Crisis and Commissions

tl;dr entry, but it would mean the world if anyone at all read.

*sigh* So, as some of you may know (but the majority don't), I've been pretty sick off and on, lately. Nothing serious, just an obnoxious cold/flu/whathaveyou that took its sweet time to leave my immune system alone and stop making me strongly consider surgically removing my most offensively miserable body parts.

But, like most anyone, with a little rest, fluids, and taking it easy, I was able to mend.

Unfortunately, kthxplz was not so lucky. And that's where our fretting begins.

See, he doesn't have any form of health coverage. After graduating university (cum laude, that's my baby~) in spring of 2010, he moved up to Canada, to be with me (and to marry me 8D), effectively taking him off his father's coverage. And because he's a foreigner in my fine, lovely country, he isn't entitled to any sort of free health care like I am. That means for the last 18 months or so that he's been living with me, he's had to walk on egg shells to ensure he doesn't so much as sustain a sniffle, lest he pay through the nose (no pun intended) for treatment.

This also makes him obnoxiously stubborn any time he is remotely under the weather, because he immediately insists he's fine, and it's nothing. >_>;

That was the case this time, when his three week cold escalated into something more sinister. Several days of sniffling and congestion culminated into an immensely high fever that would not go down despite  taking reducers (he melted through icepaks like they were nothing; I was replacing them every half an hour), violent, trembling chills, dizzying weakness, and sweat quite literally dripping down his body and soaking through his clothing and bedding.

After days of fluids, rest, and home remedies and a stubborn husband who refused to see a doctor because of cost proved fruitless, I was horrified Friday morning to be called upstairs with only 'your husband is on the floor, underneath my mirror' as my only information.

Heart racing as I pounded up the stairs, my mind immediately filled with terrifying injury. Had he hit his head? Was he bleeding out? Did he choke on his own vomit? Had the mirror shattered and perforated his skin?

Thankfully, he was relatively lucid, albeit sitting on the floor quite disoriented.

He tells me he remembers waking on the bathroom floor, confused as to what my mother's full length, antique mirror was doing in there. Nevermind the fact that in his black haze of fainting and attempting to steady himself, he had somehow pulled it all the way from the hall and on top of himself. Neverminding that, right? =/

I can't begin to describe my relief that the mirror didn't break and cut him. But I was still quite trembly myself and did a good deal of panicked sobbing just to get over matters before urging him to go to the ER and be looked at.

Six and a half hours of blood and urine tests, x-rays, IVs (fluids, electrolytes, antibiotics) and a delightfully cantankerous nurse (not to mention an old woman next to us who had sustained a bleeding head injury and was quite disoriented, making my heart bleed ;A; ), we're roughly $500 in debt.

This month we couldn't even afford to buy groceries or pay our chunk of the rent, and we've been living off the good graces of family to get by, but that well is drying out.

The hospital told us we could pay off the bill in payment increments, but this is a crippling blow when work for kthxplz has been relatively poor as of late (he has to work via work permits, so a lot of studios won't hire him until his permanent residency comes through. This is also when he'll be applicable for health care), and I have none of my own to even speak off because health keeps me from working a regular 9-5, so I survive solely off his income.

To add insult to injury, after a few days of the meds, Matt found himself covered in red spots and his throat slowly closing off due to an allergic reaction to his antibiotics. Which as put in his own words:

"I was taking the antibiotics faithfully up until today, when I thought 'huh, maybe I shouldn't have red spots all over and a swollen throat'. Despite never having reacted to any kind of antibiotic before, I was indeed allergic to this one, so they told me to stop using them and to see another doctor. Stood in the freezing rain for an hour to get into a clinic in town where the doctor just wound up saying I shouldn't bother taking any more antibiotics anyway, so he wasn't going to give me a different type to finish out the course since my fever symptoms had subsided. Here's hoping he was right and it doesn't come back with a vengeance."

So yeah...

I don't feel skilled enough to offer commissions. Personally, I just don't feel I'm there yet. There's so much I need to learn and I'm just floundering in wanting to cater to other people's wishes for my art instead of my own aspirations. Drawing for me. Drawing because I want to.

But I have to do something. I'd do anything for Matt. (Please don't use this as an excuse to put a hit out on anyone >>) And that's where we're at.

I don't really know what to offer right now. But know that I'm faithful, head strong, and I work hardest on a deadline.

I was thinking... I don't know. Does a $1 per hour worked seem fair? Naturally if something ended up taking 30hrs I'd probably just halve it to 15 so I didn't feel like I was ripping anyone off.

(For something like this, but likely more detailed since this was a bit rushed:



OR

)

I'm not picky, and I'm not greedy. I just want to create, and I just want to help.

As incentive, the first five people to comment are entitled to freebies! I happen to thrive on doing silly doodles and experimenting with new styles. If this is any indication -



So float me your characters and I'll fill an entire page (likely 1000x1000, but we'll talk) with doodles in whatever style I feel like making up! (I'll likely throw in something detailed and fully rendered if I feel inspired >_>)

PS: is also taking commissions! kthxplz.deviantart.com/journal…