Tuesday, November 27, 2018

One Christmas Quilt, Finished




I finished hand stitching the binding on one of these! My version of On Ringo Lake...

My friend, Beth, quilted them for me a few months ago. I took a few days off between stitching down the binding of the other one. I had Hubby put it beside my chair this morning and hopefully I'll begin it later this afternoon.

I'm slowly getting a bit better. But I'm much weaker at this point than I was hoping to be. That second stay in the hospital really took a toll on me. I can dress myself now, which is good. I can fix myself a cup of hot tea. But that's about all I can do. Hubby is doing a great job at meals, laundry, and everything else. I'm lucky to have him.

Tomorrow I have doctor appointments and I hope I'll get my remaining 2 surgical drains removed - that would be nice.

In about a week we'll be heading back to our cottage in the Auburn/Opelika area. We are looking forward to being there during Christmas. I think my two Christmas quilts will be our only decorations, and that's just fine.

For now I spend a lot of time on Pinterest and I've been watching YouTube videos of Japanese hand sewing - making little pouches and bags. I've had a sudden interest in making some funky jewelry. I want to make some little sewing projects, too (hence the Japanese videos). Once we return to our cottage and I am able, I want to sort through all my sewing stuff and reorganize. I want to focus on finishing my UFO's. I don't have any big quilts in my queue at the moment - just want to finish some things and work on some small Japanese inspired stuff.  Sounds like a plan to me.

When I knew my surgery was approaching, I ordered a few Lularoe legging outfits because I knew they'd be comfortable during recovery. Okay, so now I have a problem. I've ordered two more this week. If you see me out and about, I will most like be wearing Lularoe. I think I have 7 outfits now. They are so comfy. And the knit fabric feels soft against my incisions. And the Christmas ones are so stinking cute!

And that's my update for today!


Thursday, November 22, 2018

Thankful for SO MUCH!


Where do I even begin?

Last I left you...I had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had met with lots of doctors and had my surgery scheduled. The long wait leading up to surgery was really hard. The worry and dread. The unknown. So much on my brain.

I decided on a bilateral mastectomy - I didn't want to do a lumpectomy because I would have also had to have radiation with that. I didn't want a single mastectomy because I would have to continue to worry about that remaining breast. The surgery was on 11/9/18 - about a week and half ago. I had to spend one extra night in the hospital because of some rogue swelling in one place, but was happy to have this behind me.

Once home (lake house...1.5 hours from hospital) Hubby and I realized something was not right. Over the next few days we made two trips to a hospital emergency room near the lake and called my surgeons back in B'ham. We were pretty sure I was having an allergic to something. I continued to worsen and by last Friday we drove back to Birmingham, knowing I needed to be back in the hospital.

I will not go into details here, but will just say that the next few days were really hard. I had lots of medical tests, saw lots of doctors. They had to rule out lots of things. During this time my skin was the culprit - itchy, red, burning. Did you know the skin is the largest organ of the human body? It was excruciating. But I'm here to tell the story!

I ended up spending 3 more days in the hospital (Hubby by my side!). I'm on mega doses of steroids to counteract the allergic reaction - an antibiotic was the culprit.

Enough about that. I'm home again. I feel so much better. Yesterday I even felt like a bit of hand sewing - I began to stitch down the binding you see above - one of my On Ringo Lake Christmas quilts. Happiness. I had not sewn in a long time - just wasn't in the mood or not feeling well.

Last night we were able to share the good news with family and friends that my pathology reports from surgery cam back - all very good news. So thankful. No more treatments needed.

Thank you to all my dear readers for all your love, support, and prayers. I will eventually get back to blogging on a more regular basis.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!