Sanctuary Preorder and Updates

Hello, everyone. I’m still alive.

Thank you to everyone who emailed Mod R to check on me. I’ve written a long detailed post of woe about my gallbladder ordeal, but I just trashed it, because it was depressing, and who wants that?

I don’t give medical advice, because I’m not a medical professional, so here is a datapoint. If you have unexplained severe pain in the upper abdomen, especially after you eat fatty meals, have your gallbladder checked. Especially if you recently lost weight, as weight loss can accelerate formation of gallstones.

When they put me on Ozempic for blood sugar control, I expected to lose some weight as a consequence. And I did. I came off Ozempic just before the attacks started. I’ve lost 31 lbs. to date. 18 of it was Ozempic. The rest was gallbladder. The pain is excruciating, and it gets worse, not better. I got to the point where I was afraid to eat. If the surgeon had told me, “We’ll have to cut off one of your feet for the pain to stop,” I would’ve told him to pick one.

I’m recovering. I saw my primary yesterday, and the incisions are healing well. They gave me oxycodone in the hospital, which I took for two days. I haven’t taken any painkillers since last Saturday. I walked 3 times a day for 15 minutes, even if it was just around the house or back yard, since the day of surgery, so my gas pain was tolerable.

I won’t lie, there were a couple of days there where I wasn’t myself because I irrationally worried about my pain coming back. But I climbed out of that hole. I still get pain twinges, but it’s nothing like it was. It pinches and lets go. I do have other weird pains here and there. Like something is hurting in my right side just above the hip. Feels like a pulled muscle or something, hurts when I inhale deeply, but right now I’m hypersensitive to every twitch. The main thing is, it’s been 8 days. I am not bent over crying.

Things I have tried to eat: a few bites of lean steak, a few bites of pot roast, a small serving of mushroom ravioli with a little marinara sauce and ground chicken breast. Mostly I eat saltines and chicken broth. Also pears and apples. Oatmeal.

But yesterday, after visiting the primary and giving blood – my liver enzymes were again sky high during the hospital stay, so she wants to recheck – Gordon took me out for sushi. It was a beautiful day. We sat outside. I ordered $15 worth of sushi making sure there was zero mayo or sauce on it. I ate 6 pieces and almost fell asleep at the table. I ate the rest for dinner and still have some left.

I get tired very easily now. I am back to work but only able to work in short bursts. I have a lot of brain fog and the concentration is just not there. It’s frustrating, but there is no cure except time. I’m deliriously happy with the pain being gone, and the hospital took good care of me. I sent the ER and OBS thank you baskets. Apparently, not a lot of people do this, because I received a puzzled call from the hospital today, making sure that I meant to send the baskets to the staff.

And now onto much funner news. Sanctuary is available for preorder in ebook. Behold the Black Volhv.

Sanctuary will be available in ebook, print, and audio on July 30th, 2024. Print and audio preorders will appear closer to the publication date.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews comes a novella featuring Roman, our favorite Volhv wizard in the always intriguing, colorful, volatile Kate Daniels world.

It’s not easy serving Chernobog, the God of Destruction, Darkness and Death… especially during the holidays; and especially when you’re out of eggnog and one of your pesky, freeloading mythic creatures has eaten your last cookie.

Roman would like nothing more than to be left alone, but when a wounded boy stumbles into his yard and begs for sanctuary, Roman takes him in. Now, elite mercenaries are camped out on his property, combat mages are dousing the house with fire, and strange priests are unleashing arcane magic. They thought Roman was easy pickings, just a hermit in the woods, but they chose the wrong dark priest to annoy. For while Roman might be patient, he is the Black Volhv, filled with the love of his terrible god. For his adversaries, it’s a fight to the death, but for him, it’s just another day in the neighborhood.

Preorder:

Remember, today is your last day to read the serial for free, and then it is going to come off the site for edits. Front page is updated, and the countdown timer is up.