar that I was due to host next week (Tamsin, Lisa... give 'em hell!) nor quite likely a long-arranged set-visit later in the month, but I KNOW how lucky I am.

Thanks to EVERYONE at the LGI and their Neurology Department for their care; everyone who sent their best wishes - especially the Facebookers and HLWW listers. I’ll be getting back to you all as my sleep and thinking patterns even out. In the meantime, immediate thanks to Kerry - who knew the real dangers all too well - for immediately jumping in to organise Impact material, Jilly for her sense of humour and Carmel for getting the word out. Thanks to Big Mike, Dina et al for the speedy texts.

And, of course, thanks beyond the telling of it to my mum and dad for just... being there.

You’ll understand, I may not be posting quite as much for a while. But I’ll be around.

So. Breathe In. Breathe Out. Repeat.