fredbassett

Well, despite my best hopes, 2023 did play light a nice puppy with regard to my health!

The persistent cough that had dogged me through 2023 turned out to be heart failure and I spent 17 days in hospital in February being treated for this. Medication got me back on my feet again and the good news is that the leaky valve has now improved from severe to mild/moderate, so surgical intervention seems no longer on the cards.

Unfortunately, at the end of October I had a minor stroke. The physical effects were short lived and I was able to resume driving at the end of the statutory month, but it has left me with severe post-stroke fatigue, both mental and physical.

On the plus side, my close friend with the brain cancer is still with us, despite all the odds. His care now takes up at least 50% of my daily time, and occupied a huge mental space, but I remain very grateful for his continue presence in my life and more grateful than I can possibly express for the help and support from the wonderful

goldarrow who has been an amazing friend to both of us.

Sadly, we lost Mr FB's mum this year at 94 after three months in a lovely care home. We both miss her very much. We were lucky enough to be able to hang onto the buyers for her house while we got probate and alll that went through in October, which was a relief.

Despite all this, I've had three lovely trips to France and a week in Paris not long after leaving hospital. We've made a few trips out in the campervan to Devon, South Wales and a local one to a weekend caving conference. I have been able to do some caving this year and have continued with my outdoor swimming, including through the winter. That continues to be a joy.

Our little corner of Primeval fandom remains active on

primeval_denial and

primeval100, despite the loss of some folks to Dreamwidth. We've continued with the Thursday zoomies, which has been a great way to stay in contact and I've been grateful for the support from all my LiveJournal friends over a very difficult year both physically and mentally.

I was active in three fandoms this year. Primeval on LJ, in which I managed 10,180 words, Alex Rider on Discord and AO3 = 9,468 words and Tolkien on Discord and AO3 = 6,646 words. Total = 26,294. This is my lowest year since I started keeping fic records in 2007, but in the circumstances, I'm pretty pleased.

I very much hope that 2024 plays like a nice puppy!

Under the cut, for my own records, are my writing totals since I started in fandom.

2007 113,948
2008 162,332
2009 239,788
2010 257,302
2011 270,000
2012 209,512
2013 125,829
2014 181,025
2015 110,946
2016 76,493
2017 154,629
2018 58,345
2919 51,389
2020 178,575
2021 182,892
2022 108,434
2023 26,294

My grand total now stands at: 2,264,633.