These are some pages from the book I’m working on about moving to San Francisco in 2003 and getting sick with systemic lupus. It was a bummer. These pages depict what happened after I’d gone through a few months of being mysteriously ill (I know, how romantic sounding. In the olden times they probably would have accused me of having hysteria or vapors) before getting diagnosed and going through the first round of medications that didn’t work they way they were supposed to. A bit of medical info: the type of lupus I had/have (currently in remission) is the internal kind in which your immune system attacks your own body, specifically joint tissue and organs. So that’s what’s going on in these pages.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
“shriveled up lump of coal where my heart ought to be” Precious!
Just posting to say I’m glad to check this web every 4-5 days and finding sth to laugh at aat work. Today I saw the four bums who usually hang out at my job’s square corner and they reminded me of you.
PS: I have a doubt… do you draw everything with a marker? I saw a video of you doing it, but I’m asking cos this does not look as if it’d been scanned.
The last time I had a full-body CAT scan (looking for clots when I had a thrombosis scare), the CAT techs were extremely careful to warn me about the “you will feel like you’re pissing” effect. I was really glad they did–without the warning, there’s an excellent chance I would have wet myself.
To life! And not pissing oneself!
I’m assuming the video you saw was at Comic Con NY but no, I don’t use those kinds of permanent markers, it was just for that video. I use microns and PITT pens
When I had my first CT scan, I was freaked out by the ‘warming’ because I thought I might be some sort of CT scan fetishist. But then I realized it was just the meds. Which is good because being a CT scan fetishist would be really expensive.
Not everyone likes living in a Rob Reiner movie! =P
I had a CT scan of my jaw once, no “genital warming”. I feel like I missed out without even knowing it!
I love your comics so much! They make me happy. Sorry if that sounds weird since in this comic you are talking about getting a disease or whatever. What I mean to say is your suffering is wonderful cause it makes for good comics. Just kidding! You know what I really mean. You and your comics rule. I guess I just have a thing for coming off as an asshole or something.
One tech inserting the needle for an arterial blood gas test got so nervous about my watching him, he made me look away.
I don’t know if this will be considered helpful or annoying, but I think you’ve got a typo in there. The doctor says “effecting your kidneys”, but I’m pretty sure it should be “affecting your kidneys”.
Great work as always, Julia!
@Zoe: I didn’t have the peeing sensation either. I’m kind of thankful for that because I really had to pee at the time (being on a back board for some unknown number of hours without being allowed to get up to use the bathroom will do that), so there’s a good chance I would have pissed my pants for reals.
{ 1 trackback }