As some of you may know, I collapsed on December 12th with a near-fatal pulmonary haemorrhage and was rushed to Emergency, where I had the extreme good fortune to come under the care of expert doctors, who were able to identify my condition as a very rare one called Wegener's disease. I was in St Paul's exceptional ICU ward for 6 days, then moved to the regular medical ward, and finally sent home on the evening of December 22nd. It was wonderful to be able to be home with family for Christmas.
The disease that I have is an auto-immune disease, which means that my own immune system has turned on my body and tried to destroy it. This has been in me for about a year and a half (I have felt dreadful for a long time), and the final 'crash and burn' phase started in late September. The cure involves some pretty intense drug treatment (including a form of chemotherapy) which effectively wipes out my immune system completely for 6 months.
This means that, besides being weak and short of breath from the actual event, I am also extremely susceptible to any form of contagion. And that, unfortunately, means that I will have to be something of a hermit for the next half-year. I will have to seriously curtail my social life, as I really don't want to have any complications to deal with during my
convalescence.
Alas, this means that I will also have to shut down my business until further notice. Those of you who are on my list for a solo dress in the upcoming months I will contact separately in the next few weeks. NPIDA school red dress issues will, as usual, be handled by Jennifer Rigal and Nora.
I will miss you all very much, and wish all of you the best of luck in upcoming local feiseanna, Worlds and NAN's. You have all been a big part of my life over the last 10 years, and it has been my pleasure to know so many remarkable dancers and to watch them mature and excel at Irish Dance. With luck I may be sewing again by fall, but that will be up to the doctors to decide.
I kindly request no phone calls at this time; thank you.
Hannah
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