It's time for another update on my health.  You may remember how I've been dealing with a variety of serious health issues lately that has left me unable to eat solid food and dropping lots of weight very quickly (if I lose much more weight, I'll have to move to Castlevania and get a job throwing bones at Belmonts if you know what I mean).  It's all part of life during a Crohn's Disease flare-up  After several weeks of additional scans, x-rays, and other tests, my health issues are headed into the next phase.  All that's left to do to get me back on track is surgery.  Specifically, I need a piece of small intestine removed and another strip of it needs to be cut and resealed in such a way so as to decrease the swelling and inflammation that I've been dealing with for the past few months.  It's drastic, but must be done or else I'll never fully recover.  Surgery is scheduled for February 27 after which I'll spend a week or so in the hospital and then one month at home resting.  Family will be with me every step of the way and you may still see me pop up on Twitter now and then once I'm awake and aware.

I'll do my best to have some new PTB content in the bin scheduled to auto-post in my absence in order to "leave the lights on", as it were, including at least one new podcast episode and some other material I've wanted to share but have been unable to write up over the past few weeks while my pain levels were too severe for me to sit at the computer.  I really appreciate you all sticking with me and PTB during this difficult time.  I miss my regular creative output and hope to get back to it as soon as I'm healthy enough to do so.  In the meantime, if you'd like to help out, you can share your favorite PTB links with friends and forums.  Send an article you especially enjoyed to someone or link to a preferred episode of Power Button on social media.  Help spread the word!  This is my third surgery of this type and the prognosis is excellent, so aside from a lot of pain, weakness, and the hassles of the hospital experience, I expect to come back from this without too much overall trouble.  I hope you'll all be here waiting when I do.