Glad to be Home Again.....

I'm home!   I'll be perfectly honest and say that was a week that I never care to repeat again.  Nasty.

The surgery went fine and no complications..... but the post op pain medicines that are opiate based did me in again.  So a  two to three day hospital stay turned into five days.

We knew what opiates I had intolerances to and so built a plan around what had worked okay last December. Until they failed me as well.   I was running out of options for pain control fast.    Finally they listened to me about what was given to me for pain control way back in 2001 when I had my first hip replaced and they found it and gave me some.

 Lo and behold.... it worked!

I felt much better after that and things progressed normally.   All this  kafuffle has put me behind on the physiotherapy plan though. I'm doing what they gave me to do in the hospital but its hard to make a leg bend that looks like a dead swollen pig.    Just keeping it moving seems part of the battle.  The swelling is normal and I hope that as when some of that slowly reduces I can get more 'bend'.  I see a physio next Tuesday.

So this will be my view for the coming Canadian Thanksgiving weekend:

... and I finally feel like I have my mental faculties back to attempt some hand sewing of hems.

Bye for now.... 

Long Time Coming

Back last November I placed a silk warp  on the Louet Spring, wove in a header and then a few inches to see the pattern develop.... then I stood up and walked away.  I thought about it for a time wondering about what was ahead for me before I could sit down here again and pick up where I had left off.   Through it all, I kept one thing as my end goal.  To be weaving again! (That bit became a sample as I went with different colours)

Besides a "pat on the wood" a couple of times, my first time sitting to weave was six weeks post surgery where I wove for about 10 minutes and I had about an  inch to show for it!   Go me!

It was a busy time with physiotherapy and doctor visits and all the other things that had been put on hold for the past six weeks.   I would weave a bit but gradually increasing the time as muscles and even the bones adjusted to the new activity. It didn't help that the silk is quite fine and so there's a lot of treadling to get some mileage to show!

Then one afternoon I enthusiastically put in a long session and the following day, I had some serious pain difficulties and so had to take a week off to rest and heal. Then I started slowly all over again. Live and learn huh?   :)

So with a new understanding that this was simply going to be a slow process, I just wove a bit every day or every other day.   There was a huge victory cry when the scarves and samples were finally finished!!

Fringe twisting got under way the following day as well as adding some fresh water pearls to the plum paid version.  Nothing added to the black scarf as it could be either masculine or feminine. How do I know this? My husband did some serious 'jonesing' for it until I pointed out he has several scarves in a drawer!

They got a gentle hand washing in the laundry tub and a night to drip dry.  Next day they pressed up nicely with some steam and I nipped off the excess fringe from the twisted tassels with a rotary cutter.

Then came the beauty shots...   some project details for you.  I used 30/2 bombyx silk, tussah silk, and silk yak blend, all approximately 30/2 in weight as my warp. The sett was 36 epi. I used a twelve dent reed and three ends per dent. The black weft is 30/2 silk commercially dyed for a deep even black. It showed off the "boxes" nicely!  The second scarf took on a different look with a cotton silk blend I bought from Treenway many years ago and hand dyed it myself. It was an uneven dye job so the colours vary from soft plum to a touch of eggplant. This effect created an almost plaid like effect in a soft way.

You can see both sides of the scarf in these shots. One side favours the cream and the other the silver beige of the silk yak.  So you can choose depending on your outfit and mood.  :)

The black scarf is 7 by 68 inches  and the plum plaid is 7 by  72 inches and both are very light in physical weight as the silks used are fine.   (Both were woven to 74 inches so you can see the shrinkage in the length.  They lost half an inch in width.)  I even managed some samples for my files as well.

The next warp or two have been planned and one is well under way.  I discovered that standing still at the warping board really hard on both my new hip, but in particular, my left knee which has been complaining loudly of late.   I would stand and wind like a fiend for a few minutes, then sit down to rest and repeated the process. This seriously hurts my bones and so I turned to the internet and started looking for a warping reel.

Schacht has a horizontal model for $399.00 USD .    *gulp*    Too rich for my budget.  I looked for Canadian alternatives and drew a blank. Then I realized I was staring at the Woolhouse Tools Loom and then turned to their web page to see what they have!   They are winding down their business and so if there is an empty blank line after the product name, it means its sold out and not being replaced.  Well imagine my surprise when I saw they have a two yard vertical warping reel and it was on sale!
My lucky day...  

From ordering to arrival took three days and its now assembled. It can hold up to twenty yards +/-  which is six yards better than my existing warping board.   I completed my ongoing warp on the warping board, but I will give the reel a whirl for the next!

A chuckle for you:  I got the next new warp set onto the lease sticks at the back of the Louet earlier today and was getting ready to spread the warp in the raddle...... and then noticed I had forgotten to take the apron rod up and over the back beam. Oops!   Four months since I beamed a loom and I'm back to square one!   :)

I would also like to announce that Handweaving.net has just relaunched their web site and it's a tremendous improvement over the old. Fast, colourful and just plain fun to go and play with the drafts.   I left a small donation via paypal to help with the web fees to show my appreciation. Its a wonderful resource for weavers of any level!

A Reversal of Plans....
We had our realtor in place, downsizing underway and even a possible interested buyer but we soon realized that we simply don't have enough time.  I had a call from my surgeon's office last Monday and it seems that they want me to start my pre-op tests as early as  first week of April and I see the surgeon the third week of April.  My knee replacement can come as early as June...or... as late as October.  We had a discussion on the news and we decided with a time spread like that, a move is not a good idea right now.  (Too much stress as well.)  Another year here will give us time to get things better prepared, and hopefully sell the big loom and a bunch of other stuff!

It does mean I will be coming home to a flight of stairs which doesn't thrill me too much but we'll figure a work around.  Might just move the looms to one side and sleep in the studio?

On the Other Side

This is my view today...

And there's much to be grateful for... . quiet home,  own comfy bed,  having hubby and the dog near by and time to heal.

Roll the clock back a week....there was tension, sweaty palms and a lot of worry!

This was my first view of Victoria's Royal Jubilee Hospital at 6:30 am..... cold, dark and rainy.... and apparently, we might be early? The only other car next to us had a card that said 'ER Doctor".

So, once I was signed in, multi ID bracelets secured around my wrist and a feeling I just signed over my life, they wheeled me to the surgical floor. It was quite the hike and so I was glad of the chair ride.  The surgical wait room was very quiet as yet. There were two other equally nervous looking people looking like they were working getting their game face on!

After a barrage of questions on everything you could possibly think of,  I said my good bye's to Bruce and they get you gowned up and move you to a surgical bed.  I had a visit from the Orthopaedic surgeon,  Dr Duncan  Jacks who came through the door rubbing his hands together excitedly " I've got a great team in the OR today.... this is going to go great!" We confirmed the part to be replaced and he initialed my upper right thigh.  I met my anesthesiologist ( sadly, I forget his name but he was very nice) and discussed my previous allergic reactions post surgery.

Then this nurse came to see me. Her name is Carrie and I have a daughter Carrie. I asked what her second name is and she replied "Lynn".... and my daughter's second name is Lynn too!  Carrie was a lot of fun to talk with and she said she was the warm-up crew. She wasn't kidding! She lay a flat plastic sheet over all of me and then hooked it to a blower that looked like a shop vac and it inflated like a pool raft with pockets of air.  Apparently things are kept very cool (to downright cold) in the OR and they pre-warm you. I asked why so cold and she told me of the multiple layers of scrubs, gowns and plastic like aprons (yuck), face guards, masks and gloves. They simply get too hot to work comfortably.  Well, I want them in good shape and I won't care if I'm cold!

There's no more hospital pictures from here on for the squeamish of you out there (including me)  But if you are made of sterner stuff, googling "hip replacement surgery" will yield all sorts of video clips. I've read up on the techniques but fell short of watching the actual videos.

The OR was very large, very cold and very full....  with gowned people, tools of the trade and equipment. I don't think I ever registered just how many people it takes in the operating room to fix you up.  There was a formal identification of who I was and what was being done and then one by one they all acknowledged hearing.  This is good thing at any time but in particular with me as I had switched from a knee to a hip.  I breathed into a mask and took three breaths...... { I guess it didn't matter really as I needed both done! }

I awoke in a bed with a nurse saying it was all over and that the surgery had gone very well.  I woke up yet again with the bed being pushed through a hallway as they took me to the semi private room.  There was no scooting over... or pulled over as in the past. The bed I was on was the one for my room. I later found it was valued at $25,000.00 and it did everything! There was a switch to control the lights, the television if you signed up for one and the blinds on the window!

Six hours after the surgery started at 10 am, I was helped up and used a commode chair beside the bed at 4 pm.  My surgeon was impressed!  I told him the lack of a catheter more or less made it necessary....     That evening I made some phone calls and felt just fine.  I even slept okay that night.

The next two to three days.... not so much! Little sleep, dizziness, nausea and vomiting and  a bad, bad head ache. It was happening all over again just like my last hip replacement thirteen years earlier!
After two days of this, I took a deep breath and then refused the Dilaudid.   Six hours later, head ache is easing off and tummy is feeling better.  Opiate intolerance again!  Some phone calls to and fro and I was given another class of pain meds and after crossing fingers and toes, tolerated a low dose of another.  [There are three classes of narcotic pain medicines for them to choose from]   I fell behind on  progress and physio but I managed to start doing more as I felt more my own self again.

I came home this past Tuesday and that was the major event for the day. Getting dressed,  getting into a car, driving the hour home and getting into the house was more than enough for me.  I came in and settled onto a hospital style bed and took a nap straight away!  Two or three hours later, I very, very slowly went up the fourteen stairs to the main floor.   Each of the last three days feels just like the other but I tell that I'm moving better, not getting so tired and best of all.... thinking more clearly!  All the stress and strain, pain and such had me feeling muddled and off my game and I'm happy to be more myself again.

Some lovely flowers from my brother and father.

Physio starts Monday and apart from that we are home for the holidays!
I hope you are all busy weaving away and nearly ready for Christmas....   we're all snuggled in and as done as we will be for now!

Gathering Together

Its been unseasonably cold here on Vancouver Island..... and even colder elsewhere. Lots of snow and chilly temperatures all over. Well, at least here in the northern hemisphere!  I found the picture above on line, but it easily could have been taken here with fog among the trees.  These two pictures below are from our upper deck yesterday morning, and it was minus 5 degrees Celsius:

Okay, not really cold compared to some places right now but cold enough to get your attention! Seems like Old Man Winter is off to a good start this year.

Calli *loves* the snow!

I somehow felt that acquiring (gathering) snow tires would be a good thing and to do it early this year and so Bruce has brand new Toyo winter treads on the Santa Fe and we have AWD if need be. Its a darn good thing I had that urge to be ready ahead of the snow as I'm traveling by a moderately high mountain highway to Victoria this coming Thursday for my surgery!   I have to BE THERE for 7:30 am......that's plain nasty! It doesn't mean I'm first up either and may still have a further wait ahead of me....

I'm now in the process of making up a list of what I would like to bring along, and what I need to bring along! ( and have it all fit in a small overnight bag). Its hardly a vacation, but I'd rather have the items there to hand than having to wait for Bruce to bring them in the next day.

All the medical people I talk to have been telling me that so much has changed since I had my first hip replaced thirteen years ago in 2001.   The first thing I noticed is how short the stay is, especially when you consider what they are doing to me!  2001: they quoted 4-6 days and I stayed 6. Now they tell you: 2-3 days. We'll see how that goes!

For my homecoming  I have also been gathering together books, DVD's and some small hand work projects to do while initially recovering.  I have books and recent Vav and Handwovens and also the Complex Weavers Journals to read. Then I have a lace scarf I'm knitting away on and also some small amulet knit beaded bags are under way too.  I was going to warp up the table loom but they told me that sitting for any length of time like that would be better served if my legs were elevated. (you swell up pretty good!)  If I am able to sit, then I might as well try treadling instead and move the legs and I have the recent scarf project  still on the Louet Spring.

It crossed my mind that I may not be able to change tie up's on that loom for some time (3-4 months?) as you can't bend forward and straining the operated site for fear of a dislocation or rupture internal stitches.  So there may be variations of the box pattern showing up for some time to come!   I'll play with the draft on the computer and see what else I can dream up with the same tie up.

So lots of plans for my time, but the reality will be something else I'm sure!    Lots of cat naps as sleeping at night is tricky. Its hurts to move in bed and laying in one position isn't good either.  Since you need help to shift  and rearrange all the support pillows( and just about anything else for a while) Bruce will be helping me move about and later napping himself when I am (if he's smart!)

Bruce is a good cook in the kitchen so no worries there!  We are however working on how to manage a washing machine with all its water levels, temperatures and additives such as soap and softener.   The complexities of darks versus lights.... hand wash versus gentle cycle.   The "hang to dry" over the "tumble to a crisp" on high heat!     I'm sure he will do just fine (... failing that,  I can buy new duds.... with his credit card.  :)

Christmas, such as it will is and will be, is all done.  The cards are gathered and ready for mailing come Monday or Tuesday.  There's no tree this year and no lights. We'll put up the Christmas cards we receive and I have one Christmas ball that is netted with bobbin lace out on its hanger already.
Done!

I'm also systematically giving all house plants a good soaking as no one will even think about them for a time!

So you may have figured out by now that all this is a "self created distraction" that is designed to keep me from thinking too much about what's to come!

I'm having a full general..... so start to count backwards.....

I know that there are some rough days ahead but also good ones too as I heal. I already know that the end result is worth it.  Its a process much like weaving where you have to lay the ground work for a good final finish !

I''ll be back soon.....  see you on the other side of this!