I am not sure of any breakthroughs, but at this point I have something I can work with. Since I had nothing in the beginning of the month, having a roadmap now is a promise of some kind.
Nothing spectacular, though. But then, mostly whatever really works comes to me during the actual writing time. I'll see what happens in November.
As to diseases, a psychological quirk or problem seems to be the activating force for my main man. I might give a migraine or something to the secondary characters. That would be interesting. I don't want to delve too deeply into medical sciences here. I might goof it up.