I know, I know… it looks like I disappeared, right? My last post was over a year ago, it’s crazy!!
I’m writing this on a Saturday morning, and as I sit here at my desk, I look back at the last 14 or so months and can’t believe how I survived it all.
Just in case you’re wondering: NO, I did NOT stop doing affiliate marketing! In fact, I’ve been doing better than ever – more about this a little later.
The reason for my silence was personal. Can I tell you a little more about it?
I’m guessing you’re saying yes ?
So, here it goes: in April-May 2022, something happened to me in my personal life that triggered some ugly past trauma… in a massive way.
And I had a breakdown.
I feel shy about talking about it, yet I also believe it’s important to share. Mental health issues can be such taboos, can’t they? And when you start having a bit of a following on social media, it can be even harder to share that you’re going through a hard time.
But there you go, it happened to me. Luckily, in a strange sort of way, it wasn’t my first breakdown. I had another major one in 1991, and a couple minor ones between 2000 and 2010.
So I’m good at recognising the signs. And that allows me to go and get help fast. Which is what I did in June last year. I got help and by the end of the summer, I was back to my usual happy smiley self.
Sadly, shortly after that, my Dad landed in hospital… and a truly tragic time started.
It’s a long story, but after he got back home from the hospital, it became clear that he couldn’t cope on his own anymore, even with all the help he was getting from myself, my family and the care team.
We had to make the heartbreaking decision to put him into a home against his will. That was December 12th, 2022, and I truly hope with all my heart and soul I never, ever have to do this ever again, to anyone I love.
The care home, which was supposed to be a great, safe place for my Dad, turned out to be a nightmare. Medication was changed without his knowledge or consent – and without mine either. My Dad became depressed, angry and frail.
He caught cov*d and was confined to his room, not even allowed to go to the toilet. After that, he was so weak he couldn’t walk anymore. Then he was given an extremely strong painkiller he’d never had before, again without his or my consent. This drug made him delirious, drowsy and very unwell.
We asked the medical team to take him off it, but they insisted he was in terrible pain and needed it. He got so drowsy he could hardly move at all… Things then went from bad to worse as he started to have necrosis on one of his feet, probably as a result of not moving at all and not getting anticoagulant injections.
I wish I could tell you we rushed him to hospital and looked after that necrosis right away… but sadly, we were told there wasn’t much we could do… so he stayed in the care home, and his foot got worse, and worse, as did his pain, in spite of the drugs.
In extremis, my sister and I asked for him to be seen at the hospital and they amputated his leg, giving him blissful relief from the horrendous pain he’d been in.
We thought he was saved, but sadly he had a few more blood clots that travelled to his brain and lungs, and he continued to go steadily downhill.
Eventually, he was transferred to palliative care, where he was looked after in the absolutely best possible way.
At 1.51 on the morning of April 6th, 2023, he took his last breath. I was with him, holding his hand the whole time. He died in peace, without pain, and with dignity. I’m so grateful for that.
So now you know why I’ve been silent. I’m lost for words to describe how painful this all was – and still is when I think about it.
There’s one thing I know about my Dad, and that’s that he always went for his dreams… and he wanted me to go for mine. So I’m pretty sure he’s proud of what I’m about to share:
Throughout this time, however, my business never stopped. In fact, 2022 was my best year ever and I made 5 figures in affiliate commissions!
It’s taken me a while, but I’m getting back to “normal” and I started publishing on YouTube again.
With that in mind, I want to turn up on this blog again, to record my journey – hope that’s good news lol!
I’ve decided that I would go live every Friday on YouTube, to record a bit of my journey – and then I’ll write a blog post on here, related to that video, on Saturday mornings.
How does that sound? I hope you’ll find value, encouragement and inspiration from this, dear reader. Because at the end of the day, that’s what I always want to do: encourage you and show you that this is possible! You CAN do it too, I promise!
See you next week for news ?
PS: if you want to know more about how I made 5 figures in 2022, in spite of all this horrid stuff I went through, watch the live video I made at the very end of the year ?
