When Life Happens While at a Writers’ Conference

I know, it’s been weeks since I last posted. A few weeks ago, I was so excited to be going to the New England Conference for RWA. You’re probably wondering how it all went.
It was a great weekend. There were lots of fantastic workshops, which I started off with GMC Your Writing Career. This workshop focused on looking at your writing career the same way one would write Goal, Motivation, and Conflict for characters. The difference is you – your writing career – are the character. It was an interesting topic, and something to think about.
Then I took self-care and Ergonomics. This workshop was full of exercises and stretches for those who sit at the keyboard for many hours. It also featured proper posture for sitting. Many of these exercises, I will be using in the coming weeks, after hysterectomy surgery, my future topic.
You see, during the entire weekend, I had a dilemma. I thought I was suffering from Kidney Stones or something similar. I was dealing with this as best as I could while maintaining my composure, and blowing up like a balloon. I just didn’t know how bad I had it.
So, I continued on with my weekend and learned about Expanding Your Audience On Non-Amazon Retailers. This was pretty impressive.
Should you ever see, any of these workshops offered, take the opportunity. They were all superb.
Sprinting: It’s Not Just for Runners! By Tracey Lyons was fun and witty. She is a must meet person. I did manage to work out three scenes while in her workshop in under five minutes. Thanks, Tracey.
Our dinner was with Sabrina Jeffries, whom I met and spoke with during the book signing. It was a pleasure to meet her. I had to have a book signed by her for a co-worker of mine who is from Thailand. I did my homework before going to NEC by reading the author website blurbs. If I hadn’t, I would never have known that Sabrina had grown up in Thailand.
By Saturday, I was petering out. My stone problem was slowly getting worse and the pain was increasing and by the time the book signing was over, I was pretty much done for.
Sunday and Monday, my agony was growing. Tuesday, I was due back to work. By 6am, I was ready to see a doctor. My DH agreed and took me to the ER.
Apparently, it wasn’t a kidney stone after all. A uterus fibroid was blocking off my urine flow. I was in so much agony, which was relieved when a catheter was put in place.
Now I wait. My surgery is a must. But my OB/GYN cracks me up. She had me have an MRI so they would be able to see what was going on before scheduling the surgery. Doc said, “You got to see these photos, they’re awesome!”
I’m like ugh. How can you be so excited about pictures of my insides?
She went on to show us and talk about all the details, being excited about the whole process. I said to her in response, joking, “Only on Grey’s Anatomy.”
She smirked and calmed down. It was still funny.
So now I await my upcoming surgery. It’s scheduled for this Friday morning. I don’t know how long it will be until I will be comfortable to sit and post after the surgery. Only time will tell.