Of a Wednesday

Still cannot get over the knitted Bee Gees.  Maurice is especially spot-on.  I did a needlepoint pillow top of the "Main Course" album (the one right behind the dolls), and had a yoked shirt with that "Bee Gees" logo embroidered on the back.  I had/have the Gibb fever bad.  Ask anyone I went to high school with.  Or anyone who spends more than a half hour with me.

 

Back to the chiropractor with me today.  My right shoulder was out of joint.  Go figure.  There is just so much going on with my body right now, I can't keep up.  And it's hard to know what is influencing what, what is standing alone.  The worry over that is leading to panic attacks.  Which, I found out this afternoon, my mother is afraid will lead to a heart attack.

 

Yep --- I needed another dire circumstance idea planted in my head.

 

 

I'm Just Sayin'

So Let's See

A week ago, I have my gall bladder taken out very suddenly. I'm bruised from stem to stern, with all the internal pain that goes along with that.

So I've been sleeping a bit awkwardly, first in the hospital with the IV, then at home to avoid the discomfort.

A few weeks ago, I took that horrid fall that resulted in what I'm convinced was a concussion.

For how many months, I've been stressed by my life. And I've found out I carry my tension on my left side.  Lots of stress, lots of pressure for my left side to be carrying.

The last two nights, I had such a pain in my left neck that I was on the verge of tears.  I could tell one of my vertebrae was out of line, that I needed my chiropractor, but I figured I could white-knuckle it.  Maybe it would get better.

Last night, I was in an agony I don't believe I've ever experienced before.  Pain and fear and pain.  I hung on until about 9 PM so I could take some Percocet (I'm running out), but had to gave in and called my chiropractor.  At home.  After not seeing him for a couple of years.

He saw me this morning and declared me "A wreck.  A physical mess."

But he popped my neck back into place.  And worked on my back, which caused me the first pain I've every felt during an adjustment. A good pain, I suppose, but still a hurt. Told me to take double doses of Aleve today and tomorrow, go back and see him Monday.  He proclaimed my neck problem "solved."

That eased my mind some.  And I've had to say it to myself several times since I've been home.  I am uncomfortable and nearly out of pain medication and by myself.  (Briton has been with his girlfriend this whole time.  Hannah's working the haunted house in Atlanta every weekend.)  Not embarrassed to say I've been scared to the point of having to melt Ativans under my tongue and get my feet up higher than my head so I won't faint.

Don't go back to the surgeon for another couple of weeks, but will definitely be calling the office and begging for an extension on pain meds come Monday.  Some calmer tonight, thanks to the chiropractor.  But sapped of the crazy knitting urge.  Which is bad on two levels: not getting things made for the etsy shop, and not giving me something to think about other than what's happening inside my body.

Catch-Up

Pretty sure my hospitalization for depression is now out the window;  the pending gall bladder bills will eat up all that trust fund money.

Since I got home, the need to knit has been impossible to tamp down.  Don't know why, exactly --- I've gone a couple of days without knitting before.  But this is crazy, almost primal.  Same (little less concentrated) goes for reading.

I have a place (I hesitate to call it a "blog") on tumblr, and the number of people, especially young people, who knit and are excited about knitting there is so delightful.  Some of them are fearless, which inspires me.

And it's cowls this year, isn't it?  The thing to knit.  Oh, and the beekeeper quilt.  I'm not seeing any hexipuffs in my future, but I do like the cowls.  This is my favorite so far:

The Lemon Twist Cowl.  Very simple, and a nice fit.

I bruise sickeningly easily.  You can imagine what color my tummy is, with 4 laproscopic sites there.  And my left arm, where there were 2 separate IV lines.  But look at my right arm:

 To the left is where they tried (just tried, now) to put an IV in.  The big bruises are from --- my right hand on this --- the blood pressure cuff.  Granted, they took my blood pressure every two hours, but, still. . .
 I'm feeling alright.  Still very sore, but I'm trying to ration out my pain meds.  Have only needed the anti-nausea pills once, which is good.  I go see the doctor in about 3 weeks.  This has all been a disconcerting blur;  I scarcely remember any of it, even when I try to put it all together. 
And I woke up today with a crick in my neck.  Very painful.  The crick has caused me to hold my head at all sorts of weird angles all day, which has only added to the pain.  Think I'm going to have to break into my ration plan to get any sleep tonight.

My Dear Twinnie

Just made these:

 Without a pattern.

I'm so proud.

Ten on Tuesday --- Headlines From the Year I Was Born

I love this kind of thing.

1. John F. Kennedy elected President.
2. The first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is presented --- to Joanne Woodward.
3. Adolph Eichmann captured/kidnapped.
4. Nikita Krushchev pounds his shoe in anger on UN table.
5. Gary Powers and his U2 spy plane shot down over Soviet Russia.
6. "Psycho" the top-grossing movie of the year.
7. Harper Lee wins the Pulitzer for To Kill A Mockingbird.
8. New words that soon become commonplace: "anchorman," "sit-in,"
   "cosmonaut," "laser."
9. Astroturf, rayon and the felt-tip pen make their first appearances.
10. Chubby Checker introduces "The Twist."

What A Long, Strange Weekend It's Been

I made myself get up early Saturday morning (to beat gameday/tailgating shoppers) and get to the grocery for a few necessities: cat litter, cat food, cases of soda, etc.  All sort of heavy.  By late Saturday afternoon, a pain had developed right under my ribcage --- I figured it was a pulled muscle or something, but it just wouldn't go away.  Or ease up at all.

Finally, around 8 or so Saturday night, I got Briton to take me to the hospital.  It's my gall bladder.  And it needs to come out.  This is SO totally out of left field. . .  But the next thing I know, I'm scheduled for Sunday morning surgery.

Which goes well, except I apparently thrashed around while coming out from the anesthesia --- I woke up shackled to the bed in Recovery.  They're willing to let me go home, but my blood pressure is a tad low, so they keep me until today.

And now I'm home, with no less than six prescription drugs to take.  (My 3 anti-depressant/anxiety ones plus an antibiotic, an anti-nausea and an anti-pain.)  And no gall bladder.

It's a sort of a whirlish blur.  I'm going to have to read all the orders they sent home with me to try to make sense of it.  Right now I'm sore, and the Percocet is taking hold, and I just really want to knit.

How was your weekend?

 

See Who You Are, By Color

The Scarfigan

Ingenious design, a favorite yarn, some buttons, and:

 

I Adore Lucas Black

Still A Knitblog

This is a scarfigan. It  is waiting for me to sew its buttons on.

 These aren't knit, I know, but they are the tease for a new "line" I'm going to add to my etsy store.

This is the beginning of the Icon scarf. I've done three more repeats, and it's really pretty.  It's made on 17s with 4 strands of chunky weight held together.  So it's going quickly, but is prone to tangling.  The fact that Finn has an insistent need to chew on and run around with the yarn isn't helping.

Also working on a headband/wrap,  a top for myself and a wispy sort of cowl. 

You?


 

Consider Them Our Rules, Too

Harpo Marx Family Rules
1 Life has been created for you to enjoy, but you won't enjoy it unless you pay for it with some good, hard work. This is one price that will never be marked down.
2 You can work at whatever you want to as long as you do it as well as you can and clean up afterwards and you're at the table at mealtime and in bed at bedtime.
3 Respect what the others do. Respect Dad's harp, Mom's paints, Billy's piano, Alex's set of tools, Jimmy's designs, and Minnie's menagerie.
4 If anything makes you sore, come out with it. Maybe the rest of us are itching for a fight, too.
5 If anything strikes you as funny, out with that, too. Let's all the rest of us have a laugh.
6 If you have an impulse to do something that you're not sure is right, go ahead and do it. Take a chance. Chances are, if you don't you'll regret it - unless you break the rules about mealtime and bedtime, in which case you'll sure as hell regret it.
7 If it's a question of whether to do what's fun or what is supposed to be good for you, and nobody is hurt whichever you do, always do what's fun.
8 If things get too much for you and you feel the whole world's against you, go stand on your head. If you can think of anything crazier to do, do it.
9 Don't worry about what other people think. The only person in the world important enough to conform to is yourself.
10 Anybody who mistreats a pet or breaks a pool cue is docked a months pay.