Health update

Hello, gentle readers, long time, no see.

Your correspondent is slowly emerging from throat-cancer treatment and will resume blogging shortly. Thanks to everyone who's reached out with well wishes and support, it's all much appreciated.

Since many people have asked, here's a quick health update. Grits must admit, this has been a rough stretch. The doctor in charge of my treatment announced my side effects fell on the "far right-hand tail of the bell curve" in terms of harshness, so I've spent most of the last couple of months feeling pretty awful. For five weeks I was continuously nauseous and am not at all yet back to 100%. In fact, I'm still getting all calories through a feeding tube and haven't had solid foods since February. As of this morning, I'm down about 60 pounds, reaching weight levels unseen since high school. But I can now indulge in sustained reading and sit at the computer for short stints, so with a little luck, blogging should re-emerge in earnest shortly.

Special shout outs go to Amandas Woog and Marzullo, Keri Blakinger, Margaret Robbins, Sukyi McMahon, and everyone at the Austin Justice Coalition who stepped up for me at a critical moment. (When paper products vanished from the shelves while I was coughing up mucous to the tune of 2 tissue boxes per day, they put word out and dropped off large volumes at the house. This made a huge difference and I'm eternally grateful for that.) Thanks also to my Just Liberty board of directors who were incredibly accommodating throughout my unanticipated absence. I couldn't be more grateful for their understanding and support. Finally, my wonderful wife, Kathy Mitchell, has been amazing throughout this ordeal; I can't imagine getting through this without her.

With American society more or less shut down over the coronavirus lately, this hasn't been a terrible time to find myself (completely) out of the loop. While I don't anticipate blogging will instantly ramp back up to prior levels over the next few weeks, I do feel well enough to begin to climb back in the saddle. So I wanted to poke my head up out of the bunker, provide this update, and re-set expectations going forward.

Finally, the brand of cancer from which I suffered is caused by the HPV virus, which in the 21st century can be prevented with a vaccine. Texas does not mandate this in schools' vaccine regimen, so if you have kids, make sure they receive it. I promise, you don't want your children to go through what I just did.

That's all the personal news and notes for now, but thanks again to everyone for your patience and support.