Mental Health

My Wild Hospital Ride

- Kylie Volatile

I decided to write an article about my recent time in hospital for two main reasons:
1) It’s a pretty remarkable story
2) I wanted to create a point of reference for anyone who was curious about the details.

On the 1st April, I checked into hospital for what should have been a simple 3 hour operation followed by an overnight stay. Safe to say it didn’t quite work out that way.

I woke up from the operation and had a drink of water. Then vomited. A lot. The next two days followed a pattern of me feeling too nauseated to eat but bringing back up anything I drank along with a lovely concoction of green bile. An abdominal xray confirmed I had developed something called an ileus and that I would have to be drip fed until the bowel wakes up again. I also had to have a Ryles tube inserted to help empty the stomach without me having to vomit the contents.

As a result of feeling too ill from the ileus treatment to do anything other than sleep and gag, I started to have antidepressant withdrawal because I had missed so many doses. The resulting fever dreams pretty rough. After about the 5th day, my condition started to improve. I started back on my antidepressants, I was allowed liquids and although I was still vomiting I wasn’t bringing up as much or as often. By day 7, I was allowed to eat again and two days later I was allowed to go home.

I was advised to keep to a low fibre diet and eat little and often. That suits me fine because I not having eaten for so long has caused my stomach to shrink so much that I can only eat snack sized portions right now. The lack of food has also caused me to lose a stone and a half. Eating tiny portions means that I’m still losing weight, albeit at a much slower rate. But I’m managing things surprisingly well so far.

I’ll be continuing this diet for the next 6 weeks so wish me luck.

August 2019 Update

- Kylie Volatile

Wow, I can’t believe it’s August already. Where has the year gone? Time is passing me by so quickly and it made me realise that although I’ve done quite a lot, I have only recorded a tiny snippet.

So, update since the new year? Sadly, my roller derby progress has been seriously scuppered by various illnesses. Along with the usual depression fatigue and regular viral infections, I randomly developed sciatica and spent a large chunk of May on my back. I’ve also recently been diagnosed with Diabetes, which makes my need to lose weight all the more urgent. I have made the effort to eat less sugar and that has resulted in a ½ stone/7 pound weight loss this year. I know it’s not much but considering that I haven’t done that much it’s a victory I’m happy to celebrate.

I’m very active on social media, especially Facebook. I also have a couple of Tumblrs that I regularly post on. One is just general repost stuff like I do on FB. But the other specifically focuses on art. If I have the time, I sometimes create something to post there myself. But it is mostly the work of other artists I follow on DeviantArt.

Music wise, despite promising myself to focus more on roller derby and less on opera I am still attending opera rehearsals because they’ve picked yet another unmissable show to perform. Last time Carmen, this time La Traviata.  I suspect that it will always be like this so there’s just no use fighting it. I also create music of my own under various pseudonyms and created a pseudo record label to host them all. So, if you hear anything about or by Athena Queen. That’s me.

I released a synthwave single under the name 808 Metropolis in April and I’m very close to the mixing stage of a follow up single. I’m also currently working on a psytrance remix of some tunes I made under Athena Queen a couple of years ago. The idea is that I will also create original work in the future under the name Celestial Hart.

I’ve done a little bit of design work. I produced the poster for Midland Opera’s spring concerts as well as the song artwork and logo to my 808 Metropolis project. I’m also working on a new Athena Queen logo and website.

So, as you can see I’m pretty damned busy. I also have a full time day job so this could explain why I’m tired all the time! The intention is to do more short but sweet updates from now on. We’ll soon see how that works out.

My 2018

- Kylie Volatile

I have been in two minds about whether to do a kind of New Year/Year End round up for 2018. It has been quite busy. More importantly, it’s been pretty good.

My year essentially kicked off in a lovely little pub in South Birmingham. It was a big get together/celebration organised by my friend Emma, who I met at Cadbury College. She had been very ill in 2017 and she basically just wanted to rejoice over her recovery. A few other members of the Cadbury crew were there such as Alison and Shakera. All of whom I hadn’t seen for ages.

Soon after, I got together with Team West Indies to help them prepare for the Roller Derby World Cup at the beginning of February. The WC was amazing. Once again, I got to meet up with some of the best skaters in the world and catch up with a few old friends. Better still, I only had to drive a couple of hours to do it. Manchester is a bit closer than Dallas. I also multiplied my derby t-shirt collection.

The week after that, I took pat in a roller derby boot camp hosted by Miracle Whips. I learned a lot and she was so nice. Unfortunately, it was the first time I had skated since my ankle sprain the previous September and my body was not happy with me afterwards. Although I did attempt to get my fitness back up and get back into roller derby training, I did find it very difficult to do so consistently. Especially when I started attending rehearsals with Midland Opera during the summer and autumn.

In April I caught up with my friend Shakera to see Ugly Kid Joe on their “America’s Least Wanted” 30th Anniversary Tour. Yes, it really has been that long since “Everything About You.” For the record, Whit Crane has aged very well.

30th September was my birthday. As it was a landmark one this year because I was 40 (gasp!), I decided to do it in style by having a little party and then jetting of to Cape Verde for the week. My work colleagues were kind enough to do a collection for me and my lovely M-I-L provided me a cake. Cape Verde was beautiful, despite the stifling heat. White beaches, turquoise sea and an all-inclusive resort. What more can you ask for?

27th October was my 11th wedding anniversary. So, I spent the day with my husband throwing axes at Whistle Punks followed by a lovely Latin American dinner as Las Iguanas.

The following day, I went to Telford to attend and help out at the WFTDA ECC in Telford. This was followed by a Halloween themed after party, which was awesome. If there was a prize for the scariest costume, I think I would have won it.

As I mentioned before, I started rehearsing with Midland Opera again. We performed Carmen during late November – early December. First two performances were at Stirchley Baths, the second at St Martin’s Church by Bullring. Ironically, I was back at St Martin’s a week later to perform a reunion performance with Birmingham City Council Choir.

Although I had a fantastic time performing Carmen, it was twice as long as the production we did the previous year (Norma) which meant twice the amount of work to get it running. This year I decided to switch from Soprano 2 to Alto 1. I was quite surprised at how challenging it was. Although I generally didn’t have to sing as high, the part had a lot of harmony. Considering that sopranos tend to sing the melody, I found learning the alto part made very counterintuitive. Along with the usual chorus work, I also played the small part of Lillas Pastia. The performance proved very popular and I was very pleased to read quite a few rave reviews.

Monday, 12th November was a great day for me. I went to London to see Dita Von Teese at the London Palladium. The show was so glamourous and sparkly. It was amazing. To top it all off, I was able to meet her afterwards. Just typing about it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

As expected, December was pretty festive.  I wasn’t feeling too well for part of it, so I had to miss the work Christmas do and the post-Carmen get together with Midland Opera. I did attend the Blitz Dames Christmas/End of Year Awards party. There was great food, a quiz (which my team came last in but whatever) and some banging choons. Highlight had to be Fiend tearing up the dance floor with some bhangra dancing to Punjabi MC. I spent Christmas Day at my brother in law’s house and filled my face with delicious food and prosecco. We then played this funny game after. Can’t quite remember the rules, they were a little complicated and I was a bit tipsy by that point. The Friday after Christmas, I went to a wedding reception at Highbury Hall. The bride was Hannah, a former Blitz Dame who skated under the name Supertedds. It was nice to catch up with her as I hadn’t seen her since the summer and her dress was beautiful.

On a slightly different note, anyone who knows me well will be aware that I have had some moderate mental health issues. Although I suspect that they started way before, I didn’t realise that there was a problem until I had a mental breakdown in 2011. Although I have been taking medication since then, during the last couple of years I can honestly say that mentally and emotionally, I am the healthiest and happiest I have been for a very long time. In fact, it has only recently dawned on me exactly how sick I was. It’s actually quite shocking how I was able to (albeit barely) function considering how really not well I was. Take it from me. Mental health medication really can save lives.

Well, that was a quick lowdown of the past. Now I’m going to talk about the future. One definite goal for 2019 is to move away from operas and fully get back into roller derby and get a place on the Bomb Squad roster. I know this sounds really cliché, but one thing I really need to do is deal with my weight. I am the heaviest I have ever been, basic moving around is getting more difficult and now that I’m officially middle aged, my body is starting to show signs of wear and tear. My body needs to be in peak condition in order to achieve this, so I need to ditch the timber and get my train on.

So yeah, I had a busy 2018. I have lots of ideas for 2019 and lots of optimism regarding the outcome.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!