Hello all, hope you're doing well, and have a great Christmas!

Some of you already know this, but since a fair few people have asked me lately if and when I'll get back into drawing, unfortunately I'm having some health problems that mostly prevent that.

The first issue is an old injury to my right hand, one from almost two decades ago. A glass broke while I was washing it, and it severed the tendon of my index finger at the knuckle. I had to have surgery to repair the tendon, but the flexibility in that finger never went back to 100%. As the years have gone by, this finger has become progressively stiffer. When holding a pencil, I end up squeezing it really tightly with that finger without really being aware that I'm doing it, until my hand starts to ache. Writing is hard enough, drawing is tougher still, have to keep resting my hand.

Then the second issue - in January of this year I suffered a retinal occlusion in my right eye - the vein that takes blood out of the eyeball had become blocked, causing blood to pool on the retina and fluid to accumulate behind it. I have had all sorts of tests, but they have no idea why it happened. I'm having monthly injections to try to mitigate the problem (drain the fluid, clear the vision a little), that is still ongoing. Needless to say, this causes problems when drawing too, things like double vision when something is too close, pain while focusing for a while after the injections, etc. The hope is that the drugs can remove all the fluid and get it to a point where no more gathers behind the retina, and if they can get it to that point then I will be happy (full vision will never be restored, the retina is damaged). So I have my fingers crossed there.

Ultimately though both conditions are incurable so the best I can do is hope they don't get worse.

Thanks for reading, hope you'll all have the best of health.