Posted in: Comics | Tagged: conan, dark horse, dragoncon, green arrow, jon sable, mike grell, Warlord

Mike Grell Home From Hospital And Cancels Dragoncon Appearance

Published Tue, 20 Aug 2013 06:00:02 -0500

Speculation and concern ran rampant last week as news spread of Mike Grell having to cancel a scheduled appearance at the Copper Con in Mesa Arizona. Grell (65) has since released a statement on his website about his health to help reassure fans that he is okay.

Hi, everyone –

I thought it was high time I issued some kind of official statement regarding my health status, especially considering how rapidly Facebook and Twitter have spread the word and how incomplete the information has been.

WHAT HAPPENED? Somewhere around the end of July, I found a small bug bite on my right calf. On 31 July I developed flu-like symptoms and achy joints. That night I fell asleep while reading and awoke at about 4AM with a fever. Alarmingly, my right eye would not track and my first thought was STROKE. Fortunately, I quickly put myself through the stroke evaluation and passed on all counts, so I was confident it was NOT a stroke even before I arrived at Summit Pacific Medical Center, where I was admitted on August 1.

After CAT scans, MRI's, X-Rays, Ultrasounds and a spinal tap ruled out stroke, aneurism, tumors, diabetesmeningitis, MERSA, Lyme disease, and necrotizing fasceaitis, we were left with what pretty much everyone suspected from the start: CELLULITIS.

By August 3rd, my vision had returned to 100% normal, my general condition was improving and my doctors expected me to be discharged shortly. Then the wheels fell off.

It seems cellulitis is a nasty bug that, evenwhen you kill it off with antibiotics, the dying cells produce toxins that destroy other tissue.

The short version that I'm still in the hospital (a different one after being transferred here three days ago) with a small army of specialists swarming over me like an Indy 500 pit crew. The weird thing is that I don't feel sick at all, just tired of being flat on my back. My doctors are optimistic and so am I. For the first time, we see daily improvement and I should be on my way home in a few days

Thank you all for your continued prayers and well wishes. I'll keep you posted as I have more news.

LIFE IS DRAWING WITHOUT AN ERASER

Grell, best known for his work on Jon Sable: Freelance, Green Arrow: Long Bow Hunters and Warlord has recently been reported to be finishing a Jon Sable: Freelance novel and working on a Conan series for Dark Horse. Since the statement Grell is reported to be home and recovering nicely but has had to cancelled his appearance at Dragoncon at the end of August. The rest of his convention schedule remains intact according to his website with a trip to Montreal planed for the middle of September.

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