No Stitching–Some Family Time

I don’t think I even set foot in the studio last week.  On Monday I saw the orthopedic surgeon’s nurse practitioner who told me I was free to do as much as I could.  I complained at the slow progress I was making and she reminded me that I had had 3 surgeries within 5 weeks (none my idea) and that my body was still reeling from the assaults.  So I stopped my complaining.  Then it was off to breakfast out and some shopping at the drug store (which has been getting a lot of our money).

On Tuesday I visited with the cardiologist.  I was again reminded that every time you go to a doctor you have to give them all the same information that you just gave the other doctors.   Anyway, he was pretty happy with how my heart and pacemaker are working together.  He did think there was room for improvement and turned the beats per minute up a bit.  I can’t tell the difference.  Both of these doctors don’t want to see me again until mid-December which is just fine by me.

And today I started the new medication that is supposed to be more potent in cancer retarding.  I will see the oncologist in two weeks and he will be looking at my lab work to see if it is doing what it is supposed to do.  Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile we have been visiting with family.  Our daughter came by on Saturday and we fell into watching football.  She is a rabid fan (wrong school) and yells as though she were in the stands.  She and hubby were so involved I called her the son he never had: I don’t think any of our three sons are as passionate as Lisa.
  

We offered to take her to lunch and she drove us in her new car.  Then the funny thing was that she paid for lunch.  Not bad, huh?











And I must say we looked pretty good in it.













This past Sunday we went to Florida to visit our grandson, his wife, and their really sweet son, Ryder.  We treated them, and ourselves, to Red Lobster where I ate 1# of crab legs and drawn butter.  I was still cracking shells long after everyone else was done: it was worth it!!


















Back at their house his Mommy read to him.  Look at how involved he is in the book.  He is not quite 11 months and you would swear he was reading along with her.










And then it was time to climb on Daddy.  We were again impressed both with how happy a baby Ryder is and his parents approach to parenting.

I do have to say that I was quite tired by the time we got home so was in bed early.  Now I just have to get myself motivated to do my exercises and then move on to fabric manipulation and then yarn entanglement.

I hope everyone who reads this has a great week with a sense of accomplishment, great or small.  Gari

BOMs Away

This week, for the first time in 5 months, I was able to go fabric shopping.  I had known that I needed some red fabric for one of my BOMs but since I was unable to stand long enough to cut fabric and press the fusible on it, it really had been a  moot point.  But since I have been getting a little stronger (slowly, oh so slowly) I decided it was time to venture out and shop.  I took this picture because those two rows of fabric are all polka dot fabrics and I was very impressed.






Then yesterday I spent some time drawing/copying the applique shapes on my fusible: I did this for three BOM blocks.

And then today I began cutting fabric and applying the fusible.  I’m getting all three blocks ready at the same time so it was a little confusing. I only cut into four fabrics so I still have some more to prepare.  I kind of got waylaid by knitting needles and yarn. 



One fun thing we did last week was to drive our daughter to where she was picking up her very first brand new car. It was 300 miles up and back with sitting time while she went through the car buying process and then we also stopped for a late dinner.  But we had lots of fun and she was very happy.  She even got a nurse specialty car tag.

Health Update:  I saw the oncologist a couple of weeks ago and he is putting me on a relatively new medication that is supposed to help build up my bones while killing cancer cells.  It has to come from a special pharmacy and be approved by the insurance.  It took two weeks of back and forth conversations to get that approval but he finally got it. The medication comes in the mail so we are waiting on that.

Tomorrow I see the orthopedic surgeon with the hope that I will be told that all is well with my hip and clearance to drive.  He never told me not to drive but the home health nurse assured me I wasn’t supposed to.
Then the next day I am seeing the cardiologist who will tell me that the pacemaker is working fine.

All three of these doctors are great but I am ready to not be tied to them quite so much.

I hope everyone had as nice a weekend as we did and that this will be a great week.  Gari

Wow, A Finish

I haven’t had a finish since May so this is very special for me.  In fact I had the foot done before I got sick so all I had to do was get well enough to want to knit again and then finish the heels and up the leg a bit.  I am really happy with how these look but since I live in the South it will be a while before I can wear them.
Meanwhile I have another pair started and another pair running around in my head.

Since my last post I have had a hip replacement. Yes, that was my third surgery in 9 1/2 weeks.  Since I had never had a surgery before I think this was a bit much but it is what it is.  I have continued to have Home Health which includes an aid twice a week, a nurse twice a week and a physical therapist twice a week.  And to add to that, doctor visits (3) this month.  It’s a good thing I bought that day planner.  I believe that the home health involvement will be tapering off, especially if I can get my walking better.  My lower back doesn’t seem to want to walk straight up. 

I was very pleased with my oncologist visit as he told me the medication that I am taking has improved my bones by 70%.  What this means is that the medication has been killing the cancer cells (most of them) and cutting off the pathways they have been traveling.  He did say the cells that are left will search out different pathways so we are attempting to get a new med/pill that is even stronger.The insurance is trying to get in the way but the doctor is on it and we will win.

I did get a quilt block appliqued but forgot to take a picture.  I am still having trouble standing for very long but I need to draw two blocks worth of applique so I can get the fabric ready and the applique fused.  If I can get these two done I want to do a first block of a new BOM. The fact that I am 5 months behind on my BOMs has only  got me slightly frazzled.

This is Ryder, our great grandson.  He has recently moved to Florida with his dad and mother, a United States Airman.  And in about a week and a half we will be going down to visit him, and oh, yes, his parents, too.  This little family was part of the group that came to our house Labor Day weekend and we were charmed by all three of them.  So you can imagine how excited we were when we were invited to visit them in their new home.  They will be there for the next two years so we hope to become really good friends.  Oh, and they have two dogs which makes them really good people.


And here we have another great grandchild, Scarlett. 

She is showing off her new sippy cup, an Auburn University Tervis cup.  We do try to get these children indoctrinated early.  And from the smile on her face she is fully on board.  I gotta say, we really have cute kids.

So now I need to stop writing this, get some sleep and prepare to do some work tomorrow.  I would like to have some kind of finish for this month, too.

Have a great week,  Gari

Family, Progress, and Fun

Lookie, lookie, I finally figured out how to get pictures back on my blog.  It seems that Google/Blogger is not playing well with Microsoft Edge which comes with Windows 10 so I had to add Google Chrome so I could access my photos.  

Anyway, this is one picture of part of our family (see list of names and associations on the last post) after we had finished a great breakfast together.  I am the one sitting.  And this was taken prior to my last surgery.

And this is the other part of the family that was here the day before.  I am the head of hair in the lower right corner.  It truly was a fun filled weekend.

Last weekend our oldest son and his wife were here from Atlanta but we didn't take any pictures.  I had finally begun to feel somewhat steady on my new hip so we took off for breakfast at my favorite fast food place, Whataburger, and then to staples to buy a day planner.  I was beginning to loose track of when different people were coming and decided I needed a place to write it all down.  Between all the home health people and four doctors who want to see me I am a very busy lady.

But guess what! Last Wednesday no one was scheduled to come.  Eric and I looked at one another and decided it was time for us to visit Pensacola.  We ate at a favorite place and then went shoe shopping.  And we did very well for ourselves.

Funny, I didn't get a picture of the 3 pair Eric got for himself.  What I did learn is that 3 hours in the car and both of us were stiff in the joints.  I guess we are out of travel condition (and of course we are getting older).

And last but not least, I spent 4 hours in the studio yesterday.

I had already gotten the appliques on the background but hadn't stitched them down. Now this one is complete.  Unfortunately I am 5 months behind on the two BOMs I was working on and hadn't even started on the new one I for sure want to do.  But I did feel productive so I guess I will be in the studio again this weekend.

And when it came time for a rest I could be found on the deck with our wonderful animals.

Have a great weekend everybody, I know I will.  Gari

The Fun Continues

This area is supposed to contain a picture of the people mentioned in the first paragraph.  I am VERY unhappy with Blogger, which has got to hell since Google took over, as I have been unable to upload any pictures.  But I am leaving the picture information just because I want the family names to be here.

This is not the whole family of visitors we had last weekend but it is a good representation.  I got to be the one sitting down and I am joined by my daughter (Lisa), husband (Eric), son (Todd and Lisa’s twin), grandson (Gus), granddaughter in law (Paige), and grandson (Jamie).  Missing was our son in law (Gary the picture taker), daughter in law (Jessica resting in the car), granddaughter (Elsa confined in the car), grandson (Chris who went home Saturday), granddaughter in law (Michelle who went home with her husband), and great grandson (Ryder who was carried off by his parents).

The party started around noon on Saturday.  I had planned to greet everyone out on the deck but the humidity went up and I went in.  So I greeted them from my hospital bed in the living room.  The nice thing about our family is that they are VERY social so the conversation never lagged and I did not have to keep things going.

Our dogs (three doxies) are not used to a lot of people.  The oldest, who is afraid of strangers and loud noises, spent the day leaning against my husband but she really did alright.  The other two quickly warmed up to the two youngest crawlers.  It was having those babies down on the floor with them.  And, boy the kissing that went on.

The one thing the dogs did not get to join in on was the food.  Our daughter planned the menu and brought all the food.  And our son in law is a great cook.  He brought his grill, set it up under one of our younger oak trees and proceeded to grill steak, shrimp and quail.  We then proceeded to eat, talk, and laugh. Quite a raucous group: it’s a good thing we live out in the country.

On Sunday the group in the picture above met for breakfast.  This is a place by the side of the road where we had never eaten but we will go back.  I haven’t had any appetite for a few months but on this Sunday morning I wanted 2 eggs over easy, hashbrowns, bacon, toast and coffee.  I could only eat half but I toted it home and had it the next day: good the second time around.  Then after breakfast the group broke up and started heading home.  I was still running on a pacemaker high so Eric and I drove 56 miles away so we could eat at my favorite hamburger place, Whataburger, get coffee and a donut at Dunkin, and then good grocery shopping at Publix.  Then it was time to go home and crash.

Health Update:  Tuesday I showed up at 7am to get ready for hip replacement surgery.  I hadn’t slept much the night before so I think I was asleep before they gave me the anesthetic.  I am told that the operation took about 4 hours.  I, again, didn’t have any pain while lying in bed.  However, standing on my poor, cut up leg was a different matter.  I resorted to pain management.  Initially I had Demerol IM but was told that no one was going to come to the house every time I wanted to get up so I better use the pills.  While in the hospital I saw a physical therapist twice a day: interestingly I took a pain pill twice a day.  He gave me leg exercises, walked with me a little and then had me sit in a chair for 30-60 minutes.  On Friday, while I was getting ready for discharge, he told me some of the exercises I could expect to be given when I start physical therapy at home.  I really do plan to try to cooperate with this as I am wanting to get back to quilting as soon as possible.

Today the home health nurse came and we reviewed my needs.  She will be coming twice a week, the aid will be coming twice a week and the physical therapist will come at least twice as week.  This is more of a social life than I am used to. But there was one really funny thing.  She asked to see my medications and I told her to pull open the drawer where I keep them.  The drawer was empty.  I got into my walker and we looked everywhere.  Eric was out so I called him but he didn’t know.  The nurse said she had pulled every drawer open and didn’t see them.  However, when we checked again we found them in the wrong drawer.  I was very glad to see those bottles and find they were not in the hands of others.

Now I hope we will settle down to a more normal schedule.  I think we may have company again next weekend, out oldest son lives in Atlanta and feels the need to come check on us.  It really has been nice to see more of them all, I hope it continues.  Gari

And The Saga Continues

I finally started back on my lavender socks and completed the heels.  I did the FLK heels: I had to watch the videos 3 times before I could remember what I was supposed to do. Anyway I got the heels done and since I knit toe up I had to do 1” beyond the heels before I could start the leg. I was 3 rows into the leg before I noticed that I had dropped a stitch.  I looked around for my crochet hook but couldn’t find it so I am stuck until I can get back into the studio.  Sorry there is no picture.  Blogger is not letting me upload one at this time.

Health Update:  It took almost 2 weeks for the orthopedist to get back to me about a date for the hip replacement: Sept.8^th.  And then I was scheduled for a pre-surgical registration and lab work appointment on this past Wednesday.  Part of the registration included an EKG and chest x-ray. Well, I had done almost everything when I was asked to return to the original office to talk with a cardiologist.  When I got there he told me my heart rate on the EKG was 27 (it looked like a flat-line on the print out).  Now I have had A-Fib for 15 years and it has been controlled with medication.  And I did know that my heart rate had slowed some in the last few months, but not this slow.  The cardiologist highly recommended a pace-maker. Would you believe I had that sucker implanted in my chest within 3 hours?  The real downside was that I had to stay in the hospital, with a heart monitor, so the doctor could see if it was going to work.  However my hip replacement surgery is still set for next Tuesday.  I was scheduled to be at the hospital at 9 but they called yesterday and told me to be there at 7.  For someone who is used to sleeping in every day this will be a real struggle for me.  ;-)

For now I’m back home and looking forward to having several members of our family here for a cookout today.  Our daughter and son-in-law have planned grilling shrimp and steaks along with frying scallops.  Additional family members expected are our youngest son and his wife with their two children and our oldest grandson and his wife with their son.  I am planning on sitting on the deck and enjoying being surrounded by family

I hope everyone in the USA enjoy a fun filled Labor Day weekend and that others in other countries enjoy their weekend.  Gari

A LOT Happened

But first let me introduce our 4 generation picture.  Here you meet Scarlet (6 months), her mother, my granddaughter Megan, me, and my daughter, Lisa, who is Megan’s mother.  We all have the same smile so you can see we are related.

Now for the reason I have been absent for so long.  At the beginning of June I started feeling “down.”  I wasn’t depressed but I had no energy.  This was followed by an increase in my sciatic pain.  Now I do have to confess that I tend to not like to see doctors so each time my sweet husband suggested making an appointment it was swiftly rejected.  This went on all month until one morning when I threw my arm between two fighting dogs and felt a sudden pain.

After figuring out I had not thrown my arm out of the shoulder socket it was decided I needed to go to the emergency room where I was told I had broken my arm. Who knew? The problem was that I did this on Friday and the orthopedist was not available until Monday so I went home and suffered.  But on Monday I met Dr. Holland at his office and he sent me straight to the hospital where I had surgery this next morning (after x-rays, blood work, and much poking and prodding).

Now, as if all that wasn’t enough, the next day Dr. Holland came in to tell me that he didn’t like the look of my bone so he took a biopsy and it revealed that I have cancer.  To say I was thrown doesn’t even touch my feeling.  I was later to learn that I have breast cancer and it has migrated into my bones throughout my body.  I am told that because it is so widespread, and has done so much damage to my bones, it is incurable.  However I am taking medication to attempt to stop the damage and repair my bones as much as possible. I have been referred to a great oncologist, Dr. Boatright  (very direct but with a sense of humor).  I was in the hospital for 11 days and came out with a whole sack of pills (anemia, blood pressure, heart, magnesium, potassium).  And I found myself on home health because I was so weak.  

So for the last month I have been working on building my appetite and finally getting enough strength to get out of bed and do some walking.  I even went to the studio for two days for some knitting and a little sewing.  And then all my fun stuff came to a crashing halt. 

I went back to the orthopedist and after he saw the new x-rays he said he didn’t want me walking.  It seems my left hip is greatly impacted and he is afraid it will just break under my weight (I have lost 10# so you would think that would help).  He wants to do a hip replacement now rather than having to do it after a break.  I agreed and yesterday so did the oncologist so I am just waiting to hear from him as to when to go back into the hospital.  I really hate hospitals!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, that’s what’s going on with me.  I hope soon to be able to get back to being creative: I’m pretty bored with lying around.  Gari