an unfortunate update

I haven't blogged in what seems like forever so I thought I would post a bit of an update. About a month ago I was hospitalized again. I initially went to the emergency room thinking I had bronchitis or pneumonias because I was experiencing congestion and was having trouble breathing. At that point in time I had been dealing with the return of my acid reflux as well. I was getting sick almost nightly and on medication to help keep food down, if possible. It all started to become clear when the tech that was taking x-rays of my chest suddenly yelled, “What the heck is that?” Not exactly what you want to hear after an x-ray. As it turns out my stomach had moved up into my chest cavity and was pressing on my heart, lungs, and against my spine. It became clear that I needed to have surgery for a second time in little over a year. Because this was my second surgery, there was a lot of scar tissue and it could not be done endoscopically. I was also incredibly malnourished which made surgery even more risky. Thankfully, I was transferred to a hospital in Dallas with a surgeon that put my concerns at ease. I was on something called TPN for about a week before surgery. I could not hold down food so I had to have an 18ga IV of nutrients that went directly from my upper arm into my chest. It provided all the nutrition I would need and even had a handy port for drawing blood so that I would not need to be stuck often.

The surgery itself was extensive. Again, because this was my second go, I would need a larger incision that would go from the bottom of my chest to my belly button. The surgeon opened me up, brought my stomach down, wrapped my esophagus, and inserted a pig skin mesh to keep my stomach in place. To be honest, it felt completely like a horror film.

Recover has also been difficult. Ultimately, I spent three weeks in the hospital. As a result, I had to withdraw from my classes and am currently in the process of paying back financial aid. Emotionally, this has been a real struggle because I had formed an identity around being a student and I was so close to the finish line. This was going to be my last semester before my AA and considering I had obtained my GED and spent the last 2 years being an A student, it has been difficult to swallow.

  Physical recovery has been difficult as well. I left the hospital with twelve metal staples down the middle of my abdomen. You really never think about how much you use your muscles until you lose the ability to. I had to learn how to do simply things like using my legs and arms to push up from a chair. As a person with limited mobility already this has been a nightmare. I cannot use the walker I am familiar with because I cannot walk with my arms in front of me. I have to use a “granny style” walker instead. I also have to use an oversized wheelchair that dwarfs my small frame. My muscles are still really weak and wheelchair I currently use is so big that I have to rely on someone to push me. My insurance will not cover the style of wheelchair I want and at over $2,000 it is too much for me to afford on my own. I am still waiting to see how much of my hospital stay my insurance will cover. The hospital estimate that was sent to my home is about $94,000.

 I am overwhelmed financially, emotionally, and physically.

Thankfully, I have amazing people in my life and a friend of mine started a gofundme to help lessen the financial burden I am facing. We have raised over 900 dollars so far! The money I owed the school was $925 but gofundme also takes a cut of whatever you raise. If you would like to donate please click the link below. If you are reading this and have already donated, I am beyond grateful. Thank you.

Rockin' In My Roadster (Jem Collection)

I am on spring break this week so that means that I can use my time off to catch up on blog posts. If you have ever meet me in real life you already are aware that I love anything 80's especially toy wise.  as a kid, one of the cartoons that I found truly outrageous and totally rad was Jem and the Holograms. I am really excited for the live action movie and also for the new comic that IDW is coming out with. I have already ordered the first issue box set all of the various covers from Collected Comics in Fort Worth and have set up a subscription service as well.

Jem was also one of the first characters I ever Cosplayed at a convention. I bought the already made costume from Halloween city. The costume came with her signature earrings, a spandex dress, microphone, and the belt that you see pictured. I paired it with pink legwarmers,  pink fishnets, and glitter filled bangle bracelets that I already owned. I wore pink flats because it is difficult for me to wear heals and I try to be as comfy as possible. 

My makeup consisted of bubble gum pink lipstick and the pink triangle-shaped eye makeup that I drew on with Halloween makeup crayons.

I also had to buy the wig separately and styled it myself. It was deliciously 80's and I had lots of fun. I was actually surprised at how many people recognized and loved the character.

As far as the toys go, I have been collecting them for some time. I started with the Glitter and Gold Comic Con Exclusive and received several complete dolls for Easter two years ago.  My boyfriend also collects toys and insisted that if I were to get any of the original dolls it would be best to hunt them down individually so that they had their clothes, shoes, and instruments. Previously, I owned a Kimber that we found at a Thrift store and she was a little worse for wear and missing everything BUT Kimber was always my favorite and I have the fatal flaw of never passing up a lonely toy.

 After some searching he purchased several dolls off of E-BAY that even came with the cassettes. Oh, if I still owned my little pink walkman circa 1992! Seriously, I would be jamming to The Misfits right now because everyone knows their songs are better.

For Valentine's Day this year my collection grew even bigger with the addition of a Rockin' Roadster. It was purchased off of E-Bay and shipped all the way from Holland. It was opened but came pretty much mint with the plastic casing still on the roadster.

The seller even said that the FM Radio still works. It is common for the roadster to be missing the headlights, hood ornament or removable convertible top but mine is complete.

 Jem had to take it for a spin but Rio was unavailable. Thankfully, our new Starlord Hot Toys figure was more than willing to take his place!

What toys do you collect? What was your favorite 80's Cartoon?

fighting evil by moonlight at Animation celebration! (animation celebration part one)

I was very fortunate to attend Animation Celebration in Lewisville, Texas this weekend. Normally I just arrive and   search the isles looking for comics, toys. Not to mention, spending endless amounts of time waiting in autograph lines and panels and fawning over the hard work of the talented cosplayers I see. This weekend offered up an entirely new experience because I was fortunate to be on the other side of the convention as a volunteer.

the experience gave me an entirely new prospective on the super-secret workings behind the scenes. I was in charge of the green room one minute and filling my walker with snacks and beverages the next.  Today I felt like I ran a 5k over the weekend., every time someone needed something I happily got it for them, I mean how often do you get to assist amazing voice actors and comic book artists? As a con goer, I never really thought about the volunteers before but after this weekend I understand how a volunteer can make all the difference and make a very chaotic event run smoothly.  The troubleshooting staff was amazing and I feel as though I made some great new friends. So if you’ve ever volunteered at a con, thank you!

The highlight of my weekend was meeting Linda Valentine and Toby Proctor from Sailor moon.  When I met them,  felt like a twelve year old girl again and shared with them how the show had such a great impact on my life. I shared that when I was in middle school , Sailor moon was my gateway to make friends with the girls that worked with me on the school paper. Anyone who knows me in real life knows how introverted and shy I was in those days. I would always race home to watch it in the afternoons and then talk about it while typing up articles to be published. Although my time on the school newspaper didn’t last long, I credit show with helping me make the friendships that came out of it.

Linda Ballantyne was one of the most down to earth celebrities I’ve ever met. After  I  paid for my personal autographs (she was only charging 10 dollars can you believe it?) I told her that I was going to get her to sign something for the suicide prevention walk that my campus is hosting (see last post for more information) when I went to pay her for the things for the walk she refused to take my money and gave me the prints.  I cannot express how amazed I was by her generosity and hope to ruse them to raise money and awareness for our cause. It really touched me that she took the time to sign stuff for our school.  It always amazing when your favorite superheroes transition to real life role models. 

In part two of this post, I will be doing a write up on my favorite cosplayers at the con and talking about my "convention haul" so check back for that!

a bit of an update

I just wanted to take some time to give anyone that could be reading this a little update on my life. If you have read my first ever post you might have been privy to some juicy tidbits about me. I believe I mentioned that I am currently going to school to become a children's librarian because it is my dream to infect unsuspecting childerbeasts with a love of reading. I remember being a little girl and going to the library with my father. I remember him pushing me in my wheelchair through the big glass doors and entering the rows of books that comprised their children's section. It was like entering a magical land where I could be anything or anyone I wanted to be, I just had to open a book. I remember nightly readings that would transport me to the Hundred Acre woods or Fern and Wilbur's farm. 

As I grew older, I would spend more and more time in the library. I would befriend every librarian to the point that they began setting aside every R.L. Stine, King, or Rice book that came in. After spending some time in college and years of contemplating how I would leave my own special mark on the world, I decided I wanted to return the favor and pay it forward. I decided I wanted to become a librarian and reach out to others.

Last week, I became a volunteer for my local library. I am proud to say that I am now a volunteer that teaches low income or kids that are struggling with school better reading skills. the program I volunteer for is from ranges from Pre-k to second grade. I will say that upon volunteering for this program. there was a tiny shred of doubt if I *really* could work with kids. Last Thursday proved without a doubt that this is a field I am meant to be in. The little girl I work with went from reading one book on the first visit to enthusiastically reading six! I really enjoy seeing the sparkle in a kid's eye when you compliment them for finally mastering gerunds when they struggled with it the week before.  I'm really excited to impact her learning and am excitedly making flash cards from lists of second and first grade words. I meet with her once a week for an hour and we work on reading, pronunciation, and sentence structure.


In addition to my volunteer work at the library I've also been keeping busy organizing a walk to raise money for a suicide prevention walk. as a teen I spent several years battling depression so this walk is very close to my heart. I want to raise awareness and help others from experiencing such a dark mental place. If you are interested in learning just how I plan to help raise money, or make a donation please click the link below.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention!


There are also a lot of other things I've been up to. I had the pleasure of attending the Indiana Jones exhibit in Fort Worth last weekend and I am spending this weekend helping out friends at Louisville's Animation celebration. I should be updating tomorrow with plenty of exciting things including convention photos, stories and maybe even segments with my favorite local cosplayers. So stay tuned at the same bat time, on the same bat channel!