Weekend progress

There won't always be a beading project on a weekend but as I reached the end of my desire to work on the robe for the time being and it was mid morning today I thought I'd add it.

And my progress on Legends.

I got Majesty's name done and finished his border then made a start on finishing the border top and bottom on Magic.  The bottom is done as far as it could be without moving the frame to allow me a full length of thread and the top just needs a little more backstitch doing to finish that off.

Health wise I'm slowly starting to see some improvements now, I'm not getting as out of breath when I do stuff and it's not so hard to breathe all the time but the steroids are having a bad effect on my sleep :(

Beading finishes

I go to a beading group once a month and at the last one right at the very end of the day when almost everyone else had either already left, packed up or were packing up I finished this.

Aztec Lily from Jill Oxton's Cross Stitch and Beading but which issue escapes me.

It's a small section of a larger stitched piece and I'm quite tempted to do the stitched piece as well at some point. Right now I have no idea what I'm going to do with it so I guess I better start a box off for finished beadwork projects that I had to so like I have 'the drawer' for stitching, lol

Remember I said in yesterday's post that instead of starting one of the projects I'd bought beads for I finished a WIP? Well this is the one I finished, called rather obviously wave bracelet :)

Bit more detail but please excuse the bits of fluff on my beading mat I never noticed them until I uploaded the pic.

Then I made a Snowflake

You'll be pleased to know that I've now started one of the projects I bought for but unfortunately I'm not going to be able to share progress pics of it because there's a chance the person it's intended for reads my blog and it will spoil the surprise. (If your really desperate to know what it is say and I'll email you and let you know)

Lastly a wrist update........ It's almost fully fit. There a few things that I still have problems with mostly to do with weight/pulling but I can now do all the simple things there were beyond me a week ago.

Easter Exchange part 2

The postman made my day this morning when he brought me this

and this from Krisztina in Budapest

But that's not all because this opens up into .......

this! The scissors are my Dovo's and I put them there to show the pocket


and Krisztina included some goodies as well. The chocolate I'm going to save until Easter.


Kriszina tells me that she's been reading my blog to help her find the best pattern to stitch for me and that it's a Trellela Design. I think she did an outstanding job and her finishing is perfect. I've sat and had a really good look and I think I know how it's put together because I'd love to try it myself sometime.

And just in case your still interested in the state of my wrist..... it's doing much, much better. I've not quite got a full range of movement back and anything that requires pulling or weight is still a no go but I can do lots of things now with a little care.

TUSAL

I'm a day late in posting but hey I've only got full use of one hand and Mel had my camera card yesterday when she went to Chester Zoo.

Anyway here's my orts since last time. I've added ones from Kaleidoscope, Mary Busby, Nova, LHN Paperwhites, Easter Exchange, Silly Snowquakes and Resting (the seal cub). There's also various colours of nymo and some normal sewing thread has gone in as well

Remember I said back at the start of the year that was I planning on using 2009 ort jar far all the other bits and pieces? Well here it is I forgot to post it last time and in Jan there was nothing to show. It's got the offcuts from a few exchanges I've made up and some from tidying the edges of fabric up before I started something new along with a pile of DMC bands.

As for the nerve damage, I'm no longer in constant pain now that the morphine is fully in my system but I have almost no movement in my wrist because it's so stiff and I still can't do most things without a stab of pain. I'm doing my best to keep my wrist moving but given that it hurts so much to do it it's not going so well

Wrist update

I've been to the Doc's today about the pain in my wrist and it turns out I've some how damaged the Ulnar nerve in my elbow so I'm now on a low dose of morphine (yes the pain is that bad and I have a fairly high tolerance for pain) and have strict instructions to go back in 2 weeks if there isn't a huge improvement in it.

Bits and pieces

Paula and Karoline had the brains to take pics last weekend so go take a look at their blogs (I thankfully am not on any of them, yay) but I did get a pic of the wallhanging

A few fellow UK Stitchers had a bit of an informal SAL/race to finish Lizie Kate's Halloween Flip It's and when they started I said I would give a prize to the first one to finish without having a clue what it would beand calling myself an idiot for saying so! Then I did the tassel class and inspiration struck so Sally won herself a Halloween themed tassel from yours truely and has now decided she going to treat herself to a black pair of scissors to match. The orange you can see peeping out at the bottom is in the centre of the tassel.

Today I went to see my Neurologist and I'm am now offically discharged, I knew it was almost certain I would be after the LP I had earlier this year but for it to actually happen was wonderful. The downside was the trip home on the M6 bad, an accident south bound caused tail backs for 3 junctions north bound and I wanted one of those, what is normally a 30ish minute trip took almost 1hr 30mins!!

I'm still plodding on with the Sunflowers but I do keep avoiding them as much as poss so my current beading project is coming along nicely. I know I need to get stuck in to them and I think once I get on to the half that hasn't been touched by the owner I'll feel much better about them. It doens't help that she made several mistakes that I've had to work around, some of them quite large, and she has left odd stitches undone right by stitches of the same colour!

Dad is keeping up with his exercises for his knee and is recovering quite well now won't be long before he's off them completely although both Mum and I thought it was 5 days he was on them for but he's convinced it's 2 weeks so we just let him get on with it because he won;t last that long anyway :)

Happy Dancing tonight

Thank you for all the lovely comments on the tassel both here and on Sharon's blog I really do appriciate them.

I scraped this finish in on Tuesday evening just in time to meet one of my goals for last month. It's May's Gerbera Daisy Snowlady done as a SAL using last year's Vermillion freebies and she's off to SOLAK.

December had already been claimed so I went for my birth month instead and besides she's lovely and cheerful which is something I needed when I started her back in Jan.

I went to visit the Doc today because I've been having vision problems for a little while now and it's all down to my blood sugars even though my long term one (done by a blood test in case you wondering) is exactly what it should be. So we're trying a different type of tablet to see if that helps at all and it'll be reviewed in a few months time

Have a nice weekend

Winter Exchange again

I found out today that Cris (no blog) received the Winter Exchange we both took part in on the Rotation BB. I stitched Winter from Lizzie Kate's Winter Crazy for her. I took loads of pics of it and the only one that turned out well is the second one!

I also put a Red Nose in at the last minute so there's no pic of that.

My back is OK now and I'm just left with a small bruise that will soon disappear and we have a date for Dad to go and see the Doc at Liverpool, it's on April 2nd at 2pm

Triangularity

I spent the weekend working on this and I'm quite pleased with the progress I made

Yes the socks from yesterday's post are knitted, I can only do a basic crochet chain and nothing more even though Mum tried for years to teach me.

Today's Lumber Punture went well and it was quick and almost painless although my back is now bright pink and I have what seems like a huge dressing slap bang in the middle of my lower back . I'm not suffereing the pain I did last week but movement is hard and I have a bit of a headache caused by them taking a sample of spinal fluid. I'm not feeling esp. talkative tonight so apologise if I seem off :)

Winter Exchange part 1

First of all I want to say Thank You for all your kind comments and emails about both my Dad's and mine hospital visits yesterday they are very much appreciated and although she doesn't comment I know my Mum reads my blog and feels the same. There's no news as yet on the hospital appointment for Dad and my back is still sore and I can't move freely as yet but it's so much better than yesterday, fingers crossed in the morning it'll be OK

On to the exchange :)
This morning the postman brought me this little beauty from Heather for the Winter themed Pinkeep exchange on the Rotation BB He's so cute and loveable, Thank You Heather

She also included some goodies, a pile of white aida squares for me to use for SOLAK stitching, a really cool Canada postcard that has stickers on the front and a couple of GAST colours

Thank You so much Heather, after yesterday it really lifted my spirits today

Oh and a quick question for UK stitchers, is anyone going to the NEC on Saturday for Sewing for Pleasure and wants to meet up?

Today was not a good health day

Both my Dad and I had hospital appointments and nither of us had a good outcome.

You may remember that last summer (around August I think is was) my Dad hurt his knee going upstairs and it's not been right since then. A few weeks ago he went to the Doc's about it and she arranged for him to see a specialist, today was the day. They took a look at the x-ray and immediately sent him for a MRI scan. He has a cyst on his tibia under his kneecap and if it continues to grow it could shatter his knee. They have sorted out the paperwork and within 48 hours he's going to find out when he has to go and see a different spcialist at Liverpool Royal to get it seen to. They think it's benign so please keep your fingers crossed it is.

Mine seems so trival in comparison! I had to go for another lumber punture today and it didn't go well at all. Even though she was dead central in spine she kept catching nerves and causing me alot of pain and some numbness in my foot. After several attempts she called it a day and has arranged for me to back again next week to have an x-ray guided one done, fingers crossed that is the last one has the same result as the one in December and I will get discharged when I go to see my Nurologist in a month or two. The downside is that it means at least one day again next week of not being able to move much and very intense back ache

Thank You

I just want to say Thank You for the well wishes after my post yesterday both here and by email.

My back is feeling much better today and although it's still a little sore today I can move about and do most things, fingers crossed that after a second good night's sleep it'll back to normal tomorrow

Ouch

Those of you that know me well know I have some health issues but that I very rarely say anything about them on here or anywhere else. Today is one of those rare events and it's more of a grumble about the pain I'm suffering now and the fact I had a bad time of it than anything else.

Back in Oct I went to see my Neurologist for a routine check up and he decided that I needed a Lumber Punture to check the fluid pressure in my head. Today was that day (second time lucky, first one was cancelled because the lady who does them had the flu).

I arrived in plenty of time and didn't have to wait for ever more and a day like you normally do in the hospital and once the paperwork was done I get taken off the side room and that's where the 'fun' started.

If you've had one you'll know that you need to lie on your side with your chin on your chest and your knees drawn up as much as poss to open the spaces in the spine, the last time I had one done I was 2 stone heavier than I am now so it should in theory be easier
The first lot of local didn't work well enough and I could feel everything still so another dose went in and I could still feel things but not so much, queue shot #3.
After the first few tries I'm sat up on the bed with my feet on a stool, still no joy so a bed table is brought in for me to lean on and after a couple of attempts there's success. So I now have to lie down on my side with the needle in my back (not the easiest of things) so she can do what she needs to do.
My notes said that if my pressure was below 20 I didn't have to restart taking my meds again and believe it or not it was dead on 20 (trust me to be the akward one) so a quick call to my Neurologist later I've got to go back again 3 months and drop to 2 tablets a day.
For once after having a LP my head isn't throbing but my back is agony and I can't move without letting out a gasp at the pain of it :(
It had to happen at some point that I had a bad time of it having one of these done, the other one's have been a breeze and I'll give the woman her due she was fantastic with me and keep apologising for hitting the nerves when trying to get the needle in in the first place.

Back to your not so regular rabbitting on about stitching :)

My UFO has come home and a not so simple blood test

On Sunday at Bakewell I helped out Kate with her Sparklies stand and amongst the visitors during the day was Allie and she brought my UFO from the RR we've been doing with her and handed her over in person, I'm over the moon with the progress made on her.

Angel of the Morning as she left me

And as she came home

I've not made my mind up yet if she'll go out on the next round that's due to start next month or not, I have a few candidates for it but none are screaming out to be sent as yet.

Yesterday I went to see the Diabetic specialist at the Imfimmary not because I needed to but because my GP attended a lecture he gave on MODY people and she thought that it's possable I'm one because I developed it at the age of 31 and my Dad, his Sister, their Mum and her sister all have/had it. I saw one of his minions who was an overseas Doc (no objection there but I wish his english was better it would of made life easier) he asked loads of questions and at the end of it said that he's not convinced I am but he'll send off my blood for the tests anyway and that's where the fun started. He gave me 3 forms for blood telling me that they were all fasting ones so I'd have to go back for them in a few days along with a card for a container in which I have to collect all my samples for 24 hours. He didn't explain any of it very well and when I asked a question to claify something he still didn't make it clear, so I left none the wiser as to what I was supposed to do. Off I go to the blood bods to get my container which thankfully comes with an instrustion sheet but while the lady was getting it or me I noticed that one of the boxes he'd ticked was for a non fasting test so I asked her about it and said that shouldn't I be getting this one today, she takes my form and we go to the blood room. She starts looking at it and said that something was wrong as the doc had ticked the box for PSA which is for a bit of anatomy that I don't have being a female of the species! On top of that they are completely confused about one of the things he's written on it so she goes off to check with him, when she comes back she tells me that he meant to tick throyd (sp?) and that yes they can do 2 lots of the bloods there and then. Then she has to get out her little book because she's not seen one of the tests before and nor has the other blood bod, a phone call to the main hospital later and it turns out that they can't do it there as the sample has to be frozen and they don't have the facillities to do it. A second phone call to main hospital follows to book an appointment to have my blood taken today (you can't just turn up there unless it's from an out patient clinc plus it's a 40 mile round trip) and instuctions to take the other form with me so they can check it there to tell me if I can have it done locally or not.

Lunch time today I set off and for once the traffic is kind to me and I make good time, the car park is half empty so parking is no problem, I get my ticket and walk over to the blood bods there only to find no one on reception so I ask at the one opposite about it and a guy goes and talks to them for me, he comes out and tell's me that as soon as they are done with the one that's in I'm in. 7 viles later I'm done and I have another 5 viles for the other test and I manage to get out of the hospital in under 20 mins (more than that and you have to pay for parking) and I'm back home in a little over an hour.

I'll never think a blood test is a simple thing again after that!