Winter Wallop

 Yes, I'm still here....

I'm not even sure where to begin really.....

It started with my mother in law dying November 30th at age 100.    

Then I hurt my back in mid December. How?  I bent over to pick up something off the floor and felt it go. My lower SI joint / disc on the left side and it came with a big helping of sciatica.  Dreadful pain..... and I'm still dealing with it.

Then the sky light above our hallway started to leak and there were no roofer to be had over the holidays so there was a classy plastic bucket set up in the hallway.  Our house painter friend Glen did what he could and it worked for a time.  It was finally 'fixed' in mid January when a roofer (the only one) called and asked if we still needed help?  Seems the roofers in 2013 when they replaced the roof took lots of little shortcuts and one was to not silicone under the flashing near all four of our skylights. They also didn't leave a run off trough for rain at the leading edges   This was before we owned the house, but a homeowner can hardly be expected to climb to the roof and inspect everything they do!    All fixed now.  (except for some interior painting etc)🤞

My husband was not all that well over Christmas and New Years as he had (has?) an infection they just couldn't seem to find the root cause of.     A diagnostic test called a pyelogram eventually showed he had a pocket of pus behind a very large kidney stone and it was right at the opening and about to try to exit.

On January 25th.... I had oral dental surgery and had: a filling, a root canal and filling and my last wisdom tooth removed. I guess my dentist is saving a crown for another time...   🦷💉

Before doctors could do anything about my husband's big stone, he went into renal colic and had two ambulance rides in 24 hours to the local hospital .... where there is no urologist. It didn't help it was the weekend as you know, you shouldn't get sick on a weekend in BC!  They fixed him up with pain pills and sent him home.   The third ride  came January 30th when he went to get up and simply collapsed.      I had paramedics and even fire fighters in the house to get him up off the floor and onto a gurney and off again.    This time they sent him to Nanaimo about two hours drive away and he had a stent inserted at 3 am.  There he stayed for a week. He had a large stone stuck midway and was delirious. He couldn't control his muscles from the waist down.   

He was seen by a specialist in infections and received special IV antibiotics that are held in reserve for resistant cases.   Once released and home again, he had to go daily to the local hospital for the IV meds for 16 straight days.

I still have my ongoing back pain issue  and we finally had to ask for some help from friends, who generously stepped up and helped us where needed.    I simply can't thank them enough.  There's no family here and just the two of us and this time, that sadly wasn't enough....

February was a time of healing and getting our stress factors down, regular blood tests and working out a plan on what to do with my husband's kidneys.    On March 11th he had a two hour procedure called lithotripsy to go up into his kidneys and laser / blast stones and removed as much debris as possible. His right kidney was simply FULL of stones and took an hour and a half all by its self. The left had only one stone but it was a lunker.     Tomorrow has has the two stents removed and then we'll see where we go from there...

There has been absolutely NO weaving since the day I hurt my back and I even considered that my days of weaving might be behind  me.    My back pain has reduced but I can't manage without some pain meds on a daily basis. I also don't want to set this off again and want it to completely resolve.  There has been no time or opportunity to do more than talk to my doctor and get a back x-rays ordered.  Simply too much going on with Hub.   The infection specialist doctor told both of us in a phone consultation that Bruce was within an hour of dying at one point.  I think I knew deep down how serious this was this time. 😢

So what helped me de-stress and calm myself was my Hansen e-spinner.... and I have put hundreds of miles on it.

I will share posts on my finished spinning for the next while as that's what I'm doing now for the foreseeable future.

I'm also mulling over the possibility of downsizing from two looms to one and I would keep the Megado and upgrade the dobby with the proceeds of my other loom sale.    Time to pause and take stock and plan a new road forward.

I talked with a lovely woman via phone the other day and she told me that she's 84 and still can't see a day where she doesn't weave anymore.   It gives her joy and so she'll keep on weaving for as long as possible.

Me too..... me too.

My husband's birthday flowers. He earned them!  🌹