As I Lay Dying….

Observations of the Day:

– …is a novel by William Faulkner and is often said to be among the best in 20th century literature. I’ve been sick for over a month and while not actually dying, I often thought I was. There was also a significant amount of lying around as I was unable to do much of anything. I’ll try for a quick run-down and then get to quilting (Skip to the next bullet point if you’re not interested in this long-winded saga). The medicine that inhibits estrogen from binding to cancer cells (or something like that), increased the frequency of my migraines. I was getting them daily, would take a pain pill and it would go away. But, it was every day. Cancer doc changed me to Tamoxifen (which post-menopausal women don’t usually take). My headaches were worse, and I felt yukky above and beyond the migraines. I also had vivid nightmares. I stuck with this longer than I should have because I thought my body would adjust and Tamoxifen has a benefit of building bone which a recent DEXA scan revealed that my bones were thinner than normal for a woman of my age. Called cancer doc – no response. Had a six month follow up appointment with my radiation doc and, seeing my misery, told me to consider my quality of life when deciding to stay on the drug. I stopped taking it and was hit with the worst migraine I’ve had in 15-20 years, complete with nausea. Day 4, I still sitting in my chair with the lights off, trying to watch tv but can’t open my eyes. Week 2 (I think – the time runs together), hubby calls my primary doc because I’m in so much pain. He says there is nothing he can do in his office and to go to the ER. After a brutal waiting room experience, I get a bag of fluids, IV Benadryl, IV anti-nausea meds and IV NSAIDS. Nothing. Then comes the narcotics and more anti-nausea meds. My mouth dries out and, while not abating the pain, it made me not care for an hour or so. We go home – no improvement. I had hoped that the strong meds would break the cycle, but the pain was stronger than sleep – my only relief was Ambien at night to knock me out. I called the cancer doc and her nurse actually said (when she found out I stopped taking the Tamoxifen), “nope, it’s not us – it’s not the Tamoxifen.”

My primary doc called to get me in to see a neurologist and I got an appointment – for January! I went to get a therapeutic massage and that got me well enough to travel to Dallas to go with the Biscuit wedding dress shopping (more about that later). I felt 100+ years old and tried to hang in but must have pushed too hard as when I got back, I was bad again. Here’s where things look up! I had a follow up with my surgeon. He was so wonderful and caring and ordered a stat MRI. He called me with the results (no strokes, no aneurysms, no metastasis of the cancer) and said he would get me in to see a neurologist. Calls back three minutes later and says he personally spoke to a neuro and I would be seen by the end of the week and if I didn’t hear from them in 24 hours to call him back, so he could follow up (turns out my neighbor, who is a pediatric cardiologist, had called him too. This guy was probably thinking, “Who IS this lady??”). Later that afternoon, I had an appointment for the next morning. The neuro already knew all of my history so we could just focus on details. He had a sample of a new drug called Amovig, a new sub-q injection for migraine sufferers and the next day, I felt so much better. I’m still not at 100% but I’m able to sew and bowl. Sometimes a migraine is just a migraine – even if it lasts over a month!

– I feel bad – hubby built me The. Most. Amazing. Sewing room ever and I haven’t been able to share. Here it is – the unveiling!!!!

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– Notice my design wall. The upper left and upper right blocks both have errors that I didn’t notice until I was showing them off. That’s Piecing the Past’s “Summer at the Cabin” quilt. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it because two of the blocks use templates and I can’t get them to match up right (and that was before I got sick!). The offending pieces have been banished to a gallon zip-lock baggie.

– There are so many new block challenges going on, but my heart will always be with NQC’s which got me started on this journey. The current one is a medallion quilt (you built out from the center instead of adding rows) – something I didn’t realize until after I posted my attempt at block 1 on the FB page

See those purple strips? They aren’t supposed to be there. Imagine being sick for a month and finally getting into your wonderful, new sewing room. Music is going (not too loud), you’re pretty pleased with your fabric choices (trying to use only stash – LOL mere months ago I didn’t even HAVE a stash). Pattern calls for you to make a square and then add to it to make a bigger square. Your center block comes out really nice, especially since being away from your machine for so long. Amazingly, your large geese come out the size they are supposed to be when you go to square up. Then they start honking – loudly. Apparently, you had an out of body experience when cutting and sewing the center square because it is way too big for the almost perfect geese you were so proud of. Stubbornly, you refuse to recut and think smugly, “I got this!”. Measuring carefully the center block and then the geese, you calculate how much fabric to add to each side even miraculously remembering to add ¼” seam allowance to each side! “Not bad for an English major who can’t do math”, you muse to yourself. It’s something like 4 by 4 ½ to allow for each side of 2 geese. You do the first cut in the middle and then realize you cut it the wrong way – you need each strip to be 4 ½” long to match the geese and you cut it so it’s only 4” . Determined not to make that mistake again, you cut a 4 ½” square, while looking with dismay at your dwindling purple fabric. You put right sides together, being thankful that there are no pesky seams to match and – WHAT??? – it can’t be! It’s too short?!?!? Out comes jack as you think of what to do. Finally, you realize that you really can’t do math and cut really, really wide 4 ½” long strips while lamenting that you’ll probably have to purchase more purple fabric. You attach the strips, attach the modified geese to the center of the block, get out your ruler and cut off the excess purple fabric. Then you have to repeat for the remaining 2 geese. You put it all together and realize what is supposed to be a 15 ½” unfinished block is actually 17”. But, it looks pretty good for being away for a while – kinda gives it a modern vibe. You’re thankful just to be up and sewing. Hope you enjoyed having a few minutes in my head!

– Those of you have been with me from the beginning are probably missing hubby stories. He really shouldn’t be drinking first thing in the morning as he missed a step and did this:

See that pie shaped wedge? It’s just kind of hanging there. What happened was he has diabetes and has some neuropathy in his feet, so he just didn’t feel that the step wasn’t there. The good news (I guess) was that due to the neuropathy, he wasn’t in excruciating pain. Ortho wanted to put a screw in it, but we talked him into seeing how it healed on its own (he has trouble healing due to the diabetes). He has pushed it too much, bonehead that he is, and it looks like surgery will be in our future after all. THEN, two weeks later to the day he dropped a trailer hitch on his fingers but fortunately nothing was broken. I guess we need to bubble wrap him

– More hubby news: he was WONDERFUL while I was sick. Called doctors, shuttled me around, kept me fed, listened to me cry – just took great care of me. Also, I’m in a FB quilting group that does a birthday exchange. As this is my birthday month, when I received one of my presents (there are 10 per group), I was excited and asked each day if I had received another present in the mail. He actually went on my Amazon wish list and ordered me a couple of goodies so I’d get presents in the mail (one of which was yet another quilting ruler). Yep, y’all can be jealous now!

– Here is what my quilting buddy sent for my BD and this is only one of nine!!!

Check out Sweet T’s Quilting Group from beginner to advanced – Teresa does BOM’s too!

– We are having out of town guests tomorrow for a week, so it might be a bit before I get back into the sewing room. Until next time!!!!!