Life's a Stitch

Yup, that was me yeaterday. Went to my first physical therapy appointment, took one look at Michelle, my trusted talented physical therapist (she’s a knitter), and burst into tears. I think the sleep deprivation hit. And the fact that I don’t control pain very well, grinning and bearing it, until I hit the wall. I haven’t had more than two stints of two hours of sleep at night since the surgery. I usually wake up with the feeling of extreme painful pressure behind my knee cap and my quads in tight spasm. I’ve had very little pain during the day, but nights have been torturous. I’ve birthed three babies, two without any drugs, how come this feels so horrible? Thank goodness daytime is good. It’s time for a dose of major pain killers.

I’m feeling much better today, especially after a massage, and now, getting in some blogging time. I followed a link to find out my name as a Christmas Elf and it came out appropriately:

Christmas Elf Name My Christmas Elf Name is Get your Christmas Elf Name at JokesUnlimited.com

That’s the rule for using crutches on steps – up with the good leg, down with the bad leg. Consulting other knee reconstruction blogs I realize my recovery is typical. Sort of like getting comfort when frogging, from other knit bloggers. The main obstacle today was not being able to remove the garbage bag from my leg after a shower; it was tied a bit too tightly. Luckily I found a pair of scissors within hobbling reach.

This is certainly a challenge for me as I don’t do life in slow motion very well. When my body is running down the stairs to my office, my head is already at my desk. It’s no wonder I’ve had so many knee accidents and all my little kid pictures show me with bruised legs. I’ve never taken the time to concentrate on where my feet should be in relation to the rest of my body. It’s never too late, I guess.

More knitting (feather and fan scarf, I’m having difficulty photographing the colour accurately) and flowers (aren’t they beautiful, from my Board of Directors):

If I had known how much fun a feather and fan scarf was to knit, I would have a stash of them by now. Why I love feather and fan:

1. It knits to a nice rhythm.

2. With three easy rows and one pattern row, it works as no-mind, movie watching knitting.

3. It requires less yarn than other patterns – its laciness blocks up in size – wonderful for exotic yarns when you don’t want to spend too much.

4. It drapes nicely.

5. Perfect for solid or variegated yarns.

Later this week – I’ll show you where I knit as I’ve been tagged by Chris.

Not what you might think. It was our anniversary the other night and we celebrated with dessert in bed, all five of us. In my quest for comfort food I made a batch of Rote Grutze, a German recipe that’s a fruit flavoured pudding with berries, topped with a layer of vanilla custard like my grandmother used to make. It takes about an hour of stirring which was about all my knee and harvested hamstring could take. Unable to sit for long either, we retreated to the bedroom so I could have dessert painfree. I wish I had a photo.

I have to tell you what a comforting bunch you are:

1. Chris ate roast beef sandwiches during her pregnancy nausea. I had the privilege of 24 hour pregnancy nausea for a total of more than a year of my life. Nope, no morning sickness for me, I had to do the all day variety.

2. Rebecca recommended cherry lime soda – yumm, sounds like a fizzy stomach settling dream to me.

3. I don’t know, La, I’d be worried what tomato soup would look like in the toilet.

4.  My sister, Jane, is right on about Grammy’s creme.

5. Beth craves potatoes and cheese baked together. She would love Canadian Poutine – fries, covered in curds of mozzarella-like farmer cheese, smothered in enough gravy to melt the cheese. Yummeee.

6. Poor Dorothy can’t think of anything foodlike that’s comforting. That’s why she’s in such good shape.

7. Judith had a list that included cut up apples. During my version of morning sickness with baby #1, I ate a pound and a half of apples per day to settle my stomach. With #2 it was McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets – probably heavy enough to stay down no matter what and with  #3 it was plain A&W burgers on a plain bun.

8. Heather appreciates comfort food and has some delicious looking foody photos on her blog of her recent b-day celebrations.

9. Alison is from the Lipton chickie noodle camp. You’re either a Campbell’s or a Lipton’s person.

10. Jenny is making me hungry with the idea of cinnamon toast, definitely right up there in the comfort food department.

Sniff, sniff, it’s bad enough dealing with all this sick feeling stuff, and then the SIL had to leave. Due to her stash enhancement, pictured below, she barely had room in her luggage for the family’s Christmas gifts I sent home with her:

I didn’t have the chance to get too sad as Maureen stopped by with some Christmas baking. Nothing like a visit from a fellow blogger with goodies to help ease the pain:

Nothing like a little nausea and pain to bring out the craving for comfort. I know I’m sick when I crave Campbells’s chicken noodle soup, pudding and bananas, apple muffins and tapioca. I worked on the entire list last week. And I know it’s really bad when I can’t stand the thought of Miss Vicky’s potato chips or Purdy’s cherry caramels. What sick foods appeal to you?

In my search for comfort, I was thinking about what yarn I should be knitting with and it’s definitely alpaca. Grignasco Top Print fulfills my need for softness and colour (thankfully, not as garish as they appear in the photo). Comfort came today in the form of my SIL Ellen, one of my knit addicted victims, and I, bundled up in a bedful of down, both knitting Misty Garden from Scarf Style. Her’s is in a mohair blend called Flamenco. This is her first venture into mohair and lace knitting – a double challenge project that was less than comforting for her:

Conversation heard at my house between two 15 year old friends:

Friend: Let’s go buy Advent Calendars.

Bry: No, I don’t think I have the self control to use them like you’re supposed to.

Friend: They’re only a buck each, let’s buy three, so we can eat two and save one.

I love boy logic. I’m sure there’s a parallel conversation in mom logic involving yarn.

Recovery is happening slowly, good hours and bad. Knitting is happening again, thanks to the presence of my yarn addicted SIL. I promise photos nest time.

I was bound and determined to make it to see Beauty and the Beast last night. When my surgery was scheduled, and a half hour later I realized the play was five days post-op, I tried to change my date with the dr. No such luck in a system of waiting lists.

I achieved my goal of seeing the play, but the most entertaining part involved the 15 year old. We were shown to the wheelchair section by a nice looking young woman in her 20’s. After seating us she turned to Bry and said, "I just wanted to say, I like your outfit –  you’re stylin’!" Oh to be 15 again. Here he is with his stylin’ friend after a shopping trip at the Salvation Army:

Have you ever had a headache that keeps you from knitting? I’m not talking migraine here, I mean one that is migraine times two, a headache that brings you to your knees in tears. This was a first for me having never in my adult life cried from pain. And why, with a headache that even every four hours of percocet and several doses of Imitrex couldn’t control, that kept me from food and knitting for two days, would I hesitate getting help? Stoicism can only go so far.

Back to the hospital  we went with my severe spinal headache. It’s caused after spinal anesthesia, when you develop a leak in your spinal fluid, lowering the fluid pressure to a point your brain isn’t being supported properly. No wonder there’s pain. And nausea and lots of other severe symptoms. Permit me a mini rant. I spent more time in the hospital with this headache than having my knee reconstructed partly due to the fact that I don’t fit the spinal headache demographics. Apparently my spinal fluid pressure level defied my age, letting me experience something usually reserved for spring chickies, not a tough older hen like me. So I laid still for eight hours in a dark room waiting for a chance at a cure. I think their ulterior motive was to have this thing resolve itself, which wasn’t going to happen. My road to hell was paved with good intentions, I packed along two knitting projects that stayed abandoned in my bag all day.

After careful consideration of the risks involved, I was given a shot at a procedure called a blood patch. It’s where you have an epidural, but instead of anesthetizing drugs, your spinal area is injected with four teaspoons of your own blood, which clots and seals up the leak.  I’m getting into the more than you want to know department, I know. I call it therapeutic blogging. Indulge me, please.

To make this long story short, thank you, Dr. Ho, for going beyond your doubts and allowing me the chance at relief. It worked, and recognizing his talents in pain control, I asked him where he was when we first moved to Canada and there weren’t routine epidurals for childbirth? I became painfully aware of the answer – he wasn’t even born! OK, maybe born, but still looking for a Fisher Price doctor kit under his tree.

I will post this knitting picture, to stay within the knit blog rules. This is me in more painfree times, having just finished Sally Melville’s Shape It Scarf in Lion Brand Moonlight Mohair:

I’m not feeling nearly as happy as in that first photo. I guess Chuck was right – the hospital drugs wore off. The best part is being home instead of the hospital – decent food and all the comforts. The worst part is the whomping headaches/nausea I have in the mornings, presumably due to the spinal. Oh yeah, that knee is pretty sore.

This is a picture of my lifesaver, a Polar Care 300, which pumps ice water into a cuff around my knee. It’s not covered by any of my medical plans and I wasn’t going to spend $200 on it, but it turned out that my friend had one from a previous surgery. Believe me it is worth the money. I read a study where the dr said patients like it so much that he has to threaten to surgically remove it after three weeks.

Knitting –  Ah yes, this is a knitting blog. I’m working on a Christmas gift of the no mind variety of knitting. I promise I’ll get back to Marina once my head clears a bit.

Thanks again for all your good wishes. This is the view from my bed. Doesn’t it look like the flowers (from my wonderful coworkers) where rolled right out of that painting?

Thank you all for your wonderful good wishes. At this point I can’t e-mail you all from bed, so please accept this blanket thanks for now. Blanket, bed, a drug induced pun!

It was a good experience due to the spinal. I got brave and watched the screen for the first hour and a quarter, but asked for drugs and the curtain before the screws went in. I don’t remember most of the last 20 minutes.

It hardly seems right that there are so many really sick people with serious problems in the hospital and I’m taking up space with something so mundane as a knee graft. And three cheers for the Canadian medical system, despite my prior comments, I hobbled out of there at the end of the day without having to pay one cent.

Chuck says to tell you that I can even turn a hospital experience into a knitting experience. To nurse Maureen, how’s that sweater working out? Chuck’s only concern right now is that he knows that the drugs will wear off.

Here is part of my welcome home committee: that’s Betty, from Germany, working on one of her two projects.

This will be my last post until the middle of next week, hopefully. Knee reconstruction calls.

I went for an anaesthesia/cardiology consult today and they will try to get by without a general considering my heart rhythm. It will be a spinal and enough sedative to be between snoring and really enjoying listening to screwdrivers and other power tools. Sure, I believe that. He said I’d feel so happy that I’ll even ask to watch what’s going on. Why am I doubtful? The other comfort (?) is that a friend has scheduled a mass for me on Monday. Too bad I can’t be there. To celebrate everything I bought a cane with purple flowers. Chuck says it’s very me.

I have knit three Shape It scarves over the past three weeks, finshed two other scarves and am just about done with one more. You know how I deal with stress? With a colour and texture tranquilizer:

Last week, Elina and I went shopping for gloves. I’ve never worn gloves in BC and always seem to misplace my one pair prior to visiting colder climates. I tried on about 30 pairs before we found a display of reasonable priced suede gloves in wonderful colours. I think it was a lavender pair that felt as if there was some sort of loss prevention device inside the glove. I pulled off the glove to discover a gold cocktail ring sitting nicely on my middle finger. "What is that?" said Elina. "I think I stuck in my thumb and pulled out a plum," said I. I reported it to the mall lost and found and placed a found ad in the paper with no responses to date. One theory is that the ring is so ugly that the person would rather collect on their insurance rather than claim it. I just can’t help but think that someone must be missing it. We had fun fantasizing about melting it down into something else a bit prettier, but I feel like I’d be melting someone’s dreams away. For now it will sit patiently awaiting a call from its owner.

Things seem a little calmer on the kid front. I’ve been knitting away on my Manos scarf and it really does calm the brain and the nerves. The herringbone rib has a nice rhythm to it.

Here is the almost finished product from last Saturday’s watercolour class: