Hi everyone. I collapsed from a pulmonary embolism on Saturday afternoon. In the street. I very likely would have died except that a neighbor found me and my friends were able to help me and call an ambulance in time. I’m recovering in the hospital, and will probably be here for the rest of the week. Once I’m home it’ll probably be a few days before I’ll be able to do any real work, so unfortunately Modest Medusa will be on hiatus for the next week or so. This is absolutely the worst time for a break, both because I know you’re all waiting for the next chapter and because we’re so close to wrapping this story line up.
I originally thought Season 3 would be finished early this year, but it kept stretching on and on. At this point I’ve been working on Season 3 longer than I worked on Seasons 1 and 2. All year it’s seemed like I was so close to finishing the story, so to have this happen right at the end if frustrating.
Anyway, once I’m home I’ll be posting some updates and guest strips. So you’ll have some cool stuff to look at. Hopefully we’ll be back in time for Christmas.
Jaymz did this drawing the day before I collapsed because I said I was feeling sick. She offered to take me to the hospital too.I should have listened.
– Jake
:O
Thank goodness you’re alright!
I hope you get well soon!
Dude…That’s not good, your heart needs to be taken care of!!!! (Duh) I hope you have a speedy and complete recovery. It would suck to have you dying on us in the middle of the story!!! Please take care of yourself so that you can spend more time with your family too. PLEASE, your family and fans would miss you dearly!!!!!
Pulmonary = lungs, not heart, but yeah. Holy crap Jake! Glad you’re okay.
Pulmonary embolism is a bloodclot in the lungs that prevents blood from going to the lungs and collecting fresh oxygen.
That’s terrible! I’m glad you’re alive, at least. Take all the time you need to recover, mate. We can wait.
Don’t worry about us. The most important thing is your health.
Aaghk!!
Glad you’re going to be okay!
Don’t worry about us, just recuperate!
Aww, get better!
Oh, jeez… I hope the recovery process goes well for you!
Being alive is way more important than this comic.
Plus, this is like those end of season cliffhangers on TV. “Who shot J.R.?” and the like. As much as I hope it doesn’t turn out like “My Name Is Earl’s” cliffhanger end never to be resolved, we prefer yo alive and I will personally headbutt anyone who says otherwise (they can think it if they keep it to themselves!)
I know I’ve said it before, but get well soon, dude.
That’s scary and awful, Jake. Best wishes for a full recovery and a restful holiday season.
O_O
Rest easy and get well soon (^_^)
Best wish to you (^_^)
Oh no! I hope you get better soon!
Eeeek! A speedy recovery to you. Take care of yourself. We can wait for the story.
It sounds like a hell of an experience, I hope you get well soon. Best wishes!
I had a massive, viral heart-failure a ways back that scared the pants off me, but I was with family at all times – the idea of collapsing in the street is something else. It must have been an utter nightmare for you!
I do hope you are on the mend and continue to recover well enough to get some of the benefit of Christmas and the new year.
Be good and listen to all those bossy medical types, and stay away from updating until you are sure you can afford to spend the time and energy on it. We *can* wait, you know, however impatiently it might be!
Wishing you the very best for a good recovery. Take care, hang in there!
Richard.
Your only job is to get well. If we miss a cartoon or twenty that’s fine. Health is far more important!
Dude,
Focus on getting better. Unexpected hospital stays are not good.
The story can wait, your health is more important.
Sending positive thoughts your way.
Get well soon man. I can wait.
Shit Jake. Sorry to hear about that, man. Hope you recover.
Get well soon, and take your time. As much as I want to see what is next, your health takes priority. Thank you for taking the time to tell us what happened, I was a little worried that you hadn’t updated. I was hoping that you were just busy… Season 3 is the best one yet, by far. I’m glad you took the time it deserved. Next season can be chill, right? Take a break from all this important stuff and complicated art…
Jesus Christ Jake! “Yeah guys I almost died but i’m sorry it inconveniances you” What the hell man? You don’t owe us any apologize. You didn’t even owe us this update. You could have just waited till you were out of the hospital or let Charles inform us. . Seriously man take it easy and don’t worry about us.
I’m in complete agreement with Jerus, here, you need to focus on your recovery, and not updates. I’m just glad you had someone there to see you were in trouble, and get you the help you needed. Man… almost dying this close to Christmas… that’s just scary, and crazy. At least you’re going to recover, so you can spend the holidays with your loved ones.
Jerus knows what’s up. Get better soon. No drawing and or updating to you get better. Your health is what’s the most important thing right now. Not some silly update.
Get health man, we can wait for the good stuff 🙂
Oh no! You just feel better soon.
Oh good gravy, get well soon! I’m glad you’re doing okay, take it easy.
Take all the time you need man, just glad you have observant neighbors
You have the craziest adventures in real life. :O
I hope you get better, dood. I have other sources to get my fix of medusas and other monsters til you get back.
Other medusa sources?
Oh my, yes. I have my ways. My sneaky… stealthy ways.
OMG, get better and rest. We can wait as long as you need us to.
Glad to hear you’re safe and stable. Get well soon Jake, We’ll miss you until you return, but your health is more important than anything.
Best Wishes!
Wow… Hope you’re back soon.
Wow… just wow. Rarely comment, but a PE is a crazy big deal and am really glad to hear you’re on the mend. Brain’s in medical mode now, but yes, take it easy and a week or so delay is nothing compared to what could’ve happened. Get well soon and good luck with the bossy medical types, as CFSoftie mentioned, and the likely constant lab needle pokes.
There’s been lots of needles for sure.
Get well soon! take it easy, and wee all hope you recover soon!
dude feel better! thank god they found you. for now forget the comic and take care of yourself.
we love you Jake!
take as much time as you need.
I have no idea what a pulmonary embolism is. -checks Wikipedia-
PBTHJSFJSD, holy crapcakes! I’d say “get well soon”, but that doesn’t sound like the sort of thing you recover from overnight. So take as long as you need to get better.
Holy FRAK Jake!
Glad you’re still with us. Feel better and heal up soon!
Oh my god. I’m so glad your neighbor found you, and you got to the hospital. That’s really, really scary. Take all the time you need, then take some more. (If any of Jake’s friends IRL read this: don’t let him work until he’s 100%!! We can wait.) Take care dude, get better and know that you have many people thinking of you.
Dude, it’s better to take the time to get healthy than to wreck your health trying to finish this. Get well soon, hang in there, and we’ll just have to bear up until you are healthy again and can finish it.
I have no doubt that a man who can nearly die on Saturday and have figured out a way to inform the readers of his comic as to the reason of the delay by Monday Noon will get better soon.
All the same, I will ask that you take your time, and that you make sure to add “Kicked Death in the teeth.” to your list of life accomplishments.
Christ, i’m glad you were able to get help and it didn’t happen someplace you were alone. Hang in there! The worst is over.
You know – I read a heck of a lot of Webcomics. And as excuses for a break go – a pulmonary embolism is pretty much THE best one yet. Seriously. Get better. We’ll cope.
Dude, seriously, I appreciate you worrying about us… but damn, the comic can wait. You focus on getting rested up and we will focus on supporting you the best each of us knows how. Mostly verbally. With text. Across a medium that spans the globe. On a little website about a Medusa, who is seemingly modest enough.
OR SO WE THOUGHT!
I wish you a speedy recovery
On behalf of all the lurkers, get well soon, but Get Well first!
God bless you and keep you.
Get well soon, and have a nice and easy holiday before you wrap things up with the story… we can wait for you to get well
But what CAUSED the pulmonary embolism? 🙁
Good question. It was a number of things. I have a hereditary condition that makes me prone to blood clots. I developed a clot in my left leg in high school, and have had trouble every since. In 2006 I had a pulmonary embolism just like this one. I’ve been on medication ever since. Recently, I went of those meds for a little bit while switching doctors and setting up my new insurance. I should have arranged another doctor to right me a prescription for the mean time, but I never got around to it. I might have been okay anyway but I’ve overworked myself the last few months, which is what led to my first embolism in 2006. I also ignored the warning signs on Thursday and Friday, hoping they were something else. Really hoping. Several friends offered to take me to the ER on Friday night but I kept saying I was fine. If I had listened to them I would have been able to get treatment in time. So I was very stupid.
Would the hereditary condition happen to be anti-thrombin 3 deficiency? Thats what I have, it has killed a lot of my ancestors via embolisms that settled in nasty places like the heart, lung, and brain. And it gave me a massive blood clot in my right leg when I was 19 that basically ran the length of my femoral and left nerve damage that gives me near constant pain.
Regardless of what caused it though, you definitely need to rest up after getting a clot like that.
Mine is a Protein C deficiency. Maybe the two are related? They sound very similar.
Antithrombin III and Protein C (autoprothrombin IIA) are both anti-coagulants. There are plenty of other types of thrombophilias, not just genetic ones.
… Yes, I looked online about them, but I already knew that first part (not the proper term for PC though). The page for PC deficiency also says there are two types. Do you know which one you have?
I don’t know. I wasn’t aware there were two types.
That doesn’t really matter too much. The important thing is that you’re treating for it. Just let me give you a bit of advice.
My last physician, before he moved, liked to talk. One of the things I remember him saying was that he had had patients who would stop taking antibiotics when they felt better, only to come back later with the same problem. The antibiotics didn’t get a chance to completely neutralize the threat because of that. They needed to pay for more antibiotics. Here’s the point: Don’t stop taking your medications just because you feel better. Especially since you don’t just have a common flu, but a genetic disease.
I hope you feel better soon.
Good advice. Thanks!
I’m sorry you have that condition, but I’m also partly relieved it was…expected, in a way. And not something like a surprise tumor. Get well soon dude!
The body knows what the body knows. It will often give us clear warning when something is up. But we have to listen to those warnings in order to make a difference. Life is fleeting enough as it is. Take care of your body and it will take care of you. I never knew my grandfather. He died before I was born…because he refused to go to the hospital when he had a stroke. Perhaps if he hadn’t been so stubborn I would have known more about him than just stories and old black-and-white WW2 photographs.
That’s part of my family history too, being stubborn and then dying from it. I didn’t think that would be an issue, but when the symptoms manifested I was so terrified that I kept telling myself it was something else.
Hopefully it won’t, but should something akin to this happen again one day in the future… don’t ignore it no matter how scared you are, please. Is the fear you’re getting another clot and denial worth dying over? Do you really want someone, perhaps in your family, one day saying they wished you were alive so they could get to know you better? There are many who would mourn your passing if it came prematurely.
Sorry if I seem a bit..preachy… People not taking care of themselves is a tender issue for me. I see it all the time in my own family. My grandfather I mentioned above…my dad won’t take care of his sleep apnea because he thinks the c-pap mask is uncomfortable…my great aunt just had a nasty fall and she won’t go to the doctor even with her entire head a giant bruise because she can’t find one she likes… And since I used to be pre-med it drives me up a wall to see people ignoring stuff that’s treatable until it’s too late.
No, you’re absolutely right. This is how I’ve been feeling the last few days. The first time something like this happened to me (in 2006) I swore I wouldn’t ignore the signs if it happened again. But when I thought I was having symptoms in 2011 I was so scared that I almost didn’t do anything. Having gone through this and knowing that you’d almost died, it’s terrifying to think it’s happening again,and I almost convinced myself that it was something else. Just the flu or something. Of course, in 2011 it as something else. Just a strained muscle and my imagination. This time, especially at the end of a hard year, I was so desperate for it to be anything else. But it was stupid to not seek treatment.
Oh boy do I know that feeling–knowing what it is and wanting to believe it’s something else. I was worried about you when I saw you Friday–you just didn’t look right–and if I’d known your history I’d have bundled you into the car that instant. I have protein S deficiency, also hereditary, that makes me prone to clotting and I’ve been on blood thinners for years. Don’t go off your warfarin ever again, mister, or I’ll sick Louis on you! 🙂
Yeah, I knew you were worried. I kept telling myself I’d be fine if I got some rest, and if I woke up the next day still feeling bad I’d see a doctor. You weren’t the only person to notice and say something either. I waved off a lot of people that night.
It’s great that your neighbour found you before it was too late. Rest, take care of yourself and get better. We can pick back up with the story when you’re ready.
..and he apologizes for the delay.
Get well soon!
I haven’t had much to say for a long while, but I’m in agreement with everyone else. You shouldn’t feel bad about this. You can’t control it.
A brush with Death is not something you should just shrug off.
Rest.
The story can wait, if you try to rush it and wind up actually passing away it can never continue.
Don’t even get me started on how your friends, family, and fans would feel if that happened. Take all the time you need. We will be here online rooting for your safe recovery.
Jake, please do rest up and I hope your recovery is swift. That is such a shitty thing to have happen to such an awesome person. I’m just glad you’re okay now.
Hope you get better man
Holy cow! I hope you get feeling better! Try not to ignore any life-threatening ailments in the future!