Writing Setbacks and How I Joined the “Ologist” Team
By Donnell Ann Bell
It’s no secret I’m on hiatus and have had a few writing setbacks, particularly after my publisher announced her retirement and the copyright lawsuit against Anthropic (Bartz v. Anthropic) originated in August 2024.
Still, I’ve worked years to become traditionally published, and the idea of allowing my books, to disappear is untenable. So, in the interim, I’ve finished re-editing my backlist, and doing the second thing I love best – reading! Editing, reading (particularly critiquing and beta reading for my critique partners) has kept my dream of writing alive.
Not being so sedentary has reaped benefits, too, and in my (cough/cough) late sixties, I’m more fit than I’ve ever been. Then again, I’ve learned an active lifestyle can cause conflict as muscles rebel, joints complain and injury occurs.
And because life isn’t happy unless it generates one surprise after another, thought I’d share another issue that caused a setback. On July 17, 2026, after my husband and I took a road trip, I developed pain in my left arm. Frightened, and thinking heart attack, I was diagnosed instead with a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in my lung). I was shocked because my oxygen level read 97 percent. Still, I came away much relieved when my cardiac enzymes proved normal.
Not having any idea that a PE could be dangerous, I assumed that a shot of Lovenox and the prescription blood thinners the ER docs prescribed would be an end to it.
I would soon learn differently. I’d been going to physical therapy, having great success. Two days after the ER visit, I showed up for my appointment, but when I told my therapists about my weekend, they became wide eyed and panic-stricken. “What are you doing here? You can’t be here! We can’t work on you with a PE. You have to be cleared.”
Well, that was inconvenient. Still, naïve about all that was involved, I made an appointment with my primary care doc, thinking it was she who would clear me. She, too, proved most uncooperative. Instead, she spent an hour going over my tests, telling me all that was involved, explaining the dangers of an embolism, blood thinner side effects, forbid me to play pickleball (not to hit my head) and ordered me to drink water and walk.
I was in physical therapy and hadn’t played pickleball for two months. I drank water and walked anyway. So I considered it no big deal. But when I prepared to leave and asked her to clear me so I could return to physical therapy she said, “I can’t clear you. You have to see a cardiologist and a pulmonologist! They have to clear you.”
Suddenly, getting cleared was becoming an issue. I had plans to spend a month in Colorado with my kids and grandchildren. That was off the table now for both road and air travel. Moreover, I had become a member of the “ologist” world, which took four to six weeks at a minimum to be seen. I was not happy.
Still, I did what I was told and dutifully increased walking and became waterlogged. I met with the cardiologist first. After an EKG, ultrasounds, he declared I had a strong heart and when I asked about physical activity, he pronounced, “You can do whatever you want to.”
I took his words to the bank. Singing Zippity Do Dah I practically danced out of his office. I hadn’t even gotten to my car, however, when my pulmonologist’s assistant called and said the pulmonologist wanted me to see a hematologist and report for a Pet scan!
Twelve vials of blood later, I’ve conferred with the hematologist and have an understanding what’s going on in my body.
I’m not excited about all the time it took. But as they and their staffs pointed out there were many people with even more serious problems that had to go ahead of me. To date I’ve had a mammogram ultrasound, CT and Pet scans and have just recently become cleared to return to more than just walking. Moreover, I’m down fifteen pounds.
Further I’m grateful to all of the therapists and doctors who wouldn’t let me ignore what was going on in my body. And as you can see, as a writer and all these setbacks, I always chalk it up to “It’s all material.”
Glad it all worked out… now you can do what you want and have an extra motivation to write, write, write!
Thanks, Debra. That’s the plan!!!
Having lived through this with you, I am soooooo glad everything worked out, my friend!
I am soooo grateful I had you to live through it with me!!! Thank you, Lois.
Wishing you lots more happy endings, both literary and actual.
Thank you so much, Saralyn. Your Port Destiny got me through many worried hours
Thank goodness the different -ologists caught up with you after the one told you “do whatever you want”. A good friend of mine received such an all-clear and was in the middle of a YMCA basketball game when he got the news that the lung doctors realized he actually had a collapsed lung and needed to be in the hospital immediately! They were shocked he hadn’t died right then and there.
Best wishes for a continued recovery and on your continuing author journey!
Ah, so sad, Kathy. I should qualify, hat this cardiologist was insistent I get ultrasounds on my legs when the ER simply performed one on my painful arm. He is also the one who ordered the Electrocardiogram. He’s my husband’s and my hairdresser’s doctor as well. I don’t think he meant I could climb a mountain. I simply asked if I could play pickleball again and his response was I could do whatever I want. 🙂 I’m sure by looking at me and my age, he doesn’t think I’m a daredevil. 🙂 And I get your point. My dad got an all clear a month before he passed. Nobody’s guaranteed tomorrow.
Medical care in itself can be stressful. I’m happy they took care of you and that you finally came through this. I’m sure the writing ideas will start flowing too.
Kathleen, they already are! Thank you for all the book referrals. I’ve downloaded them and I’m catching up quickly.
Good grief, that was a journey! I’m glad you have arrived at your destination! As for your books, there is no shame in self-publishing your back list once you have all your rights back. It’s easy-peasy (I even wrote a book called Self-publishing: The Ins & Outs of Going Indie). I’ve been orphaned twice by two small presses so I know what you’ve gone through and trust me, once you’ve made the leap, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner 🙂
Judy, that’s what I hear, and I already own Self-publishing: The Ins and & Outs of Going Indie 🙂 looking forward to incorporating what I’ve read!
Oh my, you have been through a trial! So glad you got thoroughly checked out and are doing well!
[heart emoji]–TK
Thank you, TK
Thanks for sharing Donnell. These medical procedures and scares are something we all go through. Glad you are ok!
Thanks, Brooke!