Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Wonky II

This little knit was such a quick and easy, fun knit that I had to make another. I am not sure who this is for or I should say that I do know who it's for but I don't want to mention it as to give the surprise away. This Wonky cowl from the latest Knitty is made with Sheep Shop Two yarn which now is no longer available (which is sad because its a great yarn).

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I am in the process of working on a gift for my Mom's birthday, a baby sweater for my best friends niece, a couple of pairs of socks, and the finishing touches on a crocheted shawl. I can't figure out what type of crocheted embellishments are needed on it because I don't want it to look to overdone. I have a load of gorgeous crocheted leaves and flowers but I am saving them for another idea I have.

The summer is almost coming to an end and I can't wait! I had a nice summer but it was crazy. I am definitely not a hot weather person. I LOVE the Fall and cant wait for school to start. My husband is scheduled for major surgery the middle of September and am going to be working a lot more to make up for the 3 months of work he is going to miss. He's going to be getting workmans comp but we all know how its not your full salary. Its 75% of your salary and I really hope they dont dick him around when it comes to giving him what he is due. I can't work as much as he does but I will be filling in for him on his other job and picking up his regular patients. Then I have jury duty in November which is going to suck ass because there is no way I can serve on a jury. Even though I would love to do my civic duty and serve it would be a severe burden on the family at this time. No one to watch the kids, no one to take hubs to physical therapy, no one to work per diem. You get the point. Well, last time I went to serve for jury duty I drove though an ice storm to get to the court house and waited there for the lawyers to show for 3 hours. After waiting all that time with 100+ others in the same boat as me, they told us we all served for the next however many years (cant remember) and sent us home. Thats because the lawyers didnt show on account of the ice storm. So it was OK for US to risk our lives to get there but the lawyers no, God forbid! What a joke. I hope that doesnt happen again.

Good News! I am almost at my goal for my AVON WALK!! I am at $1625 and my goal is $1800. My friend is sending a check for $100 so once that registers I am at $1725 and only $75 away from my goal. If you are interested in donating to my walk please click on my link in the sidebar thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Time to work on my Mom's birthday gift...

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Never a Dull Moment

I should know already that there is never a dull moment in my life. A week before my daughters hand surgery which was the 28th of July, I had an episode with my blood pressure where I had to go to the ER.

I had a migraine for a few days and it just wasn't relenting. I started to have horrible dizzy spells and problems with my vision. My blood pressure (BP) usually runs extremely low and when I say extremely I mean VERY low like 90/50. When I took my BP it was 158/110. OK, don't panic, take it again, and again and again. Every time I took it the numbers were worse and worse. It got to 180/120. By that time my husband had come home from work and he had taken it and got worse then I was getting. I put in a call to my doctor who was on vacation for the week so he had an asshole filling in for him. She doesn't know me and she is a real jerk. I know my body well and I know when something isn't right. My doc listens when I talk because he always says, you turn your back on me for one second and the shit hits the fan with my health. Off to the ER we went and my husband drove while I popped one of the old BP pills I had left over from when I had issues with tachycardia from my Graves Disease (before I had my thyroid removed). I thought what harm could it do and at this point I thought I was having a stroke.

When we got to the ER they brought me right in when they heard what my symptoms were. They hooked me up to a monitor and my pressure was still high at 146/99 but much better than the last reading my husband got at home. The ER doc ordered a CAT Scan of my head to rule out a stroke and an EKG which was done within an hour of me being admitted to the ER. They started an IV to give me pain meds for my migraine and drew lots of blood for cardiac enzymes and other tests. All the tests were negative and my pressure was still hovering in the 150/90 something range. They were unsure if the Atenolol that I took before I left my house had anything to do with it going down. I definitely think it was lowering it. I almost forgot to mention that my Mom and Dad were away on vacation and my husband had no choice but to take the kids with us. You could imagine how much fun that was for them! They admitted me to the hospital and I stayed for a couple of days. They did a renal ultrasound to see if I had stenosis of the renal artery which would cause a hypertensive episode. There is also another condition of the kidneys that causes hypertensive episodes (complicated name that I can't remember) and the ultrasound ruled it out also. So after all that they couldn't find anything wrong which is comforting but aggravating also. I still don't feel right but they seem to think it might have been related to my thyroid levels being totally off.

A week later my daughter had her hand surgery. They initial thought it was an aneurysm of the artery or something vascular. When they got in there it wasn't vascular at all which turned out to be very good news. No reconstruction of the artery needed meaning no scary side effects and less healing time. Pathology hasn't come back yet but I am hopeful it's not serious.

The same day my daughter had her surgery I had my PET Scan which I go for every 4 months. Results were negative and I can breathe again.

During that time I knit a few rows on a couple of new socks and I COMPLETED the "Wonky" cowl from the Knitty Summer Issue. It was a very quick knit that was also very easy. I used Spud & Chloe yarn which was a dream to knit with. The first two pictures are pretty much true to color which is a natural brown color. I made it for my husband because he's not a scarf person. Here are some pics of the completed project.

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I am planning on making a few more of these!