Unpacking Crafts

While on vacation visiting family in Canada, I was missing having a hand project to work on. I didn't want to lose my scissors or needles in the security line. But, I got to do some crafts with my cousin Jenny. She's got a whole lot of crafty stuff on hand so we picked out a few things that we could work on while also visiting with our moms.

We worked on a macramé project for a keychain wristlet using several videos that she'd found on TikTok, this one on YouTube is pretty similar. Hopefully I can work out how to finish this thing because I like the way this is going.

Another day we did some hand felting, it was really fun, but a little too noisy because of the type of foam we were stabbing into (too squeaky) so I didn't get to finish my lying-down cat all the way. Those tools I definitely have on hand but I've never really done a 3-d thing like this. She had some good tips that I used to make the legs. It was fun seeing the cute felted animals that she'd been making, I wish I'd taken a picture of them but they're from a Japanese kit similar to this one on Equilter.

Pre-Blog Vacation

So, I'm supposed to be in Sweden right now. I was going to accompany my husband on his annual trip to Europe for a work conference. We were going to rent a car and go drive around Norway, do some troll hunting, enjoy the scenery.

But I'm not.
Because I couldn't even walk through the airport right now, much less tolerate sitting in the car to get there. And the thought of sitting in a seat on a long flight is inconceivable right now.
I am once again using a cane to get around. Taking the stairs one painful step at a time.

For the third time in my life a tumor has grown in my left femur near my hip.
In the exact same place.
The first time was way back when I was 17, before blogs were even a thing! But I talked about this back in 2010 after I had my second go-round. And then in 2013 when I had the titanium parts removed.

It's unfortunately been a thing for pretty much my whole life. At least it wasn't a cancerous tumor either time, or I'd probably not be here. I'm assuming the same thing now. But I actually don't know that for sure yet...and I try not to think about that possibility too much.

Unfortunately the pain is sometimes approaching childbirth-levels.
For those of you who know that experience personally, especially if you had an unmedicated birth, we tend measure pain after that as "oh it's not as bad as childbirth!"
Well this is.
And it's not a short-term, over with at least the bonus of a brand-new baby in your arms kind of thing. It's going on and on, getting worse with every step I make myself take. Gosh it's hard to write that down. I try so hard to push it away and not dwell on it, or think about it too much, but that's the reality.

Most likely treatment is that I'm going to get a hip replacement done. But I'm in waiting to see the fancy doctor at Stanford Hospital mode. So grateful to have the insurance coverage to get to go there again. It makes me dissolve into horrified tears every time I try to imagine not having insurance and going through something like this (again.)

So this time, I'm telling you about it ahead of time. But it's hard to post this, really hard. I'm trying to do things differently this time. Last time I didn't tell people until it was almost all over with. Trying to distract myself with short bursts of sewing and writing here. When I disappear from blog-land again, you'll know why this time. But I'll be back, I'm pretty stubborn that way.

Screwy Explanation

Why the big gap in posting between September and November? I had this hardware removed, from my hip.


Don't look at the picture if you don't want the gory details!


And I guess it's taking longer and longer for me to come back to myself after surgery, part of getting older, and so many general anesthesia I think. Having something coherent to say is a challenge for quite a while post-surgery for me so I just went quiet for awhile.


It's kind of cool seeing the hardware in person, after just seeing it on x-rays. It's very heavy for its size (titanium I believe) and utterly smooth. It's surprising that something so small could hold such a major bone together. Looking at it and visualizing how it was situated there on the outside and inside of my bone explains a whole lot of why I had such pain going on the last nine months. Like my surgeon said, some people can tolerate these plates and screws with no problem, and some can't.



Now to figure out how to use this in a quilt somehow. (And put off a hip replacement for as long as possible...)

Surprise, I'm Back!

Hello there, surprise! I'm back!

I now declare this very long blog vacation over.

This is my excuse note here, for why I haven't been posting to this blog for quite a long time.  It involves a very personal journey of pain and healing and physical transformation, but not much art or creativity.  So if you aren't interested in reading about any of that personal stuff, come back tomorrow for an art post.   

  I've gone and gotten myself a hip upgrade, nothing but the best titanium thankyouverymuch.  A plate, a rod and four screws to hold the top part of my femur together.  I was going to post my x-ray picture here, but I'm chickening out, sorry.  It is cool though, maybe it will end up in my art somehow.

The good news is now I can walk again without mind-crushing pain (which had been going on since June).  The bad news is that it was major surgery and I have quite literally been off in la-la-land recovering for the past 6 weeks.  Let's just say being able to write a coherent blog post was way beyond the scope of what I could do. So I didn't.

Anyways.  

I'm so thankful that I had competent doctors that listened and figured out what to do and that it turned out to be just a mysterious growth in my bone and not at all cancerous.  

I had something similar in the very same place when I was 17. 

Is it related? Probably. 

Do they know if it will happen again? Nope. 

Am I glad I can stand up long enough to do the dishes without crying? Yep.

Thanks for being patient, I hope some of you have stuck around, I promise an art-related post tomorrow!

Because, yes I have been sewing during this time of blog silence.