Hello February (Patreon)

Hi Patreons! Thanks so much for still being here~! I wish I could say things have calmed down a little here, but we are still neck deep in medical dramas. The last few weeks have been a bit trying for Rikki's recovery. Rikki's first two weeks after recovery after ablation surgery ( Jan 10 ) went very well. We even went out to see a special local showing of one our favorite French classic films from Jacque Tati, "Mon Uncle". But, a few days after that, Rikki started to get an Afib attack. Of course this was disappointing, he thought he'd be over it all after surgery. However, this Afib episode was "different" from the ones he was used to getting before the surgery. This was more high rate heart beat mixed with Afib. He was determine to "ride it out" as he usually does. It was mostly averaging 100-120 BPM, some in sinus and some in Afib. This ended up surpassing 24 hours. Which, was the longest Afib he ever experienced. I started to try to convince him to please let me take him to ER, that this didn't seem right. We were aware that there could be episodes of Afib during the healing process up to three months. Usually because of the inflammation of heart tissues while healing. He still wanted to wait it out though because it was low-key Afib and it kept seeming as if it were trying to correct itself. Well, later that night, during his sleep his Apple Watch indicated it finally subsided...But, after only three hours it started up again. And, he still wanted to wait it out. At times, it went up to in the 130BPM. It now was going on 42 hours of nearly non-stop Afib averaging 100-130's. I finally convinced him to go to ER when he realize he was struggling just to dress himself and walk to the restroom.    Very long story short....I took him two Fridays ago to ER where they stabilized him. His Afib had lasted 50 hours before it finally subsided with the treatments. We ended up staying there the whole night and then Saturday mid-morning they finally wheeled him to a hospital room to finish tests and recovery and to see his surgeon before release. As dramatic as it was, his surgeon reassured us it was all part of the healing process, that it affects everyone differently, but this attack was absolutely due to inflammation at the site trying to heal. Thankfully he was able to go home later that Saturday around 4PM. Fast forward to this past Monday. He ended up with yet another Afib attack. This time it lasted 15 hours but was very low-key at 80's-110's. We are crossing our fingers these attacks will continue to diminish more and more as he continues to heal. It just can get a little scary when they go on for so long and it feels like there's nothing you can do but go to ER or wait it out.

The big happy news came last Thursday Feb. 6, when our nephew, Ryku Troy was born to my sister-in-law Peggy and our brother Robert. We saw him for the first time last Saturday, ironically at the same hospital Rikki had his heart surgery and went to ER.

Somehow through all this, we are still getting the cat comic out twice weekly. XD Also, I still have stickers and tier rewards to send out. It might be a little late at times, but please know I'm really trying.  We can't appreciate all of you enough for giving us so much love and support here! Thank you all so much!