A rather large bump in the road... news

Hello everyone it's me D3ads, the project leader. Some of you may have noticed that I have been missing in action for quite some time recently, I have unfortunately been dealing with "personal problems". I had hoped to keep said problems a private matter but unfortunately I can do longer do that...

On Monday July 19th having previously been ill on and off with an unknown diagnosis, I was admitted to hospital with an extremely bad stomach ache that would later turn out to be a kidney infection. I spent three days in hospital being treated with antibiotics and I went home to continue the treatment with tablets, where within a few weeks I recovered fully and continued life as normal. I had thought that was the end of it, for unfortunately it was not to be...

On Saturday August 21st I was again admitted to hospital with another really horrible stomach ache, I had initially thought that the kidney infection had not cleared or had somehow returned, in fact the reality was much much worse. After a few tests and scans the doctors found that my heart valve had leaked blood into three areas of my body; the spleen, the same kidney that had previously been infected and an artery going through my left leg and that had formed clots as a result. What followed was 3 weeks and 2 days of full hospitalisation, not only trying to figure out what happened to my heart but also how it connected with the previous kidney issue, my case being followed by two departments working together.

It was initially thought that the valve had been infected somehow, however despite having a camera down my throat to examine the heart plus multiple blood tests, no evidence of infection was found. Therefore when I was finally discharged on Monday 13th September, the diagnosis reached was that my heart had leaked the blood by itself. I was previously diagnosed with a minor heart condition ten years ago, something that was never supposed to be a problem until I reach my 70s or such (I'm 37). Well, it's certainly an issue in the present day...

The only way to fix this problem is by heart surgery, which as you can probably gather is a very serious matter. To control the blood clots, I am on anti-coagulant medicine which will thin the blood itself preventing further clotting and eventually break down the existing clots in time as well. I need to undergo at least one other procedure before surgical actions can commence, I anticipate that it will be somewhere in October, but I need to confirm this.

So with this in mind, development of Dark Matter is without a doubt going to take a hit, I've already got studies that I need to catch up on in addition to all this, which as always take precedent. I'm still in the process of trying to put together a large media update but that is going to be delayed further still now, so I might think about breaking it up instead.

As the surgery date gets close, I will make sure the team have all the existing files backed up on their end just in case God forbid that something goes wrong, because as with any surgical procedure complications can arise, I'm sure I don't need to spell out exactly what that can entail...

However, I am young and in capable hands so hopefully in time this will all be sorted and I'll be back to my normal self once again, working on things with everyone else as best as I can, just like always.

I really didn't want to talk about this, but events have ultimately left me with no choice. Dark Matter is a team effort, but I work on the vast majority of the mod itself, generally being my vision with friends along the way to help out with the things I can't do, without which DM would be a very different beast. I'm glad to have them, and hope to continue working with them till completion.

My fate is in the hands of others whether I like it or not, so all we can do is keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

As always, thank you for your support, I REALLY appreciate it and hope to bring you something special at the very end.

-D3ads